#152: FIRE

“I indeed baptize you with water unto 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 fire.”

(Mathew 3:11)

I’ve been going through the book of Mathew for a while now and you won’t believe what I saw. Well, you may have seen it before, but as for me, I had just seen this for the first time in my life. I sure had read this verse a couple of times in my lifetime, but I just never saw what I had just seen.

This was what I saw, “…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”.

The word that struck me was the ‘and’ between the Holy Spirit and Fire. Questions began to run through my mind like; Is the baptism of the Holy Spirit different from that of Fire? But Isn’t The Holy Spirit fire Himself? For days I looked upon this verse; I couldn’t forge ahead until I got light. 

In the midst of my search, I fell ill; seriously ill that I couldn’t do anything, not even to pray or study my Bible. The only thing I could do was to listen to messages. At that time, I saw that an online conference was holding and Apostle Arome Osayi was invited to speak at that conference.

I tuned in that day just because I couldn’t do any other thing and I got the answer to my question.

He spoke that day on the baptism of the Holy Spirit and of fire.

He mentioned how that they were indeed two different things and gave illustrations to explain this concept.

I must say that my eyes were opened that day.

However, after I had recovered fully, I went back to that verse again and God gave me an illustration to further enable me understand this concept.

Let me take you back down memory lane. I don’t know if you can remember the stones cave men used in those days to produce fire.

Well I’m so sure you had not come into this world then to have literally seen them produce fire with those stones but I’m sure you must have at least seen it in the movies.

Until fire comes out of that process, the cave man doesn’t stop rubbing those stones together. He increases the energy exerted and presses in until fire erupts.

Until the potential energy (energy at rest) in him is converted to kinetic (energy in motion), power cannot be made available.

Fire can never erupt at rest; energy must be exerted. And until that energy rises above the threshold, power cannot be generated.

That is how it is with the baptism of the Spirit and of fire. It is the Holy Spirit that produces fire but He won’t until you press in. The Holy Spirit is a free gift to the believer, but fire is not free; it is gotten by sacrifice; the price must be paid. This reminds me of the priestly activities carried out in the book of Deuteronomy. How that the essence of fire is to consume a sacrifice. If there's no sacrifice on that altar, then they'd be no need to light up the fire.

Power is not just made available to all believers who have received the baptism of the Holy Spirit; it is made available to the ones who will stay, press in and dig deep. Your capacity must be enlarged to receive.

Let’s come back to our contemporary world for a bit to make it less complex.

I’m sure you must have seen a light bulb before. You may have touched one as well or even fixed it in its socket. What was the result of fixing the bulb in its socket? The result was power supply.

If you have the light bulb but do not place it in its socket, you wouldn’t get any power in return.

Work must be done to fix that bulb in its intended position so that power may be made available.

I tell you that if your vision is for yourself alone; just to make it to heaven, then you have not even started. It is men that will stay and build capacity and receive fire that will bring heaven down to earth.

“When He (Jesus) had come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed Him. And behold, a leper came and worshiped Him, saying, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him saying, “I am willing; be cleansed.” immediately his leprosy was cleansed.” (Matt 8:1-3)

Our relationship with God by far precedes our relationship with the people. The one that has called us is far more important than the ones to whom he’d be sending us to.

It’s on the mountain that we receive the message and power to minister to the multitudes. With no mountain, there can be no multitudes. The multitudes are drawn to the one that has been on the mountain, that they may partake of that which God has deposited for them in that vessel.

For God to send you out there to the multitudes, you must have received fire on the mountain else they’d be nothing to contact; else you wouldn’t be relevant to the ones whom He’d be sending you to.

For fire to come, you must stay and press in. 

The Holy Spirit will not go ahead of your hunger. It is your hunger and your search for food that will Herald the move of the Spirit in your life.

Stay on the mountain and press.

Power can only be made available to the extent to which you’re willing to exert energy; Until potential energy (energy at rest) is converted to kinetic (energy in motion) and until kinetic energy is translated to power.

The Holy Spirit will only move and open you up to deeper dimensions if and only if you’re willing to go deeper.

You will only find Him if you seek Him with the entirety of your heart.

Until you make contact with the Spirit, fire is far from you.

There’s no end to this; it’s continuous until we exit this realm for our King is limitless.

We’ll build and continue to build. We’ll press and continue to press, we’ll dig and continue to dig. We’ll stay and continue to stay. We’ll grow and continue to grow.

If you’ve not thought about it before, please begin to think about it now. If you have thought about it but are still confused as to how to start, just ask the Holy Spirit and He’d help you. If you’re at it, keep at it. If you gave up, seek for His mercy and get back at it. If you think you’ve arrived, you’re wrong; Keep pressing till you’re masked in His aroma.

It’s in pressing that we receive fire to dominate the earth as God intended from the very beginning and establish the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

It’s your responsibility to guard your fire; for the fire must never go out. Except you don’t need it any longer.

But is there any point in time in our lives were we no longer need Him? Never! It is no longer we that live but Christ that lives in us. We keep at it and we never give up.

To be relevant in this current move of God, we must stay and lay aside every weight that so easily besets us. It's in staying that we receive fire to make impact on this earth.

PRAYER:

Father I ask for the grace to stay and be endued with power.

I ask for the strength to tarry in your presence; to travail in the place of prayer til I receive fire.

Amen.