At the beginning of 2021, I went to a cabin in the middle of the woods, all alone, to pray and spend time with God. I needed to hear from Him. I needed fresh revelation for the year ahead, for myself, and for those to whom He would have me to speak. “Where are we, Lord? What do we do now? What are You saying concerning this time and the days ahead?” For four days I asked these same questions. Four days passed, and I heard nothing. But each day I was met with an unmistakable awareness of His sweet presence with me in that secluded place.
Then, the day before I was to leave, it had snowed outside and was very cold. I was sitting snuggled up in a blanket, drinking a hot cup of coffee, next to a roaring fire in the fireplace, when suddenly, I heard that familiar voice responding to my sincere questions. His answer wasn’t what I expected, but it was definitely Him. “Rekindle the fire that is to ever be burning upon My altar, and build My house!” His words were firm and full of passion.
At first, I didn’t understand His response, but soon I came to realize He was revealing that the urgency of our times requires an awakened Ekklesia that is built up as a habitation of God and burning with the undeniable fire of His manifested glory.
The move of God that we have entered into is requiring more than just talk and form. This is a movement of Spirit and truth. The Ekklesia must encounter God and be ignited with fresh wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him that, when acted upon, produces the demonstration of the exceeding greatness of His power.
God is powerful, and when He is present, His power transforms us and shines through us in unmistakable ways. God’s desire is to fill us with His Spirit, burn in us with His fire, and shine His light through us so that we can know Him and also make Him known to the world around us.
God told the priests who attended to the altar of the Tabernacle that the fire must always be burning and must never go out (Leviticus 6:13). Then in Leviticus 9:24 (NIV) we read:
Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell facedown.
We see in these Scriptures that the reason the continuation of the fire is so important to God is because it was started directly by God, Himself! It came out from His presence, and He commanded the priests to maintain and keep fervent what He had started.
As the fire came out from the presence of the Lord, there was a visible and powerful demonstration as it consumed the burnt offering. That demonstration captured the attention of the people who saw it, and the response was one of reverence and awe of God. Those people were impacted by what they saw, and what they saw was the result of the priests doing their part in keeping the fire of God burning.
The good work that God has begun in the Church came out of Him, and His intentions are that we steward well and keep fervent what He has begun in us. The degree of fervency released through our lives, our ministries, and our churches is determined by the proximity of His presence. He is the fire, and the closer we come to Him, the closer He comes to us. And where He is, there is power and fire that will ignite us, and it will capture the attention of those around us.
The Church began in the fire and demonstration of the presence of God (see Acts, chapter 2), and we must never allow that fire to go out. Though it has seemed to dwindle, the wind is blowing, and the fire is beginning to burn again.
I heard the Spirit of the Lord say,
The wind is blowing! Hear it in the Spirit and know that I will blow My breath into this nation—resurrection and Pentecost, all rolled up into one unprecedented move of My Spirit. It will be an undeniable, gushing blast of the wind of My Spirit. It will not be a momentary stirring, but it will be a transforming habitation of My fiery glory, My manifested presence.
God has not forgotten the seeds of prophetic promises that He sowed into the Church in the book of Acts. He has not forgotten the seeds of prophetic promises that He has spoken concerning this nation. He has not forgotten the seeds of prophetic promises He has spoken concerning you—and He has not forgotten one word that He spoke through those pioneers and revivalists of days gone by concerning another Great Awakening that would unfold in our time! He remembers and He declares, “My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips” (Psalm 89:34 NKJV). Those seeds have been waiting for their moment, and this is that moment. Awakening has begun. The wind is blowing, reigniting the fire, and the knowledge of the glory will once again cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. Will you be one of the faithful who carries and burns with the fire?
I have always been impacted by this amazing quote by Jim Elliot:
He makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of “other things.” Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame. Make me Thy fuel, Flame of God.
May this be our sincere prayer as we take our place on the timeline of history: “Make us Your flame, O God!” May our generation shout to the next generation the goodness of God, not just with words, but with power and demonstration of the undeniable works of the Spirit of God.
Let’s pray:
Father, take us to a deeper place in You, beyond the surface of all the stuff we’ve made You to be. Take us to a deeper place in You that produces the fire in us that we have yet to know but must know if we are to be part of the company that advances forward with You in this time! May we be touched by the fire of Your glory, and may that touch cause us to abandon our comfort to pursue the depths of You that causes us to lose ourselves in Your glory as You consume us with Your fire! May we be those who are burning with Your power and manifested presence. Show us Your glory, and mark us with Your fire!
In Jesus’ name. Amen!
Our Decree:
We are clothed in the righteous robes of glory-fire. We are hidden in Christ. We live, but it is no longer we who are living; it is Christ living in and through us, making Himself known to the world around us!
