The fire of God will be the instrument of judgment through the mouths and the hands of His remnant that is coming forth.
For behold, the Lord will come in fire and His chariots like the whirlwind, to render His anger with fury, and His rebuke with flames of fire. For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. Isaiah 66:15–16.
Let the godly ones exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishment on the peoples; to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; to execute on them the judgment written; this is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the Lord! Psalm 149:5–9.
So many times the Lord spoke to me, saying, “The slain of the Lord will be many.”
Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. Hosea 6:5.
For the Lord will execute judgment by fire and by His sword on all flesh, and those slain by the Lord will be many. Isaiah 66:16.
The day that was prophesied at that time seemed to be so far off in the future that it hardly seemed real.
As the years have progressed, prophecies of the judgment returning to the house of the Lord (I Peter 4:17) and of the judgments of God coming in the earth have come forth more and more frequently. Scarcely at any time now do we find that the singing and rejoicing of our hearts is not mingled with the divine assertion that there are going to be great judgments of God in the earth (Psalm 149:5–9). While at first we may have been rather apprehensive—we were more sympathetic to the plight of the world then—now we realize that the quicker God brings down the old and establishes the new, the better off everyone will be—however drastic the means that God uses.
Recently while I was in a period of sudden sickness and I felt a very definite satanic pressure of the enemy bearing down on me, I felt prompted to quote this Scripture: “If I then be a man of God, let fire devour these fifty” (II Kings 1:10). Though I had not read that story in II Kings for some time, I knew that those words were associated with what I feel was one of the great miracles of Elijah.
King Ahaziah had become quite ill, so he sent a delegation of messengers to find out from Baal-zebub, the god of Ekron, if he would live. Elijah met them and told them that the king would die. When the king heard of it, he sent a captain and fifty men to get Elijah and bring him back. When they came and commanded Elijah to come down, Elijah said, “If I be a man of God, let fire devour this captain and his fifty”; and it was done. Again the king sent another captain with fifty men, and again Elijah said, “If I be a man of God, let fire devour these fifty”; and it did. For the third time, a captain and his fifty were sent. This time the captain bowed down to Elijah and said, “O man of God, please let my life and the lives of these fifty be precious in your sight. The king sent me. Won’t you please come down?” The angel of the Lord said to Elijah, “Go with him; do not be afraid.” So Elijah marched along with the captain and his fifty men, came to the king, and told him exactly what the Word of the Lord was: “This bed on which you have gone up, you will not come down from it alive.” It was a very simple message, and it happened exactly that way; very shortly the king died (II Kings 1:17).
The second chapter of II Kings recounts another story—the translation of Elijah (II Kings 2:1–11). The horses and the chariot of fire came sweeping down and parted Elijah and Elisha asunder, and Elijah was caught up by a whirlwind into heaven. Elijah is known as the prophet of fire.
Earlier, on Mount Carmel, he pulled the fire of God down out of heaven (I Kings 18:20–40). That fire was unique: it came in answer to a contest between the prophets of Baal and Elijah to determine in the eyes of Israel who was really God. Of course the prophets of Baal did not succeed at all in bringing fire down; but Elijah did. First he rebuilt the altar of the Lord on Mount Carmel which had been torn down; then after repairing it he laid the ox on, and poured four jars of water over it three times. Then he filled the trench around the altar. The sacrifice was soaking wet. The fire came down and not only consumed the sacrifice, but it also licked up all the water out of the trench, burned the water, and burned the rocks (I Kings 18:30–40). Now that was an amazing fire. Elijah was, without question, the prophet of fire. He was a man who moved in God in a great many things.
As I spoke those words, “If I be a man of God, let fire devour these fifty,” I felt almost an instantaneous release come to my spirit. This may sound strange, but I felt like the presence of Elijah was right there with me, prompting me to pray the prayer that he himself had made centuries ago, and as I did there came a release. I realized that sometimes when there is persecution, we react too subjectively—we get on the defensive. It is not our battle, but it is the Lord’s (II Chronicles 20:15). When people come against the Lord now, we are not to retaliate or be vindictive; we, too, are to be channels in the earth to remove what God no longer wants. The battles we are involved in are not personal battles; we are involved in His battle, in His victory, and in His glorious manifestation in the earth (Romans 8:18–19). That is to be our attitude.
As revelation continued to come, I realized that Elijah is very closely involved with the return of the fire of God to the situation of judgment in the earth (Malachi 4:4–6). I believe we should really pray for the fire of God to once again be manifested (I Kings 18:37–38). The more I look into the Scriptures, the more I see that the endtime events of judgment are marked with this mysterious, amazing fire that Elijah was in tune with during the course of his life (I Kings 18:38; 19:12–13; II Kings 1:10). There will also be a great deal of deliverance that God will bring to the people of the Lord. You sense the truth of this as you read the prophecy about Elijah in the book of Malachi.
For, behold, the day cometh, it burneth as a furnace; and all the proud, and all that work wickedness, shall be stubble; and the day that cometh shall burn them up, saith Jehovah of hosts, that it shall leave them neither root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings (or “healing in His rays”; it means the rays of the sun of righteousness); and ye shall go forth, and gambol as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make, saith Jehovah of hosts. Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of Jehovah come. And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers; lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. Malachi 4:1–6, ASV.
Elijah comes, but notice with that how many times in this chapter fire is mentioned. That day “burns as a furnace” and “the wicked will be as ashes under your feet.” The fire of the Lord is going to come and destroy. We know this is true; yet the more I consider it, the more I find myself puzzled as to what that fire of God really is. How does it come? I know that the one thing Satan would desire to emulate more than anything else is this fire of judgment. He makes a gesture toward trying to simulate it in Revelation chapter 13. Verse 13 speaks about the great beast that comes up out of the earth, and about the dragon: And he doeth great signs, that he should even make fire to come down out of heaven upon the earth in the sight of men. Even when the great antichrist comes, the one mark by which he will try to get men to turn to him will be by trying to simulate—or to even bring down, as God would do—the fire that would come down in judgment.
There is a great deal about this fire that we do not understand. One important thing that we do not yet fully understand is that no longer are we to even think concerning judgment as we thought of it in the past; it will operate completely different in the earth than it ever has before. The Word of God tells us that back in the antediluvian days of the Old Testament, there were great reserves of water held back for judgment (II Peter 3:5–6). That Scripture goes on to say that now there are great reserves of fire held for judgment (II Peter 3:5–7). The world will never again be destroyed by water as in the great flood which came before (Genesis 9:11–15); now it is fire that is reserved for judgment.
For this they (people who are mocking about the endtime judgment) wilfully forget, that there were heavens from of old, and an earth compacted out of water and amidst water, by the word of God; by which means the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: but the heavens that now are, and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. II Peter 3:5–7, ASV.
Just as in that ancient world there were reserves of water prepared for that destruction, so also has God prepared stores of fire that are ready to come forth.
Have you found the prophecies of the end time difficult to understand? Paul seems to give one slant on things; the prophecies of Peter seem to be talking about something completely different. And the prophecies of Revelation seem to be talking about something else. Peter talks about the fire that is coming as though it were actually the annihilation of the whole earth.
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall be dissolved with fervent heat, and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? But, according to his promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. II Peter 3:10–13, ASV.
There really is no conflict, however, because John also prophesies the new heaven and the new earth (Revelation 21). There is something in these prophecies that we just cannot escape. We will watch, probably from this time on, various ways and means by which God turns loose the fires of judgment—right up until the time when all the heavens and the earth are completely renovated or changed over and a new heaven and a new earth come out of it (Revelation 21:1).
This fire is not only a judgment to bring to an end that which is wicked, but it is also the refining and the purifying process (Malachi 3:2–3; I Peter 1:7). In Hebrews 12, Paul wrote: “We are coming to Mount Zion and to an innumerable company of angels, to the spirits of just men made perfect. God is speaking and shaking the heavens and the earth so that everything which can be shaken loose will be shaken loose, and what is left will be a Kingdom which cannot be shaken. Therefore, let us serve God with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:22–29). This passage indicates again that as we come right down to the end of the whole thing, the end of the age, “Our God is a consuming fire.”
And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” And this expression, “Yet once more,” denotes the removing of those things which can be shaken, as of created things, in order that those things which cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. Hebrews 12:26–29.
I have been disturbed for some time about the reference in Hebrews 1:7 about how “He makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire.”
For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. And these will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power. II Thessalonians 1:6–9.
It is true that there is a fire which we do not understand. There is a kind of fire which we do not understand; and in some perverted, degenerated way, Satan has sensed that this must be the mark by which there would seem to be a divine approval set upon an individual (Ezekiel 28:13–14). One of the most spectacular things which devil worshipers try to do in some remote places of the earth is to walk on fire, unharmed and unhurt. Somehow there is a psychic or a mystical control over fire and its emanation, by which Satan has tried to imitate the fire of God. But the truth is that the fire of God cannot be touched. Something must have been known about that “strange fire,” because back in the ancient tabernacle, judgment struck if a strange fire was introduced into the altar of God (Leviticus 10:1–2). The introduction of a strange fire would bring judgment.
Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, “It is what the Lord spoke, saying, ‘By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.’ ” So Aaron, therefore, kept silent. Leviticus 10:1–3.
The fire of God will be turned loose again. This is evident in the account of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, which describes how they go forth and judge the nations; and if anyone comes against them, it says that they speak and fire proceeds out of their mouths. By this must those be killed who oppose the ministry of the Lord (Revelation 11:3–5). The two witnesses seem to end in defeat, but they do not really. They are slain by the armies of the beast, and their bodies are left in the street for three and a half days and they are refused burial. Then God’s Spirit comes upon them and they are resurrected; and as they are resurrected, great fear falls upon the people. Then as they ascend up to heaven, an earthquake falls upon the city of Jerusalem and seven thousand people are killed and a third of the city is destroyed (Revelation 11:7–13).
And I will give unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth. These are the two olive trees and the two candlesticks, standing before the Lord of the earth. This goes back to the vision that Zechariah prophesied of in the Old Testament (Zechariah 4:2–3). And if any man desireth to hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth and devoureth their enemies; and if any man shall desire to hurt them, in this manner must he be killed. These have the power to shut the heaven, that it rain not during the days of their prophecy: and they have power over the waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with every plague, as often as they shall desire.
And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that cometh up out of the abyss shall make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. (This identifies it as Jerusalem.) And from among the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations do men look upon their dead bodies three days and a half, and suffer not their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And they that dwell on the earth rejoice over them, and make merry; and they shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth.
And after the three days and a half the breath of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them that beheld them. And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they went up into heaven in the cloud; and their enemies beheld them. And in that hour there was a great earthquake … Revelation 11:3–13, ASV.
The passage goes on to describe the woes that are past and the woes to come. The two witnesses of Revelation 11 are symbolic; verse 6 says that these are prophets who during their lifetime of ministry had judged and brought plagues whensoever they would. These are able to judge the nations without any fear; nothing can stop them. And after they are caught up, it is to an even higher place of authority; more seals and more vials are broken, and everything breaks loose upon the earth in an even greater way (Revelation 15 and 16).
When you read about the end time and the two witnesses, bear in mind that Elijah no doubt is one of the two witnesses, and Moses is probably the other, by nature of the references to them (Revelation 11:5–6; Numbers 16:28–35; I Kings 17:1; 18:36–38; II Kings 1:10; Exodus 7:20–21; 9:13–14). But does this mean that only Moses and Elijah are coming? Or are they symbolic of companies of people who are to come up in the end time?
The Lord has led us to understand that anything that happens in the Scriptures referring to the end time is a collective thing. When the Word speaks about the end time, it is referring to the Body of Christ coming together; it is a collective thing. It is not the individual ministry, but it is the interrelated ministries in the Body that are more important now. God is not dealing with individuals so much as He is dealing with bodies of people.
Then does this ministry of the two witnesses refer to companies of people? Yes; but at the same time, since the Word tells us that there are two witnesses, I believe that there are two individuals who head them.
The coming of Elijah means an Elijah company, but I believe it also means Elijah personally. I believe Elijah will direct and teach and train that company which comes forth; he will head it up. Thus we will have an individual heading up a company. This is true whenever you have the symbolic reference in the Scriptures to companies that come forth. So in these two witnesses, there is no doubt a great ministry that God is preparing right now—a people coming forth who will walk as real prophets of judgment, prophets of destruction. They are actually going to be able to curtail the nations and restrain them, and nothing can be done to them until they have finished their testimony. Then it will appear that they are slain and remain dead for three and a half days, but then immediately resurrection comes again and they have a greater victory than ever. So there is no such thing as defeat for them in this. They triumph over the beast.
The book of Revelation is the dealing of Satan throwing everything he can into the battle of the ages, and the conflict is resolved with Satan losing at every turn and Christ being victorious at every turn (Revelation 17:14). It is the most triumphant book of the Bible. It is a realistic book; a very real problem—Satan and all the forces of evil and the world system as we know it—is portrayed in symbolism, showing how Satan will move in the end time and how God will counteract it. God will move on with many aggressive, violent steps until the kingdoms of this earth become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Revelation 11:15). It is a picture of the systematic purge by the fires of God that level—one thing after another—everything in the sea, on the mountains, in the valleys. Wherever it is, every form of life, every plane of life, every expression of life witnesses God coming through and judging. And when He finally finishes, it will have been the thorough judgment of all time that God brings upon this earth. The fire of God is indeed going to come to us!
I don’t think we have had enough reference to this in the teaching and preaching. Many of us still have the idea, “Believe that there is a hell? Believe that there is a lake of fire? Why, that’s old-fashioned! Those ideas are just carry-overs from old order.” No—the Bible talks too much about fire. If you don’t want to believe that there is an actual hole someplace with things burning in it, where people are put, fine—no one is asking you to believe that. What we are talking about is a fire “where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:47–48; Isaiah 66:24). This Scripture is speaking of something beyond what we understand about the nature of fire.
There is the fire of God in judgment; the fire of God in purging; the fire of God that does tremendous things (Malachi 3:2–3; I Corinthians 3:13–15). And in some unseen way, that fire has been applied to us.
John the Baptist said, “You will be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11–12). He was talking about how the Holy Spirit would come, and how there would be a fire that would burn. Don’t you suppose Isaiah came to know something about that when the seraphim took the coal from off the altar and placed it upon his lips? The fire of God began to burn upon him, and he was ready to go and speak until a nation fell, until the judgments of God had filled the land—because God’s fire was upon his lips (Isaiah 6:6–13). In Revelation 8 we read that this same thing which happened to Elijah takes place again in the end-time judgment: The fire is added to the prayers of the saints, and the prayers of the saints with the fire from off the altar of God are put in the censer and it is dashed to the earth (Revelation 8:1–6). That opens up all the plagues and judgments that follow. This indicates that we are to pray and seek God; then He is going to add the fires of God to our prayers, and the earth will be shaken with judgment. But the instrument that He is going to honor is the censer of incense that is filled with the prayers of the saints (verses 3–4).
And when he opened the seventh seal, there followed a silence in heaven about the space of half an hour. And I saw the seven angels that stand before God; and there were given unto them seven trumpets. And another angel came and stood over the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given unto him much incense, that he should add it unto the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel taketh the censer; and he filled it with the fire of the altar, and cast it upon the earth: and there followed thunders, and voices, and lightnings, and an earthquake. And the seven angels that had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. Revelation 8:1–6, ASV.
What happened when the seven trumpets began to sound? When the first one sounded, hail and fire, mingled with blood, were cast upon the earth. Notice that: “Hail and fire were mingled with blood.” Again, there is fire (Revelation 8:7). What happened when the second angel’s trumpet sounded? A great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and a third part of the sea became blood (verses 8–9). What happened when the third trumpet sounded? There fell from heaven a great star, burning as a torch; it fell upon a third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters (verses 10–11).
Do you understand this? When the saints of God begin to pray in the end time, their prayers come up before God like this incense, and God adds to it the fires of God, and they are cast on the earth again and again—fire upon fire upon fire.
In Revelation chapter 9, when the fifth angel’s trumpet sounded, the key to the pit of the abyss was given to him. When the pit of the abyss was opened, a smoke as the smoke of a great furnace came up out of it; the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke (Revelation 9:1–2). Again, it is all related to fire, to something that God is turning loose upon the earth.
We are facing a type of dealing of God, a phenomenon, that we do not know very much about. Some of you may not believe in hell. But you do have to believe in the fire of God—and whether or not you want to call it hell, it does amount to that. You have been going through a lot of that purging fire of God. The fire of God, the baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire, has been given to purge you. I think that some of you would not be using blasphemy if you were to say, “I have been in a hell,” because that is exactly what you have been experiencing. God has created a miniature thing of refinement, of punishment, of destruction for that old nature (I Peter 1:6–7; 4:12–16), because He is determined that it be burned up. If He is doing that in the people whom He loves, what do you think is reserved for those that walk in the counsel of the ungodly? (Psalm 1:1, 4–6.) If judgment begins at the house of God, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (I Peter 4:17–18.) One of the things we have to face today is that God has looked upon this age and He has said, “Now is the time to blow the whistle on it” (Acts 17:30–31; Revelation 22:11–12). I think we are going to find a lot of things judged.
We should not enter into the most tremendous hour that the world has ever seen since the dawn of creation, and be ignorant of these things (Luke 19:41–44). We should at least be meditating upon them, though we do not perceive them fully as yet—that we strive and follow on to know the Lord and what He is doing, that we learn His ways (Hosea 6:3), that we find out what He wants on the earth. I do not want to be sympathetic to a world that God is going to do away with. I want no sympathy for it. Remember how in the gainsaying of Korah, the earth split open and not only swallowed him up, but swallowed up everyone who was sympathetic with him (Numbers 16:31–35). We don’t want to be guilty of any such thing as that.
God has so many good things for us to walk in; but let’s be a people who are enlightened in the Word to know what really is going to come to pass on the earth.
This fire of God in judgment is a very critical revelation. Satan hates it because as soon as the revelation starts to come forth, within a year, sometimes within days, we see it start to happen. A message like this is not intended to give a full comprehensive, detailed explanation, but it sparks our faith and we start seeking it; and very soon we will be walking in it. To hear it is to be stirred with faith; to be stirred with faith is to appropriate it; to appropriate it is to possess it.
If the Lord promises beauty for ashes, why do we dread the purifying fires of the Lord?
The fires of the Lord purge out the dross and purify the Kingdom. Thus, His fires both judge and perfect.
Noah saw floods that ended corruption for a season; now the fires of God will assure us of a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.
The fires of God have melted us into one; now the fires of God will burn up the chaff.
The baptism of fire should make you immune to the fires of judgments to come.
Satan hates this revelation of the fire of God because he will swim in a lake of it.
After He has purified us, only our ashes will be beautified in His sight.