"… for our 'God is a consuming fire'."
-Hebrews 12:29, Deuteronomy 4:24
Will I allow myself to be consumed by the Fire? Will I take a step into the "brightest kind of flame" and become engulfed? Will I decide to live in the Fire? Hold on… living in a fire? That would be painful… awful!… that would be like… well, like death!
One does not have to hang out with church-going folks for long before he hears the classic Christian cliché: I'm just on fire for God! What does that even mean? No, I want to say sometimes, You're not on fire… I'm looking at you right now and you are clearly not singed or anything. I mean, what does it mean to truly be "on fire for God?" Why do people say that? Does that mean that there are Christians who are extinguished, then? Are there two kinds of "saved" people…? … people who are kind of saved… they've sorta been cleansed and halfway refined?
When I'm not thinking facetiously I understand what they're getting at, but it makes me wonder why people say that and what, then, is the fruit of the Fire? That is, what changes?
All throughout the Bible God is described and illustrated as fire. There is a fascinating correlation between the two mysteries. To start at the beginning, Abraham's covenant with God was initiated by a "smoking firepot with a blazing torch" (Genesis 25:17). Moses had an amazing encounter with an angel of the Lord personified as a "fire within a bush" (Exodus 3:2). The book of Leviticus records God's command of Moses to offer burnt sacrifices and requires that the "fire on the alter must be kept burning; it must not go out" (6:12). Elijah was taken into heaven by a chariot and horses made of fire (2 Kings 1:11). The prophet in the book of Isaiah wrote of God's "burning anger" and described his tongue as a "consuming fire" (30:27). The Lord described himself to the prophet Jeremiah likewise: "Is not my word like fire?" (23:29). Daniel had a revelation in which he had a vision of an angel of the Lord and described him as having a face "like lightning" and "eyes like flaming torches" (Daniel 10:4-6). There are several more depictions of God as fire in the Old Testament alone, but I think you get the point. God is fire… not only like fire… He is fire. It is mentioned enough to make it undeniable… unforgettable. We can't read the Bible without constantly being reminded, from start to finish, that God is a consuming fire. Therefore, we must investigate why God would liken himself as such.
See, I have come to find that being a Christian requires that we are metaphorically "on fire." Telling someone I'm on fire for God is as if I walked up to someone and told them that I'm alive because of life… I'm so alive for life! It's stating the obvious. The fundamental difference between someone who is a disciple of Jesus and someone who isn't is that we've allowed ourselves to be burned up according to the scriptures above; we're swallowed up by the Fire of God in order that we may be refined and used by Him. Therefore, all believers are "on fire for God."
So, the question is not Am I on fire for God? Instead it becomes What is being produced through this Fire? See, Reader, the difference that happens when we truly live for God (or should I say die for God?) is that we are changed from the inside out by His flaming power. It sounds frightening. It sounds painful. Yes, but see Reader, we must be willing to accept Christ's judgment and allow His purifying torch to bring light to the darkness and refine our sin-scathed bodies. Paul wrote to the people in Corinth: "If any man builds on this foundation [he's speaking of the foundation of belief] using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work" (1 Corinthians 3:12-13). Before that, John the Baptist spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees when he said, "every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire." He went on to say, "'I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:7-12). His prophecy later came into fruition: "When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them" (Acts 2:1-4). There is great power in the Fire of God.
So, which is it, Reader… Are you sitting by the fire? Are you allowing yourself to get a little singed? Or are you being completely consumed by the Fire?
For those of you who are consumed by God's Fire, I have some thoughts:
-What is your fire producing?
-What is it burning away?
-What is it illuminating?
For because of His love, we are able to love. We can burn because He burns for us.
