Burn

 March 4, 2021

“Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.” —Acts 2:3-4 NKJV

What is it about fire that fascinates us so? We will sit around a campfire late at night in the summer, talking or just staring into the flames till they are mere glowing embers. Our woodstove heats us through the winter, but we have a furnace for that. We don’t sit around the furnace watching the flames flicker and dance as we soak in the warmth; we have the woodstove for that.

The ancients considered fire as one of the four elements that were the building blocks of life. Wind, water, and earth rounded out the quartet. Like the wind, there is something mysterious about it; I’m sure scientists can explain the physics of it, but I am amazed at how fire releases the energy stored in the wood. 

Then there is the grill. The flames sear the steak, sealing in the juices and adding flavor to the meat. Frying a steak in a pan over an electric grill isn’t quite the same.

It’s not all cozy, though. Uncontrolled, it destroys homes, devastates forests, and kills anything or anyone caught in its path. Fire is both a blessing and a curse.

When I hear someone speak about wanting Holy Spirit fire, I wonder if they understand what they are invoking. They mysteriousness of fire fascinates us; like gazing into a summer campfire with its endless movement, we can be mesmerized by what we see but don’t fully understand. Power is certainly there to bless, warming the stone-cold heart, but there is also the danger that comes if the fire breaks out of the confines of the stove. What was meant to bless can become a raging inferno, consuming everything in its path, including the one who prayed for the fire to fall. 

I can’t claim to even begin to understand the mystery of fire, and even less so the mystery of the Holy Spirit. What I do know is this: there is power—great power—to bless, but also destroy. My prayer is that the fire of the Holy Spirit will burn away all that is unworthy of Christ, purifying my soul, making me a vessel fit to contain the power without it burning so out of control that it destroys even the good that God is building into me through Jesus Christ. 

Every so often, I stoke the fire. I want it to warm me through the evening. Tonight, I stoke the fire of the Holy Spirit through prayerful reading of the Scriptures, that the Holy Spirit might not only warm me, but those around me. Like Wesley, when asked why so many came to hear him preach, answered, “I set myself on fire, and people come to watch me burn,” I want to be aflame with a holy fire that gathers people to watch and be warmed.