visionary
15th August 2004, 04:30 PM
The place of His sanctuary, which is our minds, cast down, polluted and will need serious cleansing. Good thing that Jesus cleansed the temple at the start of His ministry and then again at the end of His earthly ministry for us. During the Feast of Trumpets come all the last warnings that this world will receive before the plagues fall.
Ezekiel 12:25 For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD. 26 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying. 27 Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. 28 Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.
In Jesus’s ministry you will find there the promise that He will cleanse His temple twice. At the start when you first gave your heart to Jesus and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is the first cleansing. So your first cleansing of your temple by Jesus through the Holy Spirit starts your journey with Him. At the end, with what is called the latter rain there will be a greater baptism called the Baptism of Fire. In order to understand the third baptism which is of fire, you need to understand that God is a consuming fire. Sin is consumed, and if the sinner is still entangled in the sin, he too will be consumed.
Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 9:3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.
In that day, when the Lord returns, if you are not prepared to stand before God, the consuming fire, then
Psalm 68:2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
If you are prepared to stand before God, washed by the blood of the Lamb, baptized by the Holy Spirit, living the new life found in Christ, prepared by His Word for this day because you have been baptized with fire, you will be changed from mortal to immortal to live with the Lord for all eternity when He returns to gather you home.
Psalm 102:26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
Baptism by fire needs to be understood in the context of what God is preparing His people for. God is preparing His people to be with Him forever. As a God of consuming fire, it is important that we are baptized by the fire, so that we can have a taste of what it is like to be before a Holy Consuming Fire God.
Isaiah 33:14 "the sinners of Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surpassed the hyprocrites, who amoung us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amoung us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
It should be the hope of all believers to be able to stand in that day and say “this is my God, and I shall dwell with Him forever in the devouring fire.” As the next verse of Isaiah 33 indicates, it takes the upright, believing saint to walk in the devouring fire with God.
Isaiah 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
We need to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord when he returns. We need to understand that God is real and a consuming fire. Since God has not been presented in this light, it is important that you gain a imagery of reality that has not been approached by but a few writers like Paul.
Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Ps 66:12 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
We shall be glad and rejoice for when we see this big ball of fire at His Coming, we will not see it as the world see it. It will not be the day of His Wrath but the Day of Our Redemption for us. It is the same fire, but for those who have been told to be afraid of the eternal fire, it is damnation they see. For those that are looking for a God who is a consuming fire, they see redemption and salvation. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will not be burned up. They will be able to live in the midst of the fire with God.
Daniel 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
We will dwell in the midst of the fire forever with our God. That is why there is no need for the light of the sun or moon in the New Heaven and New Earth, for God is our light.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
When that day comes, where you are face to face with God, the consuming fire, and if all your labors are burnt up and you suffer loss, but you are saved because you see your God at work in all this, then you were prepared for this by God himself. For the world does not teach you to be prepared for a consuming fire of a God.
1 Corinthians 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Isaiah 42:25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
We have that beautiful promise that it will not burn us up.
Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
The importance of baptism by fire is the final preparation to meet God and it is found in the work of the Holy Spirit in greater measure than that which was in the first baptism which is known as the early rain. The early rain is just a sample of the cleansing by fire done seven times in all of us before the Second Coming. Like Jesus said:
Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Sins are consumed by fire and all the wicked that are attached to their sins are also consumed by fire. It will not be any different for the sinner as it is for Lucifer.
Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Many have tried to explain the unquenchable fire, but looking at it in the light that our God is a consuming fire, it will change the way that you see what Jesus was talking about.
Luke 3:17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
May your life be a living sacrifice, that sin may not be found in you. Everything in the temple service shows that sins and the bodies that harbor sins are burnt up to ashes before God. The burning of sins is performed in the outer court at the altar of sacrifice. Sin will melt like wax before the fire in the presence of God.
Micah 1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.
2 Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Zechariah 2:5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
The importance of repentance and purification before the coming of the Lord can not be stressed enough. It is an almighty powerful, Holy God that will be coming in all His glory.
Psalm 97:3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
Fire from God destroys evil, sin, sinner and the whole earth.
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Zephaniah 3:8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
Fire will also display the creative powers of God. Those that are of the Lord will witness the awesome power of God’s creative power. When God creates the New Earth, they will witness the difference between what is left behind them as they move to the garden of Eden before them.
Joel 2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Knowing God is in the midst of the fire and it will not be quenched, we need our hearts to want to be with Him, to dwell where He dwells forever.
Ezekiel 8:2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
Get a feel for what experience you would be in for if the Holy Spirit descended upon you tonight.
Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Pray for Jesus to teach you true repentance as only he knows the depth of sin. Trust him who will lead you to a closer experience with God that without you will never understand the depth of knowledge and wisdom of God and length that Satan will go to destroy your connection with God. See God in a new light.
1Cor 3:13 Each man's work will become manifest for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
Here is a question, that every believer should place in their heart. “Will I be able to stand before God?”
Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before his indigination? and who can abide in the fireceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
We may die, but we have the promise of the resurrection on the last day and the home in heaven with God standing on a sea of glass mingled with fire.
Rev 15:2 I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Ps 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went though fire and water: but thou broughtest us out into a weathly place.
Have faith so strong that when the Lord comes, with all fire and damnation, it washes over you in review and redemption; for you have gone before the Lord and opened the Book of Your Life, Jesus has covered your sins with His blood and you have gone out and sinned no more by the grace of God.
Ezekiel 37:23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
Ezekiel 12:25 For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: for in your days, O rebellious house, will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD. 26 Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying. 27 Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. 28 Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; There shall none of my words be prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord GOD.
In Jesus’s ministry you will find there the promise that He will cleanse His temple twice. At the start when you first gave your heart to Jesus and received the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is the first cleansing. So your first cleansing of your temple by Jesus through the Holy Spirit starts your journey with Him. At the end, with what is called the latter rain there will be a greater baptism called the Baptism of Fire. In order to understand the third baptism which is of fire, you need to understand that God is a consuming fire. Sin is consumed, and if the sinner is still entangled in the sin, he too will be consumed.
Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God.
Deuteronomy 9:3 Understand therefore this day, that the LORD thy God is he which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire he shall destroy them, and he shall bring them down before thy face: so shalt thou drive them out, and destroy them quickly, as the LORD hath said unto thee.
In that day, when the Lord returns, if you are not prepared to stand before God, the consuming fire, then
Psalm 68:2 As smoke is driven away, so drive them away: as wax melteth before the fire, so let the wicked perish at the presence of God.
If you are prepared to stand before God, washed by the blood of the Lamb, baptized by the Holy Spirit, living the new life found in Christ, prepared by His Word for this day because you have been baptized with fire, you will be changed from mortal to immortal to live with the Lord for all eternity when He returns to gather you home.
Psalm 102:26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:
Baptism by fire needs to be understood in the context of what God is preparing His people for. God is preparing His people to be with Him forever. As a God of consuming fire, it is important that we are baptized by the fire, so that we can have a taste of what it is like to be before a Holy Consuming Fire God.
Isaiah 33:14 "the sinners of Zion are afraid, fearfulness hath surpassed the hyprocrites, who amoung us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who amoung us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?"
It should be the hope of all believers to be able to stand in that day and say “this is my God, and I shall dwell with Him forever in the devouring fire.” As the next verse of Isaiah 33 indicates, it takes the upright, believing saint to walk in the devouring fire with God.
Isaiah 33:15 He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; he that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing evil;
We need to prepare ourselves to meet the Lord when he returns. We need to understand that God is real and a consuming fire. Since God has not been presented in this light, it is important that you gain a imagery of reality that has not been approached by but a few writers like Paul.
Hebrews 12:29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Ps 66:12 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
We shall be glad and rejoice for when we see this big ball of fire at His Coming, we will not see it as the world see it. It will not be the day of His Wrath but the Day of Our Redemption for us. It is the same fire, but for those who have been told to be afraid of the eternal fire, it is damnation they see. For those that are looking for a God who is a consuming fire, they see redemption and salvation. Like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they will not be burned up. They will be able to live in the midst of the fire with God.
Daniel 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
We will dwell in the midst of the fire forever with our God. That is why there is no need for the light of the sun or moon in the New Heaven and New Earth, for God is our light.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
When that day comes, where you are face to face with God, the consuming fire, and if all your labors are burnt up and you suffer loss, but you are saved because you see your God at work in all this, then you were prepared for this by God himself. For the world does not teach you to be prepared for a consuming fire of a God.
1 Corinthians 3:15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
Isaiah 42:25 Therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle: and it hath set him on fire round about, yet he knew not; and it burned him, yet he laid it not to heart.
We have that beautiful promise that it will not burn us up.
Isaiah 43:2 When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
The importance of baptism by fire is the final preparation to meet God and it is found in the work of the Holy Spirit in greater measure than that which was in the first baptism which is known as the early rain. The early rain is just a sample of the cleansing by fire done seven times in all of us before the Second Coming. Like Jesus said:
Luke 12:49 I am come to send fire on the earth, and what will I, if it be already kindled?
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
Sins are consumed by fire and all the wicked that are attached to their sins are also consumed by fire. It will not be any different for the sinner as it is for Lucifer.
Ezekiel 28:18 Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee.
Many have tried to explain the unquenchable fire, but looking at it in the light that our God is a consuming fire, it will change the way that you see what Jesus was talking about.
Luke 3:17 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
Mark 9:43 And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 49 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt.
May your life be a living sacrifice, that sin may not be found in you. Everything in the temple service shows that sins and the bodies that harbor sins are burnt up to ashes before God. The burning of sins is performed in the outer court at the altar of sacrifice. Sin will melt like wax before the fire in the presence of God.
Micah 1:4 And the mountains shall be molten under him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.
2 Thessalonians 1:8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Zechariah 2:5 For I, saith the LORD, will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her.
The importance of repentance and purification before the coming of the Lord can not be stressed enough. It is an almighty powerful, Holy God that will be coming in all His glory.
Psalm 97:3 A fire goeth before him, and burneth up his enemies round about.
Fire from God destroys evil, sin, sinner and the whole earth.
2 Peter 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
Zephaniah 3:8 Therefore wait ye upon me, saith the LORD, until the day that I rise up to the prey: for my determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger: for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy.
Fire will also display the creative powers of God. Those that are of the Lord will witness the awesome power of God’s creative power. When God creates the New Earth, they will witness the difference between what is left behind them as they move to the garden of Eden before them.
Joel 2:3 A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
Knowing God is in the midst of the fire and it will not be quenched, we need our hearts to want to be with Him, to dwell where He dwells forever.
Ezekiel 8:2 Then I beheld, and lo a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins even downward, fire; and from his loins even upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the colour of amber.
Get a feel for what experience you would be in for if the Holy Spirit descended upon you tonight.
Acts 2:3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.
Pray for Jesus to teach you true repentance as only he knows the depth of sin. Trust him who will lead you to a closer experience with God that without you will never understand the depth of knowledge and wisdom of God and length that Satan will go to destroy your connection with God. See God in a new light.
1Cor 3:13 Each man's work will become manifest for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.
Here is a question, that every believer should place in their heart. “Will I be able to stand before God?”
Nahum 1:6 Who can stand before his indigination? and who can abide in the fireceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
Revelation 6:16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: 17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
We may die, but we have the promise of the resurrection on the last day and the home in heaven with God standing on a sea of glass mingled with fire.
Rev 15:2 I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.
Ps 66:12 Thou hast caused men to ride over our heads; we went though fire and water: but thou broughtest us out into a weathly place.
Have faith so strong that when the Lord comes, with all fire and damnation, it washes over you in review and redemption; for you have gone before the Lord and opened the Book of Your Life, Jesus has covered your sins with His blood and you have gone out and sinned no more by the grace of God.
Ezekiel 37:23 Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
John 8:11 She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.