Archives May 2022

On the day of Pentecost, a day that is commemorated each year as the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out and marked the beginning of the demonstration of the power of God in believers which enabled them to carry out the great commission as promised by Christ, we acknowledge the special place the Holy Spirit has in our lives as believers in Christ. He said that they should wait in Jerusalem until the promise of God to pour out His Spirit was fulfilled, and that He would not leave them alone but would send a counselor, a helper who would give them power.

What place does fire have in the operation of God’s will and His kingdom? Throughout the word we see examples of God sending fire to consume the sacrifice, or appearing as a column of fire, or even as fire in a burning bush that was not consumed. Let us look at the command of God to Moses when instructing Him on how the Israelites were to make a dwelling place for Him amongst them, which was called the Tent of Meeting. Also known as the Tabernacle, this housed the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant. Look at what it says in Leviticus 6:8-13:

8Then the LORD said to Moses, 9“Command Aaron and his sons that this is the law of the burnt offering: The burnt offering is to remain on the hearth of the altar all night, until morning, and the fire must be kept burning on the altar.

10And the priest shall put on his linen robe and linen undergarments, and he shall remove from the altar the ashes of the burnt offering that the fire has consumed and place them beside it. 11Then he must take off his garments, put on other clothes, and carry the ashes outside the camp to a ceremonially clean place.

12The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it must not be extinguished. Every morning the priest is to add wood to the fire, arrange the burnt offering on it, and burn the fat portions of the peace offerings on it. 13The fire shall be kept burning on the altar continually; it must not be extinguished.

Is it not amazing to note that the fire was never to be extinguished but was to be kept burning? In the times of Elijah we see fire coming from heaven to consume the sacrifice, and that brought back the reverence of God among the people. A demonstration of the nature of God as being an all consuming fire. In Revelations we see fire in seven lamps, also called the ‘seven Spirits of God:

1After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. 3And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. 4Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. 5From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits ^a of God. Revelations 4:1-5, NIV

The censers that are filled with incense which are linked to the prayers of the saints also indicate that there is fire, as incense requires to be burned to release its aroma:

3Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. 4The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. 5Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and hurled it on the earth; and there came peals of thunder, rumblings, flashes of lightning and an earthquake. Revelations 8:3-5, NIV

Now we can see the relation to fire and why there is a requirement for an altar which is on fire! Paul tells us that we are the temple of the Lord, the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, who baptizes us with His Fire, for indeed our God is a consuming fire, but he consumes that which has to burn in order to purify it, a refining fire for the redeemed yet a destructive fire to the enemy and those who assign their lot with His by refusing to acknowledge God’s sovereignty and position as creator and Lord. The Holy Spirit is our fire and we turn our bodies into a temple that has the altar of heaven inside it. Indeed when Christ says He and the Father will come inside and dwell within, it is by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Today we have reduced our relationship of fire to one where we seek external fires of revival and moves of God in our nicely constructed buildings and organized worship that gently or even sometimes forcibly remove the Holy Spirit from our midst. We have succeeded at perfecting the religion but not the relationship. Jesus told us of a time when true believers would worship in Spirit and Truth, and that God is seeking for such. The hour has come when the outpouring that is beginning will cut through walls, borders, denominations, religious rites and practices, political systems and even enemy strongholds to reveal a bride that has a lamp trimmed with oil and burning, ready to receive the bridegroom.

May Yeshua grant you the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as you pray for the precious gift of fire that will restore the broken altar in our hearts and keep the fire burning until He comes! Be blessed! Believe!

A Bible verse that we have probably heard many times is John 3:16, which gives us the core reason for our redemption through the belief in the name and the purpose of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Let us look back at David and his revelation of the greatness of God and His purposes for mankind described in Psalm 8:

1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
You have set Your glory
above the heavens.

2 From the mouths of children and infants
You have ordained praise
on account of Your adversaries,
to silence the enemy and avenger.

3 When I behold Your heavens,
the work of Your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which You have set in place—

4 what is man that You are mindful of him,
or the son of man that You care for him?

5 You made him a little lower than the angels;
You crowned him with glory and honor.

6 You made him ruler of the works of Your hands;
You have placed everything under his feet:

7 all sheep and oxen,
and even the beasts of the field,

8 the birds of the air and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.

9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is Your name in all the earth!

How amazing that God would choose to make us in His likeness and then make us rulers us the work of His hands! Indeed, the Psalmist is baffled and astounded at the responsibility and honor given us, even though our earthly form is a ‘little lower than angels’! On a side note is it not amazing the nugget found in this Psalm that has to do with praise as a weapon of spiritual warfare that God has ordained to silence the enemy and avenger.

We then can see the relation with John 3:16 if we look at it more closely. Keep in mind that from Genesis chapter one, we are given an assignment to have dominion, or rule in other words, over God’s creation and to replenish the earth, subdue it and have dominion over every living thing. Now let’s take a closer look at the verse:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:16,17 (NIV)

The word used in the Greek translated ‘world’ is Kosmos. If it had to do with the earth it would have been ‘Terra’. When examined further the word Kosmos actually means ‘orderly arrangement, decoration and by implication the world and its moral order or system of moral governance (Strongs 2889). The word for love is ‘agape’, which is the highest form of love according to the Greeks, and if we are to then use these expanded meanings, we see that God is intent on restoring what David sees in Psalm 8 and what we read of in Genesis Chapter 1, which is a system of rule that had man in dominion and replenishing, subduing and having dominion and full authority over what God created on earth.

Why then is there a question of perishing and not having everlasting life? This is because when mankind fell through the sin of Adam and Eve, we lost the access to the tree of life and our bodies no longer carried the glory of God which we were supposed to be crowned with. The enemy lied to us and still does so today with the deception that we are not whom God has called us to be, with the purpose of us not having that relationship and all its rights and privileges restored as he is keen on our destruction in the end.

Praise God, as the Psalmist says, that His core character is love, and having loved the order of things, or Kosmos, that He had established in the beginning, He chose to give His only Son to pay the price so that all we had to do was just believe. No punishments. No fines. No retribution (John 3:17 ‘ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.’). No payments on our part.

Just by simply believing in Jesus and by having this relationship restored we begin to understand and operate in the kingdom principles rooted in the love of the very Father who redeemed us under the instruction of the Holy Spirit as we walk with The Son, whom the Bible declares has ‘the government upon His shoulders’. Halleluya! We then begin to change our ‘kosmos’ as we have the authority restored, and as we obey His word and operate under His guidance we have dominion over every circumstance and situation. Sicknesses have to obey. The enemy is under our feet. We experience the miraculous because it is the natural to those operating in the Kingdom of God.

May God give us the grace to understand our purposes and to accomplish them according to His will as we meditate upon how mindful He was to us to give us so much in the first place. Be blessed! Believe!