LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
The Fire of God
The Holy Spirit is God. He is, therefore, a Person with all the attributes of such. However, in order for us to know Him better, He is represented to us through some similes. One of them is fire.
When John the Baptist announced the ministry of the Lord Jesus, he said, among other things, that He would baptize in the Holy Spirit and fire (Matt. 3:11). This was partially fulfilled at Pentecost, when the Spirit came upon the apostles and tongues of fire appeared upon each of them (Acts 2:3), and has continued to be fulfilled to this day.
What does it mean that the Holy Spirit is fire? Fire purifies. The noble metals (and the believer is just that) are purified when they are placed in the crucible of fire, and are thus cleansed of dross. The Holy Spirit makes us go through trials, tribulations and highly difficult situations to be purified of impure motivations and strange mixtures.
What else does it mean? The fire is also the boldness of the Spirit-filled believer. The fervor and boldness of the apostles after Pentecost is the example. In spite of tribulations and threats, they preached the Word, which was confirmed by signs and wonders from God. It is in this sense that Paul's exhortation to Timothy should be understood: "Therefore I counsel you to stir up the fire of the gift of God which is in you by the laying on of my hands" (2 Tim. 1:6). Timothy had received the Spirit by the laying on of Paul's hands, but he was to fan it.
The fire of God can be fanned as well as quenched. In Paul's first epistle to the Thessalonians he says: "Do not quench the Spirit" (5:19). This expression clearly suggests the idea of fire. Both the positive exhortation to Timothy and the negative exhortation to the Thessalonians clearly indicate that this matter of quenching or fanning the fire of the Spirit depends exclusively on the believer and not on God.
How can it be quenched and how is it quickened? The believer must know that everything associated with the world, as well as all sin, quenches the Spirit. Unbelief is a great sin, responsible for many others, therefore, it is the cause of quenching the Spirit. On the other hand, everything that puts the believer in intimate contact with God, be it prayer, reading or hearing the word of God, communion with other believers, kindles the fire of the Spirit. May the Lord deliver us from proceeding against the Spirit and having him quenched within us!
The prophet Jeremiah acknowledged having "as it were a burning fire in my bones; I tried to endure it, but I could not" (Jer. 20:9). This fire of the prophet delivered him from apostasy. He tried to escape from the assignment God had given him, but having God himself -the Spirit of God- in his bones, he was delivered from it. Oh, that many Jeremiahs would rise up today in the midst of the apostasy we live in so that no one would renounce his calling, nor renounce his faith, but rather be courageous spokesmen for the testimony of God!