FIRE BAPTISM
In the month of October the Holy Spirit has put the spotlight on the Bride of Christ and our Conference during the Feast of Tabernacles was a feast in itself. The Holy Spirit is preparing the Bride for her Beloved and by the grace of His love He utilizes the fire of afflictions to purify her as a holy, fiery Bride for Himself, as a flaming torch to ignite others with His light and love.
“I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” – Matt. 3:11
Many of God’s people are going through the fires of affliction, but they do not understand the benefit that they can derive from it. They question the Lord and His faithfulness instead of allowing Him to burn out the dross from their lives. They do not understand the fire of His love, which is a consuming fire – consuming everything that is not of Him, purifying and cleansing the soul so that everything that remains will be holy unto the Lord.
We can choose to look at the barrenness of the desert, complaining and murmuring and going around the same-old mountains or we can use the opportunity to behold His face in the tabernacle that He has provided in the midst of our wilderness, finding communion-union with Him on the inside, pressing in to His fiery Presence. This is the place where the dross gets burned out of us and we get empowered to move those mountains (Mark 11:23-24) by the authority of faith.
In my personal life I have noticed that every time the Lord wants to bring me into a deeper dimension of the Spirit, He calls me aside in periods of fasting and “waiting” on Him for fresh empowering by the Holy Spirit. Your tent pegs are being shifted as His Presence enlarges your spirit man to grow into maturity.
The disciples were told to go and wait in Jerusalem until they were endowed with power from above. When the fire of His Presence was poured out upon them by the Holy Spirit, they were empowered on the inside, lost all awareness of themselves and their boldness in the Spirit immediately spilled over into the streets. Souls were won and miracles flowed. Henceforth they carried the flame on the inside!
“…. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire” – Matt. 3:11
The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and righteousness and judgment. Then, when we truly repent, His consuming fire cleanses, purifies and baptizes us in a fiery love for Him and for the lost.
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29 (NKJV)
Now we hear the call of the Holy Spirit to the Bride of Christ to come into His chambers to be anointed with the golden oil of His fiery Presence in intimacy with the Bridegroom as the empowering for Kingly exploits. Oil speaks of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit’s anointing we can do nothing!
“Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,” says the Lord of hosts. (Zech. 4:6)
Gold represents the purity that comes out of the fires of affliction, producing godly character, faith and a “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (II Cor. 4:17) as we are being transformed in His Presence from one degree of glory to the next (II Cor.3:18). That golden oil, set on fire with the flame of His love produces the glorious shining light by which the Bride of Christ will be recognized, because it will become her clothing. Hallelujah! To put this in simple terms: God’s consuming fiery love for you will not leave you as you are, so the temporary afflictions, temptations of the devil, trials and tribulations that He allows in your life all serve the purpose of drawing you close to Him so that you can lose your “self” and your self-power in HIM when you come to know Him for who He is, worshiping Him in the midst of the fire (like Moses on the mountain), being transformed into His image. In the process there is an exchange of His life that takes over in you as your “self” is lost in HIM. His life becomes your life and in the process you become illuminated with His light and empowered by His fiery Presence.
DO NOT FEAR HIS FIERY GLORY! STEP INTO IT and COME AFLAME WITH HIS FIERY PRESENCE!
Now embrace the consuming fire of His love for you, knowing that it is only a temporary affliction, working out in you and exceeding eternal weight of glory that will be your equipment in which you will rejoice afterwards, taking His Presence and His power into every situation you step into, bringing life and light to others.
Blessings
Elsabe
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