In Fire

“¹¹I indeed baptize you in (with) water ^[b]because of repentance [that is, because of your ^[c]changing your minds for the better, heartily amending your ways, with abhorrence of your past sins]. But He Who is coming after me is mightier than I, Whose sandals I am not worthy or fit to take off or carry; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.”-Matthew 3:11

Coming into the Kingdom, you were baptized not only in the Holy Spirit, but in fire. Now, I’m well aware that there are many interpretations and speculations to the meaning of this, but I’m going to share what He has been speaking to me about fire.

The laid down life is a life that burns.

To be baptized, means to be fully immersed. Not only were we fully immersed in Who He is, like a bottle in the sea that is surrounded by water, but also filled with water, so were we upon being baptized in the Holy Spirit. But it also says fire. “Why fire?”, I asked Holy Spirit. His response was of course, simple yet profound:

“Because, fire consumes.”

The nature of fire is that it consumes. If I am baptized, fully immersed in His fire, that fire consumes all of me until there is only HIM. Jesus is straight up fire man, and the laid down life is a life that burns: a life that holds nothing back and allows Jesus to be Jesus in and through us. The reason we are called to love God with everything we are is not because He wants us to “earn” Him or “earn” what He has already freely given us. He wants all of us because then He has all of us to work with. It is His mercy. Love does not impose or demand, which is why, for example, we have to renew our mind: Because it wouldn’t be love if He rewired our thinking to love Him. Love must always have two trees in the garden.

He wants all of us. Not just some of us. He gave all of Him to us WHILE we were enemies, and He said to, “follow Me.” Any part that you are holding back from God isn’t really yours. Its the devils. The devil will allow you to think that to keep you in bondage.

He calls us to give this thing our all because only then can you be untouchable because it’s no longer you who you’re concerned about. Its Him. If He has all of me, He has the full canvas to paint His masterpiece upon.

There is another element to the concept of fire that He has been speaking to me about. The laid down life is a life that burns and is passionate. That passion is not just meant for you, but primarily to provoke the hearts of others. Authentic passion is found in authentic relationship. And passion provokes. Perverted passion is legalism.

“⁴⁹I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled!”-Luke 12:49

This verse fascinates me. To cast fire upon the earth. My belief is that He is foreshadowing the coming baptism, the one John the baptist mentioned previously. The baptism into the very Being of God. The very next verse further reinforces that Jesus was foreshadowing the coming baptism for His children that would soon be available for them.

^“50I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and how greatly and sorely I am urged on (impelled, ^[q]constrained) until it is accomplished!”

With hopeful anticipation, with a love that has waited before time, with a fire that burned in His heart, Jesus longed for, as a mother in child-pains who would soon forget the pain after her child is born, His death that would give birth to our redemption and reconciliation.

We aren’t made for us, we are made for Him. If I’m made in His image, then I’m to manifest Him and not me. The nature of fire is one that consumes. If it consumes, it spreads. Every single child of God has this fire, but it will only burn if we offer all of us as a sacrifice daily because then He has all of us to work with.

“Fire always falls on the sacrifice.”-Bill Johnson