Prayer & Intercession
"If our religion doesn't set us on fire it is because we have frozen hearts. God dwells in a flame." — E.M. Bounds
Fire! One of the greatest and most important discoveries that man ever made. Its power gave us the ability to feed ourselves, to create shelter from the elements, to power great feats of engineering and to craft some of the most magnificent inventions we've seen as the human race.
One of the most unique characteristics about fire is that it possesses a truly insatiable power and appetite for consuming whatever it touches. Yet it also possesses, under the right conditions, the ability to purify certain elements that we value, like gold and silver.
What truly inspires me is that fire is one of the only elements to which God compares Himself in seeking to give us an understanding of what He's like. The Bible says that our God is a consuming fire, and that He makes His ministers "flames of fire." Fire destroys, fire cleanses, fire purifies, fire warms, fire melts, fire changes the properties of other elements.
When the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost He didn't come in the form of a dove, as He did at Jesus' baptism. He didn't come as an angel, He didn't come in the form of a mighty warrior. No, He chose to come as Fire! I believe the Lord was seeking to make a statement that would be forever imprinted on the hearts and minds of His people. He took the form of the one thing that was guaranteed that after having touched it you would never again be the same.
An encounter with Him should be like an encounter with the element of fire: you come away marked, and forever changed. As we read the book of Revelation we encounter a very different Jesus than the one who came as the suffering servant in the gospels. We encounter Him as the conquering King with eyes aflame with fire coming back to claim an inheritance, His reward, which is the people of the earth.
In much the same way that man has learned to harness the power and dangers inherent to fire, the enemy has his own version of fire alternatives that will leave you with a lot of the comforts of the fire but none of the risks that accompany it. It's called a form of godliness without the power, without the fire.
We cannot afford as the people of God to play it safe with His fire. We cannot afford to create safe alternatives that give us all the same benefits with none of the cost. Someone once said faith is spelled R.I.S.K. If you haven't had an encounter with the Fire of God, or if you haven't allowed Him to kindle a wildfire in your midst, take the time to come aside and pursue the Fire that will forever transform and change you. "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it was already kindled." — Jesus Christ