A Need for fresh fire – By Henry Falcone

[Ron McGatlin]

A Need for fresh fire:

The true deep work of the Holy Spirit is not just to empower us with spiritual gifts. Spiritual gifts are the overflow of God to help us know him, serve him and serve others and I don not diminish them at all.

Yet there is a far deeper work of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That work is found in Malachi 3:

Malachi 3 Amplified Bible (AMP)

The Purifier
3 “Behold, I am going to send My [a]messenger, and he will prepare and clear the way before Me. And the Lord [the Messiah], whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple; the [b]Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight, behold, He is coming,” says the Lord of hosts.

2 But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like launderer’s soap [which removes impurities and uncleanness].

3 He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and He will purify the sons of Levi [the priests], and refine them like gold and silver, so that they may present to the Lord [grain] offerings in righteousness.

4 Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in ancient years.

Most Christians who experience the baptism of the Holy Spirit are taught to focus on the “works of the Holy Spirit” for service to God and little emphasis is put on the power that makes those gift operate from the true pure holy love of God.

1st Corinthians 13 speaks of operating in those gifts that can do great things, but if they are not motivated from pure holy love then those work are nothing.

Those works without the pure holy love ofGod motivating us cause us to be a useless nobody and a clanging bell. Another words we may do a lot of things for God and make a lot of noise about our spirituality but in reality they are not the real genuine works of God.

These actions didn’t come from his purity of his motives in our heart to do them. That is pretty sobering if you think about it. Who will let God test their hearts and motives? Those who desire and love Him above all things will do so.

That is what the baptism of the Holy Spirit is to do purify our motives. Malach prophesies of this work. He prophesies how deep that work would be to say, “who can stand when he appears?”

He goes on to say, “who can endure the day of His coming.” Does that sound like an easy work to let God do in our hearts? Yet blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Matthew 5:8

Then Malachi prophesies the true, deep, and hidden work of the baptism of the Holy Spirit really is. He will come and sit.. (to sit mean God, the Holy Spirit takes his place of rightful authority) in our hearts to begin that purifying process.

This happens only when He, “the Holy Spirit” if given permission by us to come and sit and rule in our heart as he desires. Then He can come do his purifying work.

What is that work? To refine us like a refiner or gold and silver. To purify gold and silver they have to be put into intense heat so the impurities or other metals that are mixed in with the gold and silver can come to the surface and be removed. Those other metals are called “dross” because they taint the purity of the gold and silver.

The old nature we have lived with before we came to know Jesus, the old habits, thinking, actions and priorities of life are like those other metals in the pure gold of our new born again life in Christ. Those old ways “taint” the true value, worth, and work that the Gold (our new nature)is supposed to have.

For God to remove those old ways in us, the old works in us, the old thinking in us, Jesus has sent His Holy Spirit to come and burn like fire in us. He is a refining fire and fullers soap.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit was given to us to “burn up and clean up” and remove every other thought, habit, motives of our old life for Christ to live His pure holy life in us.

Then we can now live to do only the Father’s will as he did. The Apostle Paul wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, but not I, but Christ lives in me. And now the life I live, I live by faith, in the Son of God who loves me and gave his life for me.

This is the fruit that baptism of the Holy Spirit has come to burn in us as he removes the dross and mixed motives of our hearts. This is how he purifies His priesthood to enable us to give our lives and to the Lord offerings of righteousness.

God uses the circumstances in our life to aid the “Holy Spirit” in us to do that work. I wrote the other day I to often wanted Jesus to speak to the storm of the outer circumstances that were buffeting me, but I had come to learn that greater storm was in me that he must speak peace to and cease. Come Lord Jesus come!

Beloved, there are true spiritual purposes for what God allows us to face. Our flesh hates it, but they are the tools God uses to allow the Holy Spirit to refine our hearts true motives.

The Bible says that the trial of our faith is more precious then gold. Consider it all joy when you fall into all times of trials, for God is at work in us.

I don’t like storms in the natural or in the spiritual. Who wants to suffer? Who wants to go through things? Our flesh wants everything to be easy and costless. But the Kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent seize it by force.

This refining fire of the baptism of the Holy Spirit has come to remove everything that cause us to doubt, question, oppose, resist, rebel, be stubborn against, every mindset, every belief, every lie that opposes the true knowledge of God.

This baptism of the Holy Spirit comes to test the “true motives” and “intentions” of our heart. How do we know what we are doing for the Lord is out of his pure holy love or mixed with our need to be needed and accepted?

We can’t know, only God knows the true motives of the heart, and we can only know by him revealing them to us or others on our behalf to correct us.

Are we dejected? Are we downcast? Why are we? As human being we all face things that cause us to try to despair, or try to get us hopeless. The enemy says, “where is your God now, look what he has done to you and allowed in your life.”

Have you noticed when bad things happen like storms, floods, hurricanes, earthquakes God always get the blame? Why is that? Because mankind does not want to face the truth about the wages of sin and the consequences of living independantly from God.

Oswald Chambers in this devotion is going to get at the root of spiritual dejection. I would say it is our “need to have things done “our way” the way that seems right to a man. Of course the Bible’s says that the ways that seem “right to men” ends up in destruction.

This devotion helps us look at what “lust” really is and how it causes a spiritual sickness to enter us. The good news is that God has given us the baptism of the Holy Spirit to burn this ugly fruit up and remove the roots of them.

Beloved, we can be at peace no matter where we are or what happens we can trust the Lord with all our hearts.

Are you in that place of spiritual dejection today? Does it look like God abandoned you? Do you feel God won’t answer your prayers or maybe even against you?

Then read this post and this devotion and with an open heart, you can repent and see that there is nothing in all creation that can separate you from the Love of God.

For those who are growing in the lord, this devotion is a reminder to cry out for a fresh fire and a fresh and new baptism of the Holy Spirit so he can come as a refining fire to purify our motives and work with us to make ourselves ready to be the bride of the Lord.

The refining fire prepares us to be holy as he is holy. The refining fire removes our filthy garments we wore of mixture of serving God and ourselves and allows to be permitted to wear the gown of white found in Revelation 19:7-10.

The refining fire purifies our motives so we give God offerings He wants and asks of us instead of giving him the Cain offering of what we think he wants. The refining fire works in us His kingdom love and sheds it abroad through our mind, our hearts and emotions to be filled with the glory of God.

It is time for to give God our utmost for His Highest!

Spiritual Dejection
By Oswald Chambers

We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21
Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it.
We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.

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