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In this piece we will be looking at a dimension of God that is warfare; a dimension of God that makes things work for us, and also a dimension of God that enables us to step in as victors and overcomers.
Listen to Podcast: God As the Consuming Fire
I would love you to see 1 Kings chapter 18; this story here, helps us to see the dimension of God as the consuming Fire. 1 Kings chapter 18, is the story of when Prophet Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal. There was a strong contention on the land, Ahab the king at the time had been making the people to bow to Baal; he and his wife, Jezebel, and Prophet Elijah had been one of the strong forces that have been standing for the God of Israel, the true God. And in this Scripture, it came to a time where Elijah had gone for a bit, and God instructed him to go back and confront Ahab, and this was a contest that happened at the time in 1 Kings chapter 18:30-39, It says;
“Then Elijah said to all the people, come near to me, so all the people came near to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord that was broken down. And Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come saying, Israel shall be your name. Then with the stones, he built an altar in the name of the Lord”.
There are certain things that Elijah did before Fire came down. There are certain steps that Elijah took before there was a response from God, and one of the things is what we’re going to pay attention to in verse 32. He said, ‘and then with the stones, he built an altar’. For God to respond to you as the consuming Fire, there must be an altar that you have built for Him. It was in the Old Testament, that altars were raised physically for God. Now altars are raised spiritually for God in our hearts. That’s why in Romans chapter 12:1-2, Apostle Paul was speaking, he said, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies; you are presenting it as an altar; you present your bodies to God as a living sacrifice upon the altar of your heart. He said, this is your reasonable service, then in verse 2, he made mention that we should be transformed and not be conformed to the things of the world. What makes us transformed is what happens on the altar of our heart.
So, in verse 32, ‘Elijah built an altar in the name of the Lord’. What makes the altar God’s own; is that His name is on it. For example, if I bring out this handkerchief, and you know these days, people now brand things, so we have designer brands. If this handkerchief is reading Lara, then you say this is Lara’s handkerchief, there are many handkerchief on earth. Now, some of us are wearing some good apparel, if I am going to check; apart from the ones that are personally designed by our tailor, the ones we bought ready made in the market will have a logo, it will have the name of the person that designed it. Even though there are many shirts in the market, they are specific in the name of the designers. There are many altars in the world; it is not all altars that are in the name of the Lord.
You can look at yourself and say after all, I was born and given the name John, after all I was born and given the name Elizabeth or I was born and given the name Mary: it does not mean that it was on the naming ceremony that you were given that name; that the altar of your life have been given to the Lord. There is a need for you as an individual to raise your heart personally as an altar to the Lord: in the name of the Lord. How is this possible? When you come to the point where you believe in your heart, and you confess Him with your mouth; the Lord Jesus, you have raised an altar in your heart; and that’s why the belief is in your heart. Your heart has become the spiritual altar for the Lord, and you have dedicated that heart to God in the name of Jesus. So, that heart now carries the name of the Lord, meaning that you have now built that heart in the name of the Lord. It is not every heart in the world that belongs to God: and this is the foundation.
The Bible says if the foundation be destroyed, what can the righteous do: this is the foundation. If the foundation is not gotten right, you can cry from morning till night and call for Fire, and nothing will show up because there is no altar. God responds to the altar that is in His name. He does not respond to anyhow altar; He responds to the altar that is in His name, and that is one thing that Prophet Elijah got right, because this is like a model to see how God responds as the consuming Fire. Verse 32-33, “And then with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he made a trench around the altar, large enough to hold two seahs of seed. And he put the wood in order, cut the bull in pieces, and laid it on the wood, and said, fill four waterpots with water, and pour it on the burnt sacrifice and on the wood”. ‘He put it in order’.
When we are expecting God to show up for us as the consuming Fire, have we put our lives in order? Have we put our belief in order? It is not enough to say after all, some twenty or thirty years ago, or some five years ago or some six months ago that I said, Lord Jesus, You are my Lord and my personal Savior, I believe You in my heart and I confess You with my mouth; is your belief in order? Do you believe in God? Hebrews 11, the Bible made us understand that those that come to God, must believe; there are two things we have mentioned: number one is, as your heart become an altar, raised in the name of the Lord? It is an individual question. Your father or your mother cannot raise your heart as an altar for the Lord; it is a personal decision.
For example, before Samuel was born, Hannah had dedicated Samuel to God. She said, God, hear my cry, give me a son, and when You give me that son, I will give him back to You. When Samuel was born, did Hannah fulfill her promise? Yes she did. Immediately Samuel was weaned, Hannah brought Samuel to the temple. But was that enough? Was it Hannah that came to say, Samuel!! God is speaking to you, He wants to use you? No! Samuel had to make a decision. When Eli said to him, I’m not the one calling you; I understand what is going on. God is speaking to you and when next you hear the voice, your response should be: speak for your servant hears. Did Hannah come to say it for him? No! Samuel had to say it by himself. And that is why the issue of altar is something personal: your parent cannot do it for you. Your loved ones cannot do it for you. They can pray for you to experience it, but when it gets to the moment of decision, you have to make that decision yourself. Raising your heart as an altar for the Lord; and after you have gotten that right, what is the second thing? The second thing is that your belief has to be in order.
Now, you have a heart that has been named in the name of the Lord, erected in the name of the Lord, you now belong to Jesus. You have now confessed with your mouth and believe in your heart the Lord Jesus, what do you believe? Do you believe that there are some witches and wizards somewhere that are more powerful than God; that can press you in the night? What do you believe? Whose report would you believe? You have to put your believe in order. Those that come to God must believe that He is and He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. If you diligently seek Him as the consuming Fire, He will show up for you. If you don’t, He won’t show up. Your faith has to be put in order. There were many people that had issues when Jesus was walking physically on the face of the earth. There were many blind people, there were many lame people, there were many people that had issues of blood, but those that got their healing were people that their faith was in order. Do we remember the story of the woman that had twelve (12) years issue of blood? She was in her house demonstrating how she will put her faith to work. She said, if I can but touch the hem of His garment; her faith was in order.
There was blind Bartimaeus that cried out, his faith was in order. He said, Jesus! Son of David, have mercy on me. Bartimaeus put his faith in order and he got his healing. If our faith is not in order, even though, God is the consuming Fire; He will not show up for us because we don’t believe. There was a woman that came to Jesus. Jesus said to her, He said, what you are asking for is bread for the sons. He said you can’t benefit. You don’t belong. And the woman said, bread is too much for me. In fact, you are celebrating me too much. You want to give me access to something that is even greater than me. Can I benefit from crumbs? Crumbs are enough for me. If sons are eating bread, fine. Can I benefit from crumbs? And Jesus responded to her; and what were crumbs gave her what she was looking for. What is your belief? Do you believe people in your village are stronger than God? Your faith has to be put in order. Whose report will you believe? Elijah was unwavering in faith.
The Bible says he’s a man of like passion; like us, a man like us that believed God. And he prayed three and a half years and there was no rain, he prayed again; and there was rain after three and a half years. Why? His faith was put in order. If our faith is not put in order, the things we are trusting God for, we will not receive; because those that come to God, must believe. God is not a magician; those that come to God, must believe He is the God that responds to faith. So, if your faith is not put in order, the God that is the consuming Fire will not show up.
Verse 34 says; “Then he said, do it a second time, and they did it a second time; and he said, do it a third time, and they did it a third time”. (What was Elijah trying to communicate?
The Fire we are expecting is not a Fire that came as a result of coincidence: that maybe it is the dryness of the wood that made it catch Fire. This is not going to catch Fire because it is harmattan and we are in the desert. He said, pour the water a third time, meaning that; no matter how drenched the issue of your life is, no matter how soaked the devil has made the issue to be, he said, keep pouring water upon this altar, the Fire that is coming; what it is going to do, you won’t believe it.)
“So, the water ran all around the altar; and he also filled the trench with water, verse 36, and it came to pass, at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that Elijah the prophet came near and said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel”. Elijah knew his God.
When you are praying, to whom do you pray, the God you know or the one you don’t know? When you are speaking to God, are you speaking in ignorance or you are speaking from knowledge? Those that know their God, they shall be strong and they will do exploits. “And Elijah said, LORD God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known this day that You are God in Israel, and I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your word”. Not because I feel like showing up. The consuming Fire response to His word. I have done these things at Your word. I have come out of my father’s house at Your word. I have come to Abuja at Your word. I am at Centre for New Dimension Leadership at Your word. I’m pursuing this career at Your word. Whatever I am doing is at Your word, You will back it up.
Verse 37 says; “hear me O LORD, hear me, that these people may know that You are the LORD God, and that You have turned their hearts back to You again”. So, it was not about Elijah, it was about God. The glory in your life; if it is going to go to God, God will protect it. The consuming Fire dimension of God is related to His jealousy. When you are jealous over something (not evil jealousy), you protect it. You are guarding it, you are guiding it, nothing must touch it; I am jealous over it. And that’s where Prophet Elijah was praying from; God, this is about You; this is not about me, this is about your people. He said, after he prayed, verse 38, then the Fire of the LORD fell, when God knew that it was about Him, when He was certain that His glory will not be shared with Elijah, that His glory will not be shared with Ahab, that His glory will not be shared with the children of Israel. “And Fire from the LORD fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice, and the wood (that was soaked four times) and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench.”
The kind of Fire that will consume all, and will lick up whatever is left; that is the dimension of Fire that comes from God. That you are praying; that the issues you have not even prayed about at the presence of God coming upon your life, there is a consumption of all darkness and works of darkness. The kind of prayer we are to pray is that whatever the devil has locked up, that you are not even aware of, that exist in your life: that the consuming Fire will come upon you and would consume all. Verse 39 says; “Now when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces; and they said, The LORD, He is God! The LORD, He is God!” That will be our testimony in the name of Jesus. Why is it important that God shows up for us as the consuming Fire? I want to show us three Scriptures. Leviticus chapter 10:2, “So Fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD”. There are some things that must not stay alive around us.
Number One: There are things that must be devoured. They must not live. So, we need God to show up for us as the consuming Fire; because when they live, they hurt us. When they live, they bring the name of the Lord to disrepute in our lives; they must be devoured.
Number Two: He is a consuming Fire because He’s a jealous God. Deuteronomy chapter 4:23-24, “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved 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”. And that was the secret for me; He is a consuming Fire because He’s a jealous God. The reason He will consume is because He’s jealous. Can we build an altar for the Lord, so much so that God will be jealous over that altar, and will consume anything that will prevent that altar from speaking? Can we build an altar for the Lord, so much so that God becomes jealous over your life that whatever wants to threaten your life, God consumes it? That’s it; the jealousy of God is tied to His consuming Fire nature. That’s why when you worship God, and you worship to an extent, and God say what have I done to this person, that this person is giving Me praise like this? And He looks down at you, that you have understanding, and then He becomes jealous over you.
You have not raised a prayer point but God is defending you. Why? He is jealous, because He wants that worship to continue, He wants that thanksgiving to continue, He wants that your altar to continue to give to Him a sweet smelling savor of worship; so He becomes jealous over you, then He becomes the consuming Fire. Is that not what He did for Job? Job will rise up early in the morning and worship; offer sacrifices to God on behalf of himself and his entire household. Then God created an edge; how did the devil know that God had created an edge? And when God creates an edge; it’s an edge of Fire so that anybody that wants to try it will be burnt; because that is who He is. The reason God will become a consuming Fire on our behalf is because He is jealous over us.
What is man that You are mindful of him? Nor the son of man that You visit him? What is man!! He is man in his true nature, in the image and likeness of God; giving God pleasure. If your life is not giving God pleasure, He will not come to you as a consuming Fire. If you don’t like a food, and flies are perching; will you chase it? You will probably say, let them even have it, but when it is your best food and everything assorted is inside; the food is giving you pleasure, will you allow flies to pitch on it? With aggression, you will chase the flies. That’s how God is jealous of over us when our hearts becomes that which gives Him pleasure.
Deuteronomy chapter 9:3 says; “Therefore understand today, that the LORD your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming Fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has said to you”. God protects His word in your life by being a consuming Fire. The reason God will become a consuming Fire for you is that His word as gone ahead of you and in protection of that word, so that you will be able to lay hold of that word; God will go before you as a consuming Fire. Do you have the word of the Lord? The reason God will be a consuming Fire for you is that you have the word of God. What has God said to you? If God has not said anything to you, there is nothing to protect. Why? The Bible says heaven and earth will rather pass away than one title of God’s word to go unfulfilled. He exalts His word more than the name that we call Him. So, when you have the word of God, God will show up for you as a consuming Fire.
In Hebrews chapter 12:28-29, the Bible says; “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming Fire”. Anyone that serves God acceptably and with godly fear; God shows up for that person as a consuming Fire. Do we remember the story of Abraham? When he went to Egypt, Abraham lied that Sarah was his sister; it was not a lie in that sense, they were actually related; but in fear, he said, Sarah was his sister. And Pharaoh said beautiful woman and he took her; then God showed up in the house of Pharaoh. He shook the foundation of his palace, and God spoke to him, you’ve made mistake. You have taken from my servant, and you will return it; or else, I will continue to shake you. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty in God; the consuming Fire. If you will live your life serving God in reverence of Him, He will defend you. Where you cannot speak for yourself, He will speak for you. Abraham was afraid of Pharaoh, but God was not and God showed up. And Pharaoh said, go and look for that man for me; he should come and carry his property.
Nobody can take what is yours. Nobody can steal from you. Nobody can kill what is yours. Nobody can destroy what is yours and God will not show up for you; if you are worshipping Him, in referent fear. It can’t go like that. Even when you say, Lord, forgive them; God will say I’ve heard: you have forgiven them, I’ve not. That’s why the Bible says, vengeance is mine; I will repay says the Lord. He said so that your own love walk will not be affected; give me the battle. And that’s why as believers we must be very wise to allow God to fight for you, He said He will fight for you and you will hold your peace: the consuming Fire. They said something about Moses, God heard it and judged them accordingly, and Moses was like, God, this matter is not deep. He said no, it is deep. If there is any prophet amongst you, I speak to them in dreams. You see Moses that you are bad mouthing; I speak to Him as a man speaks to his friend. That’s why your relationship with God can be private, but when God wants to defend you; it becomes public.
What you do with God in the secret place will be rewarded openly. That’s why God is the best person to serve, because when He shows up for you, He shows up big. If God had asked Moses to punish Miriam and the people, what would be the punishment that Moses would give them; after all Miriam was his sister? God said, you know what, for what you said, take leprosy: so that next time, you will know how to check your mouth. That is why we need to understand that there are dimensions of God; that is your service to Him. Hebrews chapter 12 said, by which we may serve God acceptably and with reverence and godly fear. That’s what Moses did. For our God is a consuming Fire.
Psalm 21:9 says; “You shall make them as a fairy oven in the time of Your anger; the LORD shall swallow them up in His wrath, and the Fire shall devour them”. The Fire; definite: the Fire, not a Fire, but the Fire, the consuming Fire shall devour them. When it is time for God’s wrath, He shows up as a consuming Fire. When Sodom and Gomorrah’s cup of iniquity had become full, God showed up as a consuming Fire with hale and brimstone. He devoured an entire town to ground zero; to nothing, everything burnt down. Why? It was His wrath. So, whoever triggers the wrath of God by doing anything, God said to Abraham, I will bless those who bless you. I will curse those who curse you. Another word we can use is; I will destroy those that try to destroy you. I will eliminate those that try to eliminate you; is that not what God did for Mordecai? The same gallows that Haman created for Mordecai, when God showed up for Mordecai, Haman was destroyed by it; with his entire family. God showed up for Mordecai.
Isaiah chapter 30:30, “The LORD will cause His glorious voice to be heard, and show the descent of His arm, with the indignation of His anger and the flame of a devouring Fire, (another word for consuming Fire: devouring Fire.) with scattering, tempest, and hailstones, He will cause His glorious voice to be heard”. When God wants to cause His glorious voice to be heard; God shows up as a consuming Fire.
So, when some people say, the kind of wickedness that is in this life, is it that God is not seeing it? I will say God is tempering justice with mercy; because when He shows up in the fullness of His wrath, no one will be saved. In the Book of Joel, he says, who can stand when God shows up with His wrath? The day of the Lord, the day of great tempest. That’s why those that are His; He is jealous over them. The wise thing to do, is to be numbered as His.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji.
