“The God Who Answers by Fire”
Spring 2006
The Fire of God is ultimately for one purpose, to consume!
Fire is the symbol of the Lord’s presence and the instrument of His power
either to bring holiness or to destroy!
The Fire of Sanctification “separation, a setting apart,” The Hebrew term qodesh, rendered “sanctify,” has a corresponding meaning. The dominant idea of sanctification, therefore, is separation from the secular and sinful and setting apart for a sacred purpose of God.
The Fire of Sanctification is the death of self. He has called His Saints to a place of holiness. Those things that are in our character that is not characteristic of Him will be extracted.
Isaiah said it clearly in chapter 6:5-7
So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”
When Isaiah beheld the Holiness of the Lord, he suddenly became aware that he was man of unclean lips. Imagine the prophet of the living God, the major prophet of the Bible who the Lord chose to give the prophecies that would introduce Jesus the Messiah. He would prophesy concerning the re-gathering of Israel back in to the land and the future judgments of the nations who would not serve Israel.
This man realized that all of his holiness was as filthy rags before God.
Isaiah was already prophesying to the leadership and to Israel. He was being used mightily of God and it was then that Isaiah had knowledge of, understood, and comprehended the awesome Holiness of the Living God.
“The more light we are given, the more we realize our unworthiness!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
“Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged.” Is 6:6-7
The Fire of Sanctification had come upon Isaiah in greater knowledge!
The very next verse 8,
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
(Isaiah) Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
After all the years of preparation, all the years of suffering, and the many years
the Lord had been using Isaiah, suddenly, it is as though the Lord is calling
Isaiah into to a deeper walk, to a higher anointing and a new commission.
We find Elijah is speaking in 1st Kings 18
Elijah confronts King Ahab and challenges the 950 false prophets of Israel to a showdown.
Elijah knew that Israel was still suffering from a severe drought for the sins of idolatry.
Elijah also knew the only way for the rain
(the blessing) to come:
The land had to be cleansed!
Elijah states in V24
“Then you call on the name of your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the God who “answers by fire,” He is God.” So all the people answered and said, “It is well spoken.”
For several hours the false prophets attempted to entice their gods to come and accept their sacrifice without any success. Regardless of their passion, their gods did not hear and had no power to answer!
Then Elijah called for the fire of God to consume his sacrifice.
Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench. V38
The next verse says,
Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces, and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God! The people believed because of what they saw!
And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. V40
Then Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.”
The Fire of God had sanctified the land and at the same time the people believed and honored the G-d of Israel and the combination brought the blessings (rain) to come!
The time of giving the residue of our lives to Him is coming to an end!
Soon, it will be “all or nothing!”
Whether you are in the Five Fold Ministries, regardless of your calling in the church, known or unknown, young or old, the Saint who is a day old and the old Saint who has endured,
The Fire of Sanctification is coming upon you in a greater way
and you are all about to be re-commissioned to a higher calling!
A Word of Warning…
When you begin to seek the Holy Life you will experience
“The God Who Answers by Fire”
You will be seeking the Lord, His righteousness and holiness and suddenly your life will be thrown in to great turmoil and chaos will begin to rule. Every type of issue will arise and everything that is in you that is not of God will be revealed. How will a man deal with his addictions, his deeply hidden sin issues if he is unaware or unwilling to address them?
“There is a God who answers by Fire to burn out all that is not of Him!” It is a Fire that will nearly drive you to the very edge of your existence. Where the immense pain of the fire of sanctification can be to the spirit just as intense as the physical fire to the body.
This Fire will cause frustration, anger and every old sin to raise its ugly head and will cause further frustration with self when those sins come forth.
You will have moments, days, weeks and sometimes years when you will not know what has happened to you. All is well and suddenly, an all out ambush will occur! It will come from places you never expected, from people you loved and trusted. And all those issues you thought were resolved dead and buried will re-surface and will force you to your knees, cause injury to your spirit and will break your heart.
You will count your life as failure! All of those past victories are but a fading memory.
All of those intimate moments with Him will become as a vapor. All of those warm fuzzy tender times will seem as if they never existed. Where did He go? Where is His presence? What sin have I committed to bring this upon myself? The questions go on and on, seemingly without answers.
Your outward man will physically cry out while your inward man will at times go through depression that will not be quieted. Your heart will be splintered. A part of your spirit will want to run from Him and the other part of your spirit will be as the child who passionately desires to be picked up and loved yet love is not seen in this valley. His arms have been retracted, His grace can not be found, and you lie helplessly in the midst of emptiness, emotionally naked and drawn to the place of your demise that covers your soul.
The lessons will be beyond painful, for this is to the death!
This is His Consuming Fire!
Sorrow will surround you. Loneliness and separation will approach you from every direction. You will come to the decision that you are of no use to friends, family or to God! Your heart will say, “they deserve better from me.” And there is nothing that you can actively say or do that will give you worth. You will feel that your best days are behind you!
Every prayer both verbal and silent to relieve your suffering will be of no avail. You will find it almost impossible to praise or worship Him. Those prayers of supplication will not penetrate the heavenlies but will drop to the floor. All communication lines have been severed and all fellowship with your Lord will have ceased.
He will remove every crutch, every prop and seal off every escape. He will box you in to where you can not make forward progress, there will be no room to side step and there is no advantage to retreat. Your only choice will be to live day by day and walk through this fire!
And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. Then, behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. Matt 27:50-51
When that veil that covers your heart is torn, you will begin to experience your own death!
It is then and only then, you will be in the perfect place of Sanctification!
Many years ago I heard the following.
Every mountain top experience will be followed by a walk through the desert,
but it is the desert that reveals the true temper of the steel.
Our greatest light and our highest revelations will come from those times we spend walking through the Fire!
Every revelation has a cost involved!
We can not gain more unless there is a loss! This is true in the natural and mirrors the spiritual.
Just as Isaiah received a greater understanding of the Holiness of God.
As Elijah demonstrated that He is the God who answers by fire.
You too, if you persist, will receive that intimacy, that revelation and that power that will come to those who are willing to allow “this work of fire in their lives.”
Many times your only solace will be “To Know that He is God” and He loves you and has prepared His best for you. Do not be in fear, He is always present!
Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward (the spirit) man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. 2nd Corth 4:16-18
When we begin to seek the holy life
We can expect
He is the God who answers by fire!
Steve Grable
https://jeremiah111.org/