The Fire Of God
Updated: Aug 18
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
The word that the Lord has given me for you this wonderful morning. I'm so glad to be back with you. I'm so glad to worship together with you and to open the word of God with you. The word he has given me is titled the fire of God. The fire of God. Lord, help us. Lord, we are so in need of understanding, Lord God, what the promise of your fire upon our life really means, Lord God, and how we can truly present ourselves unto you, Lord God, a living sacrifice daily. Lord God, I stand against every distraction in the name of Jesus. Lord, every person that has a hard time focusing and staying with your word, Lord God, confusion, distraction, even even slumber just seems to come around anytime your word is opened. Lord God, I I stand against that in the name of Jesus. I pray, Lord God, that every person may receive the riches in the spirit that you desire to pour into their life. The freedom, true freedom, Lord Jesus, that only you offer. True joy, lasting joy that only you, Jesus, offer. Lord, I pray that nobody may miss out. Lord God, I pray that the enemy may not rob the word out of the heart. I pray, Lord Jesus, that you cultivate the word in our heart that we may bear fruit, Lord God, in our days.
The fire of God. Over the years, especially traveling from country to country as we lived in so many different countries, planting churches, ministering. There were certain things that were the same in every country, every culture, no matter where we went. And one of the things that were always the same was confusion on this topic of the fire of God. In our time, and our generation, there's been so much confusion. So many things have been preached over the years about Holy Spirit fire and a confusion and an attraction to the counterfeit has really taken root in the normal accepted thinking, Christian thinking, in our day. It's a very commonly accepted thing that when we talk about the fire of God or or the fire of the Holy Spirit that it is a very sensible, a very feeling thing, except it is not a feeling at all. It's got nothing to do with an emotional experience that may fade away after a couple of days until the next Sunday. When we talk about the fire of God, it is incredibly practical.
It's lasting. It's His fire, not yours. It changes who you are. And it is irreversible. It's a holy fire. It is the fire of God. And there's a promise we read in Luke 3:16. Read it with me in the NLT. John answered their questions by saying, "I baptize you with water, but someone is coming soon who is greater than I am. So much greater that I am not even worthy to be his slave and untie the straps of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire." Now John was speaking to Jews, and he begins to mention this fire of God thing that the Messiah is going to bring into their life. He identified Jesus as Messiah by saying he'll first bring the Holy Spirit. They knew, the Jews knew, that was the messianic ministry. That one day the son of David would come and not only the prophets would have the spirit of God, but the spirit of God would dwell with all of the people of God. He identifies the Messiah by saying he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. And then he adds something and says, "and with fire."
Now, these Jews knew their history, and they knew the stories of when God would bring fire. One of the main stories that would have come to mind if you were a Jew right there hearing that for the first time from John the Baptist was the story of when God brought fire down on Mount Carmel. When God appeared in fire and met with Moses, stories of the fire of God would have come to the mind of people the moment that they heard that Messiah would bring the fire of God upon every life, just as he brings the spirit of God upon every life. Now let's look at this for a moment to wash out any confusion. What does fire do? It burns things up. It consumes things generally. It consumes, it burns up what is common or what is worthless. Precious metals, they don't burn. They don't get destroyed in fire. They become more pure in the fire.
Wood, very common, is a good material to make a fire out of. Cardboard made out of wood, good material to make a fire out of. But fire consumes and eats away these common or these worthless things. But it reveals the most precious things, and then it even purifies the most precious things, and they become then exceedingly more and more precious We see the example used in the word of gold. How gold, when it is found in the earth, the earth, the common stuff, the worthless stuff, it's separated from it. But then that gold is taken to a fire because that gold, as great as it is, has still potential to be more purified and to become exceedingly more precious in that fire, as more and more minuscule dirt is removed from that gold. It's even how we clean our s'mores sticks. We just came back from vacation, and the kids love to make s'mores over the fire, and we have really nice stainless steel retractable s'more sticks. I love them. And after we are done with the s'mores sticks, I mean, they are yucky, they are gooey, and they are nasty. And I just extend them. And I lay them in the fire for 3 minutes. And they come out brand spanking clean.
All the dirt is gone. All the sticky s'mores stuff is gone. And the fire has cleaned it and and left the stainless steel alone. And so when we look at fire and really what it does, what we come to understand is when we talk about the fire of God, when we talk about holy fire, it burns away common things. It burns away dirt and offensive things in you, that what is precious in you may remain and that what is precious in you may become exceedingly more precious as it is purified. We see it in the story of Moses that I mentioned. I will read it to you in Exodus chapter 3. One day, Moses was tending the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian. Here we jump into a story. Moses has a long time ago fled from Egypt. It seems like his life kind of failed in that he started with an incredible redemption story that got him into the palace in Egypt, grew up like a king, and now he is a shepherd, which was by all the surrounding nations regarded as one of the lowliest positions. He's a shepherd, been a shepherd kind of his whole adult life right there in the wilderness. And then we continue. He led the flock far into the wilderness and came to Sinai, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a blazing fire from the middle of a bush. Moses stared in amazement. Though the bush was engulfed in flames, it did not burn up.
Here we see Moses encounter the fire of God. And instantly, if you know the story, from this moment on, Moses is right away back on track with the plan of God for his life. And he is sent back to Egypt. And now without any of the king's resources, without any of his palace renown, yet he has encountered the fire of God, he is able to deliver in the name of the Lord the people from Egypt and leads them and brings them all the way to the border of the promised land.
He did an incredible thing. But all of the nonsense, all of the dirt, all of the stuff that was not precious, he was carrying around and he was living in it until he encountered that fire. You see it perhaps best in what God did on Mount Carmel. First Kings 18. Follow along in the story with me as we start in verse 16. And so Obadiah went to tell Ahab, Ahab was the king at that time, that Elijah had come. And Ahab went out to meet Elijah. And when Ahab saw him, he exclaimed, "So it is really you, you troublemaker of Israel." "I have made no trouble for Israel," Elijah replied. "You and your family are the troublemakers, for you have refused to obey the commands of the Lord and have worship the images of Baal instead."
Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel along with the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asher who are supported by Jezebel. So Ahab summoned all the people of Israel and the prophets to Mount Carmel. Then Elijah stood in front of them and said, "How much longer will you waver hobbling between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him. But if Baal is God, then follow him." But the people were completely silent. This was a people that believed in God. They believed in God. They had a faith, so to speak, just like Moses did. But it was crowded. It was not purified. They were not filled with faith. It was hidden inside of them. But it had, if you will, it had no power until it would encounter what the Messiah would bring. That fire of God that burns away the nonsense, that burns away the things that suppress the value and the preciousness of that faith.
The people were completely silent. Verse 22, then Elijah said to them, "I'm the only prophet of the Lord who's left, but Baal has 450 prophets. Now bring two bulls. The prophets of Baal may choose whichever one they wish and cut it into pieces and lay it on the wood of their altar, but without setting fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood on the altar, but set no fire to it. Then call on the name of your God, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The God who answers by setting fire to the wood is the true God." And all the people agreed. Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, "You go first, for there are many of you. Choose one of the bulls and prepare it and call on the name of your God, but set no fire to the wood." So they prepared one of the bulls and placed it on the altar. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning until noon time, shouting, "Oh Baal, answer us." But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, hobbling around the altar that they made.
About noon time, Elijah began mocking them. "You'll have to shout louder," he scoffed. "For surely he is a god. Perhaps he's daydreaming or he's relieving himself. Or maybe he's away on a trip or is asleep and needs to be awakened." So they shouted louder and, following their normal custom, they cut themselves with knives and swords until the blood gushed out. They raved all afternoon until the time of the evening sacrifice, but still there was no sound, no reply, no response. Then Elijah called to the people, "Come over here." They all crowded around him as he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been tear torn down. He took 12 stones, one to represent each of the tribes of Israel, and he used the stones to rebuild the altar in the name of the Lord. Then he dug a trench around the altar large enough to hold about three gallons.
He pileed wood on the altar, cut the bull into pieces, and laid the pieces on the wood.
Then he said, "Fill four large jars with water and pour the water over the offering and the wood." After they had done this, he said, "Do the same thing again." And when they were finished, he said, "Now do it a third time." So they did as he said. Now, when you church see something done three times in the word, it's always good to pay a little extra attention because Elijah is for us who now know that Jesus, the sacrifice, has been made. Jesus has come and made the greatest sacrifice of all. Elijah was pointing forward to that and called the attention to this moment to say to you and I, there's something you who have been saved by Messiah, by Jesus, there's something for you to learn here in this story. He has them pour three times water over the sacrifice and over the wood that the sacrifice is on. And the water ran all around the altar and even filled the trench.
At the usual time for offering the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet walked up to the altar and prayed, "Oh Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. Oh Lord, answer me. Answer me so these people will know that you, oh Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself." Here he's pointing out that sacrifice again. He's saying this sacrifice has brought the people of God back to himself. They can't see it. They don't know who to serve. They don't know how to live their life. They're not confident about who they are. They are not confident about who their God is. But there's something little inside of them. And when Messiah's sacrifice is made and a certain fire shows up, everything changes. Watch what happens. Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench. And when the people saw it, they fel fell face down on the ground and cried out, "The Lord, he is God." Yes, the Lord is God.
See, there was still a small ability inside of the people to recognize who God was. Every single person that has ever been created has a hole in their heart, so to speak, that can only be filled up by knowing God again. It is a mark left behind so that we may seek after God, that we may seek after being right with God. And Jesus is crying out, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life." There was a people that still had the ability to recognize God, to recognize his kingship, to recognize his glory, but they couldn't live by faith. They couldn't make every decision in their life by faith. They couldn't live like the prophet did. The faith was little. It was precious, but somewhere hidden away in the heart with all kinds of nonsense and dirt and stuff surrounding it.
But when the fire of God showed up in the story, all of a sudden the people knew exactly who to worship. They knew exactly who to call God. They knew exactly how to turn their life around without much effort at all. That faith had been brought to the surface. It was all of a sudden cleansed of all the confusion, all the nonsense. The fire burned it all away and it purified it and made it exceedingly precious again in that generation.
The fire showed the people that the sacrifice Elijah was trying to point out to them that that sacrifice was accepted for them. And when the fire of God comes upon your life and it begins to burn away every single thing that keeps you from walking full of faith. You may have been in church your entire life. This may be your first time in church. There's very little difference between those two people. Every single person, no matter how much you believe in God, there's all kinds of stuff clouding that faith and keeping our faith, keeping your faith from being full, from being precious, from filling you and having everything else be gone. The only way that is possible is not by you doing every dedication you can possibly think of right here at this altar or at home in the place of prayer. The only way that is possible is when the fire of God burns away everything that keeps that faith hidden. That keeps that faith so small, so dirty, so underperforming because it has not been purified yet by fire. The question is, have you seen that the sacrifice Elijah was trying to point out, water on it three times?
It's pointing forward to the three days in the grave that Jesus would be a sacrifice on wood.
Has the fire of God revealed to your heart fully that that sacrifice was accepted on your behalf? You may have been a doubter up until this moment, just like the people of Israel. Yes, I believe in God. I know he needs worship, but I also have to live for my career, and I have to give my time, which is a form of worship, to to that career, or or else my life won't turn out. So, I'm trying to keep God happy. I'm trying to also make it in the world. I'm trying to make sure that that I worship everywhere I need to worship in order for my life to work out, and all along you're sitting in church, and deep inside you feel there's other people that have way more faith than you, that are way closer to God than you, that are way more full of the joy of the Lord that we mentioned in the beginning, that are way more full of the confidence of the Lord than you.
And it's as if you have a bit of faith somewhere hidden deep down inside. It doesn't let you walk away, but there's so much other stuff that suppresses the purity and the growth and the exceeding preciousness of that faith.
Have you seen that that sacrifice has made you the most beloved kid in the kingdom of the heavenly father. Church, I remember so clearly when, for the first time in my life, the fire of God came upon my life. Just yesterday, I was making myself dinner, and I hadn't made dinner for myself for a long time. So, I made a big mistake. I made some meat in a pan in the oven, and I got mittens and I took it out when it was done, going to put it on the stove and put the meat on a plate, and and just before I went to sit down, I'm thinking, "My wife is about to come home. I should probably clean everything up before I start eating. The food is hot. It'll be hot when I get to it. But if I eat first, I mean, I'm going to forget. I know." So, I turn around and I grab the pan and I let go really quickly. But I burned my hand like I've never burnt nothing like I burned my hand yesterday, and it's doing fine. Thank you. My wife did all kinds of ointments. But it brought back to remembrance. When the fire of God comes upon your life, church, I'm telling you honestly, it will take a lot from you.
The fire of God does burn away every single thing. It is a holy fire that burns away every single thing that is suppressing your faith. It's not just about burning away sin. It's about burning away the unnecessary things that suppress that faith. It is about purifying that faith that you may have one thing, and that is a heart full of faith in Jesus. And whatever else he gives, it doesn't corrupt that faith. Whatever else he leads you into, it doesn't corrupt that walk. And and he seeks to fill you with faith. You've prayed it. You've sang about it. But until you truly surrender yourself to the Lord to where he is allowed to burn it all up and cleanse it inside of you so that you have nothing but your your still small but pure faith in Jesus, until that time you believe in God. You can get touched in services all that you want, so many times in your life, but you will always feel you are crippled in your faith. You're barely getting by. The Lord is waiting. I told you Messiah would come. I told you he would baptize you with his spirit and with fire. I was reminded how much it does hurt in the beginning when the fire starts to take things.
Sometimes people, in my case even my nation, the ability to see family, friends, and there's great pain in that, and it takes a little while before the joy outgrows the pain when you start to see what God is doing through that fire. But I remember so clearly I had never read the Bible, church. I, if you would have put a gun to my head, I would not have been able to quote John 3:16 to you. I did not know the scriptures. But as I was living a life of sin after giving my life to the devil at a young age, I was living a life of sin. One day, God began to knock on my heart.
And when I was finally ready to answer that knocking he was doing on my heart, the Holy Spirit taught me to pray a prayer. And I knew exactly what it meant. He taught me to pray, "God, burn me clean." I knew no scripture. Time after time, God burned me clean. And the presence of the Lord would come, and he would, what I can best describe as, embrace me like a father does a child. And he would take. He would embrace me. And it was enough, more than enough. And so he would take and take sin after sin. And he would take thing after thing. And what the fire of God will do, it begins to not only burn away the things that suppress faith, it also starts to purify that faith. I never grew no faith in my life, but God's fire began to purify that faith. And it began to grow, and it began to fill me and strengthen me. And that prayer, God, burn me clean, was a prayer birthed by the spirit of God. I didn't know it at the time.
It just showed up on my heart, and I was willing. But I knew in that moment that fire would take things. That's all I understood. I knew there was a cost and that I would not be given the details of what that exactly would be would look like. I was invited to trust God and to let his fire come upon my life. It was a a moment of surrender in my life that was carefully planned by heaven to give the incredible gift of being filled with faith. And when I finally came to the point where I yielded my heart and my mouth to the will of God, he did the exact same thing he did on Mount Carmel as we were reading the story. The very crumb of faith in my heart. I believed God was real. But that's about all I believed. I believed nothing about what Jesus had done for me. I believed he did it for many others. The crumb of faith hidden in the dirt and in the common stuff in my life was singled out and purified, and the fire just burned everything away, and it's been made exceedingly precious by God inside of me, and now I get to walk being filled with faith. I it keeps me. I can't doubt, church. I can't doubt. Not because I'm great or because I developed faith. It's because God purified it. It's just there, and it has grown, and it has gotten strong, and it has been becoming what he wanted it to be so that I can live off of it.
I can't build relationship with sin. I've tried. I've tried to run back. I've tried to slap God, so to speak, in the face and turn away from him and love on sin again. I can't build a relationship with him. I can't forget God when I try.
The moment I wake up in the morning, His presence is there. I can't get away from Him.
It's like Psalm 139 says, I can never escape from your spirit. I can never get away from your presence. If I go up to heaven, you are there. If I go down to the grave, you are there. Church, do you know God? Can you tell people what it is like to know God? Has his fire purged you and made you into the man, into the woman of faith that God wants to make you? Or do you still walk around with all the common stuff and the dirt, and it's hard to walk by faith because it's hidden away? It's there. It's little, but it's not pure, and there's so much other stuff. Church, let him burn you up. It'll hurt. But I'm telling you, he'll make you into a man of faith. He'll make you into a woman of faith. You'll walk out the call that God has placed before you. You'll walk out every assignment that he has designed for you to walk into. You can stand before the father with many people on your left and on your right because you said, "God, I trust you enough to let you burn it all up and to make me into the man, into the woman that you desire to give to this generation that many may be saved."
He wants to send his fire on your life to consume the things that are suppressing your faith.
Let it burn the things that keep your faith from beginning to carry you. And my question, and I believe the spirit put that on my heart, is, have you ever prayed with all of your heart, understanding what fire does, with all of your heart, God, burn me clean? God, burn me clean.
The word says he will baptize you with his spirit and with fire. So many in the body of Christ are so concerned with the Messiah baptizing them with the spirit. And there's nothing wrong with that. But you need to understand that the Messiah wants to give you his spirit, and he wants to give you the fire of God. And without you receiving those two things, you can never become the man, the woman that God wants you to be in this generation. Not just for God, so that God has somebody that he wants in a certain place. He wants to do it for you to live not being able to get away from God, the joy, the peace. It's the number one complaint we hear from people. I feel far from God. I want to get closer to God. I really got to get back into my word. I really got to get back into prayer. I really need to get close to God again. Well, have you let him burn you up?
Because when you have nothing left but the faith that God made pure in your heart, you can never get away from Him. If you would stand with me for a moment, you may not know. I know that I don't know. But there are things that the Lord wants to burn up in your life because these things are suppressing the faith that God wants to fill you with. These things keep the faith that you have impure. And you have tried to fight some of these things possibly in your own strength, and you get nowhere. When you understand what fire does and you hear the promise of the word that Messiah is willing to baptize you with fire, that everything that is not precious in the sight of God may be burned up and that what is precious in the sight of God may be made by his fire exceedingly precious unto his joy and to your benefit and a blessing in this world. If you understand what it means to ask God, God, burn me clean, and you say, I am ready now. I get it. I'm ready. And I want God to have it all. I'm tired. I don't want to settle for a mediocre Christian life. I desire God's will over my life.
If you want to pray that prayer with me this morning, God, burn me clean. Would you join me here at the altar so that we can pray together and someone from the prayer team will pray over you personally as well? But I want to pray with you this painful but powerful breakthrough kind of prayer where the fire is able to bring up and out of you that tiny little hole in your heart and turning it into precious faith where you are filled with it. It don't matter how many failures you have. It doesn't matter how little of a strength you have. You won't be able to get away from his presence. You won't be able to falter. You won't be able to to to struggle even if you want to because he has done a work by his fire. He's done a work by his spirit. And he has made you the beneficiary of all of the work that was accomplished by that sacrifice on wood that took on the punishment that we deserved. That you may receive every benefit, every bit of change, every bit of power that is needed to live the life you are called to live.
-Pastor Stan Mons
