Fire On Your Head Episode 51: Are Any Among You Sick?

We get the sacred cow barbecue going again, this time with returning guest Joel Crumpton as we discuss healing.

What is the number one stumbling block people in the Church face with regard to being healed? What ‘condemns you in your heart’ before God, causing you not to receive healing? Why is it sometimes easier to see the unsaved healed in their bodies than it is to see Christians healed? Of what significance is it that we have promises of God’s in writing? Why do many Bible translations leave out Matthew 17:21? Join us as we discuss and sometimes answer these things in this week’s podcast, as well as give a few updates on the work of Fire Peru and the Book Sponsoring project. This week’s intro: Broken Heart, by Falling Up.

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Visit Joel’s blog at http://joelcrumpton.blogspot.com/

Read Joel’s Fire On Your Head articles here.

Please visit our site at www.fireonyourhead.com, or consider subscribing to us in the iTunes store, listed as “Fire On Your Head Podcast”, where you will also have access to many other teachings from our conferences.

Behold, I Stand at The Door and Knock

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20)

When I was younger and worked at a day camp, we were given Scripture verses we had to memorize in order to know how to share the Gospel with kids who may be interested in giving their lives to the Lord. I think memorization is a good idea for helping get the Word in us, and therefore I’m not against having an understanding of where the Word of God says certain things we base our hopes and understanding on. However, I usually hear the concept of Jesus standing outside, “knocking at the door of our hearts” used in an evangelistic sense towards unbelievers. It’s not.

Though I’m not discounting its meaning for the unbeliever to enter into that relationship and let Christ in, I think there’s such a deeper meaning to it than just ‘letting God in’ as if He’s lonely and wants us to let Him in so He can have some company–as though Jesus is a loner and giving our lives to Him is a favor we’re doing Him like letting him sit at our table in the cafeteria during lunch.

We have to remember that Christ was speaking to seven churches, and in this specific context was saying this to the Church of Laodecia. Previously we’re told the Lord found them lukewarm and would spit them out of his mouth ( 3:16), and that He finds them wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked (v.17) despite their perception of themselves to be rich and lacking nothing. He goes on to state “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” (v.19-20) Interesting how leaving that verse in its context helps shed clear light, but I digress.

I stated in a previous article that I recommended reading the book of Revelation right after reading the Song of Solomon, and therefore I’m of the opinion that what this passage is really talking about is displayed in the fifth chapter of that Song. We’re gleaning heavily from S.J. Hill’s “Song of Solomon: Rick Language For a King’s Devotion To His Bride.”

I slept, but my heart was awake. A sound! My beloved is knocking.”Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one, for my head is wet with dew, my locks with the drops of the night.” I had put off my garment; how could I put it on? I had bathed my feet; how could I soil them? My beloved put his hand to the latch, and my heart was thrilled within me. I arose to open to my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.
I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned and gone. My soul failed me when he spoke. I sought him, but found him not; I called him, but he gave no answer.

(Song of Solomon 5:2-6)

The Bridegroom’s knock here refers to the initiative God takes in bringing His Bride into new dimensions of His Spirit. Jesus’ purpose in knocking is to get her to open up completely to Him. He wants all of us. The context–being in bed and having expected that Her Bridegroom would be there as well–demonstrates that she is in a place of mature obedience, and not one of refusing to get out of bed and answer the door for Him. Sleep speaks of being in a place of rest. The Bride has complete confidence in the Lord, and she is resting–but her heart is ‘awake’ in the sense that she is willing to walk in obedience without any conscious area of compromise, without any hesitation. She was at a point where normally, He was there next to her, but on this occasion, she awoke to find He was gone, but calling her–knocking from outside.

“I have taken off my robe; how can I put it on again?”

Her robe (garments) speak of her own works (see Rev 19:7-9). She’s simply saying, “I’m not standing before You on my own merits. I’ve taken off my robe and I’ve put on Your robe of righteousness.” Her statement “…I have washed my feet, how can I defile them?” is not reflective of her refusing to obey Him, but instead, a commitment to avoid spiritual defilement. How could she defile herself by disobeying Him in light of the great love He had for her? She is simply saying “I’ve done it my way. My feet were dirty with my own walk, but now they have been cleansed by the Lord.“

The ‘hand’ of the Beloved on the latch of the door, signifies the grace of God (see Acts 11:21-23). The “latch of the door” itself representing the door of her heart. The Bride’s heart yearned for Him as she heard His voice, and she arose instantly in response to open the door of her heart to Him. This depicts Her full obedience. Her response was not one of compromise, lethargy or lukewarmness.

“…my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the bolt.”

Myrrh in Scripture speaks of suffering and death. This is a picture of the Bride opening up her heart so the Cross will touch every area of her life.

This is also the type of fellowship Christ–the Bridegroom–is seeking and looking for. He is standing at the door of our hearts, knocking and seeking for the same response and reaction as He obtains from His Bride in the Song: immediate and unquestioning obedience and loyalty. “I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” We are to respond to this call, not just let Him carry the relationship. We love Him because He first loved us (1 John 4:19). He longs for a people whose heart skips a beat at the thought of Him. He is looking for a people whose breath is taken away at the sound of His voice, not out of fear and trembling alone–though an appropriate response–but out of delight and fascination.

Jesus Christ delights in us, His people. He is fascinated with you and I, and it is true that He longs for the same passion to be reciprocated towards Him. He longs for a people He can have fully to Himself. Not out of fear, or out of religious obligation, but out of holy fascination that He is worthy of such instant obedience. From a place of delight and joy, not out of fear of punishment or reprisal for not measuring up to a religious standard. He’s looking for a people He can rest with. The Son of God is looking for a people who are not bored with Church, but consumed with a passion for Him and His presence.

There is much ministry and activity going on today in the Body of Christ. The statistics of pastors burning out annually and dropping out of the ministry are staggering. The amount of ministers who continue plugging away at church endeavors, and running programs for the people–though good and noble, but yet void of the presence of God–is higher than it ever should be. No ministry, church, or leader will ever produce any fruit except it come from the secret and intimate place with the Lover of their soul. Jesus longs to work through, and live in a people who will let Him. Not just to bless our programs that we run and ask Him to be involved in as an after thought, but to allow Him to have all of us. There will be no earth shaking revival fire spreading across the earth without a people who are wholly consumed with Him.

He’s looking for, and seeking…you. Will you answer Him?

Fire On Your Head Episode 50: Can Your Thoughts Kill You?

We mark our 50th episode of the podcast. We finally have Brian Parkman on the show, a teacher from FIRE School of Ministry. We talk about renewing the mind and meditating on the Word of God in order to change our belief systems, and the difference between believing what we perceive to be true vs. believing the truth.

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What is your beloved more than another beloved?

“What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women?, Where has your beloved gone,
O most beautiful among women? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?”

(Song of Solomon 5:9, 6:1)

Many individuals’ souls cry out for the living God, but they don’t want to go through this messy jello we call ‘The Church” in order to respond to the longing of their soul towards the Maker.

The following post is something I wrote four years ago for my personal blog, but I’m tweaking it to share here. I’ve been meditating on and re-reading the Song of Solomon lately, and after spending time in corporate prayer with some individuals from my home church in Canada, I felt the contents of this old post come back to my mind and felt like it needed to be re-posted. We were having a conversation regarding some individuals we each knew and where they were in their relationship with the Lord, and how ’sick of church’ these individuals were (and are), but for some reason they’ve visited with us or enjoyed fellowshipping with us on Sunday mornings.

We are all called to evangelize the lost

I want to take a passage of Scripture that’s not commonly taught from, and show what I feel evangelism really is. It’s not the “4 Spiritual Laws”, it’s not “Turn or Burn” and it’s not “loving them into the kingdom”, “friendship evangelism” or the “Romans Road”—each an example of methodology commonly used in various circles of the Body of Christ I’ve come across. I’ve encountered proponents of various evangelistic methods who tout theirs as the only valid way to share the Gospel. I think evangelism includes those things and some methods, but it’s not any of those things all by themselves. To borrow what the Psalmist said, it can be defined simply as “teaching transgressors His ways.”(Ps 51:13)

Somehow in the Body of Christ we complicate things so much, and I’ve even been asked things when attending social functions like “my unsaved friend so and so is here, can you talk to him because you’re good at evangelizing?” Something is wrong when every member of the Body can’t just share why “their beloved is more than another beloved.” Don’t we have a Lover to share about? People won’t shut up when they’re in love and have a new boyfriend or girlfriend, but Jesus, the true love of our lives who’s closer than a brother is hard to talk about?

I’m not isolating this passage all by itself and using it exclusively to say something, either. I just think there’s a different angle to our witness that’s demonstrated here than any of the varieties of methods or emphases out there.

The passage I want to submit to you for consideration is in Song of Solomon. Something needs to take place in our lives that causes us to get asked “What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?“ (S.O.S. 5:9b) People don’t come to Christ because our church services are excellent. They don’t come because we stand on a street corner open air preaching–at least not in and of itself. If I could pinpoint my best method of evangelism, it’s spending time in the presence of Jesus and then sharing from that experience.

Taking too much time to give a backdrop of this book would take away from the point I’m getting at about sharing our faith, but this book is a love story/song, between a man and woman. This book would do a world of good in the believer’s life to read it if they want a revelation of who they are in regards to being the Bride of Christ. However, it’s neglected for whatever reason by so many in the body of Christ for either lack of understanding the symbolism and allegory, or just plain hardness of heart–in some cases. I think this is one of–if not THE–most amazing book in the Bible, and next time you read Song of Solomon read the book of Revelation right after it as the ‘follow-up’ with bridal paradigms instead of end-times Left Behind kind of perspective, for Revelation is the story of the Bridegroom coming back for His Bride and in full force not letting anything get in His way and dealing with those that have messed with His lover—the Bride of Christ/The Church! But I’m digressing.

What is your beloved more than another beloved?

At this point in the narrative, the woman, the Shulamite, is seeking for her beloved, a type of Christ, who has left after an encounter where he knocked on her door during the night, in the rain, and she was lazy in answering it. There are interesting parallels and ramifications in that idea alone which I might explore in another blog entry—Jesus, the Gentlemen “leaves” when it appeared He was unwanted or unappreciated. But in searching again for ‘more of Him’, she asks her companions–the daughters of Jerusalem if they’ve seen Him, and that if they do, to give a message to Him for her that she is lovesick–to which comes the reply I’m struck by: “What is your beloved more than another beloved, O most beautiful among women? What is your beloved more than another beloved, that you thus adjure us?”

It is here in the next several verses that the Shulamite goes into one of her detailed and allegorical descriptions of her beloved. It is a fascinating read, and filled with symbolism which would make for another lengthy blog entry (or series) for another time–the notes in the margin of several of my Bibles are jam-packed with tiny writings about each of the ten features she describes about Him. I’ll post it here to wet your appetite to study for yourselves.

My beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among ten thousand.
His head is the finest gold; his locks are wavy, black as a raven.
His eyes are like doves beside streams of water, bathed in milk, sitting beside a full pool.
His cheeks are like beds of spices, mounds of sweet-smelling herbs. His lips are lilies, dripping liquid myrrh.
His arms are rods of gold, set with jewels. His body is polished ivory, bedecked with sapphires.
His legs are alabaster columns, set on bases of gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, choice as the cedars.
His mouth is most sweet, and he is altogether desirable. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
(Song of Solomon 5:10-16, Emphasis mine)

When people look at our lives, and pay attention or ask us the reason for the hope that we have, what impression are they left with and what questions do they ask? Do they tell you “oh that’s good for you, but I have my own ideologies.” Or are they persuaded that yours is “the fairest among ten thousand”, and couldn’t be compared with any other ‘gods’ or idols, and reply “Where has your beloved gone? Where has your beloved turned, that we may seek him with you?”

You see, the Shulamite, lovesick for her Bridegroom King, merely shared with the daughters of Jerusalem what she knew. This response was a description of who He was to her, not a detailed theological discourse about why they should be saved. This maybe could be described as worship, for where the Son of Man is lifted up, all men (and women) are drawn to Him. People don’t come to Christ because our church services are excellent. They don’t come because we stand on a street corner open air preaching in and of itself, or because we hand out tracts on occasion.

I remember one of the most powerful times of which I led someone to the Lord, didn’t come because I was trying to evangelize her in the particular conversation we were having. This acquaintance instant-messaged me, and asked me how God has ever answered any of my prayers. Somehow after we moved to talking on the phone long distance (for I was in Pensacola, FL and she in Canada) scales were seeming to fall from her eyes and I was blessed to lead her in prayer to give her life to the Lord Jesus then and there–all from having an answer for why my Jesus is the Lord God and why some other god isn’t, which was the jist of her questioning before we got to that point.

We are not required to get a 5 year PhD in Bible College before we can share Christ with others! We are merely required to have a response for those who ask (1 Peter 3:15). That’s the only requirement, and if you’re saved, you qualify. It’s not the job of an evangelist to do it for us, but we are all called to restore that which is lost—whether it be a spiritual healing of seeing someone saved, or a physical healing from laying hands on the sick or whether it be deliverance and seeing someone set free from bondages in their life—we are all capable and required to do this ourselves.

In a courtroom setting all a witness is is someone who describes what they’ve seen or witnessed. Every believer has a testimony. Were you there when your conversion happened? Then you’re an effective witness. Don’t wait until you’ve read all the books Ray Comfort has ever written before you’re confident in sharing your faith. Just share who Jesus is to you and how He changed your life. There is nothing wrong with getting more familiar and effective at doing it, you know that we’ll never be perfect at anything, so give it a start now and then get better at sharing your faith as time goes on, but for the sake of a lost and dying world around you don’t wait until you’re good at it before starting.

Just be able to answer why your beloved is more than another beloved.

Fire On Your Head Episode 49: Are You Salt of the Earth?

This week we’re privileged to finally have Gregg Montella on the podcast. Gregg’s a world traveler, adventurer, mission-minded young man whom God seems to open amazing doors for. We talk about what it means being ’salt of the earth’, a Russian worship music project he is producing, different methods and styles of sharing the Gospel and being all up in peoples’ messes in a good and loving way. You don’t want to miss this show.

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Please visit our site at www.fireonyourhead.com, or consider subscribing to us in the iTunes store, listed as “Fire On Your Head Podcast”, where you will also have access to many other teachings from our conferences.

Fire On Your Head Episode 48: Is It Time For Holy Fire?

What is the fire of God? Are we ready for it? Do we really want it? This week we give lots of updates on the work and ministry of Fire Peru. Steve Bremner and Ron Smith discuss the United in the Fire of God conference of August 13-15th. We also talk about the Sponsor a Book project, the Spanish translation of Dr Michael Brown’s “A Time for Holy Fire” /Es Tiempo para El Fuego Santo,” and for the sake of our own personal hunger for revival, ask some questions about if we, as a body of believers are really wanting the fire of God to consume us and spread through and to the rest of the world. Visit www.fireperu.org for more info. This week’s intro: “Fire On The Inside” by Pillar.

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Articles:

All Consuming Fire

Keep the Pure Fire

What Are You Building With?

Keep The Pure Fire Burning

“The fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it; it shall not go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it shall not go out.“ (Leviticus 6:12-13, ESV)

This is a continuation of my previous post, All Consuming Fire, and is not necessary to read before continuing further, but doing so is highly encouraged.

If you took a match and lit a curtain with it, the flames would spread, but the initial spot you lit on fire would die out almost immediately once the fire has consumed all there is to consume, and leave behind ashes. This is why you need to continually add the fuel to the fire to keep it burning. That way the fire doesn’t just affect what it touches and move on, but continues to burn in the same spot as well.

This is also why the priests were continually adding wood to the fire night and day. The requirement for the them mentioned in our opening text concerning the burnt offering would serve as a special exhortation for the priests to be faithful in their duties so that the worship of the Lord could continue uninterrupted. The bush Moses saw in Exodus chapter 3 was burning but didn’t disappear or get destroyed. This is a profound symbol of the torch the Christian believer is supposed to be. If the Christian would burn for the Lord and keep maintaining his fire, allowing passion and zeal to consume him like a fire, then there’s no reason we can’t continually burn for Him, and destroy the works of darkness, changing the atmosphere wherever we may find ourselves.

In Exodus 25 we read of the instructions for how the different items for the tabernacle were to be built, and we notice that the lampstand was such that it had 3 branches on one side and 3 branches on the other. And in each branch there were 3 knobs. You will notice that there are 9 sections on each side, which this writer believes represent the 9 gifts of the Holy Spirit on one side and the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit on the other side. The oil used for this was from the olive, of which there could be no oil unless it was pressed, symbolizing that the oil of the Spirit doesn’t flow from the inner man until the outer man–our flesh–is completely crushed. We could do a whole study that would edify the reader concerning the symbolism of the olive oil and olive branches, but suffice it to say for today, oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit in Scripture.

That being said, we read in Matthew 25:1-13 the parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins waiting for the Bridegroom to come back for His Bride. Jesus is likened here to the Bridegroom, and the Church (Christians) are His Bride. Since the warning at the end of this parable is intended for the listener/reader, we can assume then we are also likened to the virgins in this parable. Therefore, we are in charge of whether we will be foolish or wise–whether we will remain filled with the Spirit of God or whether we’ll be foolish like the ones who did not have enough oil for their lamps and the fire went out by the time of His return.

It was the Jewish custom for the groom’s father to have worked with the family of the bride details concerning the wedding arrangement, including the date of the wedding ceremony. Oftentimes women were betrothed in their teenage years, and the groom would go to his father’s house and build a place for himself and his bride to live, attached to his father’s house. Jesus said “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” (John 14:3) The Bridegroom would not know when the day was, but sometime after building the house, the father would then tell “go, it’s time.”

At that time, the groom and his friends would leave his home and proceed to the home of the bride, where the marriage ceremony was conducted, often at night. Usually a servant was sent first some time ahead of the bridegroom, to ‘pave the way’ and awaken the bride and the virgins. Since the servant would not know which one was the bride, she would sleep in her wedding dress since the wedding ceremony would customarily be at night. After this the entire wedding party returned to the groom’s home for a celebratory feast. This engagement process could last any number of months, possibly a year or more if the bridegroom was preparing their place in a far distance away to travel to, and return from.

The lamps they used here were large dome-shaped torches, fueled by rags soaked in oil and used for walking outside. With extra containers of oil, the torches could last for hours, and as a result they needed regular refilling. Therefore, since the bride and the virgins did not know how long it may take before the bridegroom returned, they had to always be prepared. Who knows how much oil they needed to buy in the first place, but in keeping with other Scripture, they probably had to do it sacrificially in order to continually afford to buy oil to keep their lamps constantly refilled. The foolish ones, didn’t count the cost, and were only prepared up to a certain point–’just enough’ in their own estimation. But the wise ones kept their fire burning.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid much of the Body of Christ is like the five foolish virgins. The five foolish ones had lamps, but not enough oil, which speaks of having form and style, but no substance. Many a church and its programs are going on continually without the fire, without the power of the Holy Spirit, the oil of gladness (Psa 45:7). This isn’t a stretch since we still have a large portion of the Body of Christ that doesn’t even believe in being filled with the Holy Spirit. But on that day when He returns for His Bride, some will not be ready, and at that time it will be too late to refill the oil in their lamps.

Ephesians 5:17-18 says “Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” The words used in the original Greek refer to a continual on-going filling, so as to more accurately say keep being filled [with the Spirit]. The Holy Spirit is a like a fuel, or oil to the fire of God’s presence in our live.

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:1-2. The same way the fat and flesh of the animal was placed on the altar to be burned up, we too are to have none of our flesh in the way that the flowing of the Holy Spirit through us would continually burn that which needs to die. Doing so helps us to be filled with Him, and to know what His perfect will is. The more we’re burned up with His fire and His presence, the less like the world–and like our old man–we’ll be.

Colossians 3:16 says ^“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Jeremiah referred to the Word of the Lord as a fire that burned in his bones (Jer 20:9). Let the Word of the Lord dwell in you richly, and stay continually filled with the Holy Spirit, and you will keep the fire of God burning in your life, and you will be ready for His revival presence when He comes in power. The oil of the Spirit will ignite the Words of Christ in you if you are storing them in your heart.

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More fuel for your fire:

A message from Jerome Ocampo on Keeping The Pure Fire Burning that is similar in content, and preached at a past Fire For Life Summer School in the Netherlands.

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All Consuming Fire

“But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the LORD.”

Malachi 3:2-3, ESV

The Bible uses lots of imagery and symbolism to describe the Lord and His ways, such as rivers of living water (John 7:38, Eze 47:1-8, Rev 22:1-2), and mighty rushing wind (Acts 2:2, John 3:8). Scripture spends significant time talking about the fire of God, but yet, it’s not nearly as popular of preaching material as “come jump in the river“. I’ve lived for significant amounts of time in four countries now, and I hardly ever see churches naming themselves after–or identifying themselves with–the fire of God nearly as much as rivers of living water. And the few times I do see it, it’s usually in this cavalier manner of naming a conference after it that doesn’t have much room for the personal purifying holiness that the fire of God denotes, as much as getting Holy Ghost goose bumps, leaving people excited they flopped around on the floor but not have their lives changed by the presence of God.

I have my own ideas for why I think this is: probably because the very concept of fire is more painful than that of water. Granted, too much water results in floods, causes damage and loss of life; tsunamis take lives, or people can drown in water, and so on. But seldom does being immersed in a fire in the natural realm ever result in anything other than destruction, loss, and death. Images are forever etched into my mind from magazines and web pages of people who were jumping to their deaths from the Word Trade Towers on 9/11 rather than face the flames of the wreckage from the planes that hit that morning. Indeed terrifying stuff to think of.

So what then do we make of it when the Bible talks of our God being a consuming fire (Heb 12:29)? What do we make of the words of John the baptizer who proclaimed: “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt 3:11). Do we really know what we’re asking for when we sing songs of wanting to be baptized in God’s fire, realizing that baptism is a total immersion representing death and resurrection? Are we choosing our words carefully, or carelessly?

John the Baptist and the prophet Malachi were both talking of things that need to take place to prepare the way of the Lord. Hear this quote from the late Leonard Ravenhill:

People say to me all over the country, “I am interested in revival.” I say, “yes, so are a million other Americans.” I find all kinds of people interested in it. I don’t find many people burdened for it. People are very interested in revival, but don’t start to break the fallow ground. We don’t prepare the way of the Lord.” (A Time For Holy Fire, by Dr. Michael L. Brown p. 26)

I hear many a person refer to themselves as ‘being on fire’ for Jesus, but are they–or are we–really ‘on fire’? One of the characteristics of fire is that the closer you get to it, the hotter it is. When God pours out His Spirit of revival upon a land and its people, there will be this spirit of burning that I really believe way too many believers are not ready for, but asking nonetheless on some level for the revival to come. The more we are closer to Him and his consuming presence, the less we are like this world we’re surrounded by. And if our faith is made of substance more pure than gold (1 Pet 1:6-7), then we’re not going to melt or crumble when the fire of God is poured out in our midst over us. Carefully consider the following as we pray for the revival we badly need in our nations and in our lives, lest we be like Nadab and Abihu whom we read about in Leviticus 10 that the Lord struck down with fire, for offering “unauthorized fire” before to Him, differently than how He commanded it, but had just accepted from their father Aaron in the previous chapter.

I fear we too are not ready for the fire of God…

The Fire Purifies & Purges

“Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.“ (1 Peter 1:22-25)

“The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.” (Proverbs 17:3)

I think many of us–especially preachers–are fearful of preaching on the fire of God due to the very nature of the fact that a fire consumes dross (Prov. 25:4), and brings to the surface impurities of that which is being burned. How many of us would be honest with ourselves and admit that we shrink back from the fire, and avoid it lest we may be confronted with secret sins or things we’d need to give up? Maybe the real reason we’re not praying for revival–and note that real revival will bring the fire of God–is because we’re afraid of what we might be asked by the Holy Spirit to give up? Since the very nature of fire is that it purifies, and as such with gold, it will remove impurities so as to leave the gold in a more purified state, then naturally the result of God’s presence and dealings in our lives would be repentance, purity, and further personal holiness.

The images used in our opening passage from Malachi–refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap–both stress thoroughness and severity. The heat of the refiner’s fire was so strong, it would separate the dross from the molten pure metal, while the fuller on the other hand washed clothes using strong lye soap, after which the clothes would be placed on rocks and beaten with sticks. The closer we get to the fire of His presence, the more impure stuff will leave from us, and though grueling as this process is, it’s more preferable than judgment.

It cannot be any other way when revival comes. Therefore, few truly want this fire, and many if not most are content to remain as they are and be content with little spurts and trickles of it that we see and call it ‘rivers’ of revival, but we’re selling short what revival really is.

Granted, the ‘jump in the river of God‘ analogy in itself is Biblically accurate, and a valid concept of God. But purification talked about with fire, is synonymous with trials and testing. Both water and fire result in, or are a part of the purification process as noted in Scripture:

“Only the gold, the silver, the bronze, the iron, the tin, and the lead, everything that can stand the fire, you shall pass through the fire, and it shall be clean. Nevertheless, it shall also be purified with the water for impurity. And whatever cannot stand the fire, you shall pass through the water.” (Numbers 31:22-23–read the whole chapter for the context, which is Eleazar the priest speaking to the soldiers of Israel about purifying themselves for battle). I’m not discounting the anthropomorphism of water, it’s just over preached and I’m taking the time to talk of the fire in this article.

The Fire Distinguishes and Separates

What causes the wicked to be melted in the presence of it, causes the pure in heart to be made purer and more refined in its presence, like precious gold and silver–but yet not perish like the wicked do. That which is is a baptism for the righteous, is destructive for those not on the right side of the flame. Fire serves as a method of distinguishing:

John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke 3:16-17)

Whether being baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire will be positive–involving the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit as at Pentecost–or negative–involving the divine judgment of fire–depends on the response of the individual person.

“For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the LORD of hosts, so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall. And you shall tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet, on the day when I act, says the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 4:1-3)

When the chaff is separated from the wheat, it is burned up. The same fire that falls on that day purifies, refines and is “healing’ for the righteous, but yet the wicked are turned to ashes under their feet–very different results from the same fire.

The Fire Destroys Works of the Flesh

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. (Romans 12:1) In the Old Covenant, when the priests were offering up sacrifices of many specific and prescribed kinds in the Law, they usually would take all the ‘guts’ of and ‘flesh’ of different animals, and this would be burned up and destroyed. The same is to be of our ‘flesh’ and our fleshly works.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.” (1 Cor 3:12-15)

The Apostle Paul was careful in his life and ministry concerning what he did and ‘built’, because he knew only that which was able to withstand God’s fire would last. What material are you building with? How many of us today are building things that, though made of wood, hay and stubble, look large and productive to the modern church and pew warmer, but yet will not last the fire of His testing–resulting in nothing but dust and ashes? These are works of the flesh and as already stated, don’t last (Rom 8:5-8 )Do you need to be seen by man and have his approval, or is God’s approval more important to you? I can assure you, much of what will withstand the fire on that day, is hidden stuff nobody knows about on this side of eternity–gold silver and precious stones. When you melt gold, you still have the same quantity of it, but just different form. It may not look like much, but its value is great, even in small quantities. Wood, hay, and stubble burn to nothing when the fire comes to it. I don’t want there to be nothing left of my life and ministry when the fire comes to it.

Oh Lord, please let it not be so on that day with my offering to you of my life’s work.

The Fire Begets More Fire…

And finally (for now), as when you take a candle to a curtain and it is ignited and destroyed–and I hope nobody reading this will go commit acts of arson!–so likewise the fire affects and impacts everything it comes in contact with. The individual’s own heart will determine whether it’s for purifying or for destructive judgment. Spread what you’ve got if you’re burning with this fire! Don’t stay where you are. Your school, your community, your nation needs this fire to burn and purge, and spread the presence of God in it! It my next post on this subject I will cover the importance of keeping this fire burning.

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More stuff to stoke your flames:

A really good message from Dr Josh Peters, director of FIRE International preached at a past Fire For Life Summer School in The Netherlands.
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