The Furnace Experience

UV 937/10,000 The Furnace Experience And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. Zechariah 13 v 9 The people chosen by God and who choose to follow Him are not the majority or even a half of humanity but are referred to as the third part or one third or remnant. In metallurgy, when an impure metal is purified or refined, it is what remains in the crucible that is the pure metal. This is the remnant that the metallurgist has separated through a rigourous process. Similarly, the Lord refines His people as silver is refined in a crucible by heating and melting over and over again. He tests us as gold is tested in fire till His image is reflected in our lives. We are put through the furnace of afflictions. When we go through the furnace, we should not think we are suffering loss but just that the Lord is removing the dross. We are put through not one affliction but many afflictions in the course of our lives. Unlike the metallurgist who impersonally places the metals to be purified in the furnace, the Lord walks us through the furnace. Our testimonies are true life stories of the glory of God being manifest in impossible and terrible situations. He remains closest to us in all our furnace experiences just as He walked as “ the fourth one who looked like the Son of God” with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the furnace prepared by Nebuchadnezzar. The scars of our furnace experiences will remain as a constant and lifelong reminder of the glory and grace of God. Each furnace experience that we go through takes us to the next level. Our faith that is so much more purified and strengthened becomes enough for us to access the Lord and obtain the resources to face the challenges further down the road. When we go through the furnace experiences of our lives, we call on the name of the Lord. The Lord will hear us at that time and give us deliverance. This works out for the glory of God even as it works out to our relief, belief and redemption as it is after we called on the name of the Lord that we experienced the deliverance. It is as if someone switched off the furnace button and removed us to safety. The three men Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego only called on the name of their Lord and God. To Nebuchadnezzar’s amazement, they remained unhurt inside the furnace that had been heated several times more than normal. Not a hair on their heads was singed. Nebuchadnezzar then gave glory to God saying, “ Your God is the true and living God.” For a relationship to be complete, it requires mutual affirmation and acceptance. He reaches out to us with selfless love or agape love. We also need to respond with the fervour of “first love”. Though God has chosen us and affirms us by saying, “ These are my people” or “ This is my child”, we too need to affirm Him by saying, “ He is our God” or “He is my God and Lord.” We need to understand that His act of owning us or acknowledging us as His own is not symbolic, metaphoric or token or nominal. He holds us dear to His heart so much so He gave His only begotten Son. We pay a price to purchase something only when we deem it more valuable than the money we are parting with. God regarded us as more precious than even His Son that He gave Him as the price to pay to redeem us forever. The One who from the beginning was with Him was sent down from heaven to walk through a furnace of extreme afflictions so that the remnant, the one third or His people would live forever. The Lord released what was precious to Him to secure us as His eternal and priceless possessions. But we are not exempted from going through the furnace of afflictions so that we are purified in our faith and strengthened in our character and our resemblance to the first Son of God, Jesus increases over time. Prateep V Philip