The life of Jesus – 2
My friend Rob Reimer shared about the fire of God and that started this meditation.
Luke 3:15-17 And as the people were in expectation, and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not; John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire: Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat into his garner; but the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable.
As we continue our search for the things of God I read this passage and God gave me some nuggets from the kingdom. There are a few kingdom principles in this passage that will help us see the deeper things of God. “Are you the Christ” was the question they had. John came preaching in the wilderness. First we don’t find John in the temple in Jerusalem. That was where the religious gathered. The ones that learned to put reality behind a mask of “I’m fine.” It was the place where ritual was more important than the brokenness that everyone struggled with. John does not fit in this box and have a message of repentance and get ready for the Christ is coming. They flock to him in the wilderness.
We all have those wilderness experiences. We are looking for a place that can understand what we are going through. A place that will give us solitude and safety to be real with ourselves. No one is there to observe my struggles and tell me to put the mask on because they feel uncomfortable with where I am in my walk with God. That is the place God chooses to speak and bring a fresh voice of hope. In the dessert He shows up and speaks a fresh word. The religious system could not keep them away from John. They heard the rhetoric of rules and regulations so long while they observed that the ones enforcing it were not keeping it. Religion that brought a sense of superiority and achievement that carried a smell of death and destruction. Just act like it is okay when it isn’t.
Religion could never ease my pain and bring healing to the wounds that was festering in my being. The wilderness became an escape from created reality that was fake and not real. There I heard the voice crying and the light of hope began to rise in my soul. ‘I am not him,” I heard a voice coming across my emptiness. My soul grabbed the words and drank it in. This was so good to hear. Someone is not pretending anymore. Did I just find the place of real? “There is one coming and he is greater than I.” I begin to relate as I realize that someone else in this wilderness realizes that we need something greater than ourselves. Someone that can release us from the bondages of “Don’t do this, and don’t do that.” Then the good news breaks the final stronghold as I hear; “He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.”
This one coming shall be known by fire. He will burn away the chaff and all the things that are not His. God loves fire. He is a consuming fire. He burns away the stuff that holds us in bondage. When the tree Jewish buys was thrown in the fire in the book of Daniel they were bound before they were thrown into the fire. The fire burned away the bondages and they walked out free. This was my promise now and I invited His fire to come in. This was raw and real. At the same time I was feeling his fire burning what was not from Him I could feel the fire giving new life and hope to me. It was as if I needed the fire but the fire didn’t need me.
In the book of Exodus Moses walks in the backside of the desert and encounters God. He sees a bush that is on fire. As he went closer to investigate God speaks to him. It says that Moses saw the bush burning but the fire did not consume the bush.
Exodus 3:2 And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
In the book of Acts we see tongues of fire on the people but the fire did not consume them. How can God be a consuming fire yet when he shows up it does not consume us, yet it burns away the things that are not from God? This is not a mystery my friend. What is not from God cannot sustain Him. It is too weak to add to who He really is. He is the source of all power in the universe. The fire in the bush didn’t need the bush to burn. The wood was not sustaining God.
When God comes on us with His fire he doesn’t need us to be the source. He is enough by himself. He burns on us and sustains us in the process. When John announced that he will baptize us with the Holy Ghost and with fire God was making a statement. I will come and sustain you. I will come and be your source and empowerment. I cannot live this life that pleases Him. He comes on me and does it through me. I am the bush that provides a place for Him to burn so that others will see and come closer. The fire drew Moses. When we burn with the fire of God they will come.
Are you in the wilderness? Listen and you will hear a voice calling you to greatness. This is the new voice that will call you away from the familiarity of boxes and comfort zones that is defined by some interpretation of God’s word. His word is raw and outside the box. God is not safe for your comfort zones. Come to the wilderness and get real. Even Jesus came to John in the wilderness. Gods move starts in obscurity and away from the stamp of approval that man can place on it. They didn’t approve what happened on Pentecost when God set some men on fire. They will not approve of you when you burn either. God does not need us for Him to burn but we need Him to be on fire.
So what does all this have to do with Jesus? Everything because He came that we might be a fire for God in the earth!
