The Lord is bringing revelation about the ministry of fire and the experience of fire in the end time.
In Leviticus, chapters 8 and 9, you can read about Aaron’s consecration to the high priesthood, and the instructions the Lord gave concerning the sacrifices which were made to consecrate Aaron and his sons. In chapters 9 and 10, two kinds of fire are mentioned.
Then Aaron lifted up his hands toward the people and blessed them, and he stepped down after making the sin offering and the burnt offering and the peace offerings. And Moses and Aaron went into the tent of meeting. When they came out and blessed the people, the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. Then fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the portions of fat on the altar; and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces. Leviticus 9:22–24. This was the real dedication and consecration of Aaron and his sons. It was very necessary, and God honored their sacrifices with fire.
The tenth chapter of Leviticus tells about a strange fire. (When God brings forth a truth, Satan brings forth his counterfeit.) Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans (these somewhat resembled an old-fashioned square corn popper with a long handle), and after putting the fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. This is the key: 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.
Aaron had just seen two of his sons destroyed by God because they offered strange fire. A fire of judgment came and destroyed them. Then the Scriptures describe how two of the sons of Aaron’s uncle, Uzziel, were called to carry the bodies, still in their priestly tunics, outside the camp.
Then Moses said to Aaron and to his sons Eleazar and Ithamar (Aaron’s other two sons, Nadab and Abihu, were dead), “Do not uncover your heads nor tear your clothes, so that you may not die, and that He may not become wrathful against all the congregation. But your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, shall bewail the burning which the Lord has brought about. You shall not even go out from the doorway of the tent of meeting, lest you die; for the Lord’s anointing oil is upon you.” So they did according to the word of Moses. Leviticus 10:6–7. God said, “You are not to mourn for them.”
It must have been difficult for Aaron to watch the burial of his own sons without mourning for them, knowing that they had been judged by God. The people could not cry or tear their clothing or uncover their heads in any demonstration of mourning.
God’s people are to have no sympathy in the hour of judgment. Human sympathy can enter in and become disastrous. When Korah rebelled against Moses, the ground opened up and swallowed Korah and all his relatives. The very next day the people came and murmured against Moses, saying, “You killed the Lord’s people.” Because they were sympathetic with the rebellion which had to be destroyed, God sent a plague among them, and only divine intercession through Moses was able to stop it.
When God puts a rebellious person or situation under judgment, be careful that your own sympathetic spirit does not lead you to become a partaker of that rebellion, and therefore an object of judgment as well. Sympathy can be deadly. However, the compassion of the Lord is another thing entirely. You can be compassionate toward a man and still refuse to be sympathetic and align yourself with the severe dealings God brings in correction upon that man’s life. If you want to walk into a real dealing of God, be sympathetic to a rebel in the church, one whom God is chastening. God will turn and deal with you in the same way, because you have become a partaker of the very sin that the rebellious one committed.
A fire came from the presence of the Lord and consumed Nadab and Abihu, and they died before the Lord. If you think that this harshness of God which was being manifested was just for the Old Testament times and will not happen again, read the last chapter of Isaiah where it says, “The slain of the Lord will be many” (Isaiah 66:16).
God is going to deal once again in judgment. We cannot afford the tolerant attitude that says, “Well, we all make mistakes; God is not entitled to judge us.” There was a reason that God judged Aaron’s sons: they had offered strange fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them to do.
In this hour, God is moving by His Spirit, and it is easy for people who are sensitive to receive blessings. A man pastoring a denominational church can learn certain truths about the experiences that God is restoring; he can believe for them and receive them. But when he does believe them and receive them, he must be careful that he does not try to include in his worship and service to God all his own peculiar ideas about running a church or about what he thinks God wants in a church. If he does that which the Lord has not commanded, the priesthood is judged for it. The fire of the Lord comes against it.
Whenever God begins to move and you become dedicated to divine order, He will burn out the thing that has to go. When a church opens up to a real walk with God, it will soon split apart. God will begin to judge everything in it that is not according to His will. Before that time, the people seem to get away with almost anything, but when they decide to walk on with God, He insists that every experience which they appropriate be housed within the divine order He has laid out for it in the Scriptures.
A man who receives the Holy Spirit and gifts of healing cannot then go out and promote large campaigns and big financial programs to further his ministry. Some who did this were turned over to God’s judgment. Instead of having the mark of God’s blessing upon them, a reproach came upon them because they took a gift that God had given and did that which was not commanded.
God may not give a specific word about a situation, but He does give general instructions based on divine order. Perhaps God does not tell a man specifically that he cannot start a little program or a little promotion to raise money and to further his name and reputation; God may not say anything about that. He just tells His people what is to be, and whoever adds to it or takes away from it opens himself up for the dealings of the Lord.
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must exercise diligence to see that nothing shall be added to, or taken away from, the divine order and pattern that God is restoring. We must never allow any truth, any gift, or any ministry that God gives to be used for a purpose outside of the divine order God is bringing to glorify the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We can all make mistakes, but we must determine to build the way God wants. Then when the fire of the Lord is applied to our hearts to burn out the dross, everything we have built will stand. The Church will endure because it is not built on the wood, hay, and stubble of human ambition or programs; it is built upon the gold, silver, and precious stones of the Word of God through divine revelation.
God applied the fire to Nadab and Abihu. Because they had done that which was not commanded, they were destroyed in it. Many a man has lost his life when some perversity in his spirit caused him to go astray from the divine pattern and order which God revealed. If I were to go on a path that would divert others from the pure pattern of restoration—the order that the Word of God has commanded—I would prefer that God strike me dead. I want to please Him with all my heart, and I want to live on through the next thousand years; but if I should enter into a perverse disobedience, I would want Him to take me before anything happened to turn others from His divine pattern for the Church.
When Nadab and Abihu perished, no one was to be sympathetic in any way, because God had laid out a divine order and plan that would bring glory to Him. Sometimes we fail to appreciate that when the Old Testament people moved out of the will of God, they violated certain things that God wanted. In the first place, they were to give obedience to the Lord on the plane they were living on. Their obedience was to be an example to us, upon whom the ends of the ages are come (I Corinthians 10:11). Furthermore, their deeds were later to be interpreted symbolically, as a type and a shadow of what was to come.
For instance, Moses, though a very humble and meek man, sinned against the Lord in a moment of wrath. First, in obedience to the Lord, he struck the rock and brought water from it. The rock was a picture of Christ, and Christ was stricken for us in order that the rivers of life might flow from Him to us. The second time Moses came to the rock in the wilderness was a type of the last days. He struck the rock again. In disobedience to the Lord’s command to speak to the rock, he struck it—and he did not vindicate God.
The Lord is coming again, but not to be crucified afresh. He is coming now so that as we just speak and entreat Him, the rivers of the living Word will begin to flow again. When Moses struck the rock instead of speaking to it, the symbolic pattern or type was distorted. God said, “Moses, you did violence to what I wanted to teach and bring forth; therefore you will not lead My people into the land of Canaan.” That one act was of such importance to God that Moses was only permitted to view the promised land from afar. When the time came, he climbed to the top of Mount Nebo on a clear day and saw all the land the people would possess. Then he died, according to the will of God.
It is very important that we do not add to anything God says. He is trying to bring something forth, and if we do anything that God has not commanded, we will find Him dealing with us in the same way that He dealt with Nadab and Abihu—with the fires of judgment. God is bringing forth a perfect work, a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. Out of the end-time remnant will come the complete dedication to perfection that God wants. It is going to come by the grace of God.
We must be very careful to do only what the Lord commands. Every ministry in the Church must be what God wants. I would rather move more slowly and do the will of God more perfectly, than to make a mistake in an eagerness to please the Lord by running ahead to do something which He has not commanded and thus see it aborted. Let us be scrupulous to build carefully, solidly, and according to God’s divine pattern.
What is being restored to the Church is not just an innovation or a new idea, but something that is brought forth by revelation and very carefully weighed and then confirmed. God is restoring an apostolic foundation laid by an apostolic company according to perfect divine revelation. Consequently, though a quarter of a century has passed since the beginning teachings and foundation were laid, not one word has proved to be contradictory or wrong. Consistent revelation has unfolded, with each truth building upon another. New truth does not nullify the former truth; instead, it emphasizes and explains it all the more, opening up a new door.
I wonder how many people have received gifts of the Spirit and have run down the road to start their own little projects, to do things their own way. How many, following the course of human ambition and their own desires, did things which God had not commanded? There must be a carefulness within us to go forward as rapidly as we can, yet to make haste slowly—careful to make sure that the Lord has taught us the way we are to go. We cannot build on hay, on wood, or on straw; we must build upon the precious Word of God. We must build that which will endure, because this is the day when God is putting the fire to it. I Corinthians 3:13 says, “The day shall declare it.” The day is going to determine whether or not it will stand.
The percentage of people who continue to walk on with the Lord is high where they are fed with a pure Word; there we find very few casualties. Some movements are zealous and sincere, but numbers of people are lost from them because they are fed a faulty word. It is important for you to understand that this is God’s way. The Word of the Lord will teach us how to walk with Him. He will teach us what to do.
The day is bringing forth a fire. That is why so many groups which are not based upon a divine revelation of order fail. All the divine principles that God is bringing—concerning order for the home, for the church, for the individual’s life, and for the Kingdom—are largely ignored. They elect various officials and board members, instead of following the biblical pattern of elders and deacons.
It is important for New Testament churches to find a legal structure that is pleasing to God, one that will not war against the spiritual structure. Through the years, churches that have followed this guideline have not had one problem with the legal structure interfering with the spiritual structure. Following this course, there is no need for church elections; there is no need for a prescribed number of deacons or a board of control. The people form a very simple closed corporation through their spiritual fellowship. Without becoming a legislative body, they actually have more to say and accomplish and perform than those of denominational concepts. Because of the scriptural pattern of divine order, people in these churches have a greater part in the Kingdom of God than they would have as a member or an officer of any corporation that is not set up according to the will of God. This is where their real opportunity lies.
The only thing you are to be confronted with is a living Word, the truth. It shocks you and jars you, but you do not have to adjust to anything else. You do not have to adjust to any of the denominational forms of church government. Those things will have to come down because they are not based upon the divine order that God has given. They will have to be removed. Sooner or later the churches that are so built will crumble and fall apart, and God will loose His people and let them flow into what He has for them.
Things are going to be done God’s way or He will not let them stand. Like a building inspector, He walks through the churches and inspects the foundation that was laid for them. Then He starts throwing matches here, there, and everywhere! His system is different and more drastic than that of any building inspector in the world. If He can burn it up, He does not want it. He sets fire to it, so that all the wood, hay, and stubble will go up in smoke because He wants only gold, silver, and precious stones. The foundation is Jesus Christ, and the structure that is to be built upon it must be precious and true.
Look at yourself. What do you see? Gold and silver and precious stones? That is what God is bringing forth. He is bringing an end to the flesh, and by His grace He is bringing forth a purity that is working within your life.
If any man’s work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. I Corinthians 3:14. I wonder how many people are going to say in that day, “Lord, Lord, we prophesied in Your name; we did many mighty works,” only to hear Him say, “Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity” (or workers of rebellion).
“But I built a hundred churches for You. I conducted huge evangelistic campaigns all over the world.”
“Yes, you did that; but when I put the match to them, they burned up. When I looked six months later to find any evidence of these campaigns, I could not find them.”
“Well, what happened, Lord? I thought I did all these things in Your name.”
“You did, but you are a worker of rebellion.”
“What did I do wrong?”
“The issue is not that you did something wrong, but that you did not do it right.”
I believe in the grace of God, but I believe also that we have a most solemn trust that the Word of the Lord be clear and our integrity be impeccable. I pray that we always do everything according to the Word that He has set down and that we build according to His plan.
Sometimes it may look as if New Testament order is a little loose, but God runs a rather tight ship. As you become more deeply involved, you find that the Lord is the Captain of the ship, and He holds a tight rein on all of us. He demands certain things, and He brings the Word like a plumb line, saying, “This is the way you are to go. This is the way you are to be built together in the will of God.”
Leviticus 10:12–20 presents further symbolism of the Body of Christ in this end time. Then Moses spoke to Aaron, and to his surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, “Take the grain offering that is left over from the Lord’s offerings by fire and eat it unleavened beside the altar, for it is most holy. You shall eat it, moreover, in a holy place, because it is your due and your sons’ due out of the Lord’s offerings by fire; for thus I have been commanded. The breast of wave offering, however, and the thigh of the offering” (in reference to Leviticus 9:21) “you may eat in a clean place, you and your sons and your daughters with you; for they have been given as your due and your sons’ due out of the sacrifices of the peace offerings of the sons of Israel.” Why were the thigh and the breast chosen? The breast represents the heart and our dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ. The thigh represents the strength and the determination with which we enter into what the Lord has for us.
The thigh offered by lifting up and the breast offered by waving, they shall bring along with the offerings by fire of the portions of fat, to present as a wave offering before the Lord; so it shall be a thing perpetually due you and your sons with you, just as the Lord has commanded.”After the priest had done this, he partook of the sacrifice, symbolizing that the heart of God and strength of God were the portion upon which he fed. Then his heart would always be in accord with God, and he would always have the strength to persevere in what God wanted him to do.
But Moses searched carefully for the goat of the sin offering, and behold, it had been burned up! So he was angry with Aaron’s surviving sons Eleazar and Ithamar, saying, “Why did you not eat the sin offering at the holy place? For it is most holy, and He gave it to you to bear away the guilt of the congregation, to make atonement for them before the Lord. Behold, since its blood had not been brought inside, into the sanctuary, you should certainly have eaten it in the sanctuary, just as I commanded.”
But Aaron spoke to Moses, “Behold, this very day they presented their sin offering and their burnt offering before the Lord. When things like these happened to me” (referring to the death of his sons), “if I had eaten a sin offering today, would it have been good in the sight of the Lord?” And when Moses heard that, it seemed good in his sight. When the priest made a sin offering for someone, he was to eat some of that same sacrifice, which represented the sin and the judgment of that sin. The priest confessed the person’s sins over the head of the animal and then killed it and burned it with fire. But then the priest would eat the sacrifice. Oh, what a picture of Body ministry!
With the restoration of the apostolic ministry, authority is being restored to forgive sin over a person. However, this forgiveness will not come without him vicariously entering into the guilt of that person, repenting before God for his sin. The spiritual authority becomes a partaker of the sin offering: he becomes identified with the sinner and linked together with him in the oneness of the Body. He cannot forgive sin in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a king and a priest of the Lord or as an apostle of the Lord, until he first identifies with the guilt and repents before the Lord God for the guilty one’s sin.
The forgiveness of sin has to involve repentance at some point. A person may repent of his sins, but never actually be able to forgive himself. He needs someone with spiritual authority to lay hands on him and, in the Spirit, reach in to become one with him and his guilt, and repent before the Lord for him. The sin will be forgiven and it will be gone.
In the New Testament, the Lord told the disciples, “Whose soever sins you remit, they are remitted; whose soever sins you retain, they are retained” (John 20:23). This was the basis of a ritual that became very real to the Roman Catholic church. It was a true word from the Lord, but it became almost a commercial ritual during the Dark Ages. The Protestants saw the error of it and turned away from it completely; with them it was “every man for himself.” That is not good doctrine either, because the Lord made us to be ministers to one another.
In the Body of Christ, it is possible for ministries to enter into oneness. But not just anyone can go along forgiving the sins of others. You cannot forgive sin until you have become one with the individual who sinned and you have eaten that sin offering with him, until you have said, “God, I take upon myself this guilt.” Can a wife repent for the sins of her husband? Can parents repent for the sins of their children? Yes, because of their oneness with them, they can so enter into the place where God is entreated.
As we read the book of Job, we find him making sacrifices and repenting on behalf of his children who perchance had cursed God in their hearts. He was entering in vicariously to believe for the Lord to forgive, because he was one with them. Although Job was perfect before the Lord, he made sacrifices and repented before the Lord for those who were one with him. Vicariously, he took their place. He partook of the sin offerings with them and was thus able to alleviate their problems.
Do you sometimes think that those who are close to you are wicked in their hearts? Do you wonder what to do about it? Just be one with them and go before the Lord and repent. See if God will not show mercy for your sake. Remember what Laban said to Jacob (Genesis 30:27): “I have learned by experience that the Lord has blessed me for your sake.”
The Old Testament is full of symbolism that portrays the Church and the Kingdom and shows God’s divine order for us.