Tongues of Fire

Tags

life, Pentecost, Speech, Use your words wisely

Tongues of Fire 7.13.16

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Everything that has come down, was put within us, now what we are waiting for, is it to come out of us.

Jesus instructed His disciples to wait in Jerusalem, until they were endued with fire, Acts 1:8 says it this way, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, AND you shall be my witnesses…” What came down was the Holy Spirit, in the form of tongues of fire, those tongues of fire are in our mouth, they are not coming down again. Jesus said in John 16:7, “”But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Just as the dove came down and rested on Jesus at His baptism in Matthew 3:16, the same Holy Spirit came and rested upon people in the upper room in Acts 2, but in the form of tongues of fire.

Many people are looking up, waiting for something to come down. We pray out of Matthew 6, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as though it is something outside of us. We are looking up for God to send something down, but the Lord is looking down, waiting for something to come out…of us. I wonder if the reason we are not seeing a breakthrough, is not because something has not come down, but rather because something has not come out. In the past season we would sing, Holy Spirit Rain Down, but I believe the song of this season is Spirit Break Out, break our walls down. Christ in you, Christ in me, is the hope of glory! He must come out of us.

While I was in worship on Sunday night at Bethel Church in Redding, CA, the spirit of God spoke to me and said, “You have been given tongues of fire, your words light up the nations!” The Lord has given us tongues of fire and in the midst of darkness our words of life bring light and truth to build up the nations not tear them down. The very next thing I saw was choirs of nations, singing, Great Are You Lord, it was a picture of whole nations lifting up their voices in one song to the Lord. I was calling to the various nations, to join in the song of the Lord.

Isaiah 60:1-3 says, “Arise, shine, for your light has broken through!

The Eternal One’s brilliance has dawned upon you.

2 See truly; look carefully—darkness blankets the earth;

people all over are cloaked in darkness.

But God will rise and shine on you;

the Eternal’s bright glory will shine on you, a light for all to see.

3 Nations north and south, peoples east and west, will be drawn to your light,

will find purpose and direction by your light.

In the radiance of your rising, you will enlighten the leaders of nations. (the Voice translation)

I believe now more than ever before, we have a mandate from heaven to let our tongues of fire out, so the nations can sing Great Are You Lord. As we speak life, we light up people’s lives, we light up nations with hope, peace and joy, we bring healing through the fire of our words of life. We have been given tongues of fire, in the past many have used their tongues to burn up what they deemed wrong, but today, we are being commissioned to use our tongues of fire to light up the nations with the light of the life that comes out of our mouths. You have tongues of fire, light up the nations!

Nearing Pentecost

Tags

Fire, Israel, Pentecost, Remnant, Upper Room

Throughout the Bible, God has always had a remnant of people, who would not bow a knee to Baal, would not be subject to the spirit of Ahab or Jezebel and would not retreat from the call, no matter how difficult the road. Men and women like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Ruth, Esther, Deborah, Elijah, Elisha, Moses, David, Sarah, Mary, Peter, James, John, Paul, Cornelius, Barnabas, Aquilla and Priscilla just to name a few. All who were apart of the remnant throughout history that paved the way for us today. Just as is common to God, there is a remnant on the earth today who are walking by faith, not compromising their convictions, who are contending for the promise and who are waiting for the call, the command.

The remnant has been on a journey with God which brought them through the wilderness, over the Jordan and even though logically they should be in the promised land, they know we made another stop that did not seem to be on the map, we were following. Many in the remnant have felt the shift in the spirit, the anticipation is building, the baby feels like it could be born any day now. But, God has brought us to one more stop, I believe a very significant stop, because our journey was not just an old testament wilderness experience, our cross over was not into Canaan as the Israelites was, but it was a crossover into the New Testament. We have left the wilderness, many of us can feel that, but we know we are not “there” yet. So, where exactly are we?

I believe we are in the upper room. I believe the remnant is assembled in the upper room and they are praying like never before, waiting for the fire to fall, for they know that without the fire there is not power evangelism. Many have said and are saying, send the fire, fire always precedes harvest, for the farmer knows they have to burn off the old harvest residue, so the soil is ready to receive the new harvest that is coming. The disciples were sent to the upper room after Jesus rose from the dead, to wait for the fire to fall. They did not know it was going to be like it was described in Acts 2, with wind, tongues of fire and speaking in other languages, but they knew they had to wait for what the Father had promised them.

We, who have been through the wilderness, crossed the Jordan have entered the upper room. That is where we are right now, some will get antsy and leave, remember there were 500 in the upper room to start but only 120 on the day the fire fell. We have come too far to leave now. I know you thought this was the crossover into the promised land, so did I, but keep waiting, we are in the upper room, the fire will fall, and we need the fire, the baptism of fire to do the work of the ministry. The prodigals are coming home, the harvest is going to be massive, we are going to need each other’s boats for the catch is going to be so large, but we must wait for the fire to fall.

I believe it is the final leg of this what seemed like a very long preparation period, but I also believe we will be thankful for the training when we start doing the works prepared in advance for us to do. It is closer than ever before, stay in the upper room, keep praying, keep contending, don’t quit now, we are in the words of Kris Vallaton, “150 feet from the mother load”. I believe we are nearing Pentecost!