Today, we are continuing this topic of "The fire has come!" If you have not read the Word of the Lord or prophetic alert on the Flame of Fire site, please read it. We need to have an ear to what the Spirit of the Lord is saying to the churches.
Hosea 6:2,"After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. " This is a profound prophetic word for our generation and our time in history. God is making a way in the desert, called a "highway of holiness" for us to find. This flame of God series is to unfold this "unseen highway" but never the less the road to the flame of God!
I want to jump in and begin to expound Hosea 6:1-3, but first a foundation must be laid of why this is such a prophetic word to our generation. To understand this word we need to begin laying a foundation for its truth so it can be revealed to us and in us.
Today we will begin by reading from the book of Deuteronomy! Deu 4:24 says, " For the Lord our God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God." This consuming fire has come to fill your body, "the temple of the Holy Spirit,' with His burning presence. Two words we are going to look at as we start this teaching are consuming and fire. The word consuming in the Hebrew is akal. Its meaning is 1, to eat: 2, to consume: 3, burn up, devour:4, dine, eat and food.
The word fire means, burning, fiery, flaming, hot! So our God is consuming, eat up, burn, devouring flaming hot fire! This is important for us to remember as we begin to understand that we must come and walk in that flame to be changed.
Malachi chapter 3:2 says, "He is as a refining fire and fullers soup." This God whom we seek in Malachi 3:2 "shall suddenly come to His temple! Who shall stand when He appear and WHO CAN ENDURE THE DAY OF HIS COMING?" Not me! Who can stand when He comes to His temple, for when He comes He will be a refiner of gold and silver.
Beloved when you dig for gold and silver and find some, it is 100% gold and silver. However, mixed in with that 100% gold or silver are other metals that diminish the value and quality of that gold or silver. When we are born again, we are 100 percent gold and silver, but like these precious metals, we too are mixed with other things that diminish our effectiveness and quality of life. The Lord compares the work He is going to do in His temple, me and you, like a craftsman that make gold or silver objects. He says in Malachi chapter 3 vs3 says that, "HE WILL SIT AS A REFINER of silver and gold! Wherewill He sit? He will sit in your heart and mine if we will let Him!
The Lord will not force himself upon us. He is waiting for us to respond to his call. This call is to everyone, but the work of Flaming love sitting in your heart is conditional in you choosing Him to do so. Many brother and sisters in Christ may not want Him to sit in that place for it may be occupied with the self-life! Others may not have this work of refining flame sitting in their hearts because they never learned how to listen for His voice personally.
Why does the Lord have to come as a "refining fire and fuller soap? Why does He only come to those who are seeking the Lord desperately, "the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple?" The reason for this special visitation of the Lord to His Bride, His temple is found in Ephesians chapter 5. 25-27,"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word. That he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
This is the purpose of His coming to His temple before He comes to take us with Him in marriage. We are not going to be changed and ready for marriage when we die and when we "go up!" We are going to change NOW as we begin to "burn with His purifying presence" in our lives.
There is a present work of the Holy Spirit that the bride must embace in order to make herself ready. She must embrace the work of the "refining fire" to produce the extra oil she needs to go out to meet Him as found in Revelation 19:7. This preparation process is also found in the the book of Mathew chapter 3:1-9. In this book we find the ministry of the forerunner John the Baptist speaking about the ministry of Jesus that was about to come. Let us read it together.
Mat 3:1 And in those days cometh John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Mat 3:2 Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mat 3:3 For this is he that was spoken of through Isaiah the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ye ready the way of the Lord, Make his paths straight. Mat 3:4 Now John himself had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leather girdle about his loins; and his food was locusts and wild honey.
Mat 3:5 Then went out unto him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about the Jordan; Mat 3:6 and they were baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Mat 3:7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducee's coming to his baptism, he said unto them, Ye offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Mat 3:8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance: Mat 3:9 and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
Let us break down and isolate the following verses:
Mat 3:10 And even now the axe lieth at the root of the trees: every tree therefore that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Mat 3:11 I indeed baptize you in water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear:
He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in(with) fire:
Mat 3:12 whose fan is in his hand,
and he will thoroughly cleanse his threshing-floor;
and he will gather his wheat into the garner,
but the chaff he will burn up with unquenchable fire.
We know that on Pentecost that the fire came down and sat upon their heads and they became changed men. That was the beginning (alpha) work birthed in Glory for the church. But there must come a "finishing (omega) work" and this is called the Baptism of Fire. This is the same fire we see in Malachi chapter 3 as a Refining Fire and fuller soap.
Beloved the initial baptism of the Holy Spirit is for all believers. Some have not experienced yet, or don't believe in it. Others have sought the baptism for gifts and to be endued with power, but the deepest work of the Holy Spirit is for us "to be filled and live in the Flame of love Himself." This love that is a "consuming, devouring, eating flame." What does it eat everything that is not the same nature and character of the fire."
Another words, when the Lord comes to His temple, He desires to purify us like gold and silver not condemn or kill us. His plan is to remove the "mixture from our life." The deepest and secret sins and hidden motives of the heart that are tarnishing the perfect gold or silver that He has made us to be. We are already gold or silver to the Lord, but we have other desires of mixture in our lives. So our heavenly Bridegroom has come to remove this mixture called spots, blemishes and wrinkles from those who will surrender to His present day work.
In Revelations chapter 3:20, Jesus is standing at the door of the church and knocking with an invitation, that we let Him in the door to "sup with us and us with Him." Many teach this Jesus knocking on the heart of the unsaved, but it is not. This book was written to the "CHURCH at LAODECIA! The believers of God in this city as a type of the last days church.
To be an over-comer you must "open the door" and allow this supping with the Lord to take place. This supping is the type of fellowship with the Lord as in the what the word consuming means. This is a fellowship with Him that allows the Lord flame to purify and burn up the chaff remaining in our heart. He does this refining and deep work in us as He ravishes His love upon us at the same time. This is hard for us to understand that we can be in such an intent flame of purification and not be consumed by it. Did you get it?? We would be like a bush on fire but not consumed? Is that not what Moses saw on the mountain? Is that not what Peter, James, and John saw on the mount of transfiguration, that burning flame in a human body and not consumed.
This is a precious present work the Holy Spirit has come to do with this baptism of fire. He has come to refine us, purge us, and fit us perfectly in the Lord so we can with"live with Him in the flame of His love." This flame consumes, eats everything that is not of the same nature as the fire! Isn't that sweet! God is going to finish us like He promised. The Faithful one who started this "good work" in us will be Faithful to "complete it." Praise His name for evermore! He will remove all the impurities, all the other metals (the ugly stuff) that still remains in our hearts, if we will allow Him to do so and rise up and overcome by letting Him to truly "sup" with us.
His "flame" will remove all the idols, hardness and every trace of sin and wickedness from our lives. For He has said in Ephesians 5 that He is coming,"that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."
This is our glorious inheritance, but it is conditional and not every believer will experience it. Why is that so? Because it is conditional based upon our choices. He stands at the doors and knocks. That is Lord doing His part and calling to us to open the door. He says, "Whosoever opens the door and lets me in, I will come in to them and sup with them and they with me. "
Our part is to have an ear to hear this "present knocking at our heart." When we do hear it and understand our hour of visitation than Our part is to choose TO OPEN THE DOOR FOR HIM TO COME IN! We must let His flame of refining come into our heart." We must allow that consuming, invading, eating and devouring flame to come in purify us like gold and silver.
Beloved, It will wreck our lives as we have known it, but in the end we will be made a bride without spot or wrinkle. Will it hurt? Yes, but not like you think. The hurt comes when you begin to see your own heart and how deceitfully wicked it is. It will hurt as you begin to get a sober estimation of yourself. The hurt comes when the flame exposes every part of our selfishness, self-seeking and self-righteousness. It will hurt in every place we refused to love, or forgive and lay our life down. The hurt will come as you are reminded of what we are apart from Him.
Oswald Chambers once wrote, "the best thing the Holy Spirit can do when we start slumbering in our relationship with God is to allow to see ourselves again apart from the Lord. What we are really capable of doing without him. He says, this soberness will cause us to return to the Lord and hold on to Him much tighter and closer than ever before. He may have a point there. I would not suggest trying it out to see if it is true, just stay as close as you can to the Lord!
Yet, when the Lord allows you to see what is really there in your heart, He says look in the mirror. This is where many believers quit, for they do not want to see what their true self look likes. But, if they only looked up into that mirror they would find not their face reflecting back but His face as in a mirror. As we behold that face the Word of God says in 2nd Corinthians that we are changed from degree of glory to another. 2Co 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 2Co 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.
We must come into the fire to be changed. God our consuming fire is waiting for us to invite Him in and to sup with us. Again, not every believer will do this. Malachi chapter 3:1 sets the condition of the calling of the Lord once again, "AND THE LORD WHOM YOU SEEK, SHALL SUDDENLY COME TO HIS TEMPLE!" That "suddenly coming" was the same suddenly on the day of Pentecost, "suddenly there was a sound of a mighty rushing wind." (Act 2:1) We must desire Him to "come suddenly" to our lives as a refining fire NOW! This is the day He is revealing Himself as that flame in this moment in History. We will expound on this from Revelation chapters 1-3 in the coming blog and many other supporting scriptures to this end.
Beloved, this "walking in the flame" is the present work of the Holy Spirit in the temple of God. Judgment begins in the House of the Lord. He is coming to judge and burn up the chaff and remove it from our life. He can only do it by revealing His nature, FIRE! The Spirit of Burning must come in to our hearts to prepare us as a Bride without spot, blemish or wrinkle. The Baptism of the Holy spirit birthed(alpha) the church in power and destiny, and the Baptism of Fire is for our generation to finish (Omega) the work of our destiny. He declares to John the Beloved in Revelation 1:8, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, saith the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty." As the Alpha, He started this good work in us, as the Omega, He will finish it. YEAH GOD!
In the next blog, we will revisit the promise found in Hosea chapter 6 and glean from the 1st three chapters of Revelations. These scriptures are a prophetic "present word" to our generation that we must embrace. Hope you come back to read more.
In His love always!
No comments:
Post a Comment