STEP 6: THE SECOND FIRING
With raging intensity, the second fire starts to burn through the kiln. Quickly you move from separation into a time of death. There are impurities within each clay vessel that only the fire can purge.
The Lord and His angels shut down the dampers on the kiln, cutting off the flow of oxygen and filling the kiln with carbon dioxide. Black soot along with heavy smoke and flames consumes every vessel in the kiln as it becomes a black fire, your personal Gethsemane or dark night of the soul.
Abandonment, isolation, and death itself are all around you. The fire is so intense that you can’t hear or see the dear friends who have been your comforters and intercessors for so many years. Everyone you love seems to leave you as you die in the blazing inferno.
You say, “Lord, the fire! I’m dying in the midst of it! Everything I’ve built and loved my whole life is being consumed!”
Your heart breaks as your reputation and your walk with the Lord are condemned. Competition, position, jealousy and pride are driven out of your life by the purifying flames.
You feel as if you’re going to explode under the ever-increasing pressure. The Lord tenderly explains, “My child, in the midst of the black fire, a mystery takes place. Brilliant color is pushed deep into the body of the clay vessel.”
“My mysteries and My revelations are revealed in the tremendous pressure of the high glory fire. This is a hidden time when the most beautiful colors are formed in the earthenware vessel. The richness and depth of color come from the darkest hours of agony and grief, just as diamonds, rubies, and emeralds come from hot fires inside the earth. In the midst of the second firing, My glory is being released into the depths of who you are.”
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This is the hardest imaginable step to go through. Has it ever gotten so hot you thought you were going to die? I have. This is a step you can only speak about in whispers because it is so intense.