July 20, 2006
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I am breaking Pastor Danquah’s message into two parts because it was a lot of information about the Fire of the Holy Spirit. Today I will give the preliminaries and tomorrow I will post five benefits of the Baptism of Fire.
What an incredible evening that began with a remarkable testimony of what God has done. A man who had polio got up and told us that for the first time in years he spent a day without pain medicine. That last night God started shifting his bones around. It is so awesome to see how God is healing this man. He came with an open mind, ready to be healed, and God came through for him. I am certain that God is continuing his healing as I write.
Tonight was another incredible evening with Pastor Danquah. We have been so blessed to sit under his teaching and healing and prophesy ministry. Tonight’s message touched the lives of the hundreds of people who attended the meeting.
THE BAPTISM OF FIRE
Matthew 3:11-12 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. His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
John the Baptist had a baptism of repentance, but Jesus has given us a baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. The word “baptism” comes from a word that means completely submerged. In the Bible there is no Biblical record about baptism by sprinkling – it was total submersion.
Jesus totally submerges us under the Holy Ghost and fire. There is fire residing in your soul. Fire makes you be aglow. When you have the Holy Spirit fire your prayer life changes, your worship changes, how you come to church changes.
So often in our lives when we receive this fire it doesn’t last long. We allow religion and tradition to quench the fiery part of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Notice it is Holy Spirit AND fire. So often in our churches we wonder, where is the fire? Religion quenches the fire, tradition quenches the fire, the world system quenches the fire, and the American system of work and an active lifestyle quenches the fire. We get so busy in our lives that we feel we have no time for the Lord, we work too much and we lose what is most important, our relationship with the Lord.
God places His Fire in our spirit. We must always stir up the fire inside of us by receiving a fresh anointing, and not let our oil run dry. God will anoint us with fresh oil. Lack of oil will quench the fire. We can stir the fire by praying in the Holy Ghost. Jude 20 But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. We can pray in the Spirit in our private prayer lives.
As we keep the spiritual fire in our lives we will climb to a higher level with God. We can pray and have church in our bedrooms, in private. Hear spiritual music, instruments playing from heaven. Read the Bible and stir up the fire, fueling the fire in you. (Heather’s note: Pastor Don has often told us to come to church prayed up – that we need to walk in the doors filled with the Holy Spirit and fire, ready to worship).
Pastor Danquah then told us that it is important to get back the fiery aspect of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes in churches there are religious tongues (tongues that do not proceed from the heart of worship but just for show). Where the fire of the Lord is, the Holy Spirit is in you and makes you fervent for the Lord, aglow for Jesus. No one has to force you to worship, no one has to force you to serve, you look for something to do to help out in the House of God. It makes you humble, you do not look for the honor of a position. You just want to serve.
Fire changes your prayer life, you pray not only for yourself, but for each other. You will find your prayer life increasing. So many people pray for just five or ten minutes and then stop. If you are filled with the Spirit and fire, you take time to pray. You pray without ceasing. You possess a prayerful and powerful walk with the Lord. The devil will fear you, demons won’t touch you. If you are praying under a religious spirit, the demons will not be afraid of you. Remember the seven sons of Sceva who cast out evil spirits by the Jesus whom Paul preaches, and the evil spirit said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you? When we know Jesus the devil knows that and will flee. If you are acting religious the demons will know.
It is important for you to understand the benefits of the spirit. In church we should not come to sleep or fraternize, but to come and touch the presence of God, to receive a touch from the spirit. When you have the fire of the spirit burning in your life, your life is different. The passion of God is in your spirit. God wants us to come back to Him, to stir the fire. We want to leave here carrying the fire of the spirit within, and that will impact the world around us.
If you have a stove that is hot, the flies will not land on it, for they will burn up. With the fire in you, you become a danger zone to the enemy. Fire makes ministry change. Fire helps a counselor reach a person with words that heal and a touch that heals. Fire causes our worship singers to reach souls. We need fire to make ministry affect the lives of people. Not by might, not by power, but by the Spirit of God. God’s spirit causes things to transform.
While tending sheep, Daniel played his harp to God. His heart of worship produced a fire that caused change. He was able to defeat enemies, pray, and had a heart for God.
Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
Pastor Danquah told us that in
Here in our country, we want the fire back. We have become lax because we have a life standard that is richer than most countries. So we tend not to pray with the same fervency.
We want the fire back. There is some fire in our hearts and when everyone comes to worship with fire, our worship changes, and our attitude changes. We get lost to the Lord. Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Our fire is quenched when we hide behind our spouse, our kids, the problems we face.
In Acts the heavens were opened and the fire of Pentecost came pouring down. In our country comfort and luxury keep us from seeking the face of God. Muslims are allowed to confess their world view, share their beliefs. We tend to hide our faith because we want to blend in with the unbelievers, not stand out. We end up doing those things which can quench the Spirit.
Wrong desire will be quenched by the fire of the Holy Spirit. If you catch this fire, it will spread like wildfire in the Church. Jesus used 12 disciples to reach the world, and there are many more disciples in our church. We need to carry the fire of the Holy Spirit to the world.
Remember, tomorrow I will give the five benefits of the Baptism of Fire, and maybe a few pictures if Jim downloads them for me.
I hope you have a blessed Friday,
Heather
Comments (7)
Amen! Let the fire of the HOly Spirit fall upon yr children all over the world. Let God once again fill us to overflowing.
LOVE the larger print (you know for the oldies of the group!)
also, Baptism was used as the word when a person was sent off the gangplank of a ship to their death… it had the connotation of the “end of the road bubba”!. Baptism in the Holy Spirit should also remind us of the death to self, death to sin… how we all want to die to the self that cries out for attention and praise!
Thanks for keeping us SHARP! (iron sharpens iron for sure!
There’s another view of these verses. Wheat represents those that are saved, and when we are saved and baptized by the Spirit(I Corinthians 12:13). And chaff represents those that are not saved, and will be burned up with unquenchablr fire on Judgement Day.
larry
“Wrong desire will be quenched by the fire of the Holy Spirit.”
Yes!
John
Your post reminded me very much of how Christians aught to be striving for the “deeper life”. Once a Christian experiences that closer walk with his God, he will never be content with anything less. He may have periods of barrenness come into his life, but he will immediately be miserable until he finds that close communion again with his Lord. We know very little today about “walking in the Spirit”. Your posts have been so good on reminding us of the foolishness of “playing at Christianity”. Unless we are moving towards holiness and a deeper knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are most likely not following the New Testament command to “…present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Good post, Heather.
Amen! You Go Girl! In Christ’s Love…..Monic
Hmm, this is a different view. I was taught that Baptism of Fire is for unbelievers when they are condemned to the lake of fire for not believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. Baptism (baptizo) refers to identification. At the moment of salvation, the believer receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit which puts him into union with Christ, they are identified with Christ…. anyways, interesting post. Keep it up! I’m kinda in a hurry to explain my views… but I learn under this pastor-teacher (here’s the site: http://www.gbible.org/Doctrine_of_Water_Baptism.htm )