"Going Through The Fire"

"Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonished, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God." (Daniel 3:24 & 25) I known that you might be familiar with this story from the Book of Daniel, and have probably heard everything that can be said about it; or have you! I love hearing the Word of God taught, because I never get tired of hearing something fresh; especially when I am looking for God to speak to my heart on a matter! Here we have three men who made a decision to not bow down to the king of Babylon nor his idol, no matter what; even though the king instructed them that they were going to be thrown into the fiery furnace, they held their position on the matter. In fact, when asked by king Nebuchadnezzar, "Who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hand?", they were quick to answer that they did not care if they were delivered or not, but that they still were not going to bow down to his image. This is really what I think we should be living: lives that are determined to live or die for the Lord that we serve; knowing that the fate of what this world might bestow upon us is nothing compared to the life that is waiting on the other side. I heard something very interesting at church Sunday, and I will briefly share it, but will dive into it more later; but it goes something like this: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil", because shadows have no direct effect upon my life! The thing that astonished king Nebuchadnezzar, is the way these men were walking in the fire loose; their bindings had been burnt off, yet they were unharmed. Even their clothing, including their hats, were not touched by the fire; yet the ropes that bound them were gone. When we are holding on to Jesus, no matter what, there are several things that will happen to our lives while we are going through the fire. The first and most directly felt by ourselves, is that our bindings will be stripped away; those things that bind us to this world, or in this world will be burnt away by the fire; yet we shall be left unharmed. Secondly, the Lord will be with us in the fire, and will keep us walking with Him as we are in the midst of that which is has burnt away those things that had bound us. Thirdly, the world will see the fire has no effect upon us; that it has burnt away our dependence upon whatever it was that bound us, yet has left us unharmed. And fourthly, they will see Jesus in the midst of the fire with us!!!