Even though we have approached and accepted the baptism of fire, the mechanics and the absolute thoroughness of it have still eluded us. The revelation of it, I believe, will come in this service. God has something to say to us that is revolutionary, a solemn principle that is involved in the fire of Pentecost. It will give us some idea of where we are and what is happening to us in regard to this baptism of fire.
We have embraced the concept of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, but we don’t actually know what to do about it. I know that the Pentecostal movement didn’t understand it, but I wonder if we have more than just a little glimmer of it.
The second chapter of Acts tells that when the day of Pentecost had fully come, and as the believers were keeping the Feast, the Holy Spirit fell upon them and 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. He said, “This is that,” or we might say, “of that,” for I don’t think he meant that the prophecy was exhaustive. In quoting the prophecy of Joel, he speaks about the sun being turned into darkness and the moon into blood and the devastations in the earth; and he links all of that in Joel’s prophecy with what was happening there with 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 goes on to quote Joel 3:1, 2: “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 the tendency coming to be drawn down toward them to battle with them. It is incredible that a little nation like that, after having gained its independence only a few years ago, should be challenged by so many nations who want to blot it out. The reason they contend for the place in Jerusalem is because Satan wants to delay. And 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.
Recently an article from the Associated Press pointed out that within the course of ten days, twelve different governments in the world had 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, no answers, nothing that can come in and fill the gap. It does seem that there is a particular and unique capacity given to men to destroy themselves, to blow up their computers at their universities, to riot, to destroy governments. But no one has anything constructive to offer.
With all of this taking place, we understand that this is the time for all of these things to happen according to the first chapter of Joel. Notice 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… and he goes on to describe it. Verse 8. Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth… Verse 13: Gird yourselves with sackcloth… Verse 12 … Indeed, rejoicing dries up from the sons of men. Verse 15: … For the day of the Lord is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
I am going to ask you to look in your Bibles, and prove for yourself what I am telling you—not because I challenge you to doubt me, but because it is so audacious. Every passage that talks about 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 that day of the Lord, how near it is, and what is going to happen. Notice verses 1–3a: … 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.… 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. Remember that this is the chapter that precedes the prophecy of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
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?’ ”
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. I’m going to set something before you now that I’ve never spoken in a message before in my entire life. Suddenly it has dawned on me that the day of the Lord is going to be the same for us as it will be for those who are visited in judgment. The only difference is that it comes upon them in judgment, and it comes upon us in an experience by our own invitation. We’ll have to live through it.
I have been very realistic about this Walk, I think. I’ve told you hundreds of times, “Who has to be happy?” I’ve talked to you about coming to the place where you just determine to do the will of the Lord and submit to Him. At a time when joy is withered away from the sons of men, we sing joyfully with a joy that is in the Lord. But let me remind you that more and more, the whole world will see no joy, no happiness, no peace. The only joy that will exist will not be on a human level; it will be a fruit of the Spirit. The only love and the only peace that will exist in these coming days of darkness when men will curse God will be a fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace. God is bringing us to the end of human resources.
This is a common experience. I went through it myself. The only time my life became a burden, and I did not have any inner resource to meet it from day to day, has been in this Walk. The only time in my life that I have ever been pressed beyond what I could handle or control has been in this Walk. I have had experiences of being broken in heart beyond what any of you would ever know, and ever will know. I had deep disillusionment on the human level, beyond what I could ever reveal to you. I am not exaggerating. I am telling you the truth.
Just recently I sat in the church office, talking with a young man who should have been dead. He had taken a tranquilizer element, a muscle relaxant. And because the heart is a muscle and the lungs are muscles, it relaxed him just enough that if it had not been for a skillful doctor’s manipulating him, he would have died. I believe he could be a prophet of God. I believe the prophecies over him. God was good to him.
Some of you do not yet have the true picture of the Walk. You think it is a lark. It is a walk with God. And first you are going to experience what the world will experience. And you’re going to experience it in a very real sense. You’ll come to the end of yourself, and as you do, you will throw everything in God’s lap. As long as this Walk is sustained by the human element, by your ability to work out your life until it is a pleasant and a happy experience, and you say, “I believe in the Walk; I believe that I can manipulate and plan my life and be a happy individual,” you are not yet in the Walk.
This Walk with God has to do with the sovereign preparation of a remnant of people who are going to walk with Him, who will be totally immune from the normal, human instinct of self-preservation. God 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). We must come to such a total basic discipleship that we lay ourselves before God and no longer regard our life as being our own. You say, “I belong to Jesus”; but that is not really so. Not until you die—die out to the interest in yourself, to the claim and the rights that you have to yourself.
You may say, “I love You, Jesus. I’m all Yours, Lord!” It just does not work that simply. God is the one who makes one demand after another. And it can become very unpleasant. If you do not believe this is true, then you do not know a blessed thing about this Walk. You ask, “Then why are the people always rejoicing?” Because there is a joy in doing the will of God, even when all the human level of satisfaction, every ambition and every joy of the flesh is gone from your life, and you live for the Lord and for Him alone. Being crucified with Christ will be an experience for our people. This sounds extreme, but it actually is not. It is a very real experience, and I believe many of our people have been going through something like this.
You will never fulfill a ministry out of a human ambition or drive. That will die before you ever see it accomplished. I watch the prophecies over people. I know what this is all about. God brings this Walk to men on a level of revelation. After He has brought a revelation of it to them, they become so 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 them through it, so they are constantly struggling to perform their little gift. Something is frustrating them to the point that they are just about ready to give up. Finally they say, “O God, forget all the gifts. There is just one thing I want, Lord, with all my heart. I just want to love You.” And then the ministry begins. First something in you has to die. When will we learn that 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 are such that it is at the end of the second day when He resurrects us, and the third day we live in His sight. You are always going to 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 brings you to die out to them. When you die out to them and they are buried, He will begin to deal with your heart and then you can say, “Now we will follow on to know the Lord.”
If you want to walk in revelation until spiritual perception is very real to you, you will have to die out to your vital human awareness to other things, in order that you can see on that spiritual plane. 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 hides. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep are scattered (Zechariah 13:7). When the mob came after Jesus, He said, “I am the one you want. Let these others go their way. Let them be free.” And 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.” That isn’t real discipleship, is it? It would appear to me that a real disciple would be out there, saying boldly, “Kill me too.”
Peter said that and he thought he meant it, but that “I’ve got to save my hide” idea 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 hide. However, after the day of Pentecost, he stood up there, bold as a lion, and said, “We found a way to the heart of God. You wicked men took the Lord of glory and you slew Him. You’re the ones who crucified Jesus. But God loves you and He will heal you. He will forgive you.” Wasn’t that marvelous? No longer was he slinking off. The baptism of the Spirit and fire had done something.
You, too, had better begin to seek for it. It is already working in your life, whether you know it or not. The things in which you trusted, the things that gave 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, you will come to the place where only one thing counts: “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, being made conformable unto His death” (Philippians 3:10). That is real. Everything that is counted gain, I count loss. I am going to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and this baptism of fire is a necessary experience. It is going to cut me loose.
You are probably thinking, “Boy, that’s the route to become a fanatic.” I won’t disagree with you. I doubt whether the world in the immediate future, is going to be moved by conservative, reasonable people. It will be moved by the totalness of discipleship, just as the Lord said.
Lord, put the fire to us. He has a thousand ways to do it. But you can count on it that if there is anything that is still sweet and dear to you on the human plane, that is where you are going to get it! If you want to hurt someone, hit him where he is tender. That is what boys do. When one of them has a sore foot, every kid that comes along in school stomps on it. Don’t you think the Lord knows where to hit? He knows the tender spot. The only thing I don’t like is the fact that the Lord takes so long to get it done, and we have so many tender spots. We don’t come and submit ourselves to the work of the cross; we make the Lord catch us, and then we are willing to die a little, just like the German who thought he was being so kind to his dog when he cut off his long tail, an inch at a time.
On the day of Pentecost, they made a perpetual sacrifice unto the Lord. Sometimes, I think that is what I am. I’m still burning.
“Lord, get it over with. Don’t give me just a hotfoot. Send the fire, Lord.”
Submit yourselves unto the Lord. You come to the place where you live for the brethren and give yourself to the Body, with no striving for a place. You will be dead to everything but just pleasing the Lord. He will be everything to you. This is an important message for you. It is Scriptural and true to your experience. The Lord will trouble you with it, and that is exactly what will happen to you.
You may be saying, “This is a good way to lose many of our young people.” No, it is a good way to hold them. There are many people whom God has already dealt with, who are disillusioned as to anything worthwhile on the human level, anything that does not involve an absolute, total performance of the will of God in their lives, from the inside out. Nothing of this world holds any interest for them any longer. We have come that far. Then let us not cling to anything but Him.
You can never go back to the world at all. There is nothing there. And you can not go on into the fullness of what God wants until you finish dying. Then let us be logical about this. We all intend to go on with God. So when we hit an impasse, what should we do? Give up and die? It’s not that simple. You can’t say, “Stop the world; I want to get off.”
You can not 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.
Come on. Die. You say, “I can’t!” The fire has to burn out the chaff—believe me. Ask the Lord to help you.
Comment: “We’ve grown up in an American society on a lot of fairy tales. The establishment created an illusion of grandeur, success and happiness; lovely homes, two or three cars, and all kinds of luxuries. It also created a false sense of security.
“Then this present generation comes along and says, ‘Phony, phony, phony. The whole thing is phony.’ Because of our eyes being opened to see that what our peers were reaching for was phony, why should we now be any different in our approach to God? As He begins to unfold the revelation of this hour, we realize this is not going to be a pie-in-the-sky trip. It’s going to be a nitty-gritty, rough road to hoe. We’re going to go through a day of darkness and gloom.
“As God is baptizing us into that fire, He is setting us into a place of destiny where we aren’t going to control a situation and try to have a happy little walk with God, because God will keep cornering us into circumstances that are going to create the dedication that will cause us to lay our lives down for each other before it is over with.
“You know that one of the things which hinders every ministry’s development is that of ambition. There are always a few ministries who want to get very close to our apostle. If God doesn’t position you and instead you position yourself, it is very dangerous for you. It can destroy you. Two brothers who were the Lord’s disciples wanted to sit right next to Him in the Kingdom. It doesn’t make a bit of difference where we’re sitting. The important thing is how close we are to the Lord and how closely we are tied to each other by revelation, knowing that we are one Body.”
Henceforth know we no man after the flesh. I love my brethren, but from the beginning of this Walk, God gave me a word that I was not to relate to any of the people on a human plane; I was to relate to them on the plane of the Spirit. When people try to get too close by socializing because they want the relationship on a human plane, they find themselves on the outside, and God does not let them come back. The end of all flesh has come. Does that mean we won’t be close? Why, we will lay our lives down for each other! Won’t we love each other? We will love each other more than ever! That is not the idea. We have to die out to the relationships on the fleshly plane. And the only way to do that is to be filled with the Holy Spirit and fire.
What then is the result? No personality clashes. No trying to pair personalities up in the ministry or in the churches. We do not have to worry about that. We just know one another after the Spirit. And we go to work. It does not make any difference what anyone has been. It does not make any difference what he needs. There is a oneness in the Body, and that oneness is entirely dependent upon the work of the cross that is being done in us.
Do you need this Word? How long would it take for this to be a visitation of the Lord to your heart? It need not take long. You would be surprised to know how much you could receive in a matter of seconds.
In years past people had what they called “tarry meetings.” Sometimes they had to tarry for months to receive the Holy Spirit. Most of our people here came in with the idea that the Holy Spirit was a gift. Would you embrace the fact that the fire is a gift too? On the day of Pentecost there came the sound of a rushing, mighty wind. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, cloven tongues of fire sat on them, and they began to speak with other tongues. There was no tarrying to receive the Holy Spirit at all in the accounts we read in the book of Acts. We know that. But we do not see any tarrying for the fire either.
Let’s tie the sacrifice to the horns of the altar. If we do not, while we look the other way, that sacrifice is going to jump up and run off, just as sure as anything. Then you have to catch it all over again. Let’s tie it down.
This is a fabulous truth. We started with a revelation and we want to move into the complete restoration of this experience of fire in the baptism of the Spirit. We are actually going to walk in it.
Comments: “I think this word is as great as the message that came in 1910 and 1915 on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This truth has never been revealed or explained. This means that we are moving into a Scriptural revelation of the end time.”
“Acts 2:38 says, ‘Repent, and let each of you be baptized, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ We know how the gift of the Holy Spirit came: it came with tongues and a flame of fire. It’s a promise and a gift. This baptism of fire is still part of the gift and it’s a promise, and as with any other promise, we can receive it by faith.”
“Our Scripture in Luke speaks of an unquenchable fire. It’s never going to go out. We have always thought that the fire was going to come and do its thing and then lift off of us again, and we would be pure. No, it’s an unquenchable fire. The Holy Spirit comes and it stays with you. You’re baptized. You’re immersed in the Holy Spirit, and you remain immersed in the Holy Spirit. This Word is breaking the illusions that we’ve had of what this fire is. And it’s opening up to us the reality of it, that we’re being baptized with the fire, but it’s not going to leave. We’re going to remain in this fire. A day of gloom is coming for all of us, because the same spirit of fire will be resting upon the whole earth throughout the end time.”
Hebrews 12:18 tells us that we have not come to the old mountain that could not be touched. We have come to Mount Zion and God is a consuming fire (verse 29). We throw ourselves on the mountain of fire and say, “Consume, Lord. Let it happen to us.”
We are going to believe in the gift of the Holy Spirit and fire. If it is a promise and a gift, then we are going to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire. So many of us have received the Holy Spirit, walked in the Spirit, ministered in the Spirit; and whatever is deficient in our experience, we embrace by faith that the fire shall come. The fire shall burn out the dross. For the first time, perhaps in many centuries, God has given the revelation of the baptism of fire. I have never heard of anyone knowing it. I have never heard of any doctrine of it. But God has born witness to my heart, and we reach into it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am going to walk in it as a gift from God.
There will not be people in this Walk who minister and minister, and because the chaff was never exposed to the fire, they suddenly find that they are carrying in their flesh the seed of future defeat. All Satan has to do is to agitate that a little and the seed of defeat will spring up and they are wiped out. By the grace of God, I do not intend to lose out down the road. God is going to take care of it now. I have known many a minister with a real ministry, but suddenly he found he was carrying in his heart all the time the potential of defeat that eventually blossomed and destroyed him. We will not be like that. The fire will take care of it. It is real. You believe it. You embrace it. You will receive it. It is of God that this fire come to our lives.
Are you ready to die? Are you ready for the fire? So let it be. Let us walk in newness of life. If we live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit, we will never fulfill the lusts of the flesh.
Without any question, the fire is burning. The fire is yours. The evidences and the result of it will appear shortly. The concentration of your heart upon the acceptance of this baptism of fire must not diminish. We could take this truth very casually and say, “Oh, we heard a great truth,” as we walked away from it completely unaware that a dispensation from God had been committed to us. I think this is one of the most significant and practical steps of restoration that has come in a thousand years.