Consumed.

From Old Testament (Exodus 24:17, Deut. 4:24) to the New (Hebrews 12:39), Scripture steadily declares that the One, True, and Living God is “a consuming fire.” The Lord recently laid heavily on my heart this Scriptural truth and began teaching me in my own voice, as only the Holy Spirit can, about the supernatural application of this reality.

The “consuming fire” of God is a single flame with two different manifestations depending on who He touches. For the unbeliever, this fire of God is one of furious wrath that consumes the individual like a dry leaf near an open flame. The law leaves every man guilty before the judgment of a Holy God Who must see that justice is served for every thing that is done, spoken, and thought of in the heart (Hebrews 4:13). Every one of us was or is an unbeliever. And we all have come or must come to the knowledge of the fear of the Lord. Scripture says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom…” (Psalm 111:10) and apart from the blood of Christ, our first vision of the Lord needs to be as a “child of His wrath” (Eph. 2:3) in need of His mercy. Praise God He lovingly and abundantly supplies this in Christ. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes on Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)

This consuming fire of the Lord, though, has a very different manifestation in the believer. It is now a flame of love. As one who has turned from sin, and trusted in Jesus, we become like the burning bush before Moses (for context, see here). The bush caught Moses’ eye because it was not being consumed by the fire that raged in it and on it. There was nothing about the bush that was special. This is an illustration of how “we have died” to ourselves - seeing there is no good in us apart from God. But the flame is what stood out about the bush, just as “now Christ lives in us and the life we live is by faith in the Son of God who gave His life for us” (Galatians 2:20). Christ, who is God, now burns within the believer, but by some grace of God, just like the bush, we are not consumed! Why? Because, just as the bush was a tool used by the Lord to draw a man to Himself, we now live to be fuel for the fire of God’s love to draw “everyone, everywhere” to God as “He works mightily in us” to spread His gospel to the world.

Make no mistake, the fire of the Living God is not a controlled space heater but more like a raging forest fire. All people will taste of this fire, whether it is now before Christ’s cross or at the Judgment Seat of Christ. We come to God in need of cleansing on His terms…are you ready to die to yourself and be used by God for His glory? If not…you can’t be a saved follower of Jesus and you remain in your sins. I beg you to weigh the value of your life in light of eternity and count the cost because you can be consumed with the Lord now, knowing Him and having eternal life or be consumed by the Lord in hell at the judgment…please examine you soul and speak with the Lord. May everyone be blessed with His fire.