[The Glory Unveiled]
Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. ( 1Kings 18:38 )
Many of us are chasing after the fire of God. We desire that our spiritual lives flourish and kindle as with fire. There are even some of us who pray with the words of the prophet of old, that the fire of God would be stuck in our hearts and bones. The scripture for today’s meditation starts with “then” which supposes that something happened before what came after “then” became possible. Before the fire of God would come upon us and saturate us, we need to have somethings in place. In the verses 33-35, we would read that Elijah, the prophet watered the sacrifice and the altar; this is the requirement for the fire. For the fire to kindle or fall, there must first be water. This is almost ironic, that water invites fire. But that is the truth. Whenever adequate “water” is allowed, the fire can come down upon a person. In the gospels, John the Baptist said he baptized with water but there was one after him who would baptize with fire (see Matthew 3:11 or Luke 3:16). In the early chapters of the book of Acts (1:13-17;20), the disciples had been gathering together watering themselves in the word and in prayer. And then in chapter two verses one to three, the fire came down. The fire is always attracted to water—the word. The word would always precede the fire. If we truly want to have fire in our lives, we need to first drown in the water; the word of God. The word of God gives permission to the fire of God to come down. Fire is never in a place where the word of God is scarce. The revival fire we seek is as close to us as the abundance of the word of God in us. The closer we are to the word of God, the closer the fire of God is to us.
Prayer_Bead: Word of God, maker of all that is made, Consuming Fire, my God and my King, set me on fire for you.
#GNews: Unveiling the glory of God.