Friday 22 July 2016

Baptism of Fire


Scriptures:  Luke 3 v 16:
"John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."

When we think of someone going through a baptism of fire in a worldly way we see them facing huge challenges that must be overcome. In the spiritual sense John the Baptist said that Jesus the Lamb of God was coming to baptize people in the Holy Ghost and fire. 

This fire is a purging fire that the Holy Spirit begins in you to burn up all the worldliness you have accumulated over the years. Your sins have been forgiven but the residue of consequences needs to be purged. We see the pattern of it in Jeremiah 1 v 10:

"See I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build and to plant."

It is useless to build a foundation on top of rubble. It must be removed completely or everything will be unstable. So the fire of the Holy Spirit gets into every nook and cranny in the kingdoms of our hearts and destroys all that we burdened ourselves with in the world in which we are now strangers passing through.

So the Lord uses His people to pray and minister to get to the root of your problems, which can then be uprooted and destroyed.  He then builds on the true foundation which is the Rock, Jesus Christ the Son of God, and plants us in places where He will see us grow.  Any other foundation or religion will be building upon sand which is very unstable and likely to end badly.

Remember that only Christianity is from Almighty God, all other religions are man made and no matter how big they have grown, or how rich they are, they do not follow Jesus as He expects to be followed.  Those who do not will hear Jesus say on Judgment Day the dreaded words, I never knew you!  They will plead but we prophesied in Your name, healed the sick, drove out demons but Jesus will say only those who do the will of My Father can enter Heaven.  Jesus says I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through Me.

Getting this wrong will have the consequences of a baptism of fire of a very different kind.  Neither He nor The Father ever wanted a human soul to be sent there.  Please do not gamble with your eternal destination!  All the apostles made this very clear in their gospels and epistles that are in our Bible.  Read these words and heed them to ensure your eternal salvation.

As Christians we are no longer part of the world system we are citizens of Heaven and ambassadors of God. We have crossed the floor and all our loyalties must be to our Father and Jesus. So the fire of the Holy Spirit will devour our bondage to this world and then the real building and planting will begin. In Peter we are called peculiar people!

This is because through being born again, baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit and now His fire going deep into our souls we are changed and become "different". We are a new creation in Christ, no longer "just human". We have the divinity of Jesus within us and we are spiritually seated in Him in heaven at the right hand of the Father.

So the worldly people hate us because we are not like them. They will mock, demean, belittle, persecute, stone, kill and threaten us. We must stand firm and use every opportunity to show or tell them about Jesus. As good ambassadors.

Elijah and the 400 prophets of Baal had a baptism of fire in 1 Kings 18 v 21 - 40. In the end the fire of the Lord fell upon the prophets of Baal and their rejection of the true and living God, and they were devoured by the flames.

About 40 years ago when Pastor Richard Wurmbrand and his wife Sabrina escaped from Communist Russia where he had been imprisoned and tortured for preaching the gospel, they visited India. They saw Hindus in a fire walking ceremony running over hot coals. The Hindus  taunted him that His God was not so powerful. Richard removed his shoes and socks and stood on those coals for 45 minutes and preached the gospel to them. They all got saved.  There was not even a blister on his feet, nor a smell of smoke upon him.

The Baptism of Fire never ceases. The Holy Spirit empowers you with a passion for Jesus in which He becomes your all in all. You may say it often but there comes a day when you truly know it.

Prayer: Father God nothing escapes Your eye in the forming of a soul to become like Jesus. You make it perfect in Your time. Father there is much in me still needing Your refining touch. I yield to Your baptism of fire to change me into the likeness of Your Son. In Jesus' name. Amen.