Zechariah 2:5 “For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.”

Today’s verse, is what the Lord told Zechariah to speak about Jerusalem. Jerusalem is God’s, just as we belong to the Lord and are God’s Holy People. This verse in particular, has always been an encouragement for me. When I was just starting out, young in the faith, I remember hearing an account in which a particular pagan had sent a small “army” of demons to attack and kill a Child of God. However, it just so happened that the demons were unable to lay a finger on that Child of God, and returned to the pagan. It was explained to the pagan that the demons were unable to attack that Child of God, because when they arrived there was a wall of fire that seemed to surround the Christian, and the demons could not get through that wall of fire. The demons returned to the pagan, and lashed out at that man instead. The pagan lived, but was of course really hurt, and set out to kill the Christian himself—again unable to do so. Now, I’m not entirely sure how true that account is, because I only heard it from one person, long ago when I was young in the faith. Yet, after I heard that, the Lord led me to this verse, and encouraged me that He, too, will be a wall of fire round about me to keep me from being harmed while I live for Him in this area that is so much against the faith of our Lord.

Truly, the Lord is our protector, a wall of fire that surrounds us. The verse before today’s, even says that Jerusalem shall be as a city without walls! Yet right after, the Lord says HE shall be a Wall to them, a wall of fire. In the same way, we are not told in the Word of God that we have to protect ourselves from harm, as though we were a city that built a wall around us. Instead, it is the Lord who will protect us! Let us trust in the Lord, and not in men, or ourselves! Of course, this does not mean that we tempt the Lord, by purposefully putting ourselves in the way to be harmed (As Satan tried to get the Lord Jesus to do, in Matthew 4:6-7), but rather we try to avoid it and if it does happen, the Lord will protect us!

Not long after this verse in Zechariah, there are Prophecies of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Indeed, through the Lord, we are surrounded round about as though with a wall of fire!

We have been looking lately at the Word of God, and today we do continue to look at it. The Word of the Lord is likened to a fire as well. As said in Jeremiah 23:29, “Is not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?” The Word of the Lord is like a fire, it consumes, and definitely leaves a mark behind it. Yet it can indeed hurt . . . the flesh. The Word can be likened to the sacrificial fire that was used when offering burnt offerings to the Lord . . . and the burnt offering can be likened to our Flesh, the Old Man which we must sacrifice and give up if we so choose to follow the Lord our God. Again, the Word of God is like a fire . . . as I remember something a dear sister of ours once told me. It was mentioned to her at one time what I felt God was leading me to do, and she replied, “Like a spark over dead leaves, right?”I wasn’t sure what she meant, but she explained, and I must say that it is a good thing to see as the Word of God: When you introduce a spark, or a fire, to a bunch of dead leaves, they very quickly all catch fire, don’t they? It is as though, because they are so dry, they suck up the fire and it very quickly spreads! We can view the Word of God as the same way. (If you look at the verse before, in Jeremiah 23:28, we actually see a relation to being faithful to the Lord, and even wheat and chaff being mentioned. The “chaff,” which is like ungodliness, is burned away by the fire of the Word, while the wheat which was separated from the chaff, remains, just as we remain, to serve the Lord.)

However, all in all, the Word of God, is as a fire, that can also be a wall of fire round about us. We can be children of God, and we can really be oppressed by the devil and his minions. They can really get to us. However, if we study the Word of God, we grow stronger in the Lord our God, and those attacks, though they come, cannot do us the harm intended!

The Word of the Lord is, concerning the Armor of God mentioned in Ephesians 6:13-17, also the Sword of the Spirit. The Sword of the Spirit is given to us so that we can cut down the enemies that come against us. Yet we must not forget the Shield of Faith, which is a protection against the attacks of the enemy, just as that wall of fire is. Yet we cannot have that shield of faith, if we don’t have the Sword of the Spirit—the Word of God. The Faith, comes from the Word! As said in a verse we should by now have memorized, Romans 10:17, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

It’s very important that we stay in the Word of God, and honestly become very well-versed in the Word of God. It would be such a wonderful thing, for all of us to know the Word of God so well, that we can easily bring to remembrance, many or most (or all) of the verses in the Word of God! This will help us in many, many ways: in fighting back when temptations come, in knowing the Will of God, and even in being able to give good answers to those who question our faith, or are against our Faith.

Now, that all sounds wonderful, but it again is something “easier said than done,” for the most part. Many have such busy days that it would take them a lifetime to know the Word of God that well. Others may not be able to read fast, and again it would take them such a long time. Still others may not know how to read, or may have bad memories, or even bad eyesight. Here is my personal advice, whether or not any of those cases are for you personally: Get the Word of God in audio form, so that you can listen to it. I once heard from a brother of ours, the question, “How many letters that your father wrote to you in his lifetime, do you remember?” The person who was asked, thought a while and honestly said, None. Then they were asked, “How much of what your father spoke to you, do you remember?” And the person said, Lots. It’s true, for the most part, we remember more things we have heard with our ears, than read with our eyes. Especially if we hear it over and over again.

If possible, somehow get the Bible on cassette tape, or CD, or some other thing, that will enable you to listen to the Word of God . . . and it’s possible that all the while, you can also do work that needs to be done! You can actually get this, free, if you can stay on the Internet and listen, at a website called http://www.audio-bible.com/ There you can read along, as you listen, or just listen to it being read!

All in all, as we know, we should spend much time in the Word of God, so that we can learn and stand strong when things come against us. It is indeed part of the Armour of God, and the protection that He gives us!

I love you so much, and as always, daily, do keep you in my prayers! May God Bless you mightily, and keep you close to Him. I pray that your day is a blessed day today!

Love in Christ, Always,
Your friend forever,
And brother,
Chris/Michael

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Psalm 47:5 “God is gone up with a shout, the Lord with the sound of a trumpet.”

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