Cloud by Day, Fire by Night: A Trilogy of One Man’S Spiritual Journey

By Dennis G. Hurst

Cloud by Day, Fire by Night offers a modern-day parable of one mans choices and the attitudes that can make the difference between success and failure. Sportsman, businessman, entrepreneur, devoted husband, and father, author Dennis Hurst found himself in the depths of despair following a devastating divorce. From the thrills of an early professional soccer career to the life of a high-flying business executive and head of a start-up retail business, he suddenly had to begin his life anew at the age of fifty-two. Sitting alone on the only piece of furniture in an apartment hurriedly rented with his last two thousand dollars, he pondered his fate.

Staring vacantly out the curtainless window as the drizzle outside turned into a steady downpour, he began to take stock of his life. As one who had experienced the exhilaration and rewards of professional sports, the perks and privileges of being a business executive, along with the prestige and position that such a lifestyle allows, he found his new, lowly station in life both unexpected and depressing. Or was it? To the worlds way of thinking, it seemed to be; it was one step away from living out on the street, under a bridge, fighting for survivala total unmitigated disaster.

Fortunately for Hurst, God had him exactly where he needed him and set him off on his personal journey of rediscovery.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Nov 14, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462061778

Dennis G. Hurst

Born and raised in England, Dennis G. Hurst graduated engineering college while playing professional soccer. A resident of Dallas, Texas, and the father of three sons, he is the author of The Biblical Connection to the Stars and Stripes (2006) and America on the Cusp of God’s Grace (2010).

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Copyright © 2011 by Dennis G. Hurst

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ISBN: 978-1-4620-6176-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-6177-8 (e)

ISBN: 978-1-4620-6178-5 (dj)

Printed in the United States of America

iUniverse rev. date: 11/2/2011

Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Preface

Chapter One – A Quiet Gentle Spirit

Chapter Two – Journey To Yahweh

Chapter Three – The Prodigal Father

Chapter Four - Forgiveness

Chapter Five – Appointed:Anointed

Chapter Six – The Royal Decree

Chapter Seven – A New Awakening

Chapter Eight – Yahweh Emmanuel

Chapter Nine – A Willing Heart

Chapter Ten – A Jesus Way Of Life

Chapter Eleven – The Godly Vigil

Chapter Twelve – Abiding Comfort

Chapter Thirteen - Eternal

Chapter Fourteen – A Father’s Touch

Chapter Fifteen – The Tribute

Epilogue

Appendix

I Knew Him Then …

God Is In The Numbers …

References, Notes, Resources and Links

Foreword

Originally published in the Summer of 2001 Cloud by Day Fire by Night was birthed from a compilation of journal entries which I had begun in the summer of 1996. Slowly but surely as my surrender to God’s leading became more pronounced, those journal entries evolved into a full-fledged spiritual autobiography over a period of some five years. During this wilderness experience I endured the severe sifting of Satan as testified by Jesus Christ. In one of the more poignant passages in the entire Bible, Jesus predicts the spiritual weakness of us all when he confronts Peter in Luke 22:31-34:

"And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold. Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.

And he said unto him, Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death.

And he said, I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."

Pride is the ultimate downfall of us all, and is what brought Lucifer tumbling ignominiously out of an exalted state in the heavenlies into an uneasy interlocution throughout the earth under his new name of Satan. The fact that he brought the whole of mankind down with him is no surprise, since his first targets (and thus, first victims) were Eve and then Adam; they were after all, the only human beings around at the time. Unfortunately, not only mankind was undone by Satan, but the entire Creation, which to this day groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22)

It seemed timely for me to go back and revisit my spiritual experiences of that period when I was a truly broken man attempting to put his shattered life back together. James declares Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. (James 5:16)

It turns out that there were many fervent prayers of righteous men and women winging their way to the throne room of heaven on my behalf in those days, and today going on seventeen years later, I have no doubt that that is still the case. More to the point however, is that I now use heaven’s direct mail apparatus to lift my own prayers to the throne room on behalf of others who are experiencing the same despair.

The plain fact of the matter is that none of us can defeat the devil alone. As is very evident from what Jesus revealed to Peter, without Christ’s intercession on our behalf we are all defeated. Oh yes, we can bluff and bluster and braggadocio our way ahead, but that is simply pride and ego interfering with love and humility. In his Psalm of sobs, the 51st David declares Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. (verses 12, 13, 17)

The original text from 2001 has been used throughout, albeit edited when deemed appropriate. Each chapter ends with a Reflection paragraph to bring forth my present-day thoughts and there are a couple of preview chapters from the next book in the trilogy titled The Revelation due out towards the end of 2012.

References, Notes, Resources and Links are exactly what that implies and contain a treasure-trove of additional information.

I leave you now to get on with your reading, with this raison d’etre from W. Graham Scroggie:

Abounding life is just the fullness of life in Christ, made possible by his death and resurrection, and made actual by the indwelling and infilling of the Holy Spirit. It is not the will of God that we should be as fruitless trees, as waterless clouds, or as savor-less salt, but that we should fulfill the highest functions of our Christian calling. Christ’s promise is that he will slake the thirst of all who come to him, and his purpose for those who come is that out of their vitals shall flow rivers of living water.

Dedication

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful .. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night ..

And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper ..

And to bring the first fruits of our ground, and the first fruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, unto the house of the Lord ..

And now, behold, I have brought the first fruits of the land (my writing) which thou, O Lord, hast given me .. and have set it before the Lord my God, and I worship before the Lord my God ..

And I shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord my God hath given unto me, and unto mine house ..

And I shall honor the Lord my God with my substance and with the first fruits of all mine increase ..

And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, Oh that thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!

And God granted him that which he requested ..

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, His Son Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit!

Psalm 1:1-3; Neh 10:35; Deut 26:10-11; Prov 3:9; 1 Chron 4:9

Preface

Smith Wigglesworth, the great English evangelist (as Roberts Liardon so rightly calls him, one of God’s Generals) had a wonderful motto by which he lived his life:

All of Self = None of God

Less of Self = More of God

None of Self = All of God

Upon coming to know Christ and thus stumbling upon Wigglesworth one day, I became so enamored with this simplistic approach that I immediately embraced for my own life, the principle embodied in these few precious words. After all, Christ himself led us to seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Contained within Wigglesworth’s triplet of wisdom lies the foundational faith through which he carried out his ministry and lived his life. But beyond that, in its very simplicity, Wigglesworth took the whole Bible message and (as Christ before him) made it such that even the most uneducated can embrace and understand it; obedience to God and a willingness to put him first and foremost in your life.

In the following pages you will journey with me as I make a somewhat painful transition from being consumed by all of self, to wanting and seeking the glory of God and the risen Christ Jesus living within me, guiding me, directing me.

It wasn’t (and isn’t) an easy transformation, but anything of value, be it materialistic or, in my case, spiritual, has no value unless there is a striving towards it. We are all, each and every one of us, consumed by the world around us and its enticements. We are all bombarded daily and hourly by things and events to get our minds off the very act of what Jesus Christ and his servant Wigglesworth both exhort us to do. We are all so caught up in Life that we are losing the ability to enjoy it. Not even fifteen minutes in a day can most of us find to spend with God or simply to go off somewhere in a quiet corner and reflect on things.

As you will read (if you stay with me) I made a conscious effort early in my spiritual walk to spend at least twenty minutes in my day seeking God. This quickly became thirty minutes, then forty, then an hour. Now I venture to say, that not an hour of my waking life goes by without a prayer, a conversation, a sharing, a ministry, or a thought about God or Jesus Christ, either alone, or one-on-one, or within a group. I’ve prayed with people in bars, ministered to people in trade shows, shared with people in office lobbies and on street corners, been on my bended knees in hospitals, interceded on someone’s behalf when confronted with horrific traffic accidents.

The truth is that you don’t need to be in church or chapel to converse with God. Jesus instructed us to go to our own private space, close the door (our mind) to all outside interference, and thereby pray in secret to God, who will hear our prayers.

In my case, as God began to reveal more and more of his truths to me, I went (and still am) on what you might call a news and entertainment fast. The TV remained faceless, newspapers and their insidious advertising disappeared, magazine subscriptions were allowed to expire, movies and movie rentals were severely cut back, and my biggest passion – sports – took an excruciating exit.

With all this clutter gone from my mind, God had more room to work with and he took full advantage of it. This book, the first of a trilogy, is one of the results of this expanded mind-set, a musical production in two parts telling God’s story (His-story!) is another.

Life is all about choices, and my ability to choose how I spend my time is no different than anybody else. What each of us does with our allotted time is entirely up to us as individuals. Last time I checked there were still only 168 hours in a week, 56 of which we spend in bed, so there aren’t that many hours left to go a’wasting.

But it isn’t easy. In my case Pride, Self, Ego, Unforgiveness and a Judgmental attitude were all weapons of Satan to get my mind off God and on to worldly lusts. Seventeen years on from when I originally penned these words it is still a daily battle simply because it’s a spiritual jungle out there. Pride. Self. Ego. Unforgiveness. Judgmental