Just prior to His ascension, Jesus appeared to the disciples in Jerusalem and emphasized another dimension of the Great Commission—the need to be supernaturally empowered for the task before them. He then led them to the Mount of Olives where He reemphasized this same aspect one last time before He left them. Jesus knew that in order to really be effective, we would need a special anointing from God and a passion birthed from the Holy Spirit—the fire of God upon our lives.
To understand the fire of God in our lives, a good place to begin might be with the prophet Elijah as he called that fire down on the summit of Mount Carmel.
And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word. Then said Elijah unto the people, I, even I only, remain a prophet of the LORD; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. Let them therefore give us two bullocks; and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under: And call ye on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the LORD: and the God that answereth by fire, let him be God. And all the people answered and said, It is well spoken. And Elijah said unto the prophets of Baal, Choose you one bullock for yourselves, and dress it first; for ye are many; and call on the name of your gods, but put no fire under. And they took the bullock which was given them, and they dressed it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered. And they leaped upon the altar which was made. And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded. And Elijah said unto all the people, Come near unto me. And all the people came near unto him. And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, unto whom the word of the LORD came, saying, Israel shall be thy name: And with the stones he built an altar in the name of the LORD: and he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two measures of seed. And he put the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid him on the wood, and said, Fill four barrels with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice, and on the wood. And he said, Do it the second time. And they did it the second time. And he said, Do it the third time. And they did it the third time. And the water ran round about the altar; and he filled the trench also with water. And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word. Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. Then the fire of the LORD fell, and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God. (1 Kings 18:21-39)
The story of Elijah’s encounter with the prophets of Baal is one of remarkable courage and confidence in God. The prophet single-handedly and courageously took on over four hundred pagan priests. His challenge to them was simple and straightforward: call down fire from heaven. “Simple?” you may ask. Yes, simple—well, at least for the prophet who understood the nature of God. You see, for some it is easy to believe in and expect healing because they understand the nature of God as Jehovah Rapha, the God who heals. For others, believing for financial provision is “no sweat” because they understand the nature of God as Jehovah Jirah, the God who provides. In Elijah’s case, he must have had a revelation that his God is a consuming fire. (Deuteronomy 4:24, 9:3) Surely the prophet was aware that God had chosen to reveal Himself through fire since the first few pages of the Bible tell of when He appeared as a pillar of fire each night as He led the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage. (Exodus 13:21-22, 14:24; Numbers 14:14) Certainly, the prophet would not have been surprised to see the same trend recurring if he had also been able to read the New Testament in which God chooses to manifest Himself in fire right up to the very last few pages. (Revelation 19:12, 20:9) Knowing that fire is the very nature of God must have made the prophet confident that he could call upon Him and expect Him to show up as a roaring blaze to consume his sacrifice.
The interesting thing about the fire of God is that it is not some magical characteristic of a superhero that we humans observe from afar and “oooh” and “aaah” like a Fourth of July firework display. Rather, the fire of God is intended to intimately affect us and permeate every aspect of our lives and ministries. One cigarette company used to advertise its products as having flavor that penetrated over, under, around, and through the tobacco. In the same way, God’s purpose is that His people would experience His fire over, under, around, and through their lives.
On the day of Pentecost, miraculous cloven tongues of fire suddenly appeared above the heads of all who were gathered in the Upper Room. (Acts 2:3) This was the fire of God over them to improve them. Just think for a moment who it was that comprised that crowd of one hundred and twenty individuals. Most notable were the eleven disciples who had, just a few days prior, fled in terror when the angry mob appeared to arrest their leader, abandoning Him to the bloodthirsty crowd and the murderous priestly court. Peter, their most ardent spokesman, had boasted that he would die before he would allow any harm to come to the Master; yet, he not only fled from the scene—he denied three times that he even knew Him and even added a few choice swear words to emphasize his statements. Not only were they cowards, deserters, and in the case of Peter an empty braggart and a traitor; they were also selfish sluggards who repeatedly fell asleep as their friend depended on them for moral and spiritual support as He struggled through His agonizing prayer in Gethsemane. They were fearful unbelievers who hid behind locked doors and rebuffed those who came with reports of the Lord’s resurrection. But, now that they had been touched by the fire of God that hovered over them, they were improved! Suddenly, they were supercharged with a new boldness that propelled them fearlessly around the world into the most hostile situations to proclaim the message of the One whom they had so readily denied. Peter, the one who had run fastest and hardest, now stood up and publicly proclaimed to the crowd that had gathered on that Pentecost Sunday that they were the ones guilty of having killed Jesus. He unabashedly accused them of bloodguilt and demanded their repentance. (Acts 2:36-38) What a change! A transformation had taken place in him. The fire of God over him had done its work of improving him.
Malachi, the prophet who rounded out the Old Testament, addressed the issue of a fire that God can set under His people to remove any harmful and unwanted elements. In verse two of chapter three, Malachi talks to us about the fire that a refiner uses to purify his metal. After placing the ore in a crucible, the refiner heats the apparatus until it is white hot, almost transparent, in the flames. As the temperature rises, many of the impurities reach the point of spontaneous combustion and burst into flames and evaporate before the refiner’s eyes. Other impurities simply float to the top where the metallurgist can skim them off with his spatula. This fire of God under us is a purifying fire that is intended to remove any and all ungodly thoughts, attitudes, and actions out of our lives.
When John the Baptist pronounced the coming of Jesus as the messiah; he added that although his personal ministry was one of baptizing in water, Jesus would baptize in the Holy Ghost and fire. A rather traditional Pentecostal interpretation of the concept of the baptism in fire has been a super-duper anointing which enabled the believer to run around the church, jump the pews, and shout loudly. However, even a cursory look at the context of the passages reveals that this simply is not what John was talking about. The Baptist goes on to explain, “Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” (Matthew 3:12) This baptism of fire refers directly to the practice of burning the useless chaff once it has been separated from the edible grain, a purifying very similar in nature to the refiner’s fire.
Isaiah experienced this cleansing fire when he first began to make excuses to avoid the call God had placed upon his life. When he argued with God that he could not speak on His behalf since he was man of unclean lips, a seraph touched his lips with a white-hot coal from the fire upon the altar of God. The result was instantaneous. Immediately, the prophet responded, “Here I am. Send me,” the result of a purifying touch from the fire of God. (Isaiah 6:8)
The tobacco commercial goes on to speak of “around.” Likewise the Lord is a fire that is around His people to prove that they are actually His people.
By the time he had spent forty years tending sheep in the desert, Moses had likely lost all sense of self-worth. Having once stood at that lonely place at the top of the socio-economic pyramid as a member of the royal family of the most powerful nation on the face of Planet Earth, he undoubtedly walked, talked, and carried himself with an air of importance and significance. But by now, any sense of importance was simply a dusty memory. But then something unusual happened to this desert shepherd; he noticed a burning bush. Unlike anything he had ever seen before—this bush continued to crackle as the flames leapt from each branch and twig, but nothing seemed to be consumed by the blaze. As he stepped forward to examine this anomaly, Moses suddenly realized that—like Alice and her magical looking glass and the children in the Chronicles of Narnia and their mysterious wardrobe—he had suddenly stepped through a dimension-wall into a new reality. This fire which consumes yet doesn’t destroy is a God quality that identifies His own and sets them apart from others as a whole new breed. After his encounter with this unusual fire and the God who spoke through it, Moses—for the first time in four decades—felt significant again. At long last, he felt as if he really could be the deliverer he had tried to become so many years ago. This unusual fire assured him that he was indeed God’s man and gave him a new spiritual stamina that made others take note of him. Acts 4:13 records what must have been a touch of that same fire, “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.”
The last preposition applied to the tobacco advertizement is “through.” God also sends His fire through believers to move them. A great example of this is Jeremiah who decided that he couldn’t take the heat that society was putting on him as he prophesied their impending doom. Finally, he got so discouraged that he stepped outside his office and pulled down his shingle, “Jeremiah, prophet of God.” The record of his testimony reads, “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” (Jeremiah 20:9) The factor he hadn’t calculated into the equation when he resigned his position as God’s spokesman was the fire that was racing through his insides. Like it did in the life of the prophet, that fire of God running through us also moves us to operate in the divine unction of God to impact our world.
The fire that surges through us is the anointing and operation of the gifts of the Spirit that enable us to move in the power of God in this physical world. Unfortunately many of us have felt that this fire should be reserved only for use within the walls of our church buildings. To the contrary, the book of Acts records that the fire flowing through the apostles burned fiercely no matter where they were. As Peter strolled down a street, people were healed just by contact with his shadow. (Acts 5:15) Paul stirred up demons by simply walking through town. (Acts 16:16-18) A rather humorous example from my own experience was the day my wife and I met a lady on an elevator in a beachfront hotel. For some reason, she mentioned that she was not having a good time on her vacation because she had been suffering from a terrible headache for three days. Peggy touched her, assuring her that Jesus was willing to heal her. About that time, the door opened and we stepped out to head for the beach. A few minutes later, we heard a shout from the fifth floor as the woman realized that her pain was totally gone! It doesn’t matter if you are in your sandals and bathing suit; if the fire of God is surging through your inner man, it will move you to act on His behalf any time and any place. That fire can flare up like the saying on the old TV show Candid Camera, “when you least expect it.”
What is probably the most startling truth that God wants us to know about His fire is that His ultimate intent is to actually transform us into that fire. According to Psalm 104:4 and Hebrews 1:7, it is His plan to make His ministers into flames of fire. He is not willing to settle for ministers who have experienced fire, but ones who are actually the fire themselves. Too long we have settled for, “Lord, send the fire,” or “Lord, let me experience the fire.” God is expecting us to pray, “Lord, make me a fire.” God is looking for more than just what happens to us, on us, or through us; He desires that our whole lives and personalities be characterized by His fire. We cannot settle for being carriers of the fire, lest we lose it. Nor can we be satisfied to be on fire, least we burn up. We need to be transformed into the fire itself because there is no limit to what God will do in, through, and for us when we become fire.
Let’s look back at the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel for a couple summation points. First, note the reaction of the people when the prophet initially challenged them to decide between Jehovah and Baal—they answered him nothing. (verse 21) In other words, they were not moved or motivated by his ministry or challenge. Next, notice how the entire congregation fell on their faces and cried out, “The Lord, he is the God. The Lord, he is the God,” when they encountered the fire. (verse 39) If we want God to be manifest in our world, it will only happen when His fire is demonstrable and demonstrated though us. At that point, we discover that the Great Commission really is doable.