These are the days of fire. Expect to see more judgments in the earth. Expect to see the flow of creativity from God’s people on an unprecedented scale—in the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, in the singing and making melody in their hearts to the Lord, in the flow of prophecy and the Word. The more the Lord puts us in a baptism of fire, the more we will come into that which we really embraced when we first came into a walk in the Spirit. This is what we anticipated.
In former days many movements seemed to have great promise, but a hungry believer never found the reality he was seeking. There was always some basic disappointment and disillusionment. Today’s end-time walk that God has raised up is continually unfolding in the realm of reality. These are the days of fire. Not only is that fire on us now, but it also will be revealed at His revelation, at His coming.
If you had never experienced something yourself or seen anyone else experience it and you did not know anything about it, how could it be explained to you so that you could completely understand it? Suppose someone tried to describe to you a simple sport, such as pole vaulting, if you had never seen anyone do it. He might tell you how the paces are marked out, what kind of a pole is used, and what the athlete tries to accomplish as he runs with the pole. Both the motivation and the performance of it no doubt would escape you. Your first reaction probably would be, “Why would anyone want to do that?”
This reaction is similar to that of someone who is coming into the fire. Why would anyone want the fire of the Lord to ruin his personality and remove from him the individuality of his human nature? No matter how repulsive that nature might be to some people, it is still attractive to most. We need to understand the purpose of the fire of God coming upon us. We need to know the motive.
The fire of the Lord is reserved in the heavens, waiting for judgment, like rain that is ready to fall upon the earth.
II Peter 3:10 says that in the end time, fire will come to consume and the earth will be dissolved in flames. Yet there are other prophecies that speak of the earth enduring forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4; Psalm 104:5). Now I am beginning to understand what God is talking about: the fire of God comes to burn out everything in His creation, leaving it a complete, new entity in His sight, new heavens and a new earth, wherein will dwell righteousness (II Peter 3:13).
The Word comes concerning the fire of the Lord and how the slain of the Lord would be many (Isaiah 66:16). Now we have received a new revelation about the fire, and we know that the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire is a truth that God is setting before us. We see also that it is a unique experience belonging to the end time.
Certain Old Testament references in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy that refer to the Feast of Pentecost reveal that there was always the element of fire connected with the sacrifices of the Feast. Usually we associate Pentecost only with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and we forget the detailed number of sacrifices that were burned before the Lord—as the Word always indicates—“to produce an aroma that is pleasing to God” (Leviticus 1:9, 13—2:2, 9). The only time you will ever smell good to God is when you are burned up. When the chaff is burned, then the aroma of a sweet fragrance comes up to the Lord.
Are you beginning to understand more clearly the invisible fire that will come? Many things will happen and no one will understand why. This invisible fire is an element that will be introduced into the whole end-time moving of God’s Spirit in a way that no one understands. But for those who submit to the Lord, it will mean almost an instantaneous removal of things which are hindering them.
The Feast of Pentecost is coming into its own place as an end-time Feast. Until recently, its significance in the end time had not been perceived; it always seemed to be related to the experience of the initial baptism of the Holy Spirit. The importance of Pentecost will become greater when it is seen as much more than simply being related to the experience of receiving the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. It should be viewed as an opening of the door.
Of all the feasts, this is one with brevity; Acts 2:41 records that it happened in one day. The Scripture had prophesied in Isaiah 66:8, “Can a nation be born in a day?” meaning, “Can a kingdom come forth in a day?” This is literally what happened. The early Church was born in one day by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Thousands were brought into the Church; and from that time on, the Word says, “God added to the Church daily such as were being saved” (Acts 2:47). If that happened then, what can we expect to happen in the end time? When God restores the full complement of that experience with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire, it will again be in one day.
It is not a prolonged process. People will open their hearts and appropriate it, and from that time on, every manifestation of the chaff in their lives will immediately be burned. Embrace this as a truth to rejoice in. Pray about the fire and believe for something to happen. Do not let your faith waver. Do not back off from anything that God has for you in this.
Let us read some Scriptures which explain the fire of the Holy Spirit that is working in us now and how it will be manifested at His revelation, or at His coming. A good place to start is with the books of I and II Peter. Peter loved the fire, and he loved to talk about the fire. Perhaps this was because (as he says in II Peter 1:16–18) he was an eyewitness of the glory, and he, along with James and John, saw the Lord transfigured on the mountain. James the brother of John did not write any books that appear in the Word because he was the first disciple to be martyred; however, Peter wrote two Epistles and John wrote three, plus a Gospel and the book of Revelation.
Peter refers not only to fire working in the believer (I Peter 1:7; 4:12), but also its appearance at the ultimate coming of the Lord (II Peter 3:7, 10-12); and John’s book of Revelation refers to fire more than any other book in the New Testament. Because they had visibly seen the Kingdom of God on the Mount of Transfiguration, they knew something about it, and thus some of their messages are unique. It will remain for the Holy Spirit in this hour to open up the Word of God again and allow us to see what the fire of God really meant in the New Testament.
I Peter 1:6–7: In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ…. In his Epistles Peter always focused upon the time of the Lord’s revelation. This passage shows that it is very scriptural for the Lord to put you through the fiery trial, testing your faith so that it will result in praise and glory at His revelation.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you. I Peter 4:12. Your life will never again follow the normal course of events. Every day will be unique, inasmuch as God orders it for a purpose. Nothing will happen to you by accident to destroy you, but rather to further that which the Lord is doing in your life.
Do not think that some strange thing is happening to you or that God has forsaken you. Only He knows what good there can be in everything that has been happening to you. Remember what David said in Psalm 27:13: “I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”
Peter continued, verse 13, But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ…. What does he mean by “the sufferings of Christ”? No one is pounding nails into your hands and your feet, or ramming a spear into your side. Notice that he does not say “the sufferings for Christ,” but “the sufferings of Christ.” You are experiencing them. If you suffer with Him and go through the work of death that He went through, if you identify with everything that He did until you experience it yourself, then you will reign with Him—but not until then.
But to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed (do you see? if you are reviled, you are blessed), because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. I Peter 4:13–14. Even if the glory is not visible to you, you know that the Spirit of glory and of God is resting upon you when you experience that fiery ordeal, as though some strange thing happened to you.
What the Jews call the “Shekinah glory” revealed itself in the Bible as fire. Sometimes the glory came as a cloud of smoke; other times as a pillar of fire and flames of fire. In the New Testament, the cloven tongues of fire that rested upon every one of the believers were the manifestation of the Shekinah glory. One hundred and twenty people were gathered in the upper room. The Spirit of the Lord came upon them, and they were baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire (Acts 1:15;2:1–4). This actually was the fulfillment of what had happened earlier at the dedication of Solomon’s temple when one hundred and twenty priests stood ministering before the Lord. The glory of the Lord filled the temple until they could not stand to minister, but fell prostrate under the impact of it (II Chronicles 7). That experience was a prototype of the cloven tongues of fire, when once again there were one hundred and twenty who could not minister in the flesh, but were rendered helpless to move outside of God. From that time on, they were given an initiative to move in God. If the fiery ordeal is coming upon you, remember that it is directly related to the glory. They are the same thing.
If you trace all the appearances in the Bible of the Shekinah glory, You might get the idea that the glory was only present over the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant, but that is not so. The Shekinah glory appeared a number of times. One of the early incidents is recorded in Genesis 15:17, when Abraham laid out the sacrifices upon the altar, and the fire came down and moved among the pieces.
Do not ever get the impression that this fiery trial sent to test you is only some horrible kind of ordeal that the Lord is bringing to your life. It is more than that. It is the Shekinah glory which comes and destroys the chaff; it is the fire of God. These are the days of fire. If you believe in the return of His glory, you must also believe in the return of the fire, because there will be no manifestation of the glory of God until the fire has done its work within your life to burn out the chaff. To the degree that you go through this fire, to that extent you may rejoice with exultation at the revelation of His glory.
If you are reviled for the Spirit of Christ, if you are going through persecutions, if that surprising fiery trial is upon you, then the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.
I want you to notice something at the end of the fourth chapter of I Peter. Which is talking about The glory and the Spirit of God resting upon you, when you suffer as a Christian verse 17 literally says, Because- the- time (kairos- a fit time, proper season)- the Judgment–from-the-house-the God-and-if-it begins-from-what-the-end-those-disobey-the-gospel-the God.
A preposition is often an important word in the Greek language, and it is difficult for translators to be truly accurate in their translating when a preposition is used. The actual Greek does not read, “with or at, but from the household of God.” The Greek word is apo and primarily means from. It is translated from 393 times in the King James Bible. It is translated at nine times. The translators did not understand the ministry of judgment given to the church that Paul and Peter walked in. And most Christians have no understanding of it, because of a lack of teaching on this subject.
Peter, writing about the fiery ordeal, indicates that this is the beginning of judgment which will flow from the house of God.
Does this mean that God judges His household first? No, this passage is saying that when God has dealt with you first and your obedience has come to the full and is complete, and the glory and the Spirit of God is resting upon you then He is in readiness to avenge all disobedience. We see this in II Corinthians 10:6 and II Thessalonians 1:5–6 speaks about this also. God will establish you first through these dealings, and then it is His righteousness that judges your adversaries. Judgment has to proceed from the household of God. It has to begin with us, but it will proceed from us.
The fire and the glory of God is the experience that we yearn and long for, because it will deal with the chaff. It is going to bring the judgments of God to us experientially by grace. It will bring forth the results of the judgment fire that fell upon our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and make it real to us. We cannot be identified with it except by the grace of God when we come and say, “Lord Jesus, we identify ourselves with You.”
You are one with Christ. You are one with everything that He experienced on your behalf. But it cannot remain merely a theoretical concept; it must become yours experientially. You cannot say, “O Jesus, I embrace Your righteousness; I take it to myself,” and then see no evidence of righteousness in your life. If you embrace it theoretically, eventually you are also going to experience it in every area. You are going to be righteous, even as He is righteous (I John 3:7). You will walk even as He walked, because if you have been identified with Him you can say, I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…. Galatians 2:20. You are aware that it is a real life coming forth. The judgment that Christ experienced on the cross through the fire of the Holy Spirit will be executed within you too. Because He died, you die. The fire is put to you and the chaff burns.
Some might say that we do not literally die. But we do. We literally die out to everything that is of Adam. As believers, we must start thinking about leaving the human race altogether. You must come to the place where you want to get out of the human race and into the sons of God, as though they were two different things. You have to see that you are either in the flesh or you are in God—one of the two. The fire has to burn until the chaff is taken off the wheat and nothing is left except the pure divine nature coming forth and ruling. Theoretically, it sounds great; but you must believe it. Although you will have a struggle with it, you will experience it. Experimentally, it will be yours. Get ready to burn!
Are you already feeling the blisters? Have you felt the burning? Have you felt the Lord highlighting the chaff in your life by allowing demonic assault to come against you? Has He made you realize how much chaff you have? Have you wondered if there will be anything left when He finishes? Do not worry—there will be.
In II Peter 3:1–8 Peter continued his theme about fire. This is now, beloved, the second letter I am writing to you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, that you should remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.”
For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice (it is important that you grasp this next phraseology) that by the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water, through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But the present heavens and earth by His word are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Verses 10-12: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, on account of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat!
We have never understood the spiritual aspect of that passage. We will not argue over the fact that this may or may not take place in the age to come in this exact manner. However, whatever God does, He does out of a pattern of action which He describes in the Word; and anything that God is doing in your own life, He is doing by the same Word in the same way. He is dealing with you with fire to burn out of you the flesh and the works of darkness, and to bring about His will.
As far as we know, the only time that this fire became visible was on the day of Pentecost, when there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. Acts 2:3. No doubt an invisible fire will break through to the realm of the senses upon occasion, and then we will see visibly the glory of the Lord; it will come as a fire. But in the meantime, this does not mean that the Spirit of glory and of God does not rest upon you now, and that it is not working in you. When you sense that taste of ashes in your mouth, you know it is an evidence of the fire.
In the third chapter of II Peter, he is talking about the hastening of the coming of the Lord and how much will be destroyed by the fire, that there will be new heavens and a new earth. All of this comes about by the Word of God. Because God speaks a Word, fire works judgment.
I do not think anyone understood the spirit realm any better than Elijah and Elisha. Do you remember when the prophet Elijah was sitting up on the mountain, and a band of fifty soldiers came after him? They called, “O man of God, come down,” because they wanted to take him to the king. He answered, “If I be a man of God, let fire devour these fifty,” and they were destroyed. When a second group came, they were destroyed in the same manner. The third group came, and the captain pleaded, “O man of God, I’m a married man. I have a family. Please be kind to me.” So that time the prophet went with them (II Kings 1:9–15).
How well do we understand this fire? There are certain basic things existing now in the spirit world which we should understand. Hawaiian people understand the nature of fire in the occult and mystical realms. They have seen the balls of fire streaking through the sky that the kahunas (witch doctors) send to someone they want to kill. A person dies under that fire unless certain spiritual protections are built up against it, in which case it boomerangs, and the curse returns back on the kahuna, destroying him.
This witchcraft and sending out of signals is nothing compared to what the people of God will be doing in the judgments which are going to be in the earth. We will be sending our signals so strong that it will make the devil look like a ham operator. All that Satan can do is try to imitate or try to take over and use an existing principle which he has perverted.
Let us look at several verses which show us that when Amos brought forth the Word of God, he did so in the same manner as Elijah. When these men spoke the Word of the Lord, it always came as a fire that was to be kindled against a situation. Amos 1:4: “So I will send fire upon the house of Hazael….” Verse 7: “So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza….” Verse 10: “So I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre….” Verse 12: “So I will send fire upon Teman….” Verse 14: “So I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah….” Chapter 2, verse 2: “So I will send fire upon Moab….” Verse 5: “So I will send fire upon Judah….”
There is no difference between our being blessed and the world being judged. We humble ourselves, and the fire judges us correctively. The world rebels, and the fire judges them punitively in destruction. If we are reproved and obey the Word, we will live. But he who is often reproved and hardens his heart shall suddenly be cut off, and that without remedy (Proverbs 29:1).
Notice several more verses from Amos. Chapter 5, verse 6: “Seek the Lord that you may live, lest He break forth like a fire, O house of Joseph….” Chapter 7, verse 4: Thus the Lord God showed me, and behold, the Lord God was calling to contend with them by fire, and it consumed the great deep and began to consume the farm land. There are many other passages that we could read, all bringing the same emphasis: “I will send a fire. I will send a fire. I will send a fire.”
Before Jesus’ ascension, He gave the disciples the commission, but He commanded them to tarry in Jerusalem until they had received power (Luke 24:49). He wanted to deal with all of the duplicity in Peter, in Thomas, and in the rest of the disciples. Then when the day of Pentecost had fully come, there came the sound of the rushing, mighty wind and the Holy Spirit with cloven tongues of fire that rested upon each one of them. From that time on, we have no record of those disciples ever again walking in the fleshly traits that are recorded in the Gospels. The book of Acts does not record any of the basic fleshly flaws that plagued the disciples prior to Pentecost.
What does that mean to you? Submit to the baptism of the Spirit and fire. Believe for it. This is not an impossibility; it is essential for this day. You do want it. You have cried for it.
Many Spirit-filled people love the Word. They eagerly come and soak it up. You cannot drive them away. What is in their hearts? They want to walk with God. They are not going to draw back from this fire either, because it is the experience they want. They are not asking for a movement that condones anything of the old flesh. They do not want a coexistence of the divine nature and the sin nature. They are crying out, “Rid us of the sin nature! Let’s have the reality of a true walk with God.” The reality comes by the fire.
What is the agency by which this fire comes? It comes by a Word. Before the disciples went into the upper room to wait for the Holy Spirit, they had been commanded by the Lord: “Tarry for the promise of the Father, which you have heard of Me” (Acts 1:4). Jesus did not say, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire, and it is the baptism that John the Baptist talked about.” He always referred to it as “the promise of the Father.”
You cannot separate this fire from a living Word from God. At one time, Jeremiah claimed that he would not speak anymore in His name; yet he said, “His Word was like a burning fire shut up in my bones. I was weary with forebearing and I could not stay” (Jeremiah 20:9). When the two disciples who were on their way to Emmaus finally realized that Jesus was with them, they said, “Did not our hearts burn within us, as He talked with us in the way” (Luke 24:32). The Word had a way of being the agency to kindle the fire.
James writes of the fire in a different light in James 3:6, saying that the tongue is a world of iniquity and is set on fire by hell. Words contain an element of this fire, either in a desecrated, depraved realm of the old nature, or else in something that God sanctifies and brings forth by the Holy Spirit. For this reason, the speaking with other tongues on the day of Pentecost was the consequence of tongues of fire resting upon the believers. Because the fire attended it, the words that came not only began to change the whole world, but they changed the whole spiritual realm.
When you prophesy, you are turning loose a fire. When you speak the words of prophecy, you send loose an unbelievable fire. It is written in Revelation 8:3–5 that the censer of the prayers and worship of the saints is filled with the fire from the altars and then is cast upon the earth. It is the intercession and the prayers that are going to turn loose all the end-time judgments, and they will be spoken from your mouth. Do you want the fire to work within you? Embrace it. Prophesy it to yourself; minister it to yourself. By the anointing of the Lord, proclaim it. As you begin to proclaim it, you will experience it. You cannot embrace it in that way without having it happen to you. This fire is very essential. It is closely related to the end-time events.
The passage in Matthew 25:31–46 tells about the time when the Lord will come in His glory. “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ ”
This parable is difficult to understand. It speaks of the separation of the sheep from the goats. Here is the problem: How can a goat help it if he is a goat? If he is born a goat, he is a goat. There is no special operation that can change a goat into a lamb. Follow this interpretation carefully; in it you will see something about fire and about Body ministry that you have not seen before.
After the sheep are on His right and the goats are on the left, “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’
“Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ ” (In other words, “Lord, what makes us sheep instead of goats?”) “And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’ ”
What happened to the early Church after the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire? They began to sell everything and lay the money at the apostles’ feet to give to the poor and to distribute as everyone had need (Acts 4:34–35). The chaff had to be dealt with and burned by the fire. The basic intrinsic selfishness of the old nature was destroyed in that first baptism of fire. Never again, in the entire history of the Church, have we seen any visitation like that, when the people would sell everything they had. They shared together, and no one claimed anything as his own. Something very basic had been wrought in their spirits, and it came about because they had experienced the fire that consumed the chaff. This is what made them sheep.
“Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels.’ ” (These people are professing Christians! They are, to some extent, believers.) “ ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’
“Then they themselves also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ ”
You had better be aware that it is the basic condition of what you are, not what you can do, that is important. You can come into a walk with God and move with a certain elementary efficiency in the gifts, and still not accomplish what the Lord is doing. Men will prophesy and do many mighty works, and the Lord still will not acknowledge them. What does He say He will do to them? “And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” This is very disturbing. They will enter into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. This baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is a necessity, or you will participate in the fire that has been prepared for Satan and his angels. It is all the same fire!
You may wonder if this dealing that you submit to is the same as hell. Did you ever question it? Surely you had no doubt as to the nature of the fire you were going through. Most people think that hellfire is one thing, and the Holy Spirit’s fire is another thing. But the Scriptures say that our God is a consuming fire (Deuteronomy 4:24). He is the source of all of it—it is the same fire. He is also the stone. Fall on Him, and you will be broken; but if the stone falls on you, it will grind you to powder (Matthew 21:43–44). When you believe and receive the fire, it works in your life. If you are now going through anything that resembles hell, God bless you that it is the only hell you will ever know.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire burns away the old self. Can you say that the Lord has really dealt with your life and consumed a lot of chaff? Would you say that sometimes it was extremely unpleasant and there was no way out of it? God has to deal with you experientially. You may say, “Oh, I don’t believe that. I believe in Jesus Christ as my Savior, and therefore I’m bound for heaven.” But when you have embraced something and it becomes legally yours, it is another thing for you to take the deed out of your pocket and say, “See? I’m an heir.” It is one thing for you to say that you believe in Jesus as your Savior, but it is another thing to be saved to the uttermost. It is one thing for you to embrace salvation and the righteousness of God, but it is another thing to walk in that righteousness.
What you have embraced by faith becomes completely yours experientially, and in the process you go through an experience that conforms to what Christ went through to win it for you. If you embrace all that He died on the cross to give you, then do not be surprised if there is a cross experience in your own life. This end-time walk with God is more real than anything that has come along in centuries, because the people in it actually are being purged and refined. It is the greatest trial of their faith, yet they rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.