The Lord in the Fires

I think many Christians have only a half-revelation concerning the “fear of the Lord.” Yes, fear means fear (that’s deep.) We’d be wise not to mess around concerning just how holy the Lord is. It really is true, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10.) There is an expectation on God’s part that we approach Him with reverential worship, awe, and perhaps a touch of disquiet, and woe to those who treat that expectation with scorn and derision—that’s just unwise. It isn’t so much because we’re afraid He’s gonna blast us to atoms, but rather that we know nothing is hidden from Him. He’s got us all figured out, and let’s face it, He’s holding all the cards. This is why He is God, and we are not. We can never forget that God is wholly “Other”—and while we are in His image, we are not of the exact same substance, are we? There is such a thing as healthy concern when facing omnipotent deity.

Like Peter points out, it is written: “Be holy, for I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:16; Leviticus 44-45, et. al.) That’s pretty clear, not any room for argument there. Since all of our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6), that may seem like an unattainable concept: being holy. And in and of ourselves, it is impossible. This is one of the fundamental basics of human depravity, our inability to be justified before God in ourselves—pick the nicest, sweetest, kindest person on earth, and at some point in time they have done or thought something that makes them blamable before God. 

Since God is perfectly holy, we must be perfectly holy in order to be accepted by Him. Our works can never save us (Ephesians 2:8); we know the just shall live by faith (Habakkuk 2:4; Hebrews 10:38), and yet, faith without works is dead. (James 2:17) If we believe all these things, how then can we reconcile God’s commandment to be holy as He is?

Through faith in Christ, we can do all things (Philippians 4:13), even being holy. By Christ—who is God—taking our punishment for the sins of the entire world, and by us putting our trust in His redemptive works, we are filled with His life, His holiness, and His Spirit, thereby receiving acceptance and justification before the Lord God. And then through a process of yielding to the Spirit, now living inside us, we can begin to lead a holy life. Will we ever be completely without sin while living on this planet? No. But through a lifestyle of repentance and dying to self, we can lead a life that is holy (set apart) unto the Lord. One of the points is this book is to outline just how we do that by yielding to the Lord in the fires.

“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)

There it is again, fire. A consuming fire. This is our God, we mustn’t forget this is who we serve. Remember that the Lord was described by John as having “eyes like a flame of fire.” (Revelation 1:14) That’s intense! This our Savior, full of love and mercy, with eyes of burning flames!

The Lord gives us grace to be able to serve Him acceptably, with reverence and a godly fear. From the outset of this book, we need to recognize that it is only by the gracing of the Holy Spirit working within us, as we yield to His fire, that we are able to receive the kingdom. This goes beyond our initial salvation experience, though that is of the utmost importance, but rather this book is intended to speak of our progression in the Lord. 

We are not to remain as babes, only drinking the milk of the Word. No, we are to buy His gold, refined in fire. We are to burn with fervent zeal for an ever-increasing understanding of who He is, what He is about, what He expects from us. We are to increase in our awe of His majesty, His greatness, and His power. His desires must become our desires, His commandments must become our joy and pleasure to fulfill. Thankfully, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)

God never intended us to remain ignorant concerning His Person and expression—which is simply the manifestation of His power and majesty on the earthly plane through us, His sons and daughters. I have written hundreds of pages prior to this book, outlining several keys that I think are important in allowing the Spirit to condition us—indeed, to try us with His fire—so that we can be molded into walking, talking expressions of His power and mercy and grace to the world at large.

We are to be living epistles, known and read of men. (2 Corinthians 3:1-3) It takes a work of grace and a work of fire in our lives to get us to the point where our own identities are so buried in Christ (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12) that it is the manifestation of the Lord Himself through us as empty vessels.