Have you sat in front of a fireplace drinking in the wonder of dancing flames? Have you noticed the gradient colors of white and orange throbbing to be unleashed? How they send emissary sparks into new places while consuming sticks and logs? Fire changes matter from one form into another leaving evidence of what was and never will be.
“For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” –Deuteronomy 4:24. God paints for Moses a picture of fire and it is what Moses reminds the people in the wilderness.
The Lord spoke face to face with you at the mountain, out of the midst of the fire, while I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord. For you were afraid because of the fire, and you did not go up into the mountain. -Deuteronomy 5:4-5.
You will recall God’s initial encounter with Moses having left Egypt years before.
And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, ‘I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.’ When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then he said, ‘Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place you are standing is holy ground.’ – Exodus 3:2-5.
God’s covenant of the law was made with them, not their fathers. God was in their tabernacle as fire resting between the cherubim above the seat of mercy. A pillar of fire led the children of Israel through the desert nights. “Our God is a consuming fire” was more than symbolic to the Children of Israel.
“As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud, with brightness around it, and fire flashing forth continually, and in the midst of the fire, as it were gleaming metal.” This was the vision God revealed to His priest Ezekiel along the banks of the Chebal, Ezekiel 1:4ff. Here again God reveals himself in the form of fire.
It is impossible for God’s creatures to know God except under God’s terms or as He chooses. He is the creator, a living person existing outside our living space while in it. He is not confined to boundaries. He is a self declared person choosing to bring us into His fellowship through grace.
Today, under God’s new covenant, God continues to use fire expressing His deity. At Pentecost those in the upper room all witnessed it.
And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a might rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. –Acts 2:2-3.
Seeing with human eyes the fire of God resting upon each person was an extra-ordinary event but they began speaking in languages they didn’t know … but the many foreigners in town knew. The Holy Spirit of God had come in fire and in demonstration of His deity. Now residing within them, just as Jesus had said, was the Holy Spirit of God who would teach and complete the work God left for Him to do.
John the Baptist put it this way,
“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
It is the same God creating man, declaring His deity to Moses who now baptizes us with fire. The Fire was once outside showing everyone the power and presence of God. Now the same outside fire is within each believer.
God has moved us from knowing what God is like through external signs to containing God within ourselves where God begins changing who we are into who He is. We join with God to bring holiness into completion in the fear of God. It is God’s fire of cleansing operating in response to our faith in His grace. This is the New Covenant where believers become members of His body to rule with Him.
What we do, now in our body, will be the product of who we are. As we choose to submit our soul to God’s fire we will begin to produce works built upon Jesus Christ as our foundation. Paul tells us, “Now if anyone builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood hay, straw – each one’s work will be 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 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 3:12-15.
For us to make good choices about our works we need to have knowledge. We need to understand our spiritual anatomy so that we grow God’s seed of life within rather than gratify desires and habits of our carnal flesh.
There is a constant process in the life of the believer to nurture the life God’s has provided while putting to death those things that would separate us from God’s will.
The Old Testament offerings to God were symbols of the deaths we must die in Christ as we share in His sacrifice and sufferings. The sin in our flesh no longer has dominion over us. We can continue to allow the fire of Christ within us to purify and change us from one degree of glory to another.
This is made possible because we are justified. We have moved from law and now stand in the Royal Court of God’s Grace. The law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of the flesh. We no longer are in the flesh if God’s Spirit is within us. Now we can begin to acquire God’s truth and begin our journey of union in Christ which will be complete when we see Him face to face.
Our life is a sacrifice to God in Christ. The process of putting to death the deeds of the flesh creates an offering well pleasing to God. Paul describes the struggle in Corinthians, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our mortal flesh.”
– 2 Corinthians 4: 8-11.
“For we are aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance of life to life.” – 2 Corinthians 2:15-16.