The Fire That Heals

I'd like to begin by reading from Matthew chapter 3 verse 7. But when John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You brood of snakes, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruits that befit repentance, and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. So John is saying, I apply water to your life, but the one who comes after me brings fire.

Two kinds of fire. Either the fire that heals, or the fire that consumes. I baptize you with water for repentance.

But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. The fire that heals.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. The fire that consumes. We all know something about the fire that consumes, the fire of judgment.

We know this in our bones. We are aware intuitively that just as surely as one day we're going to die, one day there will be a judgment, a separation of good from evil, an accounting. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and we know it.

And he's going to clear his threshing floor, and he's going to gather his wheat into the granary, and the chaff he's going to burn with unquenchable fire. What we don't understand quite so clearly is that there's another kind of fire from God that does not destroy. It cleanses, it heals, it quickens, it refines.

And if we have any hope of escaping the fires of judgment, we need to become well acquainted with this fire that cleanses and heals. I baptize you with water for repentance, says John, but the one who is coming after me, who is mightier than I, I'm not worthy to carry his sandals, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Moses met God at the burning bush, a bush that was in flame and yet remained green.

Now this flame that Moses saw was the outward manifestation of an inward fire which had been burning within and upon and around this man Moses for forty years in that wilderness of Midian. Refining him, teaching him what it means to be poor in spirit, cleansing him, making him ready to walk with God, and now he's arrived at the place where the fire has done its work, he sees this burning bush, it's time for him to fit into the purpose of God and bring the people of Israel out of bondage. Moses was well acquainted with the fire that heals.

Isaiah had a vision of God in the temple. He saw the Lord high and lifted up, and he was filled with fear, and he cried out, Woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. And one of the seraphim takes a burning coal from the altar that's on fire with tongs, brings it over and applies it to Isaiah's mouth.

And this painful year, this awful year for Isaiah, when King Uzziah died, culminates in the fire cleansing of the mouth of this prophet so that now his mouth is able to speak things he could never say before. Isaiah knew the fire that heals. Daniel.

Daniel lived at the very heart of the kingdom of Satan, Babylon. You could say he lived at the heart of the heart because he was in the center of the bureaucracy of Satan, up near Satan's throne. And never does Daniel complain and say, Get me out of here, Lord, I can't take it anymore.

Give me a little break here. Never does he say this because all through his life, and it's a long one, there in the middle of all this junk, Daniel is preserved in the midst of hell. His mind, body, and spirit are preserved by the fire of God.

And so we read in Daniel chapter 7, verse 1. In the first year of Belshazzar, king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in his bed. Then he wrote down the dream and told the sum of the matter. Daniel said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea.

The great sea is the multitudes of the earth, multitudes of people, souls of men. And four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. The first was like a lion and had eagle's wings.

Then as I looked, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man. And the mind of a man was given to it. And behold, another beast, a second like a bear.

It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. And it was told, arise and devour much flesh.

After this, I looked, and lo, another like a leopard with four wings of a bird on its back. And the beast had four heads, and dominion was given to it. After this, I saw in the night visions.

And behold, a fourth beast, terrible and dreadful and exceedingly strong, and had great iron teeth. It devoured and broke in pieces and stamped the residue with its feet. It was different from all the other beasts that were before it.

And it had ten horns. I considered the horns, and behold, there came up among them another horn, a little horn, before the three of the first horns, before which three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots. And behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth speaking great things.

It's like Daniel is in Washington, D.C., or Moscow, right up in the upper echelons of government, right near the top decision makers, and he can see clearly that the kings of this earth, for the most part, are but pawns being pushed around by these giant and grotesque spiritual beasts that control their behavior, really, and dominate it. Through their own lust for power, no doubt. These little horns with eyes and a mouth are kings or people high in government.

See, but Daniel doesn't get intoxicated by this power, as most people do. He doesn't get overwhelmed by this because he also sees that all this power manifested and symbolized by these giant, ugly beasts is still under the authority of the one who sits on a throne of fire. And so, reading right on in the same passage, As I looked, thrones were placed, and one that was ancient of days took his seat.

His raiment was white as snow. The hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames.

Its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.

The court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. And so he sees that these beasts, which represent power systems of the earth, businesses, governments, any kind of power structure, are under the authority of the one who's on the throne and that they are already destined for the fire. I looked, then, because of the sound of the great words which the horn was speaking.

This man. And as I looked, the beast was slain, and its body destroyed and given over, and burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

And so now, as the kingdoms of the earth, the power structures of the earth, are brought down under the authority of the one who sits on the throne of flame. The Messiah appears. The one who comes to baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.

His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. As for me, Daniel, my spirit within me was anxious, and the visions of my head alarmed me. I approached one of those who stood there and asked him the truth concerning all this.

So he told me, and made known to me the interpretation of the things. He said, These four great beasts are four kings who shall arise out of the earth, but the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever, forever, and ever. And the saints who shall receive and possess a kingdom, the kingdom, forever and ever and ever, are the ones who are baptized by this Messiah with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Most of us are already quite aware of the fact that there is a move of the Spirit going on all over the earth right now, and certainly here. And with this stirring of the Spirit there is also an increase of the fire. The Spirit comes to give us new eyes so that we can see God and the things of God, a new mind so that we can think with the mind of Christ and the mind of God, the thoughts of God, and a new tongue so that we can speak the word of God with power.

But right in behind the movings of the Spirit comes the fire. The fire comes to burn all the distractions and all the pettiness and all the fear and all the besetting sins that undermine what we're trying to do so that we can do something valid and effective with these new eyes and this new mind and this new tongue. What is this baptism of fire? It's suffering of some kind.

Nobody likes to talk about it, but Jesus talks about it and we've got to look at it too. Pain, isolation, rejection, opposition, conflict that comes because you're being faithful and walking in the Spirit of the Lord. He didn't promise that if we followed Him it would all be a ball of cherries.

He promised that there would be fire. And we need to learn to get accustomed to that, adjust to it, and literally welcome it. Our Lord's baptism of fire began the very day the Spirit came to Him.

He came up out of the river Jordan and received the Spirit and we notice that He did not immediately go into Jerusalem or Galilee and preach the kingdom and heal the sick, but He was by the Spirit driven into the wilderness first to be tempted by the devil and there His baptism of fire begins. That's where Jesus picks up His cross and He carries it all through His ministry all the way to the time He gets to Calvary. And it's this baptism of fire which begins then and continues on through that makes His baptism of the Spirit so effective.

On the day of Pentecost we are told in Scripture that there appeared cloven tongues like as a fire distributed and resting on each one of them. These tongues of fire were the outward sign that now not only has their baptism of the Spirit begun but also their baptism of fire. And that baptism of fire for them continues all through their days.

For Peter, it was persecution that began very shortly after Pentecost and took him all the way through the rest of his life until he dies on some kind of cross. For John, it begins also and carries him through persecution after persecution until he ends up on a barren rocky island in the Aegean Sea as an exile. For Paul, his baptism of fire begins also the day when Ananias comes and lays hands on him that he might receive the Holy Spirit.

And remember, Ananias was already told by the living God I'm going to show Paul what great things he must suffer for my name's sake. Now God isn't sadistic. He's not trying to put us through pain.

But it is through the fire that Paul becomes effective. He's dogged by all kinds of problems weakness of his flesh that keeps him dependent on God and enables the power of God to really move through him. For many of us, in recent months and perhaps in some cases years have brought fire.

There have been problems along with the blessings troubles, conflicts, strains Sometimes these are invisible to anybody but God. Perhaps nobody in this world has any conception of some of the things that you've gone through in the last, say, six months. What we need to see is that this fire is good, helpful.

It's refining us and healing us so that we can be effective in the work that God is giving us to do. That we are not to run from it turn our backs and flee but we are to open our arms and welcome it and receive it and be transformed by it. For instance, you go out into the world in your neighborhood, among your friends your relatives, the place where you work or wherever we go and we begin to proclaim the gospel.

We talk about Jesus. And we experience as we do this we discover that people don't fall on their faces and repent and say, Thanks a lot. Gee, I really appreciate it.

That's wonderful. And they vote you mayor of the city. What happens is only a small percentage respond in a positive way.

The majority will always oppose you. And they will say, What are you doing? We thought you had a few brains. You're crazy.

And as we begin to experience persecution, the fire, the amazing mystery is that in this fire, the effectiveness of our witness increases tenfold. It doesn't kill them. That fire makes it stronger.

Or, if in obedience to our Lord we go out there and we join ourselves to the people who are rejected by this world. He sends us specifically to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind. He does not say, Go and look and see if you can find a Nicodemus.

Go look for a man or woman of influence to see what you can do. He says, go to the ones that nobody cares about. And so you do that.

You go out there and you look for them. And your experience turns out to be that instead of them saying, Gee, that's wonderful that you came down to spend some time with us. Isn't that marvelous? Nobody thinks about us.

That's not how it works. What happens is they say, What do you think you're doing, you hypocrite? Get out of here. I don't need you.

Sometimes they'll take your help and then they'll do it. But, I mean, it won't be, you know, thanks a lot, but it will be fire. And the mystery again is that as we do this faithfully, our effectiveness at bringing healing to the poor, the maimed, the lame and the blind doubles, triples, increases tenfold as we experience fire from them.

Our power to bring healing to them increases. If we insist on remaining, you know, faithful to the Lord, no shortcuts, no compromise to receive money, power, influence, protection from the world. But we're going to trust God.

The result is not that you will in six months have a new cathedral built. The result will be that after ten years or longer you'll look like a failure many times. And your best friend from high school days or whatever comes up to you and says, I expected better things from you.

You know, what have you got to show for all these years following Jesus? What good has it done you or them? And at first you're probably ashamed. And then the spirit of glory and of God comes to rest upon you, the fire. And you find that in this fire comes the power to turn water into wine, to raise the dead, to bring life to a dead church.

Reading from 1 Peter 4, verse 12. Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal which comes upon you to prove you as though something strange were happening to you, but rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or a wrongdoer or a mischief maker or a busybody. But if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but under that name let him glorify God. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the household of God.

And if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? And if the righteous man is scarcely saved, where will the impious and sinner appear? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will do right and entrust their souls to a faithful creator. Judgment has begun at the household of God, not only here, but all over the earth. The fire is coming to us to ready us for the work now to be done that will take us into things and enable us to accomplish things in God that we never dreamed we would do.

I baptize you with water for repentance. But he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the granary, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. The time of the unquenchable fire is approaching. In order to give the world a fair shake and a fighting chance, God in his mercy is now raising up a people who are to manifest the kingdom and warn the earth with clear, unmistakable signs of God's love.

These people who are now being raised up are already feeling the fire. We are among them, or we are called to be among them. When this fire comes, as it comes, let's not run away from it.

Let's embrace it and welcome it so that refined and cleansed we may go out there and open the eyes of the blind and waken the dead to the living God and his living Son before the consuming fire begins its work.