By Pastor James Kimathi
In previous posts, I emphasized the importance of carrying the fire of God as a believer. But, what is this fire of God?
“I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. (Matt. 3:11, NIV)
From the above scripture, John is talknig about Jesus Christ and he says that when Jesus came, he would baptise with the Holy Spirit and Fire.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit and the baptism of fire go hand in hand. I would describe this fire as the active presence of the Holy Spirit in the spirit of a believer until their emotions, thoughts, pain, etc., are challenged.
I was preaching in a meeting a few days ago and in that meeting, unbeknownst to me, was a preacher who was suffering from a back problem. He was sitting at the front row and as i was preaching, i felt the annointing begin to rise. I later learned that he got healed as i was preaching. When the fire of God is present in a gathering, sicknesses cannot stand and neither can any form of oppression.
Fire has different purposes as mentioned in the Bible. The first is that fire is a purifying agent. In 1 Petr. 1:6-7, the Bible says; 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
Fire also consumes as seen in Heb. 12:28-29:
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”[a]
This should tell you that when you ask God for his fire, you must also know that there are things in you that he will come to consume that do not serve his agendas. You must permit him to do so or you will always struggle with certain things.
There are many more purposes of fire that will be described in the next post.
I pray for you that the desire to carry God’s fire will be ignited in you and that God will baptise you with his fire as you continue reading this devotions.