If you think about the difficulties we had we talked about in the wilderness journeys, here's what you would have remembered: that each one of those difficulties, was to bring them to growth in their faith - except they didn't handle it right, and in the end, they totally lost their positioning, and never ended up in the promised land - another generation did. And so what causes this? Well there's a number of things can cause you to get burnt, and when you get burnt, there's a tendency to want to withdraw from the place, or the relationships, or the mentality, or commitments, that God has called you to hold to. You think about a marriage going through pain and difficulty. Why do people quit? Well they quit because they got burnt, they lost hope, and then they get levered out of position. That couple that once stood at the front, and made a commitment for life together, for better or for worse; now find themselves burnt stones, and their marriage is burnt as well. What happened? They got burnt in the fire and in the heat of the fire began to crumble, and then were levered out of a commitment they once made. That's what it is, that's what burnt stones look like, not very nice.
I'm going to give you some examples of burnt stones that God restored in a moment, so here's some of the things that burn you, and then lever you out of position, not necessarily in order of importance. One of them is actually spiritual pressure, and spiritual conflict. The Bible says: we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers. The world of the spirit, the realm of the spirit is real. You're either going to win in this dimension, and walk in the spirit; or you will get knocked around. We're a spirit church, so we engage levels of things in the atmosphere, that others perhaps don't. That's why, when I send people out of here, they just go to places and demons fly out of people everywhere. Why? Because in this location, we've learnt how to stand up, and to build an atmosphere, and to build a strength of spirit, that enables us to displace demonic spirits, at a certain level. But you come under pressure, and in my time as a pastor over the years, I've had seasons where there's been immense spiritual pressure, attacks by what are called witchcraft spirits.
I don't blame the demons, I just understand, that when you go through a season of witchcraft attack, it knocks you around. It affects you with fear, it affects you with grief, it affects you with confusion, affects you with uncertainty and discouragement. Elijah got burnt by that thing. In 1 Kings 19, Elijah got burnt when he got attacked by one of those spirits that came against him. It came against him from Jezebel. She sent these messengers against him, and he got burnt, and he lost his positioning in the spirit to lead a nation into victory. Now the Bible is full of these stories if you know how to look at them, so a burnt stone remember, a stone is a person. A burnt stone is someone who's been through a fiery painful experience, and then they've crumbled, and become dislodged from what God called them to be part of, and to do. So one of the things is spiritual conflict and pressure. We become weakened, and burnt, and then withdraw.
A second thing is painful experiences in relationship in life. Now relationships aren't all smooth. I don't think anyone would doubt that. You think you're going on a great thing, and then suddenly all these problems come, and difficulties come, you never expected before. Relationships don't always go smoothly. Relationships have conflicts; conflicts are a part of life. If you don't understand how to deal with, and handle the conflicts, deal with communication, learn how to communicate properly, you will get burnt in the relationship. People come into church with this idealistic view, that everyone here's perfect, and it's going to be heaven on earth. It isn't heaven on earth, if you haven't found out. Heaven is up there you know? When we die we go to heaven. Here we have people, and people are very irritating! You being one of them, and I being another! And so we have difficulties. Now in the midst of our relational difficulties, we can get burnt. You can be hurt when people betray you. You share a confidence, and someone gives it up - it's a burning experience. If someone offends you, it can be an experience where you get burnt by that offence. Someone you thought was your friend, walks out and leaves you, you get burnt by the experience.