The Fire of God

Okay, I'd like to begin by reading a fairly long passage, and it's one we know well, and it's interesting and easy to remember and listen to, from 1 Kings, chapter 18, verse 20, and then a number of short passages that will just be very brief, but this is the place where we begin. 1 Kings, chapter 18, starting at verse 20. So Ahab, the king, sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel.

And Elijah came near to all the people and said, How long will you go limping with two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if they fail, then follow him. And the people did not answer.

Then Elijah said to the people, I, even I only am left the prophet of the Lord, but Baal's prophets are 450 men. Let two bulls be given to us. Let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the woods, but put no fire to it.

And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the woods and put no fire to it. And you call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord, the God who answers by fire. He is God.

And all the people answered. It is well spoken. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first for you are many and call on the name of your God, but put no fire to it.

And they took the bull which was given them and prepared it and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, answer us. But there was no voice. No one answered.

And they limped about the altar which they had made. And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing or he's gone aside or he's on a journey, or perhaps he's asleep and must be awakened.

And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances until the blood gushed out upon them. And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the evening. But there was no voice.

No one answered. No one heeded. Then Elijah said to all the people, Come near to me.

And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. Elijah took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, Israel shall be your name.

And with these stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar as great as would contain two measures of steep. And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood.

And he said, Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood. And he said, Do it a second time. And he said, Do it a third time.

And they did it a third time. And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water. And you remember, there hadn't been any rain for three years.

The water was scarce. There was water on this altar, making it even more difficult for it to burn. At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet came near and said, O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel and that I am thy servant and that I have done all these things at thy word.

Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that thou, O Lord, art God and that thou hast turned their hearts to me. Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust and licked up the water that was in the trench. And all the people, when they saw it, fell on their faces and said, The Lord, He is God.

The Lord, He is God. So the prophets of Baal had all kinds of numbers, good connections, influence with King Ahab, but no fire. Elijah had almost no human support, no connections, no influence with the king.

The one altar was surrounded by people, action, activity, noise, pitiful, especially after he had to douse with water three times, twelve jars full of water like this. But when Elijah prayed, fire. Now to this day, this is the issue.

Is this assembly, this religious gathering, this religious effort, the work of crafty men who know how to manipulate a crowd? Or is it the work of God? Is this thing the work of God? If this thing is the work of God, it will have the mark of God on it. And if you and I are servants of God, we too can call down fire from heaven. But before we do, we better understand pretty clearly what we're asking for.

Matthew 3, 11, John the Baptist is speaking. One verse I want to read. John says, I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Now whenever the Holy Spirit baptizes a people, that baptism of the Spirit is accompanied by another baptism, which we hear very little about these days. And it makes all the difference in the world, in our lives, whether we receive this other baptism or whether we reject it.

We're talking about the baptism of fire. Now we will see this fire burning all through Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation. And if you will, you will see, if you'll allow it, you will see this fire fall from heaven into your own life and into the life of this assembly.

It is the fire of God. What is the fire of God? It is the fire of which all earthly fires are but a symbol. It is the fire which to this day guards the doorway to paradise.

The fire through which we must pass if we're going to enter into the kingdom of God, if we're going to live under the anointing of God, if we're going to fulfill the purpose of God in this world. When that fire burns in us and among us, then the kingdom of God has come and the will of God is done on earth as it is done in heaven. Now there are four things about the fire of God which we must know first.

Out of this fire, God speaks. Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian. And he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to a forest, the mountain of God.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. And he looked and, lo, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called him out of the bush, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. For 80 years, Moses had heard about God, had read about God by his ancestors. It was not until Moses drew near to that bush that burned but was not consumed, came close to the holy fire of God that he began to hear God speak.

In the days of his flesh, Jesus was the burning bush, the bush that burned but was not consumed, until he finally arrived at the place, Calvary, where he was indeed consumed by the fire of God. And on his way to Calvary, this man burned with the fire of God, and anybody with integrity could see this. They saw the fire, they saw life from God, and when they saw that, they heard God speak.

Today, the body of Christ on earth, the authentic body of Christ on earth, is the burning bush, the bush which burns but is not consumed. Yet, every member of the body follows the Master, consumed in a death-like pit. When we are willing to go to our Calvary, when we are willing to submit to those flames, we burn all the way through our earthly journey.

And when the fire of God burns in us, not only do we hear God speak, others hear God speak. Out of the fire, God speaks. The second thing we need to know about this fire is that through this fire, God refines.

From Malachi 3, starting at verse 2, But who can endure the day of his coming? And who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire, like fuller's soap. And 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, till they present right offerings to the Lord.

When the fire of God begins to lit at our lives, it comes because we are being refined. It comes to burn out the hypocrisy and the mediocrity and the apathy and the self-righteousness. Things begin to happen in our lives that cause pain.

Amen. Persecution. Trial.

This is a sign that God is dealing with us as sons and daughters. He is disciplining us. He is cleansing our hearts, purifying our hearts, toughening up our shins so we can take it.

There has never, ever been a servant of God who has not had to pass through those flames on the way to the harvest field. There has never been a servant of God who has not continued to remain close to those flames all through the ministry that God gives to them. And we get baffled, and we say, what's going on? Sometimes we're baffled for a minute or two, and sometimes for a year.

But if we remain faithful, we will know that the Father knows what He's doing. The third thing we need to know about this fire of God is that by the fire, God empowers us. Reading from Acts chapter 2, verse 1, When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.

And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed with a sign that they have now received power from on high. And that power is not given to them to be little magicians, it is Lord.

That's why we get that power, that now with this flame burning on them, they're able to speak with authority, and they're able to live it, practice it. And they are able now to break the chains that bind the human mind to this world's darkness and blind the human eye to God. When you get close to the fire, you're getting close to... Every, every person who lives under the anointing of God has been to the fire.

Isaiah has been to the fire. Vernon Cole brought by one of the seraphs. Ezekiel's been to the fire.

He looks up and sees his glory sitting on a throne and flames all around. And really, you could say all the way down through. Mary Magdalene has been to the fire.

The Apostle Paul has been to the fire. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and it's only when you have them both. Any power that we think we have divorced from the fire of God, it may be spiritual, but it's more likely to be... Fourth and finally, with the fire, God brings history to a close.

Reading from Revelation chapter 8, verse 5. Then the angel took the censer and filled it with fire from the altar and threw it on the earth. And there were peals of thunder and loud noises and flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Now the seven angels, who had the seven trumpets made ready to blow them, the first angel blew his trumpet and there followed hail and fire mixed with blood, which fell on the earth.

And a third of the earth was burnt up and a third of the trees were burnt up and all the green grass was burnt up. The second angel blew his trumpet and something like a great mountain, burning with fire, was thrown into the sea. And a third of the sea became blood and a third of the living creatures in the sea died and a third of the ships were destroyed.

And a third angel blew his trumpet and a great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. And these fire signs continue through Revelation until Babylon is destroyed. In other words, until history as we know it, which will one day purge the earth of its blood guilt and vindicate the holiness of the living God, this fire already burns.

Through, out of the fire and coming from the fire, God speaks. And through the fire, God refines. And by the fire, God empowers.

And with the fire, God brings history. And so we hear Jesus say in Luke chapter 12, verse 49, I have come to cast fire on the earth. And would that it were already kindled.

I have a baptism to be baptized with and how I am constrained until it is accomplished. Before Jesus could spread fire on the earth, he first, he knew that, and he pursued that baptism of fire, meaning he directed his light toward that cross and never varied. He knew where he was going.

That was his goal. Even when he looked like the roaring success, he knew that he was on his way to what would look like a total failure to the world. When he rose from the dead, then he began spreading this fire on the earth and it burns now and it will never stop burning.

And now Jesus, alive from the dead, in our midst in the Holy Spirit, says to us, you want the baptism of the Holy Spirit. You want more of the Holy Spirit in your life. This I will gladly give you, but will you receive with this the other baptism? The baptism of fire.

Will you follow me into the flames? And this is a question we may not answer lightly because when we ask for the flames, we get them. And yet, if we want our altar to have a light that was on Elijah's altar, if we want this congregation to have a living word for that world out there, if we want to have an impact that is an impact for God for that world out there, if we want our daily lives to make some sense, to have some meaning that's beyond this world, that's eternal, we have no choice but to follow Jesus into the flames, to submit our lives to this baptism of fire, to let the fire come and do its work in us. Are we willing to do one thing today and it may seem too theoretical or too vague, but listen, hear me out anyway.

Are we willing to do one thing today? Are we willing to ask God to send His fire into our lives so that we are the sacrifice prepared, the altar made ready, so that His fire coming down into us may accomplish its purpose and that we may now begin to be brought into the burning light of God's kingdom, an effective, powerful, living witness that's not only something with the mouth but something with the entire... Lord, send the Holy Spirit and send the fire. Pray that prayer and watch God work. Pray that prayer every day and watch things change.

And they'll change for the better, not for the worse, they will change. If we mean it, the fire will fall and it will consume the sacrifice and the altar and the wood and the stone and the water. And as the fire burns upon us and among us, we will hear God speak.

We will be refined. We will be empowered to bear witness to that world out there that Jesus is Lord. And we will be used to hasten the coming, the day when all evil is destroyed and all darkness is swollen up in God's glory.

Lord God, send the Holy Spirit and send the fire.