Fire On Your Head

“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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