Fire On Your Head

‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’ -Lev. 10.3

The nations are perishing and the Church is languishing for want of the knowledge of God. This generation of American souls is largely ignorant of the God of the Scriptures, and we have been too preoccupied and distracted by this world to come into that knowledge ourselves. We have preached a hollow message that bears little resemblance to the revelation of God set forth by the apostles and prophets, and the condition of our nation testifies to it.

We have made light of sin, made the faith into a mere subculture, and the cities of America remain mostly unconvinced of the reality of God. We have not demonstrated His love and purity, for we have been functioning along the lines of the world, catering to self and living under the intoxicating influences of a consumeristic society.

This story of Aaron’s sons rattles our presumptuous definitions of God, and while it may seem unsavory or distasteful to consider, it is a vital portion of Scripture that needs to be reflected on. We need to reckon with passages like this until we break into a fuller understanding of who the Lord is, for if we pick and choose passages only of our own liking, we end up forming distorted views of God. Indeed, we all see in part, but to willfully neglect an aspect of who He is according to the Scriptures is to open the gate to deception.

I believe the message of His great love must increase and be shouted from the rooftops, but if He has also shown Himself as holy, and we fail to see Him as He has revealed Himself, what foundation do we have? His attributes are not categories that we can pick based on personal preference, as if the Bible was a menu at a restaurant. His traits are intertwined and tied up with His Person, and every revelation of God given in the Scriptures is a glimpse into His great heart. We cannot discard the portions that seem less appealing. If we do that, we have created our own view instead of receiving His. At best, our revelation of God will be a partial foundation, and that is not sufficient for a life of discipleship, nor will it hold in days of great trial and upheaval. We need to be rooted and grounded in His great love and purity, walking in the joy of communion and the fear of the Lord, for this alone will fit us to glorify Him in the day of His power.

He has revealed both His “kindness” and His “severity” for a reason (Rom. 11.22). It is not merely so that our systematic theology will be accurate. He has revealed Himself in this way because this is who He is, and to know Him and love Him as He is, that alone is eternal life.

Decades ago, A.W. Tozer wrote:

I refer to the loss of the concept of majesty from the popular religious mind. The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshiping men. This she has done not deliberately, but little by little and without her knowledge, and her very unawareness only makes her situation all the more tragic.

…. The world is evil, the times are waxing late, and the glory of God has departed from the church as the fiery cloud once lifted from the door of the Temple in the sight of Ezekiel the prophet.

The God of Abraham has withdrawn His conscious Presence from us, and another God whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us.

(A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy; Harper & Brothers, 1961; pp. 6, 49)

I am convinced that Tozer’s words are profoundly true of the Church in our times, and one of the chief reasons for this loss of majesty is that we have diminished- perhaps unconsciously- the sense of God’s holiness. We need a recovery of reverence, hatred for sin, and a baptism of fire to purge us of the arrogance and strutting that still marks too many of our lives and ministries.

There are wonderful teachings on the love of God in circulation, and I pray they continue to increase as our hearts enlarge in the experience of His kindness and compassion. But we are radically lacking a sense of His holiness, and since He is both loving beyond comprehension, and holy beyond description, the whole counsel of Scripture is essential for a true knowledge of God. Passages like this from Leviticus 10 provide a crucial vantage point for our understanding of Who God is.

Aaron’s sons, along with the people of Israel, had witnessed the majesty of God at the end of chapter 9. “The glory of the Lord appeared to all the people,” “fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering,” “and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.” (9.23-24)

Without a doubt, the scene was exhilarating, and the sense of God’s mercy and holiness was overwhelming for all who were present. Reverence and joy mingled within them, and the people fell prostrate with shouts of praise and awe issuing forth. What happened next is both devastating and sobering.

“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.” (10.1-2)

We don’t know exactly what prompted Nadab and Abihu to perform what is recorded in chapter 10. Were they trying to reproduce the elation of the previous event? Were they wanting their names to be recognized before the people, rather than being jealous for the glory of God’s name? We don’t have the answer to every question here, but we do know that the fire they offered was not authorized by the Lord. It was offered in their “respective firepans,” and its source was of men rather than of God. It was “strange” and unholy, something “which He had not commanded them.”

It was so offensive to the Lord that “fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.”

At this point it is easy for our hearts to short-circuit. We lose touch with the raw reality of the Biblical passage. We cannot fathom the thought that the very fire of God Himself actually came out from the holy place and devoured the sons of Aaron. Our view of the Lord is casual and light, and the idea of judgment is foreign to most modern believers. If the idea of God’s wrath is agreed to in a credal way, it often bears a feeling of unreality, and the idea of judgment actually touching men on the earth seems fictitious or mythical.

But that does not discount the truth of the passage, and we need to realize that this is an actual historical event. It is not allegorical or symbolic, but a true piece of our heritage in the faith. It is meant to bring to us what it brought to Moses, Aaron, and the people of God; namely, a sense of His holiness, and an awareness that He does not tolerate sin, nor any activity that is carried out in His name that misrepresents His glory.

Just when we might have blamed the event on some demonic attack, Moses gives clarity to what has occurred.

“Moses then said to Aaron, ‘This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
‘Among those who approach me I will show myself holy; in the sight of all the people I will be honored.’
Aaron remained silent.” (v. 3)

This event of judgment, which gripped the community of Israel with holy fear, is completely intertwined with the revelation of God in the Scriptures. It is just as much a revelation of His personality as was His washing of the disciples feet, His blessing of little children, and His raising of Lazarus from the dead. It is a revelation of God’s holiness, and it is one that we need desperately to recover. He is holy, and we cannot use Him for our purposes.

This hits home in a concentrated way in this present generation. Perhaps the fouls committed against the sense of His holiness are no more flagrant than in certain segments of the Charismatic Church, where charisma and gifting are often elevated while the Scriptures and the character of Christ are undervalued.

My heart aches in this hour of often flippant faith, when silliness and frivolity are equated with “liberty in the Spirit,” and when anyone with jealousy for truth and reality is accused of having a religious spirit.

When I see men placing a low value on the Scriptures, or labeling anyone with passion for the Word a “pharisee,” I tremble on the inside.

When I see men acting as if they are inhaling the Holy Spirit through imaginary marijuana joints, calling it “Jehovajuana” and claiming that they are “toking the Ghost,” I am mortified at the total loss of reverence for God. There is absolutely nothing holy about such activity! It is a deplorable and scandalous example of strange and unauthorized fire.

When I see men boasting of great power and bragging about the international influence of their ministries while the sense of His holiness is absent, it makes me apprehensive.

When a so-called “revivalist” can shed his wife and marry another woman with no Scriptural grounds, only to re-enter public ministry with the blessing of well-known leaders, I am filled with concern. This has happened many times over the years, and I am wondering where the standard of truth has gone!

I want to be merciful towards all men, but there has to come a point where the gullibility and lack of discernment are spoken against. I don’t think we are far from Tozer’s description, that “another God whom our fathers knew not is making himself at home among us.”

A few of my mentors have even encountered a trend among “worship-leaders,” where they will use profanity, or do other wild and crazy things in services, claiming that by this absurdity they are “shaking the religious spirit off of the crowd.” I cannot give words to how far we have fallen.

You may say that I have a religious spirit myself, but I cannot give my soul over to these expressions of spiritual activity that militate against the revelation of God that I have received over the course of my life in God. He is holy, holy, holy, and the line of revelation from Genesis to Revelation does not alter one bit. He is kinder and more loving than we can describe, but He is pure and just as well, His judgments have already touched the earth, and He is still slated to return as both Savior and Judge.

We do need to desire “earnestly” the gifts of the Spirit and the outpouring of His power. We need to be awakened more and more to the depth of His great love and compassion. And indeed, when the Spirit of God moves in power, things will happen that we cannot explain and that take us by surprise. But what has happened to the fear of the Lord?

I am convinced that our unwillingness to come into the knowledge of God, as the Scriptures have revealed Him, has produced the seedbed for our sub-apostolic Christianity. Before the cities of the earth will be “turned upside down,” we need to regain the majesty of the revelation of God Himself. We need to turn from sin and return to the God of glory, to the Scriptures, to prayer and fasting, to worship and obedience.

We have lost the sense of His holiness, and I fear the consequences are much worse than the immediate judgment of two priestly sons. The Lord has permitted many to veer off into their own ideas of Himself, even while chasing supernatural activity, and their stupor grows heavier the more and more men make light of sin and neglect the Scriptures. A widespread famine of the true knowledge of God is even more tragic than the death of Aaron’s sons. Entire movements are chugging along without a sense of His holiness, quite at home with sin, and so intermingled with the world that there is no “distinction between the holy and the profane, and between the unclean and the clean.” (Lev. 10.10)

We cannot rightly value the kindness and mercy of the Lord if we have diminished the bright light of His holiness and the radical nature of His hatred for sin.

We are more like the 1st-century Church at Corinth than we realize, and the word of the apostle Paul is the same to us as it was to them. He did not doubt the validity of their gifts, nor did he consider them unbelievers. But he had serious correction to give as well, for they were veering off in the wrong direction:

“Do not be deceived: ‘Bad company corrupts good morals.’ Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” -1 Cor. 15.33-34

Oh, for the true knowledge of God! For the joy of communion and the trembling of reverence! The salvation of Israel and the nations, and the raising of our sons and daughters depends entirely upon the measure to which we have come into the knowledge of God, as He truly is. He kindly invites us into the purity and joy of union with Himself, for which reason we have been saved. We need to be enlarged in His love. We need the sense of His holiness. May we hear from God Himself in this hour.

Lord, our lips are unclean, and we live amongst a people of unclean lips. We have failed to see You as You are, but You have been so gracious to give us the Scriptures. You have been so gracious to send Your Son. You are merciful enough to send us Your Spirit and to lead us into all truth. You have been so patient with us. Would you wake us up to the reality of Your holiness? We want to turn from silliness and deception, and to come into the apostolic faith of the Scriptures. Make us a people of humility, holiness, love, and power. Let us come into the sense of Your holiness, that a line of distinction may be drawn in the earth again. Let us know You as you are, and let Your name be honored and glorified above all.

“…. Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles…” 1 Cor. 1.23

The Greek mind is one of loftiness, strength, impressive appearance, political power, and everything that men long for in their most heightened covetousness. The Greek gods of the first century were formidable, musclebound figures who threw bolts of lightning and carried out orgies with multitudes of women and goddesses. They were towering images, gods that evoked the praise of the ancient world by their intimidating tales and legendary feats. They were revered in the minds of their adherers because of their largesse and authoritarian grandeur. That’s what makes up the Greek mind, and modern western culture, though it does not revere Zeus or any of the other Greek gods, is driven by the same spirit exactly.

It’s remarkable to me how the heavenly mind is of a totally different order. The One true God sent His Son, who took on the dust of the earth and was born in Bethlehem, a little Jewish baby. He did not come throwing lightning bolts, flexing huge muscles and frightening men into submission by His domineering right hand. He came as a vulnerable, soft-skinned, breast-feeding infant, and the wisdom of God was here displayed in a manner that the earth had not seen to that point.

The immeasurable might of the Living God was displayed through His Son in every way, but the Greek/Roman mind cannot fathom it. We are much more of that mind than we would care to admit.

We would not have expected the Son of God to take on Jewish flesh and to be born in a stable. We would not have expected that He would experience a mostly normal childhood, growing up in Nazareth, which was a first century ghetto of Israel. We would not have expected that for roughly 18 years He would work in a carpentry shop, promoting no ministry, preaching from no platform, writing no newsletter, holding no healing campaigns. We would not have expected that He would sink Himself into the mirky waters of the Jordan, where all of His kinsmen were repenting of their sins, and that He also would take part in the baptism of John. We would not have expected that He would spend the first half of His publicized ministry telling people that He had healed not to announce that He was the messiah. We would not have expected that He would forgive the woman caught in adultery. We would not have expected that He would bless little children. We would not have expected that He would stoop low to wash the feet of the disciples, men who were often asking the most ridiculous questions about who gets what reward and whose name will be most known. And we, like Peter and the others, would not have expected that this Royal One would be found, whipped bloody and beaten to a pulp, hanging from a cross at the young age of 33. None of this befits authority or power in our Greek-influenced minds.

Yet in the weakness of all these events in the life of the Son, the fullness of God Himself is permanently etched into the annals of eternity and history. The Greek gods, with all of their boasting, flexing and roaring, are only hollow fables and lifeless characters inspired by fallen angels. Their names and words will rot without memory in the age to come. But the One who displayed the fullness of the only powerful God, is the One who showed forth His strength in expressions of holy weakness. 

Are our lives and ministries expressions of His life, or are they dominated by the Greek mindset? Do we look always for what’s bigger, stronger, externally impressive, bringing glory to our names or movements? Are we content with expressions of weakness in hidden places, where no gratification comes to us other than the glory of communion with God? 

The One who expressed Himself through weakness will soon return with fire in His eyes, a sword on His side, and vengeance against all that runs contrary to the love and purity of His kingdom. The “Greek” mindset will be permanently overturned, and the way of righteousness and justice will be established once and for all. How will our lives and ministries stand in the day of His fire?

“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.

Download mp3 (right click and save)

“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.
Download mp3 (right click and save)
Download this video (right click and save)

Or watch by streaming:

And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” (Mark 4:31-32 ESV)

God’s kingdom is established and started with imperishable seed. We’ve already established that the enemy scatters seeds (weeds) in with the good seed, and wherever the river flows, everything grows, both good and bad.  Only in the end time harvest, will the good be distinguished from the bad and the chaff burned up, but that doesn’t mean we wait for that day in order to sow seeds of the Kingdom of God instead of  to our flesh.

Galatians 6:7-8 states 

“For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”

I want to draw your attention to the difference between building for the kingdom using imperishable seed, instead of perishable seed–chaff, weeds, wood, hay and stubble.  I think I’ve covered this extensively elsewhere, but this will be a bit more of review and looking at the difference between the perishable kingdoms of this world versus the kingdom of God–the heavenly imperishable realm.

Everything the believer does must be founded on the Word of God, not the flesh.  Usually we refer to the flesh when we think of sinning and not living a holy life, but Scripture uses it for other concepts as well.

“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: 25).

For our intents and purposes today, flesh is that which perishes, is not of God, is man’s strength, and that which can be accomplished without God’s help, or even accomplished in contradiction to His help. By default, this includes sin and living and functioning without Him.  But I want to take it further than the obvious.  There’s many ‘good’ works being done in our lives (in man’s eyes), but they are of the flesh, and like grass will wither and burn up.

Recall with me some of the things we know about seeds.  If you take seed, both good and bad, and sow them into a field or plot of land, both will grow and use up the resources in the ground.  The more you sow to the flesh, the more it will strengthen and develop, and the more you sow to the Spirit,  then the more you reap in that realm.

All flesh is destroyed eventually with the test of eternity.  If flesh is ‘like grass’, then thinking of things we know about grass is a good way of understanding what’s going to happen to the works of the flesh on that day–such as the imagery and analogy of seeds the Lord has had me writing about lately.  There will be much work that has been done by men, in the name of Christian religion, that will burn up on that fearful day and have NO significant eternal impact, because it was built with wood hay and stubble (1 Cor 3:12-15).  Therefore, allow me to challenge you by asking what are you building with?  What are you sowing with?  Are you building with perishable substance or imperishable?  It may look big and righteous now, but is it of eternal significance?  Will it withstand the fire of God on that day?

The difference Between Perishable and Imperishable

I mentioned how not all flesh is inherently spoken of as being sin, though it IS in that category by default.  The only two kingdoms the Bible refers to are the kingdoms of darkness, and the kingdom of light.  I’m not going to be harsh and specifically calling many of the works going on in this world as being sinful, but it IS true they are of no significant impact for eternity.  Jesus said it, and he said anybody not working for Him is working against Him (Matt 12:30). Many ‘good’ social programs exist today that take care of the immediate needs of people, and this is a good thing, not bad.  God’s Word says that pure and undefiled religion is taking care of the widow and orphan (James 1:27).  In no way am I knocking things that Scripture commends and commands.

However, unsaved people can also take care of their widows and orphans without the Holy Spirit’s touch involved in it, and spend eternity in hell despite having started good social programs.  A lot of ‘good’ people, who are doing ‘good’ things, are still going to hell.  It’s not our good works that make us right with God because Scripture says they’re like filthy rags anyway (Isaiah 64:6).  The Gospel of Jesus Christ and His Resurrection is the only way into His eternal kingdom (John 14:6).

The kingdom of man can invent hearing aids, without the Cross–or even WITH God’s help and motivation in the inventor’s life.  But Jesus, in His kingdom opens the ears of the deaf and they hear.  People can train seeing eye dogs, and come up with a language that involves touching the surface with one’s fingers in order to help the blind read and understand.  But Jesus Christ opens blind eyes and gives sight itself to the blind.  It’s a noble thing for men to enter the medical profession, invent or discover cures for diseases that ail the flesh–the temporary earthsuit man inhabits–but Jesus Christ heals all those things in both the earthly flesh realm and operates out of the heavenly imperishable realm.

Simply put, the difference between that which will withstand the fire on that day and that which won’t, is the stuff that can’t be done without the power of God in it.

Even of miracles the demonic realm has a counterfeit that looks just like the genuine.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’  And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matt 7:21-23)

For our context, that would be like ministers reminding Jesus that his name was on their ministry, or they accomplished many things as a charitable not-for-profit organization or even as 501c3 church status organization.  But what will His response be?  Will He know you?  Does He recognize you from the secret place as you’ve had personal relationship with Him, and repented of man-made efforts?  Remember in the parable of the wheat and the tares (Matt 13:24-30), that tares look exactly like wheat in seed form but eventually by the harvest time their real DNA is made obvious, and their end result is destruction by fire, even if for a long time they looked alright compared to the wheat.  They are but grass…

The manner in which things are done in the flesh compared to how they are done in the kingdom of God is different in that the stuff that is birthed and originated in the flesh does not withstand the eternal fire, but that which is birthed in the heavenly realm can exist in the fleshly realm but not burn up when tested and salted with Holy Spirit fire.  The perishable–that which is flesh and not born of above doesn’t, and can’t exist in the imperishable Spiritual realm.  But the imperishable does and can exist in the perishable temporary realm, but it still exists and lasts in the eternal realm.

That being said, which realm do you want to be found living in?  Which realm do you want to build ministry and things that *look* like they are of the kingdom of God?  Which realm do you want your works to originate in?  Which type of seed do you want to sow–that of the flesh or that of the Spirit? Unsaved people can take care of the blind.  Muslims can care for their sick.  Hindus can look after their orphans.  What marks a difference with you and the kingdom you purport to be a part of, dear reader?  When the seeds have grown and harvested, which category will they be of –flesh or Spirit?  When the wheat and the chaff are separated at the end of the age, which side of the flame will your life and ministry be found on?

There is a lot of ‘good’ works being done, but that’s just the thing–they are ‘good’ and ‘noble’ things.  But if they can be done without the Spirit of God, their worth is NOTHING in eternity, and only matters in this ‘grass’ realm temporarily before being burned up.

Another difference between the two realms is the fear of the Lord versus the fear of man.  Whose praise do YOU seek?  Just recently I was listening to someone I respect and look up to weigh his options and use me as a sounding board about ministry he’s considering severing ties with because of how much more money-focused said ministry is becoming and losing its focus on spreading and sharing the Gospel.  It was this brother’s impression that this other ministry is more concerned about having a large reputation in the media and man’s eyes, but has left its first love that it was started on in the first place.  The ministry being referred to has no mention whatsoever on its website about the Gospel or that it’s supposed to be Christian in nature.  The idea is that it will not receive government grants and money from organizations that won’t sponsor them if they are overt in their Christianity, so they ‘tone it down’.  Friends, such a ministry is made of grass.  It may seemingly accomplish much in this realm in the short few decades or centuries it’s functioning today in this earthly & fleshly realm, but Jesus said  “whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matt 10:33)  Whoever one fears usually determines what realm the ministry or work is birthed in and functioning out of.

Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—  each one’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)

Father, let us be a people whose works last and remain when tested by fire!  Let us be a people who are built on the cornerstone of Christ Jesus rather than be crushed by it and ground to powder from rejection of Him.  Make us into the living stones joined together into a kingdom of lasting significance and may you destroy all works of grass from our midst that we may be a pure and lasting kingdom of royal priests.  Let us not be ones who build with substance that doesn’t withstand the fire of your presence in eternity.

Amen.

For further meditation, here are other articles worth reading on our site that significantly overlap with what I covered in this post:

Separating Seeds of Righteousness & Wickedness, What Are You Building With?, Mixing in The Counterfeit with The Genuine

True & False Apostles – Bryan Purtle

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. (James 1:2-4)

In the last few years of my life, I’ve swung the pendulum from one way of thinking to another in my understanding about faith and how it works.  Some people get really offended at the implication that faith is something that grows and is developed–in other words, the idea of having more, implies you must not already have enough–and that gets used to condemn people for not being at certain stages of their life. Even when you’re not, people think you are condemning them when trying to help them and edify them into greater experiences in God. However, I think it’s wrong to push people and make them feel worse about situations they’re in and believing God for help getting out of, of course.

I try to be careful how I communicate to people who are really discouraged or needing breakthrough in their life, of course, and I’d never beat other sheep of God’s for not being healed immediately, and I’d never put guilt on them and blame them for not receiving their miracle yet. That is wrong, and oddly enough, by virtue of teaching HOW to grow in faith, it’s an accusation I get launched at me often, but if you hear me out you’ll know the truth behind my words.

That being said, I cannot for the life in me find what many people think about faith (having it or not enough of it), IN the Bible.  Our faith IS “growable” and spell checker is not letting me write that word, but it IS the word I want to make up/use–growable–but that is not what I’m trying to write about today, and have written in more detail elsewhere on this site. One important thing I’m finding out about faith these days, and this is what I want to write today–that it has no “perishing point”.

Look at this:
“In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, though it is tested so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 1:6-7 ESV)

Gold and silver are perishable things (1 Pet 1:18). Those type of things are something I’ve spent considerable time meditating on and thinking about. Gold and silver are things you find in the ground, in caves or hidden in safe places. They require finding. They aren’t just on the surface of the ground for any passer by to have access to who couldn’t care much less about finding it. At intense temperatures with a lot of heat, these valuable stones are purified and all the dirt and dross burns away after a certain point.

Gold has a certain perishing point.  If you kept the temperature rising, the gold would eventually turn to liquid, and if you kept increasing the temperature higher still, then eventually the gold would evaporate or dissolve. If you took a pile of gold and projected it into our sun, at some point before it got right near the sun it would have completely dissolved. However, your faith has NO point at which it dissolves or perishes–according to Scripture. Peter refers to it as being more precious than gold, that perishes though it is tested by fire. Gold, not faith is the object here being referred to as perishable. Can you imagine that or think about that for a moment?

Later in the same chapter it says “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)

If our souls need purification, and we’re born of imperishable seed, and not perishable–then why do so many of us spend so much time dwelling on and feeding ourselves with perishable stuff and dwelling more on the ‘perishable’ realm of our lives? I know a lot of Christians that read the Bible for 5 minutes a day -if at all– but gosh–don’t ever ask them to quit the TV for a week or suggest withdrawing from the internet for 2 days to dig into the hidden manna, and, dwell on that imperishable stuff that doesn’t fade or have a perishing point.  Many ministries and preachers build their ministries using substance of this earthly realm, using materials that are combustible, flammable, and unable to withstand the fire on that upcoming day (see 1 Corinthians 3:10-15 and for more along that line, read What Are You Building With?, and keep posted for an article the Lord is developing in me about the kingdoms of men and of heaven).

“Fiery” trials…

For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (Mark 9:49-50)

The things we must remember are some simple key words.  EVERYBODY will be salted with fire.  Salt universally is a key ingredient to many foods and dishes.  I remember one time making my famous Bremner spaghetti omelet for my translator and mutual friend during my first visit to Peru and scrambled to find enough of the ingredients at the nearest supermarket to properly prepare it for my guests.  I’ve made it numerous times, but this time it didn’t have anywhere near as potent of a taste as normal.  That’s when one of my guests said “it’s because you didn’t put salt in it.” Salt naturally helps retain some of the flavor. Living in a hot climate, I’m also in the habit of sprinkling a little bit of salt on some of my food in order to help me retain water in my system and not dehydrate.  Well in God’s scheme of things, he’s going to ’salt’ us using *fire*.  Do you want your flavor to be retained with God’s fire, or are you of a different flavor that’s not worth being enhanced, because instead it will bring other stuff to the surface to be burned?

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts. 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 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. Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the LORD as in the days of old and as in former years 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.  “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. (Malachi 3:1-6)

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.  What for the righteous is a baptism, is destructive for those not on the right side of the flame.  Fire serves as a method of distinguishing:

As the people were in expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Christ,  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 3:15-17)

I have gone off a bit to talk about the fire of God, just to get to this point I’m about to make:

Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,  for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29).  The “un-shaking” nature of this kingdom somehow mysteriously lies in the nature of its King–likened to a  consuming fire, Who in the presence of, only the purified things can withstand the presence and not be destroyed or shaken by it.

We have other passages of Scripture using different analogies like water or wind, not just fire, but I felt for this article focusing on the imagery of fire would serve the purpose, but consider what the word of God is like according to Isaiah 55:10-11: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.“

Being from Canada and seeing the long term effects of snow, I can appreciate the concept of this passage.  In the last two years, we had record amounts of snow.  One thing about rain and snow, being both water, is that it doesn’t disappear, but the change of temperature merely makes it change.  When you have record amounts of snow, you have tall snowbanks in the winter.  But when you reach spring, the record amount of snow becomes record amount of flooding.  The snow doesn’t just vaporize and go back to the sky, but it becomes something else and accomplishes a new purpose.  Water too, doesn’t have a perishing point, but just a point of vaporization.  And it doesn’t disappear, but accomplishes that which it was sent for.  I think there’s a LOT in that concept of the Word of God being like rain and snow watering the earth that we could write a series of meditative articles on, but that’s for another time.

With all that we’ve just looked at in the Word, allow me to say this: God is faithful to fulfill the purpose for which He has sent word into your life.  It may feel like you’re burning up from fiery trials He’s putting you through, but there is no perishing point, and God is not and never will put you through more than He feels you can bear.  You are just being purified.  He will finish what He started in your life, and what He has sent your way will accomplish its purpose.  Your faith has no perishing point.

Abide in Him.

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44)

I may seem like I’m going off on a weird rabbit trail and it might not be obvious at first why I reference the other passages that I do in this entry to talk about just this one verse, but bear with me. Remember as I mentioned previously that the kingdom of heaven being LIKE a mustard seed. “It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” (Matt 13:31b-32) Right after that we’re told “the kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened” (v.33).

In both of these examples of seed and leaven, we’re given the image of something that starts off small, and grows and spreads and eventually fills all that contains it. When Jesus Christ set foot into this physical realm of ours nearly 2000 years ago, He planted the seed of the kingdom of God and it has been growing ever since. The tares have also been planted, and have been growing ever since in the same field (this world) both in linear history, and horizontally in our lives or relationships, and ministries.

Many believers understand the Gospel of salvation, but don’t often realize that the Gospel is about the KINGDOM of God manifested in all of creation, including the earth. The return of Christ draws nearer and nearer, and at that time He will begin to rule for 1000 years in a ‘tangible’ way—the full ‘manifestation’ of what we’ve been growing towards. He already rules now, and is seated at the right hand of God, but His literal kingdom doesn’t ‘exist’ yet. This kingdom of God keeps spreading like leaven, until it fills all creation—at His kingdom “finally” being set up—it’s part of the overlapping “not yet” and “already” ages we’re currently in.

The kingdom of God HAS come, through Christ, but is still “not yet here” at the same time. “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19)—because it will be made manifest in that Day of Judgment—the wheat we discussed last entry will be separated from the tares and it will finally be obvious—the grey-headed tares will stick out from the rest of the true crop. We’re in a sort of overlap of two different ages—the ending of the old one that has been defeated and concluded by the work of Christ on the cross, and the beginning of the new one—simultaneously, that was ushered in BY the work of Christ on the cross.

While the kingdom of God–the wheat–grows and spreads in the field (the world)–likewise the kingdom of darkness keeps spreading until the tares are separated from the wheat at the end of the age and burned up. The verses following describe this, as Jesus gives the explanation of the parable of the wheat and tares that he had just previously shared.

There are not very many parables of Jesus’ that He explains in the Gospels, but in Matthew 13 there are two that He does as I’ve already devoted attention to in my last few entries—these parables are of utmost importance. Jesus says that at the end of the age “The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.” (v.41-43) This speaks of separation and distinction; the righteous separated from wicked, true from false, wheat from tare.

In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he told them:
“According to the grace of God, given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 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, andthe 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 Corinthians 3:10-15 (emphasis mine).

Wood, hay and straw are stuff that grows or is found above the ground. Gold, silver, and precious stones are beneath the surface, and aren’t visible–they are buried and hidden and require seeking.
If you went to Home Depot with several thousands of dollars, and you decided to buy piles of 2×4s, I’m sure you could get a good start on building a house. But if you were to take that same money and invest it in gold or silver, you would get a significantly smaller quantity amount with your investment. Wood on the one hand burns in fire. And when it burns, it’s gone, and all you have left are ashes.

Gold withstands fire and is purified. In order to get them from the ground, one needs to bow down and seek. When you put gold through the fire, you don’t diminish it or lose any of it. It changes form at a certain point from solid to liquid, but you don’t lose any of it when you put it through the fire, and the impurities are dissolved and the gold is given a purer quality by the fire.

I think gold is symbolic of your private and “unseen” devotional life; 1 Peter 1:6-9 says: In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” (Emphasis mine)

When I read this passage, I think of the Persecuted Church in parts of the world where the kingdom of God is growing exponentially, and we don’t know about it because it’s leaders are not well-known and flying in private jets with flashy ministries. They live in constant persecution and even to the point of losing their lives in some cases. They live in a realm we have no understanding of, yet have a more pure and genuine faith.

Of silver, Proverbs 10:20 says “The tongue of the righteous is choice silver, but the heart of the wicked is of little value.” What are you saying? What do you spend your time speaking of? If you go back to Exodus and study the garments the priests were to wear before entering into the holy of holies, you’ll find it was embroidered with precious stones.

All of these items, gold, silver and precious stones are symbolic in one way or another of personal private devotional life in the believer’s life under the new covenant, while wood, hay and straw may be tall, large and mighty—looking great and standing erect above everything else,ultimately they don’t withstand the fire at the end time harvest.

**What materials are you building the kingdom of God with?**

In order to get them from the ground, one needs to bow down low, and seek for them, which is itself a posture symbolic of prayer and private devotion. This man described in the verse I began with (yes, I had a point in bringing up all that stuff about building to get to this), not only discovered this hidden treasure in this field, but feared lest someone else discover it also, and went and sold ALL he owned at once to purchase it. This seems to imply the treasure was not out in the open in plain site, but something that needed to be sought after in order for it to be discovered. And one that was purchased at no small cost.

When you put the fire to THIS gold, you don’t diminish it or lose any of it—but it costs you everything you’ve got to purchase it. It doesn’t look like a lot, but it will withstand the fire on that day of judgment. There’s not only going to be a lot of tares uprooted and thrown in the fire on that day of judgment, but there’s going to be a lot of public wood, hay and straw ministries going up in flames in that day also.

Why do you think 1 John 2:28 warns us not to shrink back in shame at His return? We wouldn’t be told this unless there was a possibility some of us would be, when we find out we have nothing left that has withstood the fire of His coming. If you’ve been building a self-glorifying exalted ministry in this lifetime, or doing anything that you may be seen for how spiritual you are, then don’t worry, that will be reduced to ashes at His appearing. You’d feel like a pauper and ashamed, shrinking back at His coming.

We are told not to be building with materials that won’t last—so what are you building with? The merchant in the next parable did the same thing when he discovered the pearl of great value and went and sold all he had to obtain it. Sacrifice is required of us in order to do works that withstand the fire on that Day of separation.

Lately, I’ve also been plowing through the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Old Testament of the Bible) and I’ve been reading it to read for myself instead of to study for anything. I find I go through seasons where I’m reading my Bible or praying and get total revelation downloaded into me, and then I can’t wait to sit on my computer to write it out and 3/4 of the times, to post the thoughts on my blog. Well I’ve been resisting the urge to do that, and to just soak in the Word of God and His presence lately. So, the following won’t be too detailed, but I’ll try to quote the Scriptural references, since I’ve been gleaning this from reading the intricate detail and instructions the Lord gives His people for how they’re to worship Him.

Actually, my thoughts on this are not actually anything new, but just today even I was reading Deuteronomy 12 and could not help but notice how many times the phrase “as the Lord your God will choose” or something like it shows up in regard to places and methods of worship to the Lord. Today, if you read the websites for many churches attempting to be contemporary, they focus in their self-advertising on how the style of worship is or things like casual dress, or various peripherals — indicating “hey, we’re not THAT religious, you can fit in just fine if you come here.” But are we imitating the world and offering hype, or are we pleasing to the Lord and being anointed with HIS presence first and foremost above the masses?

I’m all for being relevant to the culture around us, but I’m scared and nervous when The Body of Christ chooses to learn from the world how to worship. When we go to the idolatries of this world and then set up our own Asherah poles in the Temple of God to offer something up to Him our way instead of His prescribed way.

I’m not dogging musical styles themselves. What I am NOT saying is this style or that sound is sin. If you listen to a recent podcast message Dan and I did on secular music, you’ll hear me mock how in the late 1800s many churches of the day branded D.L. Moody’s ministry as from the devil because his worship leader and traveling partner Ira Sanky (did I spell his name right?) used a grammaphone record player in their evangelism, and they believed that tool was from hell. I am NOT saying guitars or keyboards or something is demonic. I like a little more expression than I do just singing contemplative hymns, but I love all of it–if God is being glorified the way HE wants to be.

I hate listening to people criticize one group for how they sing songs over and over, while others have no music and sit still and use only our voices to worship with words and song. However, I think there’s a danger when anyone says they can’t enter into worship unless ________ takes places, such as a certain style or musical instrument.

One time I invited a friend with me to the Morning Star Fellowship near FIRE in North Carolina, and this person criticized the worship music, which sounded that night like an alternative rock band. I immediately told them “the worship wasn’t for you.” I recall another time, and I have a grin on my face just thinking about it– when living in Peterborough, Canada many of my friends there would try car pooling to Toronto on Monday Nights to go to Tehillah Monday–a very urban young adults worship night made up of many churches and different cultures–it is one of my favorite places to fellowship and worship when I have a chance, bar none. We would always pray for safe travel and things before hitting the road together, and I distinctly remember one night one brother praying that ‘the band would play the songs we like.’ I tried not to laugh, but this was NOT a baby Christian or an otherwise immature believer, but it showed me how messed up our thinking is concerning worship being a form of entertainment for us instead of a sweet smelling fragrance the Lord loves to receive from us.

Many times we make worship about ourselves and only participate in it if it fits a certain pattern or form of OUR liking. That’s rotten apples. How would you like it if someone asked you what you’d like for your birthday, because they intended on honoring you with a gift, and you knew they were serious and would buy you whatever you said you’d want within reason. You tell them “well, there’s this new CD out by a band I really like, and I was going to buy it myself next paycheck, but if you’d like to buy it for me, that’d be great also.” Then they present you some cheap Wal-mart discount bin CD they randomly grabbed, because they didn’t want to walk to the isle it could be found in, but grabbed something and offered it to you. If you were raised to have good manners, you’ll thank this person for buying a gift at all, but you’ll be puzzled as to why they even asked you if they had no intention of honoring your taste and getting you something that would be meaningful to you.

But this is exactly what we do with much of our worship to God.

Cain decided in Genesis 4 to offer up crops instead of a sacrifice that involved blood atonement like his brother Abel offered Him. Subsequently, we all know that Cain killed his brother when the Lord honored his offering instead of his own.

We read in Leviticus 10 how the Lord killed Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron the priest, for offering “unauthorized fire” before the Lord, differently from how He commanded it, but had just accepted from their father in the previous chapter. What happened to them? A fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them. How would we like it it a fire came out from the pulpit of many churches all over the Western world this Sunday morning, in response to the strange fire that gets offered up week after week?

Steve you’re being a little harsh. What kind of worship DO YOU think the Lord accepts.

Gee, I don’t know, but how about rephrasing the question and not asking me or each other what the Lord accepts but asking Him? He states in Deuteronomy 12:2-6a:

You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. You shall NOT worship the LORD your God in that way. But you shall seek the place that the LORD your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go, and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. (Emphasis mine)

Now I realize that in North America and Europe in the 21st century Church, these specific Old Testament details are not even of any concern for our contemporary settings, but how much of what we do have we gleaned from the societal idol worship of the cultures around us, instead of directly from the throne of God above? How many worship services are reminiscent of night clubs and bars? How many worship services sounds like a rock concert not because the band is talented that way in that direction with their musical talents, but because we’re trying to imitate the world’s stylings? How much of what is done in the name of contemporary Christian worship and spirituality is just based on trends and not the voice of the Spirit of God?

I have no problems with loud amplifiers if the goal is worship and adoration of HIM, and not elevation of man and good bands and showcasing their talent. In fact, I LOVE dancing in Church before God. But I don’t just jump around and move for nothing, I only go nuts in worship for Jesus–you can see examples of this in videos I’ve posted on Facebook. But I’ve been to worship events that raunched of Christian celebrity rock stars, and yes worship songs can be catchy, but so can secular songs. I’ve also been in settings where I’ve seen girls dance like hoochie mamas the same way I imagine they’d gyrate their bodies around at a dance club. Also, have you ever decided to attend something because you liked the band that would be leading the worship? How come we won’t go if Hillsong United is NOT the one leading it (I think they’re great, but I’m just citing an example)? The problem with most of the church is we confuse entertaining with anointed.

When we look through “old” law, we see that God has a pattern, and it may not lie in the details and specifics for us under a new covenant, but we can still seek HIS face, and seek to please HIM in our worship, and do whatever it takes of us to leave a sweet smelling aroma in His nostrils.

Do you see for ways to kiss his lips with your worship, whether it be through music or other ways?

If you’ve never checked out our FIRE On Your Head podcast, I strongly recommend doing so–not just because Dan and I have a lot of fun doing those, but we’ve carefully selected some pertinent messages to fuel the Jesus Revolution in our sphere of influence, and there are a couple of messages loosely related to this subject, “Keeping the Pure Fire” that Jerome Ocampo preached, and “The Fire of God” that Dr. Josh Peters preached, before a massive repentance altar call took place one night at the summer school.  Visit our podcast site at www.fireonyourhead.com

And other Leonard Ravenhill quotes:

“The Church used to be a lifeboat rescuing the perishing. Now she is a cruise ship recruiting the promising.”

“Your doctrine can be as straight as a gun barrel-and just as empty!”

Why Revival Tarries