"Fire is powerful"...

Have you ever been having just an ordinary conversation and someone will make a statement that just hits your inner most being like an arrow? Suddenly a simple statement becomes a powerful declaration.

Last night we were having dinner at a friends house. After dinner, we all sat in the living room chatting and watching a movie. In this movie, an arsonist had set some barns  on fire. While some were trying to put it out, others were just standing there watching the flames. My husband, Mark, said, "People love to watch fires", to which my friend, Cheryl, replied..."Fire is powerful". Such a simple statement, but in an instant, my spirit picked up on a much deeper meaning.

Fire is powerful

In the Bible, fire is used is many different situations. God spoke to Moses out of the fire. When He came down and dwelt in the Holy of Holies, it appeared to be on fire. When He descended onto Mt. Sinai to talk with Moses, the mountain appeared to be on fire.  He led the Israelites through the wilderness with a pillar of fire by night. God Himself is described as an "all consuming fire". 

Fire is powerful

All of the sacrifices God laid out for our atonement were burned up with fire. Throughout all of Leviticus and Numbers, as instructions are given for the sacrifices, it is repeated over and over, "an offering made to the LORD by fire".   The sacrifice representing their sin, the fire consuming their sin and leaving nothing between them and God.

Fire is powerful 

His Word is like fire (Jeremiah 23). It consumes and destroys the chaff around us.  And while many things are destroyed by the fire, some things are refined by the fire. When the disciples were waiting in the upper room, the Holy Spirit came and "tongues of fire" lit upon them and they were filled with the Holy Spirit. And they were changed in an instant...refined. Peter, the gruff and burly fisherman, uneducated and a little rough around the edges, became an eloquent "fiery" preacher. He was different...changed by the "fire".

There is the story of the man who refines silver. He sits with the silver in the fire and watches it, for if it stays in the fire too long, it will be damaged. And the way that he knows it is refined is when he can see his reflection in the silver.

Fire is powerful
God is an all consuming fire

A fire whirl is "when a fire, under certain conditions (depending on air temperature and currents), acquires a vertical vorticity and forms a whirl, or a tornado-like effect of a vertically oriented rotating column of air. Fire whirls may be whirlwinds separated from the flames, either within the burn area or outside it, or a vortex of flame, itself."

Fire is powerful
God is an all consuming fire

I want to be a fire whirl...A part of the fire, split off and yet burning within the flame. I want His all consuming fire to burn off the old me and refine me into His image. But if I remain in the fire, under His watchful eye, then the "stuff" that gets on me day to day that needs to be disposed of, will burn off.

Father, never let the fire on my altar go out. Keep the flame burning within me that I may be purified daily and You may see within me Your image. Keep the fire burning, because...

Fire is powerful

The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; 
it must not go out.
Leviticus 6:13