The Fire of God
Matt. 3:11-12
**BEFORE READING TEXT**
If I were to ask how many here want more of Father, Son, Holy Ghost, most of us would shout “amen”. And if I asked how many wanted more of the fire of God, most would again shout “amen”. Yet, (not to anyone’s discredit, etc.) if we had a full understanding of what the ‘fire of God’ is, and what it’s purpose is, a lot of us would not shout “amen” but would rather say, “not me”. But the fact is we need the fire of God, more now than ever. I need it, you need it, this church needs it, the body of Christ needs it. Tonight, we are going to look at what the fire of God is all about, and then in altar service I am going to pray it will burn in us like never before.
READ TEXT
As we look in the scripture, we need to begin by getting a full understanding of the story. There are only 2 people spoken of in OT that were manifested in 4 Gospels, one was Jesus Christ, other the forerunner to Jesus Christ, John the Baptist. Remember John was the cousin to Jesus, born of an old woman Elizabeth, conceived by an old man Zechariah the priest. His sole purpose in life was to prepare the way for the lamb of God which would take away the sins of the world. And as soon as Jesus came to full strength in popularity & ministry, John was killed. That was all he was here for. And his whole life exemplified that. **There is a great significance to everything you read about him in this chapter, all of which proved his roll in life to be merely the forerunner. (1)Location of ministry: In wilderness of Judea. Scarcely populated area, w/ 6 cities & their villages. He was not in the temple preaching, always in wilderness, by the river, etc. Jesus often preached in large crowds, in synagogues/temple, etc. (2) His dress: raiment of camel’s hair, leather girdle about his loins. He didn’t go in long/soft clothing. Even Jesus wore robes, but not John for he was the forerunner. (3)His menu: Locust & wild honey. He didn’t eat in nice houses, w/ good food selections. Jesus spent his time this way often. Remember, John’s only the forerunner.
He tells the people there, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he that comes after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I’m not even worthy to loose. He will baptize you with Holy Ghost and with fire…”
**I’m going to say something that will explain why most folks want the Holy Ghost but not really the fire. EVERY PERSON IS FILLED WITH SOMETHING! No matter if saint or sinner, everyone is filled up. Few are truly filled completely with Holy Ghost, some are filled with ½ Holy Ghost, ½ something else, and most are filled with other stuff. Some w/ lust, laziness, strife, anxiety, doubt, negativism, or hypocrisy. Everybody is filled with something! Now comes the reason for the fire. Because the Holy Ghost is the power, but the fire is the purifier/cleanser. And in order to be truly filled up with the Holy Ghost, you need the fire to come down and burn out the chaff, the junk, the mire that is built up in your heart. **You will never see the power like you could see the power in your life if you don’t let the fire come and burn in your heart.
“Why wouldn’t I want the fire?” Because when fire starts burning, it destroys everything in its path. A house fire is not going to save the things you don’t want damaged, but it will burn it all up. And the fire of God when turned loose in your life will even more burn everything, and spare nothing. And the truth is, there are some things we don’t want destroyed, for we have lived in its comforts for a long time, and most likely have self-justified it by saying “the Lord hasn’t convicted me of it…” But the fact of the matter is, some folks will never have more of the spirit in them than they do now until the give it all up, and let the fire burn/destroy everything in there!
Here’s the thing: if you have bowl that is ½ filled with dirt, but you want a bowl full of potting soil, you must empty all the dirt out 1st, for right now there is no room for a bowl full of potting soil. The same is w/ Holy Ghost. If your soul has a lot of junk in it, there is no room for more Holy Ghost. And until you make more room, you are not getting any further than you are now.
LOOK: (some may not believe next statement) Even with the deity as Son of God, Jesus was in the flesh, the son of man. While in the flesh, he needed power to overcome the flesh. So God was going to send the Holy Ghost. (exp. Baptism). When Jesus, even as authority of son of God, submitted his flesh to baptism, that was a sign of the fire burning out the flesh. And when he came up out of the water, spirit fell on him like dove, etc. He was filled with the spirit in his flesh for he allowed the fire to destroy the will of the flesh. Now we find chptr. 4 (in Luke’s interpretation) Jesus being “full of the H.G. …”
We must get to the place we let his fire start burning. There is so much in us he needs to get rid of: (1)religion, (2)denial, (3)criticism, (4)pride, (5)strife, (6)bitterness, (7)lust, (8)perversion, (9)boastfulness, (10)self-justification. We need God to send his fire to get rid of everything that has got us filled up. **Some of us would rather be best friends, girlfriends, boyfriends, etc. with someone full of anger than to have the power of the Holy Ghost rampant within you. But your spirit don’t click with that one when your full, for the book says “Make no friendship with an angry man; and with a furious man thou shalt not go: Lest thou learn his ways and get a snare to thy soul” (Prov. 22:24-25). **Some folks could be so much more powerful if they weren’t so close to angry/hypocritical people.*
But it’s time to let the fire begin to burn down in us like never before. God is ready to see folks become so desperate for him they cry out “Lord all I want is you. I’m desperate for you Jesus. Take away my fortunes, my fame, my reputation, my friends, my family, my goods, whatever you have to just to clean out/burn out my soul!”
And when you get to this place, you will eventually find yourself with more anointing than you’ve ever dreamed of. You’ll find the glory just hovering around you, for you are being truly filled up with the genuine Holy Ghost!
WHAT IS THE REASON WE NEED TO BE TRULY FILLED WITH THE HOLY GHOST?
(1)More power than ever before
We are living in the day when manifestations of the spirit should be strongly prevalent. The book says “these signs shall follow them that (just) believe…” You know why no one really believes in the supernatural power of God, because it is not being witnessed near like it ought to be. Folks are trying to pray healing, deliverance, blessings, etc. over folks who are ½ full, and God is trying to wake us up and say ‘it ain’t going to work!’ If we don’t get more power in us, then we will never see what all God can really do!
(2)We can become valuable to God
Bible says “I call you to become as gold tried in the fire”. Reason being, if you take a piece of gold w/ a bunch of impurities in it, it’s value decreases dramatically. But you put it in a hot fire, burn out all the bad stuff, you will discover the value of it will dramatically increase. **There is nothing more disheartening to God than for him to think that he saved us by his own son’s death, just for us to set around and be worthless to his kingdom.
If you think God is going to use you in your calling in the shape you are in, your crazy. The fact is, he can’t. You’re not ready! And it’s nobodies fault but your own. How can God send you to the nations when you are so full of other stuff you can’t receive his power? Imagine all the people young and old who will go to hell because you weren’t ready to go to them in the fullness of God’s spirit, simply because you wouldn’t let the fire of God get rid of the stuff in your life. **God will never send a mess to preach to a mess, and until you get rid of your impurities, you will never be able to step forward into God’s will.
(3)We are not fighting against amateur demons anymore
If Jesus had not been full of H.G. when he was tempted in the wilderness, his flesh could’ve easily given into Satan’s demise. We are seeing the last final blow of hell on the whole earth right now. The next greater attack that will ever happen is Armaggedon. Satan is fighting as hard as he can, and if you are not full, you can easily be pulled out of the fold. Won’t happen to me, look at situations find yourself. (virginity/so close about to lose it, quit church/already quit coming to S.S., pm services, won’t go back to old ways/look at music started listening to again, friends hanging with, etc.) Many folks said it wouldn’t happen who would be here tonight. Guess what? It did. They weren’t truly full.
CONCLUSION: “preacher, I don’t want to lose all that stuff. I don’t want to change, it’s not all that bad, etc. But if you really want the full blunt of power, let the fire burn you out tonight”.
