Refiners Fire #2

In yesterday’s post (that I actually wrote in December, but didn’t feel released to share until writing this one) the focus was very much on the furnace as a place of immense heat and pressure for the purpose of purification. But yesterday God picked up the furnace theme again. I was expressing to Him that I’d been feeling broken and ineffective, and I didn’t know what to do with the feeling except bring it to Him and wait on Him for healing. His reply was – as always – utterly reassuring, and I felt there were others in this season who He wanted to speak the same words over. It’s a deeply personal word, so it may not be for you, and that’s fine. But if you do relate, I pray God speaks to you as you read…

He said, “You’re not broken – you are in My furnace, remember? Because you asked Me to make you stronger, and willingly submitted to My leading, I am holding you there for a purpose, and that’s to refine you and temper you. I will bring you out when My purifying, strengthening, tempering work is done, and you will have a stronger core that will not break under pressure. Don’t fear, My daughter – I know what I’m doing and you WILL become a powerful weapon in My hand.”

The word ‘tempering’ seemed to stand out, so I looked up the process, especially in relation to steel (which is apparently the best metal for swords). I am no expert, so the analogy may only go so far. But what the Holy Spirit seemed to be highlighting to me as I studied, was as follows:

Firstly, that the strongest swords are made out of tempered high-carbon steel. It made me smile as it reminded me of my sons referring to humans as ‘carbon-based life forms’.
Now steel is obviously an alloy. Yesterday we spoke about alloys representing contamination with worldly values, which we absolutely need to avoid. But today as I meditated on the carbon-based steel used in swords, I felt God was speaking about our need to be Christians truly like Jesus: fully human, but full of and fully functioning in the Spirit. That’s a different kind of alloy – instead of worldly contamination we embrace the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and live as spiritual humans – in Him.

Secondly, that there are three stages of tempering:

• * Heating – the deeply uncomfortable bit in the actual furnace, of intense heat and pressure, to get the structure to the temperature needed.

• * Soaking – where the heated metal completely changes its structure (!)

• * Cooling – where the item’s temperature is lowered by quenching or by still air.

I realised that my naive impression of being in a furnace only focused on the extreme heat and possibly being hammered into shape, as in the picture above. But the tempering process doesn’t just involve being heated up, it also involves soaking and cooling. So when we have felt like all we can do is ‘be still and know that He is God’ (Ps 46:10), what the enemy uses to accuse is of laziness can actually be an essential part of the process. And when we feel like we have lost the heat of zeal that we used to feel and the enemy accuses us of lukewarmth even though our hearts are crying out for God, perhaps we are actually still in the tempering process: not carelessly backsliding but actively waiting on Him and determinedly trusting in Him to complete the work He has started (Phil 1:6).

Lastly, that the effects (and purpose) of tempering is to decrease hardness, making the steel less brittle and more springy, enabling it to bend further without breaking. Tempering creates the perfect balance of five-fold strength, essential in the most effective swords:

• * shear strength, that stops it being broken off and sliding away
• * yield strength, able to withstand pressure without buckling/ deforming
• * hardness (resistance to localised injury/ damage)
• * ductility (ability to be stretched/ drawn out)
• * tensile strength (ability to endure greater stress)

It seemed most significant that tempering is about balancing strength, for the sake of flexibility. For those of us who identify with this word, we may already have certain strengths in Him, but He knows what is coming, and that we will need a greater balance of strengths, to make us maybe less brittle, or less likely to buckle under pressure, or less easily injured etc. I’m sure we all want that! So it’s my hope for you that although the furnace is a deeply uncomfortable place to be, if you find yourself there right now, not knowing what to do other than fix your eyes on God (2 Chr 20:12), I hope this post has encouraged you. God has not forgotten us, He knows what He is doing, and He WILL be glorified through us. It’s just a matter of time. Amen