The Living Fire

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter (Rev 4:1 )

This must be a miracle, he said to himself, as he turned aside and walked closer to the scene. He had pastured his flock in that field for almost forty years and never seen anything like this before. He suddenly had a premonition that what he was seeing was beyond natural, and began to consider that the flame he was staring at was no ordinary fire. At first, he wondered who might have set the bush on fire and why, but he did not dwell on this thought.

He kept his eyes on his flock and at the same time watched the fire out of the corner of his eye. As time went on, he noticed that the grasses upon which the fire was burning still remained intact, standing unaffected by this big flame of fire. The fire was burning, but the bush, supposedly the fuel for the fire, was not being consumed.

And so, Moses said to himself, “I will turn aside, right now, and see this wonder of wonders; and examine why this bush which is on fire is not being consumed” (Ex 3:3, paraphrased). Of course, he did not know yet that it was the Angel of God that had appeared unto him in a flame of fire.

What Moses saw was no ordinary fire. And the Fire we’re meditating on in these passages is not natural: it is no ordinary fire, but a divine fire from the Lord. This fire does not annihilate. It is not a fire of destruction. It is not a fire that puts an end to life or existence: it is the living fire.

This fire does not bring death; in fact, it brings life. It brings hope of emancipation from slavery and liberation from the power of sin and death. This fire does not need any natural fuel to exist. It is a living fire, for it has life in itself, and the word of God is in it to give life in abundance to all.

Fire is known for devastating everything it touches—consuming buildings, vegetation, all living and nonliving things in its path, until nothing is left. And once everything is consumed, the fire itself dies, for it exists only as long as its fuel exists. It dies once the fuel is consumed. This was the image in Moses’ mind when he saw the huge flame on the burning bush in the wilderness of Sinai. He expected that this bush, probably made up of dry combustible desert grasses, would be burnt to the ground in no time.

As he continued feeding the flock, he occasionally glanced at the burning bush and examined its physical condition. After a while, he came to the conclusion that something out of the ordinary was happening. He therefore suspended what he was doing and turned to the burning bush. “This,” he must have said, “is no ordinary fire.” And he was right.

Some people might be baffled by the title of this book, “Set Me on Fire.” However, everyone who has read the text up to here knows we’re obviously not talking about physical fire. We are without doubt talking about the fire of God, the refiner’s fire, that not only purifies, but also brings a message of hope, deliverance, and salvation from the throne of God. It’s a living fire: a fire that burns in the living, reviving the cold or lukewarm, bringing life to the dead, and creating a divine uneasiness in the man of God so he cannot hold his peace but must speak forth the word of the Lord. Hear Jeremiah cry:

“And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain” (Jer 20:9).

For some concrete reasons, Jeremiah became fed up with all the troubles around him and the afflictions he had been through for the sake of the word of the Lord. He’d had it and was ready to throw in the towel. He was going to shut his mouth and never prophesy again. Can you blame him?

His prophecies, which were all from the Lord, had earned him nothing but trouble. He had spent the previous night before his decision in the slammer—not in a nice jail, but in a deplorable cell with his hands and feet locked in stocks. This was after Pashhur, the son of the priest, had given him a nice flogging the night before for delivering the word of the Lord to the king of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Pashhur did not like Jeremiah’s prophecy, and since he was the chief officer in the house of Jehovah, he got hold of Jeremiah, gave him a beating, and locked him up in a prison cell.

When they brought Jeremiah out in the morning, he was worn out from maltreatment and humiliation. He had become the laughingstock of the whole city. In his own words, this was how Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, described this to God:

“O Jehovah, thou hast persuaded me, and I was persuaded; thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughing-stock all the day, everyone mocketh me” (Jer 20:7).

Then he considered his options. He chose the option of keeping his mouth shut. If he never gave them a “thus says the Lord” anymore, they would have no reason to afflict him, and he would get along with everyone and live happily ever after.

But there was a tiny problem with this decision: he discovered he just couldn’t keep quiet. Why? God’s words in his heart had become a fire, like a “burning fire shut up in his bones,” burning so fervently that he couldn’t contain it or hold his peace.

“And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain” (Jer 20:9).

It was this fire that kept Jeremiah speaking for God. The fire within kept him hot for Jehovah. It was also this fire that energized him and sustained him in the midst of all opposition. Even when his intimidators and persecutors were mocking and urging him to denounce God and never speak for Him, he stood firm. The fire within kept burning, and like an internal combustion engine, continuously pushed him to move for God with a piston-like invigoration.

Yes, it was the fire of God in his heart. The fire that burns but does not consume is also the fire that brings forth a “thus says the Lord.”

This is the fire of the Holy Ghost that John the Baptist talked about when referring to our Lord Jesus. John clearly spoke of this in his declarative statement concerning the Lord at the River Jordan. The people gathered around him in expectation, inquiring of him to tell them if he (John) was the Christ, and he told them the truth. He said:

“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” (Luk 3:16, 17).

I am convinced that the Jewish people John was talking to unequivocally understood what he meant. They knew he said that he, John the Baptist, was not the Messiah, but a forerunner, and that just as he baptized with water, the Christ who is the Messiah would baptize His followers with the Holy Ghost and with Fire. This baptism is what the disciples experienced on the Day of Pentecost, and from that day on, they were never the same.

They were on fire. They were transformed. They could no longer keep quiet, and neither could they hide, as they had for the previous fifty days after His death and resurrection. Peter, who denied Him three times, now became a fearless preacher who spoke to the Jewish people boldly, with an accusatory finger, saying:

“But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses” (Acts 3:14, 15).

They became fearless and were consumed with the passion to preach Christ, not fearing persecution. Some of them were imprisoned, others killed, and many were disgraced and punished with diverse afflictions. In spite of all these, “the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts 6:7). They could not keep quiet. The zeal of God completely consumed them. The fear and timidity that once dominated them was long forgotten. They were now filled with the Holy Ghost.

The chief priests and the scribes did all they could to silence them, but failed. Gamaliel’s star student, Saul of Tarsus, joined the fray, determined to snuff out this fire ignited by the Man of Galilee, but he himself arrived at a different shore. Intimidation and martyrdom could not quench the fire that burned inside these uneducated men and women. In fact, the more they were persecuted, the more they grew and multiplied. These were the men and women that turned the world upside right.

These early disciples were truly on fire for God. They were filled with the Holy Ghost and fire, and this was evident in their ministry. Their lives were totally offered unto God upon the altar and were a sweet-smelling savor unto Him. The spiritual and divine fire of God, which takes a cold, hard substance and transforms it into a spiritual fragrance that rises up to the throne and brings pleasure to the Father, was at work in them. They faced persecution of all sorts, but were overcomers. They were on fire within, and experienced baptism by fire (persecution) without, but were not consumed. They were the starting members of the church; they were “the bush that was under fire,” the bush that burns but is not, and will never be consumed.

Let’s take a time-out here and closely examine the opening passage of Scripture for this chapter, where Moses is in the wilderness of Sinai and encounters the inexplicable burning bush.

Notice the fact that the bush is burning. It is on fire. Whichever way we look at it, as long as we’re here in the flesh, the feeling of fire is not a pleasant experience. Fire is hot on the flesh. It is not comfortable. The fire of God, as mentioned above, is not a destructive fire; however, it may not be comfortable, and it does consume certain things. As we’ll meditate upon in later chapters of this book, the refining fire of God does consume “wood, hay, and stubble.” Its purpose is to leave us purified as refined gold.

The bush upon which this fire is seen must be symbolic of the church. She is the burning bush that has been on fire for centuries and yet has not been consumed. She has been on fire for God, and He has spoken through her to the world. God has brought deliverance to the nations and salvation to the ends of the earth in speaking through her. And also, from the world’s side, she has been under fire, persecuted, intimidated, and afflicted, but has remained unconquerable by the world. The church has indeed been under fire of affliction from the world, but has not been and will never be consumed.

However, there are characteristics of this living fire that we must consider as portrayed by physical fire. First, we know that for fire to exist, there must be heat. A flame of fire inherently indicates intense heat.

Being on fire for God indicates that we are fervent in spirit. The flame on the burning bush indicates that the bush is hot for God, and as the bush is fervent for Him, He will begin to speak from within the burning bush. The church needs to be on fire for God. As the Apostle admonishes, “Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord” (Rom 12:11). It is when the church is fervent for God that God can speak deliverance to the nations through her.

And so the Living God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush, saying, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey” (Ex 3:7, 8).

God desires a fervent church. It is through and within such that He performs His mighty works. He does not deal with a lukewarm bunch. He actually detests lukewarmness.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Rev 3:14 -16).

Draw near to the holy men and women of the past and you will immediately feel the heat of their desire for God. They yearned for God earnestly. They were fervent in prayer and fasting, and sought after God day and night, in season and out of season. They were on fire for Him. Moses was such a person. He desired above everything else to know God better. “Now, therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee.” And God was pleased with the intensity of his desire; He granted him his desire, and Moses became acquainted with God’s ways. 

David’s life was also a torrent of spiritual desire, and his psalms ring with the cry of one seeking after God. Paul confessed that the burning desire of his heart was to know Christ. “That I may know Him!” was the goal of his heart, and he sacrificed everything so he might by any means apprehend that for which he was apprehended by Christ Jesus.