Consuming Fire
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Consuming Fire
Consuming Fire
Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a graven image in the form of anything which the Lord your God has forbidden you.
For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.
We read today that one of the characteristics of God is described as a consuming fire
The writer of the book o hebrews stated it directly
For our God [is indeed] a consuming fire.
In both of these verses the object of the consuming fore of God is idolatry
Te root Hebrew word means “to devour totally; to be in a state of destruction as mastication of food!”
The Greek carries a similar definition to “expend or destroy utterly”
If idolatry is the trigger for this response from God then we need to understand and identify where it is at work in our lives!
We don’t often hear that word used in our world today. In essence, Idolatry is defined as the worship os a false God. It is anything that people serve, love, desire, trust, fear and worship that isn’t God
Again we find the word “worship” another on of those words we hear little about!
Worship is when we give our deepest affection and highest praise to something!
While we don’t see statures erected to deities much these days (hindu practice) people tend to think of worship as something ignorant people did in the past! However the Scripture tells us that
They sacrificed to demons, not to God—to gods whom they knew not, to new gods lately come up, whom your fathers never knew or feared.
WOW! Can we identify some new gods that our fathers did not know?
Gender blending, Internet, sports, actors, video games, or pleasure, just to name a few
First thing we see is that idolatry is identified as a violation of an agreement with God
Look at the verse from Deuteronomy, “lest you forget the covenant of the Lord…”
We need to remember that the writers are trying to describe an infinite, holy, righteous God with an extremely limited vocabulary
We read that the motivation for the consuming fire of God is out of jealousy
Applying man’s definition of Jealousy makes God look petty and small for man’s jealousy is born out of resentment, bitterness, envy, hostility toward someone else, greed, and hatred. God’s jealousy is quite different!
We are told what the motivation for God’s jealousy is
Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath [against her enemies].
DO you see it? His anger isn’t against them because they will not listen to Him but rather against their enemies who are deceiving them and drawing them away!
Remember this verse?
And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He Who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Jesus Christ [right up to the time of His return], developing [that good work] and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you.
Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves.
So how does He accomplish that? Through the refining fire of His love!
For My name’s sake I defer My anger, and for the sake of My praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off.
Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried and chosen you in the furnace of affliction.
For My own sake, for My own sake, I do it [I refrain and do not utterly destroy you]; for why should I permit My name to be polluted and profaned [which it would be if the Lord completely destroyed His chosen people]? And I will not give My glory to another [by permitting the worshipers of idols to triumph over you].
If the fire of God’s Spirit is now burning within us, we can either leave it continue to consume that which is not pleasing to God or we can contain it and keep it from spreading!
Remember God’s promise about our new life?
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanness; and from all your idols will I cleanse you.
A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them.
Stone is not easy to melt or destroy. Look at the temperature of lava! Lava is molten rock yet, even in the process of melting a hard crust is quickly formed on the surface. That is exactly what is happening to us!
We are once again back to the issue of surrender. Surrender is the hardest thing to do, to let go and let God!
This is very much like us today. God has many wonderful blessings and promises he desires to pour out and fulfill in our lives. However, he cannot or will not pour those things out on people whose hearts are not completely devoted to him.
Know therefore this day that the Lord your God is He Who goes over before you as a devouring fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall dispossess them and make them perish quickly, as the Lord has promised you.
A promise that your enemies would not prosper against you but who is the enemy?
One of the biggest enemies God is seeking to devour in your life is sin. The biggest enemy in your life is not Satan, it is sin. The only thing that can interfere or destroy the work and plan of God in your life is sin. As powerful as Satan may be, he is no match for the man or woman who has chosen to follow God with their whole heart.
However, when sin invades your heart it can wreak havoc on God’s purpose for your life. Because God loves you and has a great plan for you, he will continually consume any areas of sin in your life so he can remove them.
We read in the book of Chronicles
When Solomon finished praying, fire flashed down from heaven and burned up the burnt offerings and sacrifices, and the glorious presence of the Lord filled the Temple.
The priests could not enter the Temple of the Lord because the glorious presence of the Lord filled it.
When all the people of Israel saw the fire coming down and the glorious presence of the Lord filling the Temple, they fell face down on the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, “He is good! His faithful love endures forever!”
That day God accepted the sacrifice and consumed it! Beware, at the moment we became the sacrifice so should expect that God would not desire to consume us?
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
There it is, the convenient, remember what He has done for you!
Walking through the refining fore of God’s cleansing work is never easy. It requires trust, obedience, and most of all surrender!
We seem to forget that when we jump out of the pan we usually end up in the fire!
Let’s pray