The premise for fire is always sacrifice. I have often asked for the fire of God to fall but without understanding the need for a sacrifice to be “offered”. So the first question is; “what is sacrifice?”.
Sacrifice can take many forms, in the old testament it was an animal, grain, bread, oil, drink or money but whatever the sacrifice, it always cost something, it was never free. We see God reprimanding Israel for offering lame lambs or “damaged goods” that they would not dare offer their own human governors. So cost reflects the value that we place on something but also the value we place on the person we are making the offering to. Sacrificing to God is honouring Him for who he is.
In 2 Samuel 24:24 David states “… I insist on paying you for it. I will not sacrifice to the LORD my God burnt offerings that cost me nothing…”. He refused to let another pay for the offering he was making to the Lord. So what constitutes an offering that “costs” us?
We sing songs like “Lord I give you my life” but what does that look like, practically?
Apart from the obvious offerings such as money, food etc, it can look like forgiveness when we have been wronged, forgiveness can be a love offering to God and it often “costs us” to forgive but forgiveness is pleasing to God. Praise and worship can be a sacrifice, it’s easy enough to praise an glorify God when you have a healthy child, but what about when your child is born with sickness or deformity? What happens to your praise when your wife or husband dies? Or when your finances fail? Herein lies the cost and hence the sacrifice on which fire will undoubtedly fall.
Sacrifice can be our time. When we give our time to someone or to something that God has called us to, we are essentially taking what is usually given to our spouse, children, friends or leisure and giving it to God (where we give our time is the real benchmark as to what we truly value and love, because time is the one thing we can’t get more of). The greater the cost, the greater the offering.
The bible states “There is no greater sacrifice than laying down your life for your friend”.
This of course can be throwing yourself on a grenade to save someone else but for most people it is more of a daily “laying down your life” and is a sacrifice that is given over a lifetime, every day in a million different ways. The bible says that he that is the greatest in heaven is the smallest on earth, and that an apostle (the highest “office” in the church) is to be the servant of all.
The next logical question is: what is fire? We are talking here about heavenly fire and not the earthly element although there are obvious parallels.
In the old testament, when fire fell on sacrifice it came in physical form and consumed the sacrifice or offering, it was a sign of God’s approval and acceptance of the sacrifice and the one offering it. God was essentially saying “I am pleased with you, this sacrifice honours me in the way I am supposed to be honoured”.
In the new testament we see fire come in the form of “tongues of fire” during Pentecost, a sacrifice of praise and worship was being offered up for three days by the 120 gathered in the upper room, despite the circumstances being difficult; Jesus had been crucified and they were now waiting on God’s promise of the Holy Spirit, not knowing if they would be the next on the religious community’s hit list. This fire was empowering, it empowered them with boldness and courage to go and do what God was calling them to.
Fire is described as Holy in the bible. The word Holy means “set apart”. Fire set’s us apart, separates us for God from the world. We are in the world but not of it. Fire is what makes that distinction, through the endowing of power to heal, deliver and raise the dead.
The fire of God carries the power of God so it essentially empowers us to be godly or god-like and to do the things that Jesus did. We are made in God’s image when we are born again as a new creation, just as Adam was initially, we are restored to the original design as Son’s of God.
The last question is why does fire need sacrifice? A quick overview: God gave authority to man to rule over the earth, man lost that authority when he bowed to Satan in the garden of Eden. Christ restored that authority back to man at the cross. So God has always intended for man to rule over the earth and to do so in a partnering relationship with Him.
In the garden of Eden God gave man everything he needed to thrive, there was no sacrifice and man had power out of his relationship to God i.e. because he was related to God (Adam is called the “Son of God” in the bible). After the fall, man had “pay a price” or to “give” something in exchange for “fire/power to rule” as he had forfeited his God-given position of authority. He could no longer function out of inheritance but was forced to till the ground by the sweat of his brow to get food (Genesis 3:17 Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life). The bible does not say how things worked in the garden but I think that maybe he just spoke things into being because he was made in God’s image and that’s how God did things.
Jesus restored the power of the tongue, he demonstrated this throughout his life and we see the apostles doing signs and wonders, raising the dead and healing people with the power of their tongues. This is emphasised by the Holy Spirit coming as tongues of fire during Pentecost, the fact that the bible says the power of life and death are in the tongue and simply that Jesus is called the Word of God.
So fire is a heavenly empowering of our tongues to do the works and speak the words of God. When we have fire, our words have power. If we don’t, they don’t. This does not mean we can be lazy physically and just talk about God without doing the works, our work also honours God (Faith without works is dead) and God also empowers us to do above our natural ability in that area too, but that’s another subject.
“God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).