THE CLOSER YOU GET TO GOD, YOU MUST REALIZE THAT OUR GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE, YOU NEED TO GET THAT DEEP INTO YOUR HEART SO THAT YOU DON’T GET TOO CASUAL WITH HIM.
Pastor E. A. Adeboye at RCCG Special Sunday Service. Going Higher (Part 25) ‘God and Fire’
1 Kings 18:22-24
When I was younger in the Lord, I used to think that when the Bible calls God the Lord of Hosts it was talking about the Angels alone, as I grew in the Lord, I discovered that He is the Commander in Chief of all armies.
I discovered that God said He has a great army made up of insects, Joel 2:25.
When He was promising to restore Israel, He said I will restore to you the years that the locust, cankerworms, caterpillars and the palmerworm have eaten, they are all part of His great army, He said so.
When you study the Scriptures, you will discover that God can fight with frogs, Exodus 8:1-13.
He can fight with lice, Exodus 8:16-19.
He can fight with flies, Exodus 8:20-31.
Yes, He has mighty armies, angels, insects, birds, name them.
The very nature of God Himself is fire. We heard Elijah saying that the God that answereth by fire, let Him be God. You need to know, you need to let it sink deeply into you as you are going higher, the very nature of God is fire, Hebrews 12:29, our God is a consuming fire.
Don’t ever forget, the closer you get to Him, you must realize that our God is a consuming fire, you need to get that deep into your heart so that you don’t get too casual with Him. Our God is not father Christmas. God is love, it is written but never forget that when you are dealing with God you are dealing with fire.
Acts 2:1-4, on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit came, He came as tongues of fire.
Revelation 4:5, the Bible stated clearly, the seven Lamps of fire represent the seven Spirits of God. Exodus 3:1-6, when Moses saw the bush burning and the bush was not consumed, he turned around to see, the Bible said God spoke to him out of that fire.
He is fire when He is dealing with His children, He is one kind of fire when He is dealing with the enemies of His children, He is another kind of fire in Daniel 3:19-27, the people who went to throw Shedrack Messach and Abednego into the fiery furnace were slain by fire, His own children were walking through the fire having a conversation with the fourth man. God is invisible, His fire is invisible but He is fire all the same.
Judges 15:11-14, when they brought Samson bound to the Philistines and they began to rejoice, the Bible said the Holy Spirit came down mightily on Samson and the only thing that got burnt were the ropes that bound him.
I am praying today that the fire of God will come down and everything that is not of God in your life, the fire of God will consume.
It is because His nature is fire. After all, He is very jealous of the fact that He is jealous that is why in Leviticus 10:1-2, when the sons of Aaron brought strange fire into the Temple, God killed them straight away. It is a great lesson and a great warning to those who may want to bring strange fire into the Church of the Living God, they are playing with death.
He made fire for His purpose, John 1:1-3. One of the principal reasons He made fire is for purification, Malachi 3:3, those of you who want to go high, pay attention.
He said He is going to purify the sons of Levi, He will sit down as a refiner of silver and gold and pass the sons of Levi through fire to purify them because when gold is passed through fire, it becomes purer gold. Job 23:10, Job said when He has tried me I will come forth as gold.
1 Peter 1:7, the Bible tells us that your faith must be tried by fire.
The gold the Almighty God is going to use is going to be the purest kind of gold and gold is purified by fire. It will amaze you if you read Exodus 12:1-10 with understanding.
The Lord was telling Moses how to prepare the meat for the Passover, He said it must be roasted by fire, any bit of it that you cannot finish, burn by fire. He created fire for purification particularly for those who are His own.
He also created fire occasionally to show His approval, to show His acceptance of offering, Judges 6:11-22, He said to Gideon, you are a mighty man of valor and I have an assignment for you. Gideon said well if that is true let me prepare an offering for you, he prepared the food, poured it on the Rock and touched it with that staff and fire came.
2 Chronicles 7:1, when Solomon finished praying, after he built a beautiful house for God and prepared an offering in 2 Chronicles 5:13-14, he prayed and dedicated the house to God, God wanted him to know that He approves of what he has done and He accepts his offering, He sent down fire. If you are going to be a great vessel unto God, you will pass through the fire.
The difference between steel and iron is how long each one has stayed in the fire. I remember telling those of us who are older, the general will not carry a sword to battle that has not been in the fire for a long time because the fire will remove everything that is not hundred percent pure from that sword, you don’t want a sword that will break in the day of trouble, you want a sword that will last.
A point I want to make is, 1 Kings 18:1 when God spoke to Elijah, He said go and show yourself to Ahab and I will send rain. He didn’t say I will send fire, how come Elijah was saying God will send fire?
This is introducing you to the Ministry of the Prophet. I pray that the Holy Spirit Himself will circumcise your ears so you will hear correctly and not jump to conclusions.
There is a difference between someone who can prophesy and someone who is a prophet. A prophet chosen by God has a ministry that is different from just anybody, they have a higher intimacy with God, they hear the inaudible, they hear what others don’t hear.
Moses in Exodus 14:15-18, when the army of Pharaoh was pursing the Children of Israel, the Children of Israel just saw Moses lifting up his hand against the Red Sea and the Red Sea parted, they didn’t hear when God said to Moses, raise your hand against the Sea, only Moses heard that one. It will amaze you that there is nowhere else before then that God has told anyone if you want to cross a sea, raise your hand. If you too get to the Lagoon and say Lagoon, part, attempt it, maybe someone will rescue you.
2 Kings 2:19-22, when the people of Jericho came to Elisha and said, we have a problem, our city is beautiful but the ground is barren and there is a lot of death, he said go and bring me salt in a new container, he took the salt and applied it to the source of the river and the problem was solved. Where did he learn that? Has Elijah ever done anything like that before because he was brought up by Elijah. He heard God!
2 Kings 4:38-41, the Bible said Elisha wanted to feed the Sons of the Prophet, he asked someone to prepare the food, someone went out and brought in some poisonous herbs and added it to the food. When they tested the food and found that it was poisonous, they cried to Elisha and said there is death in the pot, the man of God didn’t pray, he simply said bring me some flower, they brought him some flowers he threw it in the pot and the poison disappeared. Where did he learn that? He didn’t learn it, he heard the inaudible.
Not all disciples have that kind of intimacy with God.
John 13:21-26, when Jesus said somebody will betray Him and they beckoned to John to ask, the Bible said John was leaning on the bosom of Jesus Christ. What Jesus Christ said to Him was not heard by the others, Jesus whispered to him, I am going to take a piece of bread, dip it in the stew and put it in the mouth of the traitor.
Jesus wasn’t shouting, it was a discussion between two friends. It will interest you to know that Revelation 2:7 says he who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying unto the Church, that means not everyone has hearing ears.
The Bible tells us that when God wants to speak to His prophets, He speaks in a small, still voice, others won’t hear. Is it not surprising that the last book of the Bible, the book that contains details of things that will happen in the last day has been reserved for only one person, John the Beloveth, Revelation 1:1-7.
When you get sufficiently close to God, God will begin to whisper things to you that if you announce, people may not believe you. I can still remember the surprise on the faces of my people, that Holy Ghost Service in June of a particular year when we came for the Holy Ghost Service and I said to everyone, shake hands with one or two people and say happy New Year. Happy New Year in June, what does that mean?
By the following Monday, they knew what I was talking about and the history of Nigerian has not been the same since then.
If God ever takes you to that level of intimacy with Him, if you can hear the inaudible, you will very soon begin to do the impossible.
2 Kings 6:8-23, one king wanted to capture the King of Israel and as he is having his meeting, Elijah will be in his room hearing everything, it wasn’t long after that the King said go and get him. The whole army came and Elijah arrested them and lead them to enemy territory. If you can begin to hear that still, small voice of God, you will begin to do the impossible.
To really become a true prophet, you will need a piece of fire. Isaiah 6:1-8, Isaiah said in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the invisible, I saw the King of Kings, I saw Him lifted high and I took a look at myself and I saw how dirty I have been. He has been prophesying before then after he said my lips are uncleaned, you can prophesy with unclean lips but if you are going to be the real prophet, your lips must be cleansed and it was cleansed by fire, it was only then that God said to Him, who shall I send and he said I am here Lord. When you consider how many chapters of prophecies that Elijah gave after that taste of fire, you will see the difference between the Ministry of a prophet and somebody who can just prophesy.
The message for today is for those who want to go really deep. There is a God who can answer by fire because He is fire and your lips may need a little kiss of fire. If this is for those who are already Children of God, what about those who are not yet children of God?
I said it earlier, the fire of God discriminates between those who are His own and those who are not His own.
The choice is yours, do you want the fire of God to consume you or to purify you? The difference is are you a child of God or are you not?
Whether we like it or not, fire is coming and when it comes, it will purify God’s people and consume those who are not His own.
If you want to escape the fire of the judgment of God, come to Him today, surrender your life right now. This is a moment when you must make up your mind, if you don’t want the fire of God to consume you, cry to Jesus Christ for salvation now and He will save your soul.
If you want to surrender to the Lord, call on Him and say Lord Jesus have mercy on me, save my soul, let Your blood wash away my sins, I want to be a member of your family so when your fire falls, it will purify me and not consume me.
Those of us who are already children of the Living God, I hope you will be able to call on God and say Holy Ghost fire, fall on me, as on the day of Pentecost, fire fall on me.
God Bless You!