“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich” —Revelation 3:18

“We all want to be conformed more and more into the likeness of Jesus, but there is no cheap way to become more Christlike. Godly character is not given to us; we buy it. We buy it without earthly money but yet at a steep price. 

“In the last days there is coming a great escalation of fire. You don’t have to wonder or imagine whether you’re in the fire. When the fire hits your life, you will know it! You will lose control, your pain levels will skyrocket, and your desperation for God will intensify. Your flesh will want to collapse and give up, but since your spirit is alive to the beauties of Christ, the fire will be used of God to drive you into the face of Christ like never before…As you embrace the changes that God’s Spirit inspires within you, you are actually becoming more like Jesus. 

“The price is endurance. If we continue to press into God in the secret place—when our legs are crying out that they cannot take another step and when our lungs are screaming at us to relax the pace— then we will buy this gold. We will be changed into the image of Christ in the midst of the fire. We will lose things in the process, but what we gain will be so precious that we will consider all that we lost to be rubbish (Philippians 3:8). 

“We are using God’s word properly when we come to it and allow it to mirror back to us the things we need to see and change within ourselves. The word was never intended for us to come to it for a third party. It was written that we might look into it for ourselves, see the standards of Christ reflected back to us, and embrace Spirit- empowered change. 

“When the fire hits your life, your concern is not whether your neighbor is looking into the mirror of the word and then forgetting about it; your concern is primarily that you look into the word and not forget. But then something amazing happens. When you share with others how the word mirrored your own shortcomings and how you became a doer of the word in the midst of the fire, your witness will have a profound effect upon your hearers. 

“The secret place is the only way you’ll survive the fire. And the secret of the thing is, God’s word flowing into you will not only enable you to survive, it will empower you to overcome and buy eternal treasure. 

“God has great understanding into this powerful little secret, which is why He is merciful enough to send the fire in answer to your prayers. If you will cry to Him from the depths of your being, He will send exactly the right kind of fire you need at this moment in your journey. This fire will press you into the mirror of His word that you might begin to buy the gold of ‘refined character.’”—Bob Sorge

My Prayer

“Lord, take me into the fire of formation. Let the fires of God be used to change me into who You want me to become. As I gaze at You and choose the secret place of encounter, let Your Word and Spirit do an eternal work on my life and character. I want that richness of life that displays You through me. I know the fires may be tough to embrace but I also know that whatever fires You bring to me will be measured and controlled—and specially prepared for a specific work in my life. I want gold, Lord. I want the gold of Your nature oozing through me; and nothing else will satisfy. So, yes my Lord, take me through the fires of formation that I may become exactly like You Jesus—in every way and measure. This I pray in Your name. Amen.”  

The Challenge

Totally surrender to God. Yield in such a way that He has full freedom to pass you through whatever experience is needful to make you come out as gold—His gold!