The Holy Spirit – A Cleansing Fire!
- bethelmin
- Jul 15
- 7 min read
The Holy Spirit – A Cleansing Fire!
“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also quicken (give life to) your mortal bodies through (because of) His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).
God’s Sovereign Transformation of His Children!
God created man in His image and after His likeness!
Satan corrupted man and brought sin into everyone born in this world!
God’s transformation begins with the recreation of man in His image, which was initiated by God sending us His Only Begotten Son, Jesus.
God’s recreation begins with us accepting Jesus and with our continued yielding to God, allowing us to be fully transformed in the likeness of Jesus.
This is solely the reason God promised every believer the Holy Spirit, His transforming Spirit.
Our spiritual man is taught, cleansed, trained, and transformed every day as we yield to the Holy Spirit.
When our inner being is transformed through obedience to the Holy Spirit, we will begin to experience the ultimate blessing from the Lord: the glory of God.
Baptism in the Holy Spirit!
Jesus is Our Baptizer: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11).
Cloven Tongues of Fire: “Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them…And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, ‘Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in our own language (dialect) in which we were born? Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs (Arabians)—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God’” (Acts 2:3, 6-11).
The Holy Spirit is the Cleansing Fire!
The Holy Spirit is Purifying: “When the Lord has washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and purged the blood (bloodshed) of Jerusalem from her midst, by the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning” (Isaiah 4:4). “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 launderers’ soap. He will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi, and purge (refine) them as gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord an offering in righteousness” (Malachi 3:2-3).
The Holy Spirit Prunes from Within!
“I am the vine; you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:5-7).
“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned” (Verse 6) – This means that the people who have refused the leading of the Holy Spirit constantly and continuously will become drier and drier and die in the long run to be cast into the fire.
“If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (Verse 7) – This means that the believers who have constantly and continuously yielded to the Holy Spirit will allow the pruning of their branches done by the Holy Spirit (an internal fire experience) to bring forth much fruit and receive the favor of answers to prayer.
Notice in the above reference by Jesus for us believers as branches, there is a danger of the whole plant becoming trash by the disease it has collected and the dryness it has gone through. Avoid collecting trash like a branch. Beware of TRASH – Do not collect trash from your past or about the people. Gossip is “Collecting Trash and Keeping It!” There is no such ministry as “Trash Collection Ministry.” Please do not start one.
Keeping trash will severely affect your life in the following manner:
· You are dwelling in the past and have not forgiven yourself!
· You have not exercised forgiveness and compassion for the world!
· With all the negative information piling up, you have lost trust in God!
· You will always be conscious of what other people think of you, and have chosen a life of lying and not being truthful!
· Trash has affected you severely, and you have become dried and withered!
· You bear NO FRUIT!
Allow the Holy Spirit to burn the trash in you and set you free. Leave the TRASH to GOD and LIVE!
God Himself discards all trash: “I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; and I will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25). “He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:19).
The Fire of the Holy Spirit is for the Believer to Experience God’s Glory!
The Holy Spirit is Illuminating: “And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so as to go by day and night” (Exodus 13:21). “And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God” (Revelation 4:5). The fire that followed God’s people in the Old Testament is the foreshadow of the fire a believer carries from within to purify them and the cloud that covered them is the foreshadow of the Holy Spirit offering comfort, exhortation, and edification to a believer.
Moses sat in the presence of God’s fire writing on the tablets: “And when He had made an end of speaking with (Moses) on Mount Sinai, He gave Moses two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18).
The Glory of God was on Moses: “Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him. So, when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him” (Exodus 34:29-30).
Fire, Smoke, and A Live Coal: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple… And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke…Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged’” (Isaiah 6:1,4,6-7).
The Transfiguration of Jesus: “Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light” (Matthew 17:1-2).
From the examples of Moses and Isaiah, the more we sit at the feet of the Lord to experience a touch of His glory, the more our faces are transformed. You can tell the difference between a believer who is spending time with the Lord and a believer who is living in the world. Our faces do not lie and reflect where we are spending our time!
The Holy Spirit abides with us forever!
Are we abiding (listening, yielding, obeying, submitting) with the Holy Spirit?
When we yield to the Holy Spirit and Fire:
· Our hearts will burn as we hear the Word of God: “And they said to one another, ‘Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?’” (Luke 24:32).
· The Holy Spirit purifies the inner man as the refiner’s fire and cleanses like a launderer’s soap.
· We overcome spiritual dryness and continue to yield fruit.
· When God’s flaming words abide in us, we ask Him anything and receive!
· The Fire of God Changes and Transforms a Believer!
· A Believer Experiences God’s Immense Glory by the Holy Spirit!
Prayer
“Heavenly Father, I love You and adore You. Thank You, Lord, for adopting me into Your precious family as Your child to conform to the image of Your Precious and Beloved Son, Jesus. I yield my life into Your hands, as Jesus did Himself, to become all that You have destined me to become. Please take away the filth, trash, and all the things that are blocking my growth as I yield to Your Holy Spirit and fire to purify me, wash me, prune me, and burn all the chaff in me. Help my life to be pleasing to You, Lord, and help me draw others to You. In the Most Precious and Wonderful Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen! Amen!!”
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John Jeyaseelan
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