“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace…and the day that is coming will set them ablaze….” Malachi 4:1.
John the Baptist came in the days just preceding Christ’s ministry, proclaiming the message of repentance and baptism. But he was preparing the way for something far greater that was to come. John prophesied that Christ would inaugurate (put into operation) the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire.
In preparing the way of the Lord, John gave special emphasis to the work of the Holy Spirit prophesied by Malachi and Isaiah—a work of fire that threshes and cuts away at the root of that which restricts and voids all that God would do.
And then came the day of fire! Like a rushing mighty wind, it shook the little remnant of believers and the place where they waited on the day of Pentecost; the Church was born. The tongues of fire and the Spirit of burning sat upon them, and they were changed. All pettiness, all doubts, all tendencies to waver in their human dedication were burned away. The place was shaken that day. The baptism of fire was the beginning of the shaking of the whole world.
The promise of that baptism of fire is “to you, to your children, and to all who are far off” (Acts 2:39). What happened on that first day of Pentecost was an initial fulfillment of the experience of fire. Again the Spirit of God is going to be poured out in its fullness. What began with one hundred and twenty in the upper room will be completed in a remnant who even now are walking in the “fire” that is being restored to the Church.
Fire is not for cleansing of sin.
Fire is for purging and refining; it deals with the consequences of sin in one’s life, the pollution that sin has caused. It also deals with the demonic.
We are transformed by fire.
The Blood is for cleansing, the Cross is for dying to self and the Fire is for purging (the removal of something undesirable, impure, or imperfect, delete the data of the unrenewed mind)
The Fire deals with Soiled, emotions, hurts, polluted minds, bad memories, spirit strongholds, body pollution and hereditary problems.
The Baptism of Fire will preserve a generation of Christians that will live through the greatest darkness and tribulation the world has ever seen. Isaiah 60:2
And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. Malachi 3:3
The fire burns out hurts, fears, inferiorities, hereditary problems, sexual abuse, MPD, inherited sins of the fathers and enemy strongholds in the minds of God’s people.
Many teach about the baptism of the Holy Spirit; however, such a message is no longer the issue. John the Baptist prepared the way for the baptism in fire. For the many hearts searching for the deeper meaning of Pentecost, for the person who longs to know God and is not afraid of the axe, the flail, and the fire of the Spirit, the baptism of fire can open the door to a refined walk with God which will once again shake the whole earth.
As people of God, we anticipate an experience of Pentecost which will resemble the Pentecostal observance and experience related in the second chapter of Acts more closely than any in the history of the Church. It is to be a baptism of fire, a Pentecost of fire.
There is a distinction between receiving the Holy Spirit and receiving the baptism of fire. Many have thought that it was just one experience; however, it involved two different experiences as seen in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, but He also talked about the baptism of fire that He was to undergo (Luke 12:50). John spoke about the Holy Spirit coming, but he also spoke of a baptism of fire (Matthew 3:11–12).
What happened to the 120 that experienced the baptism of fire? The result was the power, the unity, and the oneness with which they moved in was outstanding.
Fifty days before, those believers were hiding behind closed doors for fear of the Jews. The Shepherd had been smitten, and all the sheep were scattered according to prophecy (Matthew 26:31). Peter had denied the Lord, and Thomas had doubted. But after the Feast of Pentecost, the power, the anointing, the miracles, and the unity were so fantastic that they can hardly be described. Those early believers were willing to sell everything they had and lay the money at the apostles’ feet (Acts 2:42–47).
When people today receive the Holy Spirit and speak with other tongues, we do not see the same evidence of blessing or the same results as those described in the book of Acts. But we are beginning to see a restoration of that experience, and we have the promise and provision of the baptism of fire.
God is preparing us for discipleship. In the New Testament churches that God will be raising up, the emphasis is not just upon receiving the Holy Spirit. We do not spend a lot of time preaching about it or talking about it. We simply assume that it is a basic experience to be entered into, and we lay hands on people to receive it.
Many believers receive the Holy Spirit years before they come into a real walk in the Spirit. But when they do enter into such a walk, the baptism by fire becomes more and more an experience in their lives.
There is no way that they will be able to meet the trials ahead of them unless they go through a baptism of fire first. This is the experience which will prepare their hearts for the days ahead.
Do not be alarmed; the baptism by fire is what you have been experiencing ever since you started to walk with God. You probably wonder what is happening to you, why you are going through difficult circumstances that other Christians do not seem to experience.
A person’s ministry is not brought forth simply because they had an ecstatic experience or because they speak in tongues. It starts to come forth when the Holy Spirit begins to take us through a baptism of fire. This is not easy, even at the beginning; and it continues to hurt until the old life is completely crushed. Because the end-time walk with God is characterized by a baptism of fire, there are not many careless seekers coming into it.
Some people are turning away from a Pentecostal level of moving in God, which has its whole emphasis on receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. Such an experience is too shallow for them, yet many of them will not embrace the baptism of fire that God would put them through to bring them into a deeper walk.
When they see the price they must pay, it seems unreasonable, and so they draw back. This is the reason that very few denominational ministers will come into a Spirit-led walk with God.
At first glance they exclaim, “Oh, gifts? How delightful! Oh, that is just what I want. You don’t know how I want to walk with God; you don’t know how hungry I am.” But the minute the fire of testing begins to burn, they decide that it is not the walk they want after all; and they turn aside to something else.
The Charismatic movement has the same pattern that characterized the Pentecostal movement: “I am an ex-Catholic priest; I am an ex-nun; I am an ex-Episcopalian; I am a Jew who received the Holy Spirit.” In a walk with God, you cannot talk about being an ex-anything; by the time you go through the fire, all your credentials are burned up.
The baptism of fire takes away the professionalism and the soulishness that characterizes much of Christianity. Be thankful for that.
Imagine not being able to walk with God because you might lose your retirement benefits. There must be some other prospect better than sitting in a rocking chair in an old people’s home. Even if you grow old physically, stay youthful in your spirit. Do not be a professional. Do not seek a place. Some people may rejoice that they have a certain seniority, a certain place where they are accepted among the majority of Christians.
Thank God if you are not accepted! Be accepted by God’s people, but do not be concerned if traditional Christianity does not accept you. Do not seek to be part of a religious movement; be a part of something real. If you welcome and submit to the baptism of fire, you are being prepared to enter into the Kingdom.
The entrance fee into the Kingdom will not be expensive, because by the time the Lord has dealt with you, you will have lost almost everything anyway. Go through the fire! It takes just one step; then you will be in it.
There is still ambition in the traditional church system, but anyone who comes into a real walk with God does not seek a place. Such a person is not concerned if they are up at the top or way down at the bottom. If we are to be a real ministry, we will walk through the fire.
Without that fire, we might say like James and John, “Lord, I would like to sit either on Your right or on Your left. I would like to have that special place.”
But there was no special place for them in the way that they were thinking. Jesus said that the one who would be great must be the servant of all (Mark 10:35–45). Although no one will have a certain rank of greatness in serving God, it is also true that no ministry is considered insignificant. The Lord burns out ambition until His people are willing to do what He asks of them.
When Jesus spoke of the baptism with which He was to be baptized (Luke 12:49–50), He had already received the Holy Spirit at the River Jordan. He must have been referring to another baptism—the baptism of fire. The disciples received both baptisms simultaneously on the day of Pentecost. This is what characterizes the day of Pentecost as being outstanding. And when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent, rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. Acts 2:1–4.
This was a token fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. When Peter quoted the prophecies of Joel in his sermon, he probably understood less about them than he revealed by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
“ ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘that I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all mankind; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; even upon My bondslaves, both men and women, I will in those days pour forth of My Spirit and they shall prophesy.’ ” Notice the next passage: “ ‘And I will grant wonders in the sky above, and signs on the earth beneath, blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and glorious day of the Lord shall come. And it shall be, that every one who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ ” Acts 2:17–21.
In the second chapter, Joel was prophesying basically about the days of tribulation and judgment. Notice Joel 3:2: “Gather all the nations down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.” It does not matter whether you accept a literal interpretation of this battle, as has been common, or spiritualize it and see it basically on the spirit plane. It will probably take place on both planes. There will be an Armageddon. It has already begun in the realm of spirit. But no doubt there will be some breakthrough into the physical realm where it will be manifested.
This principle applies also to the Lord’s Parousia. We know that His presence with His many-membered Body is more in evidence now than at any time since He left. Although we are in the first spiritual manifestation of the Parousia, we know also that He is going to come in like manner as the disciples saw Him go. There will be a visible, physical manifestation of His coming as well, even though the spiritual coming has preceded it.
Peter spoke about blood and fire and vapor of smoke, and about the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood. No doubt there will be manifestations of that in the physical realm. But it is also a prophecy of the spiritual chaos that is coming. It appears that the spiritual fulfillment is preceding everything else, but anything that the Lord is doing in this day will be done in every realm. It will be done in the spirit realm, in the psychic realm, and in the physical realm. He is dealing with us to prepare us for it.
Paul said, …I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it. I Thessalonians 5:23–24. Anyone who has not entered into the sanctification and the preparation of the Lord in every realm of their being—spirit, soul, and body—will be in trouble in the days ahead.
There is a spiritual aspect to this fire, too. We will not have to go through the fire of judgment that the whole world will experience. They will experience the fire in the psychic realm and in the spirit realm. Every realm will know devastations. That is why the Lord is applying the fire to us first. The baptism of fire is necessary to prepare us to go through the days to come. The only people who will be immune to the fires of judgment will be those who have passed through the baptism of fire.
In the Old Testament, when people were seeking the Lord, they made a sacrifice, and as the sign of their acceptance by the Lord, fire would fall upon the sacrifice. How much more will He bring the fire upon us so that you will be acceptable!
We have to Bind the sacrifice to the horns of the altar.” The animal sacrifices were tied to the altar so they would not get up and walk off. We are to be a living sacrifice to the Lord.
Malachi prophesied that the Lord would come as a refiner’s fire to purify us, so that we may present offerings in righteousness.
Judgment and the fires of the Lord will be in the whole earth, but right now the fire is in us. He is purifying us. Our sacrifices and offerings—our praises, our worship, our service—will be just as pure before the Lord as those in New Testament times.
The New Testament believers were basically no more qualified than we are. The reason God could use them was because they went through the fire. God baptized them with the Holy Spirit and fire. He is thoroughly threshing His floor and gathering the wheat into the garner; the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.
God must burn our past out of us until we stand only as a worshiper of the Lord. The fire removes professionalism. It takes away the ambition of seeking a place as James and John did. Our hope is based on the fact that the Lord is threshing us and burning the chaff.
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. This verse precedes the passage ,If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God. When we go through the fire and speak the living word it will change the age, we will bring down principalities and powers.
God is destroying the obnoxious part of the human nature, especially individuality. He is making us one Body, and that is why individual ambition disappears. The collective visions and the Word that we are receiving become the burning realization of our lives.
When we submit to the fire in our own heart, we will be exactly what God wants us to be. Nothing of the flesh will cling to us. We need to ask the Lord to thresh us and take away the chaff.
God is going to start completing the work of fire within us in order that the judgments of the earth can begin.
The judgments are not going to come apart from us. God is in readiness to avenge all disobedience when our obedience is complete (II Corinthians 10:6). First you have to be threshed, and the chaff has to be burned out of us. We will have to experience it. When it becomes a part of our being, then we can release Judgments in the earth.
The reason there are delays in what God has promised to do for us, is because we have not gone through the fire.
The early Church moved effectively because of the baptism of fire that was worked in it along with the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Cloven tongues of fire sat upon them. It was a fulfillment (as Jesus had indicated) of John the Baptist’s prophecy that the One coming after him, whose shoes he was not worthy to untie, would baptize the people with the Holy Spirit and with fire. He whose fan was in His hand was going to thresh the floor and gather the wheat into the garner, but the chaff He would burn with unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:11–12).
The chaff is something that grows on the wheat. You are the wheat, and so the Lord flails you. A flail is a manual threshing instrument. The wheat was flailed upon the stone to separate it from the chaff. The chaff was a part of its growth, just as our flesh is a part of us and is natural to us, we were born with it. It is a problem that only God can solve.
God says, “I will bring the chastening to you as My children, and when I am through dealing with you in My unique way, you will be separated from the chaff on you that must go.” This is what John the Baptist was illustrating when he prophesied about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the fire. The disciples experienced this baptism of fire on the day of Pentecost and then they became very effective.
The disciples were able to go forth to heal the sick and do various other things through an implicit, implied commission that was given to them by the Lord; and then it seemed to stop.
But after the day of Pentecost, after the fire had been applied to their lives and their own carnality had been dealt with, they were able to move consistently.
There were no longer the times of doubting and of clouded perception. The fire seemed to burn away those things that had restricted the disciples’ comprehension and dedication.
You never read, in the book of Acts, about the disciples getting into the same kind of dispute that caused the Lord to rebuke them when they were wondering who was to be the greatest. That was before the fire came.
I suppose you could point to one controversy. Paul said that he withstood Peter to his face because he was to be blamed (Galatians 2:11–21). But that was not too serious; it was a matter of principle with Paul and a matter of expediency with Peter.
There had to be some way for them to get together in that situation; so Paul confronted Peter about his attitude toward the Jews and the Gentiles in the Church. I know of no other conflict between the early apostles.
The apostles seemed to commend one another and build one another up. They walked without ambition. They walked without the independent secular spirit that sometimes afflicts the ministers of the Lord. It was the baptism of fire that came to open the door to that kind of walk.
Although we believe for certain things that God has prophesied over us, those prophecies involve not only us, but often they involve other individuals as well. What is to prevent them from coming to pass? The factor that God has to work in you is one thing, but God may have to work a factor in another person as well.
God’s promise to Abraham had two things in mind: first, the seed of Abraham would be blessed with that entire land; second, the Amorite nation would have complete opportunity to run their course, to follow what was in their own natures and in their own hearts. In God’s foreknowledge, He knew that the Amorites would come to the full place of wickedness. Then God would be justified in bringing the wars of annihilation, and He could tell Joshua, “Go in and utterly destroy all of them” (Deuteronomy 7:2).
The Canaanite woman was a “dog.” She had no right to be alive. If God’s Word had been completely obeyed under Joshua, that woman never would have existed. Her wicked forebears would have been slaughtered in the wars under Joshua. Even though we are completely disinherited, if we have faith, God will still bless us and say, “Go in peace: your faith has brought the answer
In the days of the Amorites, God said, “I am going to destroy them, but their wickedness will have to run its course. It is going to take about four generations before they have reached the place where any tendency they have to seek me is subordinated to their tendency toward evil and wickedness.” When God said, “Destroy them all,” He was bringing judgment upon them, and at the same time He was bringing the blessing of inheritance upon His people.
This is exactly what God is doing now. Two things are happening, and you can appropriate them just as completely and quickly as the Lord sets them before you. These are the days when the iniquity in the world is coming to the full, like the iniquity of the Amorites.
This is the day when denominationalism has run its course. Babylon must come down. If you are concerned about all the good people in Babylon, do what the Word of God says. Stand as a believer and pray, “Come out of her, God’s people; be not a partaker of her sins” (Revelation 18:4). Do not condemn the people in Babylon; just be one of the channels of the Spirit that calls them out.
Only one thing holds up the denominational system. God has some people He wants to get out of there first; then it will collapse. According to Revelation 18:19, Babylon will come down in one hour. We know that is a symbolic term, for the book of Revelation contains a great deal of symbolism; it means that she will come down in a very short period of time.
Verse 20 says that the apostles and prophets will rejoice because God has judged their judgments upon her. Babylon is both religious and commercial, but all of it is going to come down—all of it!
God has promised His remnant, “Fear not, little flock; it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). But He desires to let the iniquity run its course before you move into your inheritance.
As the God of justice, He is not justified in destroying the “Amorites” before they have had an opportunity to make a full decision to reject God and turn to evil. In areas where God has been thrust out, the remnant could move right in if their hearts were prepared.
This brings us to the second factor. Why doesn’t God do something about this matter of Babylon? He is giving them a full chance—either to walk away from the light or to walk in the light. Be glad that God is long-suffering. Be glad that He did not judge harshly with you in your moment of rebellion. Either the spirit or the flesh is going to take over.
The time finally came when the struggle between the spirit and the flesh within Judas had to be decided. And Judas made his decision. He talked with the Pharisees, he made his bargain, but it still was not complete until that night when he got up and walked out the door. It was not a demon or an oppression that was harassing him; Satan had entered into his heart.
Why doesn’t God discard you? A smoking wick He will not quench (Isaiah 42:3). As long as there is a little flame, He will hold on to you. If you have had a revelation, and it is still burning in your heart, He will give you every opportunity and every chance. Neither prophecies nor judgments are fulfilled quickly. You must come to the place where you are either completely given over to believe God or you are completely given over to turn away from Him.
The iniquity, such as that of the Amorite, has to come to the full, but notice the other factor that is involved. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (what great power we have), and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. Notice: when your obedience is complete. II Corinthians 10:4–6.
If a situation were completely right or completely wrong, God could deal with it. You cannot expect God to vindicate you or to bring you blessing in any contest or any matter of decision until your obedience is complete: until the fire of God has gone through you and cleansed you of every unforgiving spirit, every rebellion, every withdrawal, everything in your heart and everything of the old flesh that is wrong. God is ready to judge, but He does not judge until all things are in place.
The Lord is waiting for a people to come forth in the earth who are right. Then He can deal with the wrong. What is holding up the judgment in the earth? There are no righteous people. There is no right side; there are only wrong sides. Why doesn’t God judge the wicked? Because all would be judged; none would be left. Why doesn’t God bring back the days of Ananias and Sapphira? Because He would not have any churches left.
Now, in this day, God is gathering a people and putting the baptism of fire to them. He does this so that you will seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness. When you are right because your obedience is complete, then the Lord will be ready to judge all disobedience. But He is not going to do it as long as you have a degree of wrong in your own spirit
Why does God hold on to you? The wick is still flickering; the lamp has not gone out. Why doesn’t He discard you when you have done so much that is wrong? There is still some right in you, too. He is saying to you as He said to the Laodiceans, “I wish you were hot or cold.” Get off the fence! Get on one side or the other!
God deals with us so that He will have a righteous remnant in the earth that He can bless.
Men often do things that make them candidates to be removed completely from God’s Kingdom . But they love God, and God keeps dealing until either the flesh or the new nature in Christ takes over and prevails. The flesh wars against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; these two are contrary, one to the other, so that they cannot do the thing they would.
You must also remember that you have to let your obedience come to full completion. Knowing the truth that God has spoken, you will struggle to rise up into the completion of your obedience to God. God has both judgment and mercy that He is going to visit upon this generation. Judgment will be on those, like the Amorites, whose iniquity comes to the full; and blessing will be on those whose obedience comes to completion.
We must totally believe God to move in this generation, for the judgments of the Lord to be in the earth, and for the completion of the Lord’s will to be accomplished in His remnant.
But while we are praying and contending for this, the practical course is to open our hearts to complete, absolute obedience to the Lord. Heart searching is not a luxury—without it, any one of us might be holding back the whole parade.
The Lord is looking for the man whose heart is right before Him, whose spirit is perfect. We must acknowledge our mistakes and ask for forgiveness. We must repent until He renews a right spirit within us.
Now is the time to walk with an upright heart before the Lord. Let it be said of you, as it was of Daniel, that an excellent spirit is in you (Daniel 5:12).
God will bless you to be submissive with a right spirit. You will be victorious if you have a right spirit toward God. This is where your obedience comes to completion. It is not that your experience and your record are always perfect, but that you reach the place where your heart is perfect toward the Lord.
Prepare to walk with Him. Keep an excellent spirit before Him. The course of the whole age can be changed by a few people whose spirits are right toward the Lord.
The way we become righteous is not to put forth great effort and come under a lot of discipline. The Word says, Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness. It does take effort to hunger and thirst. Righteousness is not produced by what we do; it is produced by your hunger and thirst after it. Only when you want it deeply enough does the Holy Spirit come to fill us and move in our life in a distinctive way.
A deeper walk with God deals with mountains and valleys—those things that make walking with Him difficult. You must pass over mountains and walk through valleys as you enter in to what God sets before us.
The prophecy in Isaiah 40:3–5 will help you understand this more clearly. A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness; make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. Let every valley be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; and let the rough ground become a plain, and the rugged terrain a broad valley; then the glory of the Lord will be revealed” (the margin reads, “in order that the glory of the Lord will be revealed”), “and all flesh will see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Let us also look to a related passage in Matthew 3:1–12. Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (the margin reads, “has come near”). For this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet, saying, “The voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, make His paths straight!’ ” This passage in Isaiah is quoted with regard to John the Baptist in each of the four gospels: Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3, and John 1. In each instance the voice of one crying in the wilderness refers to John the Baptist.
Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair, and a leather belt about his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then Jerusalem was going out to him, and all Judea, and all the district around the Jordan; and they were being baptized by him in the Jordan River, as they confessed their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bring forth fruit in keeping with your repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you, that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
“And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees” (hold that in your mind); “every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. As for me, I baptize you in water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not even fit to remove His sandals; He Himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. And His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean His threshing floor….”
This might be difficult for us to comprehend until we understand the old methods of harvesting used in Bible times. First, a hand threshing instrument called a flail was used to thresh the grain. Usually it consisted of a wooden staff with a broad piece of board or a short, thick stick attached to one end by a hinge. The one who did the threshing would swing the board and beat the grain which was lying on the threshing floor, a smooth stone surface.
After flailing the wheat repeatedly in this manner, the thresher tossed it into the wind with a large, wooden winnowing fork. The wheat, being heavier, fell back to the floor, while the chaff blew away. Later it was burned. Psalm 1:4: …the chaff which the wind driveth away. The Holy Spirit comes as a fire; He comes also as a wind.
The chaff is the protective covering of nature that is upon the wheat as it grows. Because this part is inedible, it must be separated from the grain. In Luke 6:1–2 the disciples picked a handful of wheat while passing through a field and began rubbing it in their hands to loosen the chaff so that they could eat the wheat. The Pharisees accused them of threshing on the Sabbath day.
The chaff must be separated from the wheat. Afterwards it can be gathered together and burned with fire. It cannot be burned while it is still on the wheat. The entire kernel of wheat represents the Christian; the chaff is the human nature with which we are born. It grows with us from the time we are an infant.
The time must come when God brings some experience to our life that is like a threshing, which takes away that which is natural to us.
By the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, the Lord wants to separate us from the chaff in our life and burn it by the fires of the Holy Spirit.
The initial experience in the Holy Spirit does not make us holy. It is the baptism of fire that removes from us the predisposition to a nature that God condemns. It looses us from it and brings us into another dealing of the Lord completely.
Today most people will accept the baptism of the Holy Spirit, but they reject the fire. It is not the reproach now that it was some years ago when people who attended a certain church were called Holy Rollers.
Today people do not stumble over receiving the Holy Spirit, but they do protest and reject the fire that was prophesied would come with that baptism, the fire which deals with the chaff in their lives.
They reject the fire that is related to the threshing of the Lord which will separate them from their human nature and bring an end to ambition, and their own personal desires and burdens.
The mountains shall be brought down and the valleys will be filled and a way will be made for the Lord. The fire comes to take the ups and downs out of our lives. Until the Lord threshes the chaff out of our lives, we will continually waver in our walk.
As victims of the flesh and victims of our emotions, we become discouraged and disheartened, hemmed in by the chaff that completely surrounds the nature that God wants to bring forth in us.
The true characteristic of walking with God is the unique way that God works a chastening in our life by disciplining us and working the fire within us. The threshing separates us from it; but the Holy destroys it with an unquenchable fire.
No one who follows their own understanding will ever come into a walk with God. Too much of it is involved with being threshed. Solomon’s Temple was built on the threshing floor of Ornan (II Chronicles 3:1). And on the threshing floor, God is again building up the living stones that will be His temple. The temple of Soloman is a type of irreversible dedication. The stones were finished before they were set in the temple.
Many say yes to the Holy Spirit, feeling that Holy Spirit will help them as they do their own thing. But the baptism of fire will help them to do His thing. The dealings of God’s is a key to the Kingdom.
Matthew 3:2 says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” When the Word begins to come about the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire, about the threshing floor and the burning of the chaff, then the Kingdom of heaven is near. The greatest assurance you can have that you are walking in the truth which God has revealed is the fact that you are experiencing the repentance that is necessary for the gospel of the Kingdom to prevail.
We need to Make a fresh dedication, not only to the outcome, but also to the process by which God brings it to pass. Be dedicated to the Kingdom, but be dedicated also to the means by which God brings it about. We have to go through the wilderness of testing, before we walk in the power of the kingdom. When we Let God put the fire to our chaff, then because of our submission to the means by which God brings about the end, you can move ahead immediately.
God’s righteousness is attractive. It is not repulsive like that which you normally find in holiness teaching and the pharisaic attitudes. When we suffer with Him; when we suffer the threshing and the fires upon the chaff then we will reign with Him. The wheat does not lose a thing when it loses its chaff. It brings forth a hundredfold.
We need to observe the manner whereby God moves. On the day of Pentecost, tongues of fire settled upon one hundred and twenty believers. This was the fire that had been prophesied by John the Baptist when he said, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Luke 3:16). The fire was more than just a little symbolic flash that settled upon their heads; it was a beautiful work of the grace of God that made the fullness of the Holy Spirit operative.
It is the Holy Spirit, and not just our own spirit, that is warring against our flesh. It is the Holy Spirit operating through our quickened spirit, when we were in the world our spirit was not warring against our flesh. Our spirit was already condemned and consenting to the flesh. We were dead in trespasses and sins, so nothing was operative there.
God moves through the Holy Spirit to bring an end to that conflict. However, when the Holy Spirit comes into an individual, it does not necessarily mean that this conflict is over. Many people who have received the Holy Spirit and spoken in tongues are not free from the flesh; they still find the warfare going on in their lives.
I Corinthians illustrates the fact that a person can receive the Holy Spirit and move in the gifts and still find the coexistence of a strong, vigorous flesh life that continually nullifies everything he does.
Paul wrote that the Corinthians were behind in no gift, with all utterance and all knowledge, waiting for the coming of the Lord. And yet in chapter after chapter throughout this Epistle, you find the evidence of a very fleshly life existing in the Corinthian church.
That is why John the Baptist preached about God doing something to the human nature while He was filling people with His Spirit. While baptizing them in the Holy Spirit, God also intended to baptize them with fire.
This is what is described in the second chapter of Acts. When we read John’s prophecy in the third chapter of Luke, we understand better why tongues of fire were in evidence when the believers received the Holy Spirit. The spiritual fire is an integral part of a walk in the Spirit today.
The fire destroys that which is feeding the old disposition and the carnal nature in our life. We deal with the basic source of our trouble by putting an axe to the root.
The baptism of fire will deal with the mountains, the valleys, and the crooked roads that plague the life of the believer and make them so ineffective that it requires many years to travel a short distance spiritually.
Have you known those deep valleys that make it difficult to reach the beautiful view of the mountains? Let the Holy Spirit eliminate the ups and downs in your life.
The illustrations of laying an axe to the root of a tree, of threshing the wheat from the chaff and then burning the chaff, are very important. They refer to the Holy Spirit and fire that is to complete the work within our heart. God is a consuming fire. We need to throw ourselves into the fire. There is no other path into the inheritance of the Kingdom.
We will be ready to enter the wedding if we purify ourselves and go through the work of the cross; dying out to everything that God wants us to die out to.
Hebrews 12 speaks about the Lord’s coming and the end-time events. Verse 14 says that without holiness no man is going to see the Lord. This refers to seeing Him when He breaks through. What we must do to prepare the way of the Lord and make His paths straight, is see that the axe is laid to the root of whatever is feeding our life the wrong thing. We need to get the chaff separated from the wheat.
There are many things that are natural to you. They have been with you from the time you were born. When a little baby does not get what he wants, he begins to cry, yelling and stiffening himself. His mother looks at him and says, “Just like his father.” She can see the stubborn nature that has been born in him. When a young boy is about ten or twelve years old and is getting out of line, Dad looks at him, somewhat amused, and says, “Hmm. Chip off the old block. I have to do something about this.” Taking the boy out to the woodshed, he tries to beat out of him what he has bred into him, hoping to stop the course of the old nature. There is a better way. The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire can be like an axe being laid to the root of negative things that are growing in your life.
You can change! It is not a matter of having some irrevocable nature. It is a matter of God laying an axe to the root and changing your nature. He can do it.
I believe in the change of a nature, but I do not believe that it comes necessarily with initial salvation. Too many people have become Christians only to find that many things are still smoldering beneath the surface, and they need help.
What can you do to change? Be baptized by fire. Welcome it. God gives you an option. You can run away from it if you want to. That is why many people who start to walk with God leave the minute they see the fire, the chastening, and the discipline that will be in their lives.
Do you want to be a vessel of honor in the house of God? Do you want to be a prophet and prophesy the Word of the Lord? What a glorious prospect is before you. The Lord says, “Fine, son. I will make a prophet. I will make you My bond-servant.” He takes you to the threshold of the door and rams an awl through your ear. Then He brings out the flail—whack! You cry, “Lord, is that what You should be doing? You’re beating me.”
“Yes, I do that with every son whom I receive; and whom I love, I chasten” (Hebrews 12:6).
“Well, go ahead then, but a little easier, please.”
“No, it has to be hard enough to separate the tough shell of the human nature that houses you, that restricts what I am doing. I must turn loose My new nature in you. You are in prison.”
Do you feel like a grain of wheat in a bagful of chaff? Let the Lord deal with you. It is most exasperating when He puts you through difficult experiences. You continue to plead, “O God, get me out of this!” By the time He finally gets you out of it, He has succeeded in doing a little more of the impossible in you. You have cast off the works of darkness. Your roots are gone. The chaff is gone. You are set free.
God is trying to do something in your life to bring you into your spiritual inheritance. A man can come to Gilgal and listen to a pep talk by the generals about how good it will be to take the land of Canaan; but he will never take it that way. Instead, he hears someone say, “All you women go back to the tents and all you men come on over here,” as he starts sharpening the knife.
“What are you going to do?”
“It is all right, son. I am going to seal you to the covenant of God’s people. You are to go in and inherit Canaan. But first you must be circumcised.”
“Will it hurt?”
“Of course it will hurt.”
The chaff and the circumcision speak of that which must be cut away because it surrounds and houses the new nature and all of its creativity that is needed to bring forth the will of God in the earth. You may protest, “You’re going to make me so that I won’t even look human anymore.”
“That is right. You are going to be made so that you will appear divine, and when people look at you, they will not see the chaff; they will see your circumcised heart; they will see Jesus.”
“Well, if that’s the case, bring on the knife, bring on the axe, bring on the winnowing fork and the flail. If I have to, I have to.”
No, that is not the right attitude. Welcome it! To lose the soul life is not to create a vacuum. It is to embrace the body and the blood of the Lord and to receive His life as the complete source of your life. The work of the cross is necessary if you want to move into the new life.
Let God bring the Pentecost of fire. Do not call it Pentecostal fire, for that is a term which has been abused and means nothing. Let God bring the real Pentecost of fire to your life—the fire that consumes.
Many present-day believers have embraced the concept of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, but very few actually know what to do about it.
The Pentecostal movement did not understand the baptism of fire at all, but even those who have come into greater revelation seem to have no more than a glimmer of it. God has something to say to us that is revolutionary. A solemn principle is involved in the fire of Pentecost.
The second chapter of Acts tells us that when the day of Pentecost had fully come and the believers were keeping the feast, the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Cloven tongues of fire sat upon each one of them, and they all began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Some said, “These are drunk with new wine.” But Peter gave the scriptural explanation of what was happening, that it was a fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy.
In quoting the prophecy of Joel, he said, “This is that,” or we might say, “of that,” for I do not think he meant that the prophecy was exhaustive. He spoke about the devastations in the earth, about the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood; and he linked all of that with what was happening in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Peter knew from Joel’s prophecy that a whole new epoch had begun and that the present age would culminate in judgment, for he continued by quoting Joel 3:1–2a: “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.”
The eyes of the world are focused upon the Israelis, and already we find many nations being drawn to do battle with them. It is incredible that such a small nation, after having gained its independence only a few years ago, should be challenged by other nations who want to blot it out.
The reason for the contention over Jerusalem is that Satan wants to delay. But he cannot delay; it has already happened. “Jerusalem will be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled” is the prophecy of Luke 21:24.
The time of the Gentiles ended when the Israelis regained control of Jerusalem. The nations of the Gentiles are living on borrowed time. The corruption and the stench of it has already begun.
Many governments in the world have already toppled. No one can stay in power long, whether prime minister or king or president. All are falling. Vacuums are being created.
There are no statesmen or answers to fill the gaps. A particular and unique capacity seems to be given to men to riot and destroy property, to destroy governments, and even to destroy themselves. No one seems to have anything constructive to offer.
We realize that this is the time for all these things to happen according to the first chapter of Joel. Verses 5-6: Awake, drunkards, and weep; and wail, all you wine drinkers, on account of the sweet wine that is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has invaded my land…. Joel goes on to describe it. Verse 8: Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth…. Verse 12b: Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men. Verse 13: Gird yourselves with sackcloth…. Verse 15: Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
A careful study of the Scriptures reveals that every passage dealing with the day of the Lord speaks of it as a day of clouds, a day of darkness, a day of doom, a day of destruction. This means that it cannot be anything else for us either. The nations are going to be gathered to destruction.
The second chapter of Joel describes the day of the Lord. Notice verses 1b–3: For the day of the Lord is coming; surely it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, so there is a great and mighty people…. A fire consumes before them, and behind them a flame burns (referring to the army of the Lord). Verse 11: And the Lord utters His voice before His army; surely His camp is very great, for strong is He who carries out His word. The day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
What about God’s people? Verses 12-17: “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to Me with all your heart, and with fasting, weeping, and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness, and relenting of evil. Who knows whether He will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him, even a grain offering and a libation for the Lord your God?
Blow a trumpet in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly, gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children and the nursing infants. Let the bridegroom come out of his room and the bride out of her bridal chamber. Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare Thy people, O Lord, and do not make Thine inheritance a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they among the peoples say, ‘Where is their God?’ ” Remember that this passage precedes the prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Verse 21: Do not fear, O land, rejoice and be glad, for the Lord has done great things. Verses 28-32a: “…I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. And even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days. And I will display wonders in the sky and on the earth, blood, fire, and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be delivered.”
These are the days when He gathers all the nations down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. These are the days when He will display wonders in the sky and on the earth—blood, fire, and columns of smoke. Let this truth dawn upon you; the day of the Lord will be the same for you, a believer, as for those who are visited in judgment. The only difference is that it will come upon the world in judgment, and it will come upon you in an experience of fire by your own invitation. You will have to live through it.
Be reminded that the world will see no joy, no happiness, no peace. The only joy to be found will not be on a human level; it will be a fruit of the Spirit. In these coming days of darkness, when men will curse God, the only existing love and peace will be that which is a fruit of the Spirit. At a time when joy is withered away from the sons of men, God’s remnant will sing joyfully with a joy in the Lord.
God is bringing His people to the end of human resources. This is a common experience. Some who walk with God find that life has become a burden, and they have no inner resource to meet it from day to day. A few have been pressed beyond what they can handle or control. Others have been broken in heart beyond what ordinary men can endure. Some have been deeply disillusioned on the human level. Such experiences give a true picture of a walk with God.
Walking with God is not a jolly time. If you want it, you will have to experience a judgment on your life that the world will later experience. You will have to come to the end of yourself. As you do, you will throw everything in God’s lap.
As long as your walk is sustained by the human element, by your ability to work out your life until it is a pleasant experience that you can manipulate and plan as an individual, you are not yet walking with the Lord.
God’s end-time walk involves the sovereign preparation of a remnant of people who will walk with Him, who will be totally immune from the normal, human instinct of self-preservation. The Lord says of a disciple, “If he would save his life, he will lose it. If he loses his life for My sake, he is going to find it” (Matthew 10:39). You must come to such total discipleship that you are willing to lay yourself before God and no longer regard your life as being your own. You say that you belong to Jesus, but that is not really true until you die out to the interest in yourself, to the claim and the rights that you have to yourself.
God makes one demand after another, and it can become very unpleasant. If you do not believe this is true, then you do not know anything about walking with God.
Why, then, do people in a walk with God rejoice? A man can rejoice in doing the will of God, even when all the human level of satisfaction, every ambition, and every joy of the flesh is gone. He lives for the Lord and for Him alone.
Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ.” This will be our experience also as we walk with God. This sounds extreme, but it actually is not. It has been a very real experience to many who are walking with God.
You will never fulfill a ministry out of a human ambition or drive. That will die before you see any real ministry accomplished.
God brings forth a ministry on a level of revelation. After He has given a man revelation, he becomes excited: “Oh, hallelujah! I am going to prophesy. I will heal the sick. I am going to do a lot of wonderful things!”
Then God starts putting him through the fire. Meanwhile he struggles to move in a gift, but he becomes frustrated to the point of giving up. Finally he says, “O God, forget all the gifts. There is just one thing I want, Lord, with all my heart. I just want to love You.” Then his ministry begins. First, human ability in a man has to die. Everything that God does follows the pattern of Jesus’ experience: death, burial, resurrection, glory.
“Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” Hosea 6:1–3.
This is a prophecy of the latter rain. But what happens first? The dealings of the Lord come. It is at the end of the second day that He resurrects us, and not until the third day do we live in His sight.
A man will always have a world-consciousness, a human-consciousness, a family-consciousness that will wipe out the divine-consciousness—the deep awareness of the Lord—until the Lord causes him to die out to them. When he dies out to them and they are buried, the Lord will begin to deal with that man’s heart; and then he can follow on to know the Lord.
Do you want to walk in revelation until spiritual perception is very real to you? Do you want to see on the spiritual plane? Then die out to your vital human awareness to other things! This is the purpose of the Holy Spirit and fire. The disciples had to have it. Before the day of Pentecost, they were concerned about their own lives.
The Shepherd had been smitten and the sheep were scattered (Zechariah 13:7). Before the crucifixion, when the mob came after Jesus, He said, “I am the one you want. Let these others go their way. Let them be free.” The disciples scurried off. While Jesus was in the tomb, they were behind locked doors for fear of the Jews, crying, “They’re going to get us next.” Was that real discipleship? It would appear that a real disciple would be out there, saying boldly, “Kill me, too.”
Peter said that and thought he meant it, but the idea of saving his own skin was still in his heart. He could go out and weep bitterly because he had denied the Lord, but he still had saved his own life.
However, after the day of Pentecost, he stood before the Jews, bold as a lion, and said, “We found a way to the heart of God. You wicked men took the Lord of glory and slew Him. You are the ones who crucified Jesus; but God loves you and He will heal you. He will forgive you.” No longer was he slinking off. The baptism of the Spirit and fire had done something.
The things in which you have trusted, the things which have given your life any meaning at all on a human level, may still be there and may be very precious to you. When the Lord starts pulling the rug out from under you, only one thing counts, just as Paul said, “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, being made conformable unto His death” (Philippians 3:10).
Everything that is counted gain, you will count loss. Be a disciple of Jesus Christ. Let the baptism of fire cut you loose from all other concerns. Dare to be a fanatic. The world will never be moved by conservative, reasonable people. It will be moved by total discipleship.
After you have asked the Lord to put the fire to you, remember that He has a thousand ways of doing it. You can count on it: if anything is still dear to you on the human plane that is where He sends the fire! The Lord knows the tender spots. Because you have so many tender spots, you do not come and submit yourself to the work of the cross. You make the Lord catch you, and then you are willing to die only a little.
Submit yourself to the Lord. Determine to live for the brethren and give yourself to the Body, with no striving for a place. Die to everything except pleasing the Lord. Let Him be everything to you. This is scriptural teaching which you will experience. The Lord will trouble you with it until it happens to you.
Some pastors may fear that this is a way to lose many of their people, but actually it is a good way to hold them. God has already dealt with many people in the churches, and they are completely disillusioned about anything being worthwhile on the human level. They do not want anything that does not involve an absolute, total performance of the will of God in their lives. Nothing of this world holds any interest for them any longer. They will not cling to anything but Him.
You can never go back to the world. There is nothing there. And you cannot go into the fullness of what God wants until you finish dying. Be logical about this. You intend to go on with God, so when you reach an impasse, what should you do? Give up and die? It is not that simple. The fire of the Holy Spirit has to burn out that chaff. Ask the Lord to help you. You cannot love the establishment or the things of the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof (that is what we will see in our time): but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. I John 2:15–17.