“Fire & Rain”
11/14/25
Song of Solomon 8:6-9 The Message Bible
The Woman: Hang my locket around your neck,
wear my ring on your finger. Love is invincible
facing danger & death. Passion laughs at the
terrors of hell. The fire of love stops at nothing —
it sweeps everything before it. Flood waters can’t drown love, torrents of rain can’t put it out.
Love can’t be bought, love can’t be sold— it’s not to be found
in the marketplace. My brothers used to worry about me:
“Our little sister has no breasts. What shall we do with our
little sister when men come asking for her? She’s a virgin &
vulnerable, & we’ll protect her. If they think she’s a wall, we’ll
top it with barbed wire. If they think she’s a door, we’ll
barricade it.”
Then the Lord spoke:
“ Beloveds I want to talk to you about My love, because you
must KNOW MY HEART to survive days ahead. If you under-
stand the depths of My love then you will be on solid ground
& experience the fullness of what I have for you of My glory!
You know My word says that My love never fails, yet many of
you still think it will fail if you make mistakes, & give into
temptations sent by the enemy.
I want you to think for a moment if you have had children or
been around children, of how a parent reacts to a child who
has made a mistake. How that parent reacts shows the child
what I am like. If they respond in anger, then the child feels
the sharpness of that response & thinks to never want to
make mom or dad that angry again.
That is an impossible goal for a very young child. But each child is different in their response. Some are more rebellious than others, or hard to get through to; that is, to a place of understanding.
A parent who understands however the nature of children, &
has been raised with more unconditional love, will react
differently in expressing their disappointment. They will
show that their love never fails, even if the child fails in their
obedience.
They will punish the child, but not in anger, but calmness &
that goes a long way to discouraging anxiety. The anxious
child is so often one raised with perfectionism such that they
are continually watching for a negative response from
everyone.
I know you know in your head, that I love you unconditionally, but it’s what’s in your heart that counts. I spoke that I would never leave you nor forsake you. You may be dark but lovely, like it says in Song of Solomon. You may make mistakes, & backslide from not ever being freed from certain strongholds, yet I LOVE YOU. I will ALWAYS LOVE YOU! NOTHING CAN TAKE THAT LOVE AWAY."
Romans 8:31-39 The Message Bible So, what do you think?
With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God
didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition & exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly & freely do for us?
And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us—who was raised to life for us!—is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us & Christ’s love for us?
There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not
hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not
backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely
convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or
demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or
unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and
God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has
embraced us.
Romans 8:31-39 NKJV God’s Everlasting Love 31 What then
shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who
can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.
34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and
furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or
sword? 36 As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day
long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors
through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The Lord spoke:
“Beloveds, this kind of love is way more than your mind can
imagine, thus it is hard for those neglected or abused to
understand & hold on to. So I bring little reminders now &
then so you remember that it is I Who loves you as no other
loves you.
And it is only by MY GRACE given you that enables you to
love me as you ought. My grace cleanses you of sin, of
strongholds & every form of resistance in your flesh or soul.
Apart from ME, you can do nothing.
Religious spirits have disparaged My grace so much that many just do not believe how good it is, how great it is, & how greatly you are loved & forgiven if you confess your sins & mean it. Those who hunger & thirst for righteousness will be filled.
I’ve told you as I come, I will break every chain of darkness
that has hindered you or been kept there till it is time for
restoration of all things. So do not disparage yourself. Do
not think you can make yourself better by striving. It
doesn’t take striving as much as resting in My arms of love
as much as you can.
So many are paying a price for what is coming through
rejection, pain & suffering & you must know I WILL DO ALL
I’ve said I will do! Nothing can keep ME from fulfilling My
promises to you. Tumultuous times means you must be more dependent on My for I LOVE YOU & will show you what to do, day to day, hour to hour sometimes.
So LEAN ON ME beloveds. That is NOT weakness, that is
HUMILITY! My glory is increasing incrementally & SURGES of POWER are coming soon. Be ready for unexpected things to occur around you. I delight in surprising you!!!”
thru Priscilla Van Sutphin
Some more fire & rain scriptures:
Job 12:13-25 The Message Bible From God We Learn How
to Live “True wisdom & real power belong to God; from him we learn how to live, & also what to live for. If he tears some-
thing down, it’s down for good; if he locks people up, they’re
locked up for good. If he holds back the rain, there’s a
drought; if he lets it loose, there’s a flood.
Strength & success belong to God; both deceived &
deceiver must answer to him. He strips experts of their
vaunted credentials, exposes judges as witless fools. He
divests kings of their royal garments, then ties a rag around
their waists. He strips priests of their robes, & fires high
officials from their jobs.
He forces trusted sages to keep silence, deprives elders of
their good sense & wisdom. He dumps contempt on famous
people, disarms the strong & mighty. He shines a spotlight
into caves of darkness, hauls deepest darkness into the
noonday sun. He makes nations rise & then fall, builds up
some & abandons others. He robs world leaders of their
reason, & sends them off into no-man’s-land. They grope in
the dark without a clue, lurching & staggering like drunks.”
2 Samuel 22:8-16 The Message Bible
Earth wobbled & lurched; the very heavens shook like leaves,
Quaked like aspen leaves because of his rage. His nostrils
flared, billowing smoke; his mouth spit fire. Tongues of fire
darted in & out; he lowered the sky. He stepped down; under
his feet an abyss opened up. He rode a winged creature,
swift on wind-wings.
He wrapped himself in a trench-coat of black rain-cloud darkness. But his cloud-brightness burst through, a grand comet of fireworks. Then GOD thundered out of heaven; the High God gave a great shout. God shot his arrows—pandemonium! He hurled his lightnings—a rout! The secret sources of ocean were exposed, the hidden depths of earth lay uncovered The moment GOD roared in protest, let loose his hurricane anger.
Isaiah 4:5-6 Message Bible
Then GOD will bring back the ancient pillar of cloud by day & the pillar of fire by night & mark Mount Zion & everyone in it with his glorious presence, his immense, protective presence, shade from the burning sun & shelter from the driving rain.
Isaiah 44:13-17
The woodworker draws up plans for his no-god, traces it on
a block of wood. He shapes it with chisels & planes into
human shape—a beautiful woman, a handsome man, ready to be placed in a chapel. He first cuts down a cedar, or maybe picks out a pine or oak, and lets it grow strong in the forest, nourished by the rain. Then it can serve a double purpose:
Part he uses as firewood for keeping warm and baking
bread; from the other part he makes a god that he worships
—carves it into a god shape and prays before it. With half he
makes a fire to warm himself and barbecue his supper. He
eats his fill and sits back satisfied with his stomach
full and his feet warmed by the fire: “Ah, this is the
life.” And he still has half left for a god, made to his personal
design—a handy, convenient no-god to worship whenever
so inclined. Whenever the need strikes him he prays to it,
“Save me. You’re my god.”
Jeremiah 10:11-15
“Tell them this, ‘The stick gods who made nothing, neither
sky nor earth, Will come to nothing on the earth and under
the sky.’” But it is God whose power made the earth, whose
wisdom gave shape to the world, who crafted the cosmos. He thunders, & rain pours down. He sends the clouds soaring. He embellishes the storm with lightnings, launches wind from his warehouse. Stick-god worshipers looking mighty foolish, god-makers embarrassed by their handmade gods! Their gods are frauds—dead sticks, deadwood gods, tasteless jokes. When the fires of judgment come, they’ll be ashes.
Ezekial 1:35-38 The Message Bible And then, as they stood
with folded wings, there was a voice from above the dome
over heir heads. Above the dome there was something that
looked like a throne, sky-blue like a sapphire, with a human-like figure towering above the throne. From what I could see, from the waist up he looked like burnished bronze and from the waist down like a blazing fire. Brightness everywhere!
The way a rainbow springs out of the sky on a rainy day—that’s what it was like. It turned out to be the Glory of GOD! When I saw all this, I fell to my knees, my face to the ground. Then I heard a voice. * * *
Revelation 11:3-6 The Message Bible
“Meanwhile, I’ll provide my two Witnesses. Dressed in
sackcloth, they’ll prophesy for 1,260 days. These are the two
Olive Trees, the two Lampstands, standing at attention
before God on earth. If anyone tries to hurt them, a blast
of fire from their mouths will incinerate them—burn them to
a crisp just like that. They’ll have power to seal the sky so
that it doesn’t rain for the time of their prophesying, power
to turn rivers and springs to blood, power to hit earth with
any and every disaster as often as they want.
