"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Luke 3:16........"We need not be afraid of a genuine visitation of the Spirit of God." A.W. Tozer
There's a line in an old Jimi Hendrix song that goes, "Let me stand next to your fire." I'm thinking it just might be a good verse for where we are in the church today, as well as in our personal walk with Him. We're not adverse to standing next to the Fire that is His Holy Spirit, especially if we get to decide just where "next to" is. However, the Father doesn't call us to be near His Holy Spirit fire, but in it. Consumed by it. All of us, by all of Him.
There's a verse in an old hymn that goes, "I never will forget how the fire fell." It's a direct reference to Luke 3:16. A question for each of us is; have we even experienced the "falling" of His Spirit fire upon our lives in order to not forget it? I know that such a happening is still in our theology and our doctrine, but is it in our experience? No matter how many times you've come to an altar or made some public profession, what remains is the question of what has happened? No, we don't live on spiritual experience, but spiritual experience is definitely a part of a true walk of faith. If you read of the lives and walks of Paul, John Wesley, Billy Graham, Spurgeon, Tozer, Chambers, and on and on, there is a place in their faithwalk where the fire fell, and brethren, that fire continued to fall upon them. Spurgeon said that each week he took the pulpit filled with the holy fire of God and each week the people came "to watch me burn." Is what we're seeing and hearing from our pulpits and from our worship a consuming fire that reaches out and seeks to ignite those who watch and hear? We can come up with a wide variety of ways to make the sound of rain, wind, and fire, but only He can send real Holy Spirit rain, wind and fire. There's a chorus that goes, "My heart's one desire is to be filled with Spirit fire." Is that our one desire, or are we far more at home and comfortable with what stirs our emotions, provokes our intellects, but leaves our hearts unchanged?
There's a verse in an old hymn that goes, "I never will forget how the fire fell." It's a direct reference to Luke 3:16. A question for each of us is; have we even experienced the "falling" of His Spirit fire upon our lives in order to not forget it? I know that such a happening is still in our theology and our doctrine, but is it in our experience? No matter how many times you've come to an altar or made some public profession, what remains is the question of what has happened? No, we don't live on spiritual experience, but spiritual experience is definitely a part of a true walk of faith. If you read of the lives and walks of Paul, John Wesley, Billy Graham, Spurgeon, Tozer, Chambers, and on and on, there is a place in their faithwalk where the fire fell, and brethren, that fire continued to fall upon them. Spurgeon said that each week he took the pulpit filled with the holy fire of God and each week the people came "to watch me burn." Is what we're seeing and hearing from our pulpits and from our worship a consuming fire that reaches out and seeks to ignite those who watch and hear? We can come up with a wide variety of ways to make the sound of rain, wind, and fire, but only He can send real Holy Spirit rain, wind and fire. There's a chorus that goes, "My heart's one desire is to be filled with Spirit fire." Is that our one desire, or are we far more at home and comfortable with what stirs our emotions, provokes our intellects, but leaves our hearts unchanged?
I believe the fire is indeed falling, but will it fall upon us? We, you and me, are the key to answering that. Tozer shares the writing of Blaise Pascal as he tells of his own experience of that falling fire. "From about half--past ten at night to about half after midnight - fire! O God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, not the God of the philosophers or the wise. The God of Jesus Christ who can be known only in the ways of the Gospel. Security. Feeling. Peace. Joy. Tears of joy-Amen!" This was the experience of a man who sought the Lord until the fire fell. Will we seek Him in such a way as well? Will our fellowships? To do so means we must be still, yielded, surrendered. Lives on the altar of God, fully willing to be consumed by the fire of God. Do we want such a life? Do we really want such a church?
A brother told me recently how the main "compliment" he'd heard from his congregation of late was that they were "getting out by noon." As long as we accept such hearts as the norm the church will not know His Holy fire. Yet I believe that there is a rising number of men and women, both young, old and every age in between, who will not accept such a norm for themselves. I believe His fire is falling. Will we be in the place where it may fall upon us? May we too sing with holy power, never forgetting how the fire fell.....and falls anew.
Blessings,
Pastor O
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