Home

About Steve Pegram

Ministry News

Itinerary

Product Catalog

Steve's Power Word

Message Of The Week

Comments by Kathy

Christian Midis

Message Archives

A Word To Pastors

How To Be Saved

Contact Information

THE SMELL OF SMOKE
by Kathy B. Pegram

I’m sure you all have noticed that smoke is a very strong smell. It doesn’t matter if it is someone smoking, leaves burning, forest fires, etc. Smoke permeates everything it comes in contact with.

One fall day, I had the windows raised and decided it felt so good I would go out and rake leaves and burn them. Well, it didn’t take long before the smoke drifted into the house. Too late I realized that I should have closed the windows first.

Needless to say that night you could still smell the odor of burning leaves in the house. That day when I came in I had to hurry and shower and wash my clothes because the odor of smoke was so strong! It was in my hair, on my skin, on my clothes, in my house, in my yard and in my neighbor's yards. This stuff saturates everything!

Nebuchadnezzar commanded that they heat the furnace seven times hotter than it was usually heated" (Daniel 3:19). Shehadrach, Mesach, and Abednego were thrown into the fiery furnace like logs on a fire. The flames blazed so hot that the guards who threw them in were killed from the heat. But, God was in the midst of Shehadrach, Mesach, and Abednego’s situation and He saved them. They walked out of that furnace without any traces of smoke on them. They didn't smell like smoke, their hair wasn't singed, they didn't even have the smell of smoke on their bodies.

Can you even imagine this? Go outside, burn some leaves, stand there and watch them burn, smell them, then read this story again while you have the smell of smoke on you. WOW! What an awesome, mighty, powerful God we serve!

Daniel 3:26Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the burning fiery furnace; he declared, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out, and come here!" Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. 27And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads was not singed, their cloaks were not harmed, and no smell of fire had come upon them.

The Smell of Smoke was not on them…..don't you just love that line?

What fire are you standing in the midst of today? We all at some point face our own fiery furnace. Sometimes we feel like we’ve been in that fiery furnace forever. We begin to wonder if God will ever bring us out. But, what we don't stop to consider is, He is right there with us while we are in the fire. While we are complaining, moaning, and groaning, He is there. While we are crying and throwing pity parties He is there.

If we want to get out of these fiery furnaces in our life it is time to stop looking at the Nebuchadnezzar’s of this world. It is time to say as the 3 Hebrew Children did: "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up."

Malachi 3:3 says, "And He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:"

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God. One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities. The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: 'He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver.' She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, 'How do you know when the silver is fully refined?' He smiled at her and answered, 'Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it!'

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Do you want to come out of your fire without the smell of smoke? Then it’s time to stop inhaling the smoke and to begin inhaling the anointing. Turn your eyes toward God, don't let your circumstances overwhelmed you just begin to smell that fresh anointing.

Love & Payers,
Kathy

Quote "Let this be some comfort to you, that you are one of the Lord's suffering children, one of those who have to pass through rough roads and fiery places in the course of their pilgrimage to heaven." C. H. Spurgeon