Part 3 Taken, Blessed, Broken and Given: The Baptism of Fire

“Every conflict in life can be traced back

to the neglect or violation

of one or more of the commands of Jesus.”
Bill Gothard – The Great Commission

Taken, Blessed, Broken and Given: The Baptism of Fire Part 3

This progression; Taken, Blessed, Broken and Given,
follows the lives of many of the examples we are given in the Word.

Let’s look briefly at the life of Abraham.
Abram was called of God at Haran

□ He was TAKEN from his home
To a land that was foreign to him
□ He was BLESSED by God’s covenant with him
□ He was BROKEN when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac.
□ He was GIVEN as a blessing to all nations.

Look also at the life of Moses.

□ He was TAKEN from the Nile river.
□ He was BLESSED – raised in Pharaoh’s court
□ He was BROKEN – forty years in the wilderness
□ He was GIVEN as the deliverer of God’s people in Egypt

David's life was another example:
□ He was TAKEN from obscurity (he was the youngest brother)
□ He was BLESSED and anointed as King
□ He was BROKEN by Saul’s persecution
□ He was GIVEN to the people – leading them into God’s presence

Once David came through his afflictions,
he no longer cried out to God,
“Why did you allow me to go through this!”

his is the typical response of most of us today
if we are honest with each other.

Instead he saw the hand of the Lord in every circumstance he faced,
whether they were joyful, pleasurable, frightening or painful.

Let’s examine another prime example in the Scriptures, the live of Joseph.
□ Joseph was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers.
□ He was TAKEN away from his father and family
□ He was BLESSED with Godly wisdom
and found favor in Potiphar’s house
□ He was BROKEN when falsely accused and thrown into prison.
□ He was GIVEN as a blessing that saved nations from starvation.

● Joseph was placed in a hole at Dothan (Dothayan Heb.)

● The “Place of Two Eyes” contained two deep wells.
One of those wells was the place where David’s brothers placed him.
He was in an inescapable place –

● “Two Eyes” spiritually represents
two ways of looking at our circumstances.

●The natural view may seem hopeless, inescapable, unsolvable…

●The natural view breeds feelings of
fear, rejection, worthlessness, shame,
insecurity, defilement and hopelessness.

● But in God’s view our situation is always
redeemable, transformable, full of hope
and opportunity to bring glory to God.

□ An interesting note about Dothan is that
●this is the same place that Elisha and his servant

were surrounded by hostile forces.
His servant was terrified
by the overwhelming number of enemy forces.

● Elisha asked God to open the servants eyes.
God did so and he observed the
“hills filled with horses and chariots of fire” all around them.
Then God struck the enemy soldiers blind
at the request of Elisha.
See: 2 Kings 6:8-18

● Elisha’s servant had natural eyes, but he had spiritual eyes.

□ In Psalm 105:17 makes this observation about Joseph:

“The word of the Lord tested him .”(Joseph)

tested in Hebrew means to “fuse like metal”
fused metal requires great heat.

●Joseph endured fourteen years of affliction
to be made useful in God’s hand.

When God’s Word comes
the enemy immediately comes against the word.

“The ones (seeds) along the path
are those who have the Word sown [in their hearts],
but when they hear, Satan comes at once
and [by force] takes away the message which is sown in them.”
Mark 4:15 Amp


End Part 3