Mike Parsons
“To discover truth, we must be willing to put pleasant illusions and traditional preconceptions on the back burner for the sake of truth. We have to position ourselves to let truth declare itself to us – the whole truth and nothing but the truth.” – Don Keathley.
If we are going to receive that truth, know that truth, the truth that will totally set us free, then we must be willing for it to challenge some of the things we currently or previously have believed. Do not hold on to doctrine and theology so strongly that they keep you from the truth and keep you in bondage. On this journey, you will often have to leave what you know in order to walk through the door of what you do not know. Few are willing to do that. It is a risk. It is a challenge—to leave the comfort of what you believe and what you think you know to go through a door into something unknown.
The first time I started to engage in heaven, I did not know where I was. I did not know what I was doing. I did not know anything, other than the fact that the experience was so real, so life-changing, and I was so challenged, encouraged and overwhelmed by it that I wanted more. I pursued with all my heart more of that type of encounter with God because it was so powerful. But I had to be willing to leave behind what I thought I knew in order to continue having those experiences.
So God took me through a process to make me ready to live that way—not just to have one encounter. A couple of years later, I entered into deeper encounters.
Restoring First Love
I have been sharing about restoring first love—what it means to be restored back to our origin in God, who has loved us from the beginning and wants to restore us to our original identity in him—our true identity as sons of God, in relationship with him, within the perichoresis of God’s Father, Son and Spirit relationship.
So I have been sharing what happened to me on this journey. It began around 2010 to 2012, in this particular aspect of it. In 2008, I first encountered heaven, and God began to prepare me, even then, for what was coming. But I knew so little back then—when I think about what I know now. And that was a good thing, because it meant I could not try to help God out. I did not know what I was doing. I did not understand much of what I was experiencing. So I just went with it and let the experiences change me.
I have shared how God used that process to restore me to first love, to reveal my true origin—my true self, my authentic self. People call these things different names—in him, in eternity, before I was ever here.
And I thought I had gone as far as I could. I thought, Yes, this is it. How could there be anything more than this wonderful love that I am experiencing, this wonderful relationship that I am in? But there were always greater depths—more to go beyond into. And God challenged me never to be content with where I was, because there was always a beyond, and a beyond beyond beyond that beyond. God is able to do more—exceedingly, abundantly more—than I could ever ask or imagine.
So there were many areas where I entered in, but God always took me further. And I am so grateful for that, because if I had settled and been content with the wonderful things I had then, I would have missed out on the amazing things I have experienced since. But I had to go through a process to enable me to go beyond and into those depths. I surrendered all.
Mike’s latest book, Unconditional Love, is out now as an ebook on our website and available to order in paperback from your local or online bookseller.
More details at eg.freedomarc.org/books
I Surrender All
I do not know if you have ever sung that song—I Surrender All. I have sung it many, many times. I have said to God, I surrender all. I want you to be Lord of my life. I want you to be Lord of everything. And I meant it. But I found there was always more to surrender. There was always more that I did not know, but God did. And God was never going to leave me in that place, because he wants me to fully embrace who I really am—who he made me to be.
So God took me through this process—the marriage, the wooing of the garden, the lakah, when he looked into my eyes; the revealing of the dance floor, segullah; the preparation of the mikvah, the soaking room. And then comes the ketubah, the huppah, the covering of the betrothal, and finally, the consummation huppah, in the bridal chamber. And when I entered that place, so much into the very person of God—nothing was ever the same again.
But this was a journey. It did not happen overnight. I did not understand it all at the time. But now I realise what God was doing. And I am so grateful for the refiner’s fire I went through to prepare me to enter into the dark cloud. I had experienced God’s presence. I had engaged with Jesus. I had engaged with the Holy Spirit. I had engaged with the Father. But this was to go into a place—in the light of God’s person—face to face. I had no idea what that meant. But the preparation eventually took me there.
The Father continually led me to encounter various places of fire to prepare me: the fire stones, the river of fire, the altar of fire, the judgment seat of fire. They were all experiences like being in a crucible.
Refiner’s Fire
Now, a crucible is where precious metals are purified and refined. In the soaking room, the fire of love judges us to life—testing the quality of our identity and revealing our true destiny. Our soul is purified of the wood, hay and straw of dead works, revealing gold, silver and precious stones—our true sonship identity. It is a purification process of love.
Hebrews 12:29 says, Our God is a consuming fire. Relationship with love always transforms us—if we stay in the place of heat and do not try to escape the crucible.
Refining with fire is one of the oldest methods of refining metals. In ancient times, this involved a craftsman sitting next to a hot fire with molten gold in a crucible, being stirred and skimmed to remove impurities—the dross that rose to the top of the molten metal. Flames would reach temperatures exceeding 1,000°C. It is hot. And it was hot. And what comes to the surface? All the dross. As it heats up, more and more impurities rise to the surface.
If you want to be nine-carat gold, then you get out of the crucible after a while. If you want to be eighteen-carat gold, you can stop the process a bit later. Or if you want to be pure gold—when that surface becomes like a mirror that totally reflects what the craftsman is looking for—then you stay. Pure gold.
Are we willing to be refined and purified? Are we willing to be metamorphosed into our true identity as sons of God? It will require heat. And that may be restrictive. It may be difficult for the soul to experience. The refiner’s fire works through the crucible. The more the wind blows—the wind of the Spirit—the hotter the flames burn. To enter glory, we must go through the fire of transformation.
Are we willing to look into the fire in his eyes? Are we willing to embrace the fiery sword of judgment in his mouth? Not judgment to death, but to life. To engage with the fiery words that pass loving verdict on the dross in our lives, so it can be removed—so we can be free, whole.
Are we willing to be living sacrifices? Are we willing to embrace the altar? It can be really difficult. But the fire from the altar can touch our lives and change us. When Isaiah describes his experience, he says, I am a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. But the coal purged his lips. And what did he say in the end? Here am I. Send me.
That is what God desires—to bring us to a place where we are so in love with him that we are willing to say, Here am I. Send me. Our focus and purpose shift, so that we become an expression of sonship for God’s glory, led by the Spirit—not driven by the soul. Not putting ourselves first, but embracing the reality of who we truly are. Embracing first love. Embracing the true reality of our true identity.
So I surrendered.
Embrace Love’s Fire
Spend just a couple of minutes thinking about this, because it is not an insignificant thing. You cannot go into it half-heartedly—because who knows what the fire might do? Ultimately, it is going to purify and refine, and it will be good. But it might be difficult when we have to face the reality
of the things that have been hidden in our lives, things that need to come to the surface, things that need to be purified and refined.
So I just encourage you to close your eyes, come to a place of rest,
where you begin to focus your thinking on God’s love, on the fire of God’s love—that God’s unconditional love is his purifying, consuming fire.
Now if you are willing to be that living sacrifice, to embrace the fire, then just tell the Father. Tell him that you are willing to be a living sacrifice, that you want him to place you on the altar, put you in the crucible, that you are willing for the fire of his love to transform you, change you.
He is love.
You are surrounded by his love right now.
It is a safe place.
You can choose to embrace the fire.
Father, I would just ask right now
that you would take each of us by the hand and lead us,
lead us into the realms of heaven that are open,
lead us to a place of engaging your fire.
Lead us to the river of fire where we can be baptised in fire.
Lead us to the altar where we can be a living sacrifice.
Lead us to the judgment seat
where our scroll can be opened
and we can look into the fire of your eyes.
Father, just lead us to the place that we need to be.
Put us in the crucible and let the fire increase —
the heat of your presence.
Let the Spirit, the wind of the Spirit, would blow,
that it heat up as bellows would heat up a furnace,
that everything in our lives that is not of you
would be consumed by this fire.
That things would begin to be released
from the very deepest depths of our soul.
Father, we surrender and embrace the fire.
Let your fire consume us,
consume everything of self in our soul.
Prepare us to enter that dark cloud of your presence.
Purify our hearts, O God.
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Sons of Issachar 