Is the fire lit ? (1)

Friday 11 June 2021

Is the fire lit ? (1)

Luke 12:49 - It is a fire that I have come to bring to the earth, and how I wish it had already been kindled! (TOB).

If we are honest, we have to see that the 21st century church, in the majority of cases, still bears little resemblance to the early church. If, as many theologians believe, its "pedigree" is revealed through the Laodicean church in Revelation, we understand that it has become lukewarm and sorely lacking in that fire that our verse speaks of.

The Lord Jesus saw the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. He wholeheartedly longed for this bestowal even though He knew, and it is the following verse that reveals it to us, that for this He would have to go through the "baptism" of death. John the Baptist had already prophesied that Jesus would be the Baptist with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The disciples had this experience at Pentecost, they saw these tongues of fire land on each one of them. We can honestly think that this fire brought by Jesus to the earth is the Holy Spirit Himself.

However, if we continue our text, we immediately notice that the outpouring of this fire will cause conflict. I like to say that a thunderstorm develops when a mass of warm air meets a mass of cold air. This confrontation makes sense because the Holy Spirit will fill us with the Word of God and "this Word is like fire, saith the Lord, it is like a hammer that pulverizes the rock" (Jeremiah 23:29).

However, we must understand that this confrontation is not in the human domain. The Holy Spirit will never push us into endless quarrels, arguments or arguments that do not rhyme with anything. The fire of the Word of God will send us into a confrontation with the world of darkness. Here, no gentleness but a hammer that pulverizes the rock of disbelief, disease, depression, demonic oppression...

My beloved, we need to find this fire ! "Revive (rekindle, inflame your spirit, rekindle its strength and ardor, stir up) the gift of God which you have received..." Paul said to Timothy (2 Timothy 1:6). Let us blow on our smoking candle, on the smoldering embers that we are so that we are once again full of fire.

Good reflection.

Source (Ezekiel 37 Ministries)