Journal Entry: Capturing What God Taught Me In The Fire
I’m grateful journaling is a habit I committed to early in life. Most years, I fill one journal—but in 2022, I went through two. There was just that much to process, capture, and hold on to. At this point in the year, deep in the fiery furnace, I could finally start to see what God was doing. I was beginning to recognize how I was being equipped—how the enemy’s traps, especially the pity parties, were starting to lose their grip. That’s a topic for another post. For now, what I want to highlight from this journal entry is how my heart was shifting. I was growing grateful for the furnace. I was beginning to see a greater purpose in the fire, and I knew I needed to write it down so I wouldn’t forget and could make it part of my everyday life.
Journal Entry Dated: July 19, 2022
It happens every week. There’s a day when I lose faith, and fear, frustration, and anxiety surface. It’s today, and my thoughts are filled with getting a job. I’m enjoying writing the testimonial book and believe I have something powerful, but I can’t see a way for my immediate needs to be provided; I’m going deeper into debt. I have a tough time accepting God’s will. I suspect it will be a slow process of digging myself out.
I need to write my plan to keep God my top priority, the center of my life, and lean on Him for everything. I will use the blank board for what I’ve learned and how I’ll ensure that I apply and live by it.
- Practice exuberant generosity. Give, give, give.
- Pray out loud, on my knees, and throughout the day. Pray for others. Pray about everything.
- Start and end my days with God, in His Word, and in prayer.
- Aim to pray more for others and the world than myself.
- Learn new Scriptures. Continue to memorize Scriptures. Morning and night.
- Pray to create long-term plans.
- Commit each day to God. Seek God and obey Him, and be the best possible steward of that day and His allocated resources for the day.
- Listen for and obey God’s voice, His prompting, and guidance.
- Live in crazy faith. Never again confirm to what the world says. Don’t follow the world.
- Faithfully and joyfully stand out and be considered “insane” for obeying and following God.
- Be patient and wait on the Lord.
- Read the Bible each year.
- Attend church every Sunday.
- Freely and openly worship and praise Him. Loudly. Open my mouth and talk about Him.
- Always be seeding of His Kingdom.
- Be of service to others.
- Love. Grow my heart. Don’t shy or turn away from those who are hurting, broke, depressed, and lost.
Dear Father, Abba, thank you for taking me into the fiery furnace so I could get to know You and for bringing me closer to You. I needed this. I needed a revival in my relationship with You. I needed to be reminded of your greatness, might, power, and presence.
While I’m coming out of the fire, I look for the fire to burn HOT in my heart. I never want to stop being on fire for You, God. Thank you for blessing me with a personal revival.
Fiery Furnace: A Place of Personal Revival
When I agreed to be put into the fiery furnace with God, I didn’t know there was such a thing as a personal revival. As I said in another post, all I thought was going to happen was God giving me His specific plan for my business. The fiery furnace turned out to be so much more.
A personal revival occurs when God reignites our hearts with a deep, undeniable awareness of His presence, His power, and His purpose for our lives. It’s not just an emotional experience—it’s a spiritual awakening that calls us into full surrender and intimacy with Him. It brings our faith from lukewarm to burning, our obedience from hesitant to immediate, and our trust from shaky to steadfast.
That’s what God did for me in the fiery furnace.
The hardships didn’t just test my sanity, mindsets, beliefs, and faith—they reconnected me to my Creator, Lord, and Savior. In the fire, I encountered God—not just the idea of Him or the knowledge of Him, but Him—close, real, and present. The pain stripped away distractions, pride, and worldly thinking. It left me raw and desperate—open, submitted, and surrendered. And in that openness, He came in like a flood.
I was fully aware that what I had been given was a blessing—this was no ordinary spiritual growth. This was personal revival. And I didn’t want to miss a single thing He was revealing. I didn’t want to come out of the furnace only to forget what He had taught me in it. The fire was painful, but God’s nearness was priceless, and I never wanted to lose it.
So, I wrote. I documented everything. The insights, the revelations, the lessons, prayers, and His Word. I wrote to ensure I never lost sight of what He had shown me in the fire, to keep my heart anchored in the truth and in the fire of His presence. The process of journaling became a sacred act of not only processing but also preserving everything He was teaching me so that I would never go back to the old ways of thinking, the old ways of relying on myself, or the old ways of handling life’s trials.
I never erased the whiteboard; it stayed in my living room until the day I had to pack it away in a rush to leave. I will put it back up when God takes me to my next home.
The Trial of 2025
Reading this entry now, in light of the Trial of 2025, confirms what I sensed—this isn’t a repeat of the past. This time, I’m not circling the same mountain. I see the difference. Back then, I was learning to surrender, to hear God, to trust Him in the fire. Today, I’m applying what I learned and building on it. The foundation laid in 2022 and since then is holding strong. The fiery furnace prepared me for more than I knew, and now I walk through this current trial with a deeper understanding, greater clarity, and unwavering faith. What God started then, He is expanding now—and I can see how each trial is part of the equipping. Nothing is wasted. It’s all connected. And I’m still writing, still listening, still trusting, because I know this too is part of becoming who I’m called to be.