Dennis DeGrasse to B1 meeting, 16/3/06

As I prepared for this meeting, I was struck by thought expressed in James 3:5 ‘So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!’ I see sparks all over England. They might not seem like much when compared to the iniquity that seems to flourish in our nations, but they are divine sparks and have the capacity to become raging fires of righteousness.

I used to heat my home with a wood stove. I would fill it with firewood at night and in the morning there would just be a few warm coals that I would then bring together, add some kindling and blow upon to reignite the fire. God is doing the same thing in our nations. He is drawing the hot coals together.

Matthew 18:19. ‘Again I tell you, if two of you on earth agree [harmonise together, make a symphony together] about whatever [ anything and everything] they may ask, it will come to pass and be done for them by My Father in heaven. 20For wherever two or three are gathered (drawn together as My followers) in (into) My name, there I AM in the midst of them.’ [ Exodus 3:14, AMP]

This meeting is being reproduced in other communities by those who are being drawn together by Jesus. It is all about Him. This is a work that Jesus is doing in our midst and it is wonderful to behold. Not all will listen, but as the fire grows it has the capacity to turn the cold and lifeless into fire too! Those pieces of firewood could give no warmth if it were not for the fire that burned around them . God wants to encourage you tonight to keep the fire raging in you hearts. The religiously cold and lifeless around you will respond to the fire of Gods’ love burning in your hearts.

Without my careful ministration of carefully directed breath, the coals would have lacked the needed life to ignite the kindling. God is breathing upon His church with His own breath. The Holy Spirit is blowing wherever we give Him entrance and wherever we are craving His presence. For those of us who are preachers of the Gospel, the Lord wants to ignite our preaching with His Holy Fire. He wants to set us ablaze with the Holy Spirit.

Act 2:1. ‘When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. 2. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.’ [NAS]

The fire of God is not wild fire. It is not out of control, destructive, but is by divine design and life-giving. I didn’t just build the fire in the middle of my living room floor, but in the place specially designed to not only contain the fire, but to make it useful to my whole house. God is at work in His church. He is ordering some changes that will make us fit to hold the fire and fit to be a blessing to God’s house.

Last autumn, the Lord spoke a word into my spirit. He said these were days of redefining. Over a period of a few weeks He expanded that thought. I have heard a word used for the last few years; paradigm, which I understand to mean a model. We have heard that there are new paradigms, or models, being revealed in these days. If there are new paradigms for us to walk in, it stands to reason we may have to be redefined ourselves in order to walk in these new paradigms.

Jacob was a man born to trouble. God had plans for him which He revealed to Rebekah. Jacob would swim against the current from his birth. The elder would serve the younger. It didn’t happen that way. The paradigm was for the elder to rule over the younger. The elder was to inherit the blessing and the birthright. God caused a new paradigm to appear in the form of Jacob. God demonstrated the power of His own choice and the right to do as He pleased among His chosen people.

Genesis 25:21. ‘Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. 23. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger."

Romans 9:13. ‘Just as it is written, "JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED." 14. What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! 15. For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." 16. So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.’

The very name “Jacob” means trickster. Jacob spent his whole life living up to that name. Jacob was born for higher things. He had a purpose in God that includes you and me. I am moved as I think of Jacob’s meeting with God by the bank of the river. This was a time of great crisis and stress for Jacob. He was returning home to be confronted by the brother he had “tricked” out of the birthright and the blessing. Jacob spent the night wrestling with God. When daylight was about to break, God said let me go, but Jacob refused. He demanded a blessing. God asked Jacob what his name was. I can only imagine what went through Jacob’s mind. His name described how he had lived his life, a trickster. He asked God for His name. God never gave His name, but Jacob knew who he was wrestling, for he said “I have seen God and lived!” When Jacob confessed his name, God said something amazing. God said from now on you are someone else. You were a trickster, now you are Prince with God.

Jacob was redefined in that moment of time. God wants to redefine many of us. We are not living the lives for which we have been birthed into the Kingdom. We need God to do something for us. Like Jacob, we must wrestle with God until He wins. God touched Jacob and broke him. We need to be broken by God. Jacob walked with a limp for the rest of his days. Are we so desirous of the blessing of God that we are willing to limp through life to get it? Are we willing to give up our own identity in order to take that identity that God has for us? I believe that the Lord is going to redefine many of us. He has a new paradigm for us to walk in, and it may need a new identity in order to walk in it.

I am tired of being a Jacob. I want to be an Israel, a contender with God. I do not want to be stuck in something God did in the 60’s, or any other time. I want to be current, up to date and able to walk in the new paradigms that the Lord will bring upon the earth.