A VISION OF FIRE

 

In recent days, God has opened up the spiritual realm to me in a greater way,  allowing me to see what I can only describe as visions or at the very least, glimpses into the spiritual realm. On a recent Sunday morning at our church, I was given another one of these spiritual insights.

 

 

======================================

A Prophetic Word through Three Women

==================================

During worship on Sunday morning, I became aware of three of the women who were dancing all three of them were wearing fire colors. One was a dark red and black pattern; the second was all red, and the third was red with yellow mixed in. As I watched them dance in close proximity to each other, I heard/perceived the word, fire. As I continued to observe them dance, I said to the Lord, "I see the fire, Lord! What is it you re trying to show me?"

 

As I stood there, a vision began to unfold and expand as it had so many times before in similar fashion. God would show me a portion, it would expand, the understanding would come, and then another dimension would be shown, and so on. These cycles continued for a while, until I was able to comprehend in a greater way what God was showing me and I became certain that I was to share this word with the church.

  ==============
  Vision Of Fire
  ==============

This is what I heard the Lord say: "I am bringing a holy fire into the church and it will be a heavenly, consuming fire, a purifying fire, but not all will be able to receive it."  He then began to show me levels and dimensions of fire and also a strange prophetic parallel to what was occurring in Iraq. The Lord showed me that what we had all seen on television during the last few days, i.e., the bombardment of the city of Baghdad by coalition armed forces was indeed a type and shadow of the heavenly fire that he was bringing into the church. The purpose of the fire from heaven in the prophetic sense was similar to the fire from the sky that was striking Baghdad. The purpose in the natural was to unseat the ruling regime, and in the spirit the fire is coming to unseat ungodly principalities in our lives as well as collectively and corporately within the church.

There was also a sense of God wanting to deliver us from ineffective strategies, i.e., empty works. I was reminded of a pastor some years ago telling me about a huge conference that he organized with some rather big named speakers, and on the last night as he was walking down off the platform, he heard God speak to him. "It's already burned up!" (God showed him that the fruit from his efforts had already been consumed, as it was not of Him).

 

In like manner, when we all stand before the judgment seat and Jesus says, "give account of yourselves," it will be as it was in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the Roman soldiers announced they were seeking Jesus of Nazareth. "I am He," Jesus responded, and the fire of his voice knocked them to the ground. The Lord showed me that on the Day of Judgment, His voice will be as a fiery blowtorch, and even before we open our mouths to give account, everything that is not of Him will have already been consumed by the fire of the word of his breath. In this vision, the overall sense was that God was bringing a holy fire in order to accomplish that in our lives now.

At the end of worship, I called the three women forward and had them stand in a line across the front of the church, and also a fourth woman, as God was showing me. As they stood and faced the congregation, from right to left, they were the red & black colors, the all red colors, the red and yellow colors, and finally a woman who was dressed in all yellow. All of them represented varying degrees of God s Holy Fire and Glory.

  ====================================
  The 1st Level or Dimension Low Heat
  ====================================

As I stood behind the first woman I explained what God had showed me. She was wearing a dress with a multicolored red and black pattern much like a low-burning or dying fire with some still glowing coals and some that were out. This was low heat, the simmering fire of God that doesn't blister, but only makes uncomfortable. The parallel I was shown was the on-going battles in Iraq in the southern desert, loosely defended by conscripts and draftees, who were ill-fed, poorly trained, and had no modern weaponry. In spiritual typology, these are the dominating demonic forces that hold our lives in sway because we allow them to. Even while being weak themselves, they are able to retain control over our lives because of the authority that has been given to them. Yet all it would take would be a hotter flame (greater firepower) to expel them. I had a sense that this low heat was all that someone would permit God to do in their lives, although He wanted to make things hotter. It was the outer court mentality, the place where a person can be comfortable, to keep one leg in the church and one leg in the world, the place of the faint-hearted, the non-committed. These would be those who were cold as described in Revelation 3:15.

  =================================

  The 2nd Level or Dimension Medium Heat
  =================================

The second woman, dressed in a warmer shade of all red represented medium heat, and the spiritual parallel I saw on the Iraqi battlefield was the Republican Guard and artillery elements who were dug in around Basra and Al-Nasiyra in southern Iraq. In parallel spiritual typology, these demonic forces were more intent on retaining their territory and defended it fiercely until they were overcome with more superior firepower. They were more entrenched and determined than the conscripts and could only be evicted by more fire. This also seemed to be the place of the inner court or the Holy Place, and seemed to represent the place of the truly committed Christian yes, there were pockets of enemy resistance, but at this level the holy fire was embraced and they were dancing in it. The more they danced, the more the fire burned and the more intensely was the overcoming firepower to rout the enemy from his emplacements. While those at the 1st level were non-committed, the people at this 2nd level were more focused on their Christianity, but were still much constrained by the evil spiritual forces that were affecting their lives, albeit unknowingly.

 

 ===============================
  The 3rd Level or Dimension High Heat
  ==============================

This was the place of high heat, represented by the wearing of red mixed with yellow. The red and yellow was both the fire of God and the glory of God being revealed simultaneously. This woman s skirt was striped and variegated with yellow and red and it was hard to tell where one color began and another one ended. So it is like the glory of God, as his holy fire purifies and refines us, His glory begins to be revealed. The Lord showed me that His glory cannot be revealed in us until there is holy fire!
 

In prophetic typology, this place was likened to the city of Baghdad, where the command and control principalities exercised their reign of terror over the cities and nations of our lives, and where the most heavenly firepower is necessary in order to break their stranglehold. This is also the remnant level of Christianity, the place where the fire of God is embraced in all of its fury because the person in this place wants all of God, and none of the enemy. They are willing to literally lay down their lives to have more of God, hence, the hotter refining fire. In like manner, the enemy forces at this level are fiercely positioned and ready to literally fight to the death before they will give up their ground, but in due time the heavenly fire will accomplish its purposes by virtue of their eviction.

  ================================================

  The 4th Level or Dimension The Glory of God Revealed In Us
  ================================================

This final place of fire was represented by a fourth woman who was dressed
completely in yellow, the color of glory. It was as if God was saying, When you have been through the other levels of my holy fire, it is now that my glory can be revealed fully in you. This is the place where nothing can be seen in us but God's glory. This is the place of the fiery furnace, where all that is not of God is abandoned and left behind and we willingly step into the flames of glory. Not us, not the enemy, not anything but God and all God. It is a personal, intimate place, like being in the Holy of Holies. In the parallel prophetic sense, it was like Iraq being liberated, the despots of evil having been removed, their influence and domination gone, and nothing left but pure liberty and freedom. When this is accomplished, our condition is much like that which Jesus described in John 14:30 (AMP), & for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.] Achievement of this state is the purpose of the holy fire.

He also showed me that these levels which we come to in our lives are voluntary; like the three main areas of the tabernacle, each place represents a place of choice. A person can choose low, medium, or high heat. Often demonstrated in our local churches, the Lord showed me the first area, low heat, was the group of people who wander in and out of the church during worship, who can never seem to enter in to worship, and who often congregate in the lobby area or outside the church while worship is on-going.

The second area, medium heat, was those who sit in their seats or who choose to remain in the neutral zone. They neither enter in, nor do they go out. They just sit. They want to enter in, but are not sure how to or are restrained because of insecurities, religious misunderstandings, or some other type of constraint that causes emotional conflict. They have a desire but an inability to respond in the physical to what is occurring in the soul. Not necessarily lukewarm, but neither hot nor cold". They are motionless, not advancing, not retreating, not going anywhere. Their Christianity, wishing to be outwardly dramatic, is inwardly static, as they are stuck in place somewhere between wanting and doing. Faith without works is dead . Their desire for passion has not reached a level of consuming fire that propels them to demonstrate their faith.

The third area, high heat, is like those who populate the front of the church during worship, often with a flag or banner in their hand. Perhaps they dance or twirl, or just do a little two-step, but their hearts are turned wholly toward God in praise, adoration, or worship. They don't care who sees them or what they look like. Often they will lay on the floor face down and bask in the Lord's presence. Their focus is completely on entering his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. They continue to push into the flames longing for the glory . The heat doesn't seem to bother them.

And finally, the fourth area, the glory of God, the place destined for the remnant of the remnant, those Zadoks who are completely sold out to God. They want His glory manifested in their lives more than they want life itself. It is to these few that God is entrusting His glory and through these the knowledge of His glory shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

  ===============

  The Flamethrower
  ===============

Finally, as the vision seemed to conclude, there was an admonishment from God not to quench the holy flames. (Despise not the chastening of the Lord) I was reminded of my time in basic Marine Corps infantry training when we were taught to fire the flamethrower. We strapped an apparatus on our backs consisting of two large tanks of napalm, a dangerous mixture of gasoline and a thickening agent that turns the mixture into a thick jelly that flows under pressure and sticks to a target as it burns. A short hose extended from the tanks under one arm and terminated in a kind of nozzle. During the training process, we held the nozzle in our hands and clicked off a sparking mechanism at the end of the wand, which was to ignite the napalm when it came out of the hose.

There were 9 seconds of fuel in the two tanks. A grizzled gunnery sergeant put his hand on my back and said, Hit it! I squeezed the trigger and out came liquid fire, shooting perhaps a hundred feet ahead. At the end of three seconds, he said, Cut! and I released the trigger. At his command, I was led through the firing of three 3-second bursts of liquid flame. The firing posture was feet planted firmly, knees slightly bent, leaning forward, my face extended toward the battlefront, and only inches from the emerging flames. This posture was necessary to brace against the force of the flames as they were propelled out of the nozzle. As long as you kept your face to the front, where you could feel the heat of the flames, you were treated to 3 three-second bursts.

But for those who winced, or turned their face away from the flame and heat, for those who shrank or drew back after the old gunnery sergeant had said, hit it, he would give them the full nine seconds until the tanks were empty. I remember seeing many whose face was pink or reddened and nearly blistered from the searing flames, which were only a few inches from their face.

In summary, I heard God saying to the church, keep your face fixed on me! Remain firm, with bended knee. Don t turn away from my holy fire, my refining fire, my purifying fire! As the flames destroy the enemy, they are also purifying you!

You can have as much of this holy fire as you want in your lives, but you must be willing to take the heat!

 Copyright © 2003 The Lion's Heart Ministries, Inc