Led by fire
Ex. 3:1-10
There had arisen a new Pharoah, who did not know who Joseph was. He realized that the children of Israel were a fast growing people within the nation, and that there were actually more Isrealites, then there were Egyptians.
So Pharoah appointed taskmasters over them, to try and break them down, by giving up the hardest of their labor. But the bible says, the more that they afflicted them, the more they grew.
The new Pharoah saw that none of the hard labor was going to kill them, so he decided to tell the people of Egypt, that every son that is born of the Hebrews, shall be cast into the rivers.
Moses is born, and hidden for 3 months, and then sent up the river in an ark. Moses was brought into the palace, and his own mother actually got paid to nurse him up in the house of Pharaoh.
Moses intervened in a fight between an Egyptian and a Hebrew man, and ended up killing the Egyptian. Pharaoh heard of this murder, and sought to slay him, but Moses ran to the land of Midian. Here he found a wife, started a family, and began a normal life as a shepherd, on the backside of the desert.
Enter the text…
God appeared out of a burning bush, in the midst of a fire, to meet Moses for the first time.
Lets skip forward down the road, a few years, and 10 plagues later, to Moses, In Exodus chapter 13.
Here we see directly after the final plague of the Passover, that the Pharoah finally let the children go.
Exodus 13:20-22And they took their journey from Succoth, and encamped in Etham, in the edge of the wilderness. 21And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night: 22He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people.
So we have at the very beginning of the ministry of Moses, God introduces himself as a flame of Fire. And then just as the children of Israel left, and were encamped in the edge of the wilderness, God shows up again, in a pillar of cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.
As we look deeper into the scriptures, we can see God appear many times by fire, and even earned the name by his people as being called a consuming fire.
One of the greatest judges, Gideon, laid meat, and bread upon a rock, and an angel of the Lord caused fire to come out of a rock, and consume the offering that he had made.
2 Chronicles 7:1 Solomon had made an end of praying at the dedication of the temple, and the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house, and the priests could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the house.
Elijah –called down fire from heaven.
God spoke unto the prophet Jeremiah, and said is not my word like a fire?
And it later came out that Jeremiah said of the word of the Lord, Its like fire shut up in my bones.
Its reiterated several times throughout the bible, that our God is indeed a consuming fire. With flames that can set the coldest hearts on fire.
I want to speak to someone tonight, who feels as though their fire may be burning a little dull.
There are times in life, when it seems like you may not even have just a flicker of flames, or perhaps just some smoldering coals left in their fire, but the Lord brought me here to tell you tonight, just as Paul told Timothy, To stir up the gift of God which is within you.
When Paul said this, the literal translation is “add fuel to the fire that is within you.”
See the world may not understand the fire that is kindled up inside of you. They may not understand the passion, or the intensity that lies within.
But the joy that I have, the world did not give it to me, and the world can’t take it away.
It’s the fire of God.
On your long and cold nights, its only the fire of God that can keep you warm.
As we continue to look into the word of God, we see that God calls his ministers a flame of fire. The job of a minister, is to not only be a flame, but to keep the flames burning within others who are around them.
You may have been witnessing to someone for a while, there is someone I know, for each of us personally, that we have been working on for a while, and were praying that god will draw them near. The answer may be inside of you.
The answer may be, that when they see the work that God is doing in your life, and how he has burned away all of the things that once had you bound, depression, anxiety, and fear, they will see your good works, and glorify God for them.
Not only is God a consuming fire, but he has called us flames of fire.
In the book of revelation, the bible describes Jesus as having fire in his eyes, and a sword in his hand. That fire, is the love for his bride. That fire is the passion that he has burning inside for you and me. That fire is the love that carried him up the hill of calvary.
In 2 Kings, Elisha and his servant were surrounded by the enemies troops. The servant said what are we going to do, the enemy has us surrounded. Elisha told his servant, there are more for us than there are against us. I can imagine his servant looking around and squinting his eyes like what is he talking about. Elisha prayed Lord open his eyes.
Immediately the eyes of the servant were opened, and he saw that they were surrounded not only by the troops of the enemy, but that the mountain was full of the chariots of fire from heaven.
My prayer tonight is that our eyes may be opened, that we may see that there are more for us, than there are against us. Lord open our eyes.
The fire carries over to the new testament as well. The fire can not be just something for show. You can fake a lot of things, but fire is one thing you can not.
For instance, you can be baptized with water, and go down a dry sinner, and come up a wet one. You can dress yourself up real nice, and decorate this flesh with fancy clothes, and still be on the inside full of dead mens bones.
John the Baptist said this- I indeed baptize you with water, but, there cometh one after me, whose whose I am not worthy to latchet, he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire.
Acts 2
1And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. 3And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 4And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
There is more to the story than meets the eyes. Not only did God meet Moses with fire, but he led the children of Israel by fire through the wilderness.
The fire of God is still present today. He is still leading us just as he did through the wilderness. For as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
