Where’s the Fire?

Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were debating in their minds whether John might be the Messiah. John answered them all, “I baptize you with water, but One is coming who is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing shovel is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with a fire that never goes out.” Then, along with many other exhortations, he proclaimed good news to the people.
(Luke 3:15-18)

John promised the people whom he was baptizing in water that Jesus was coming to baptize them with fire, and with the Holy Spirit. When John baptized Jesus, apparently the Holy Spirit began a new ministry to Him. He drove Jesus out into the desert to baptize Him with fire.

When all the people were baptized, Jesus also was baptized. As He was praying, heaven opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on Him in a physical appearance like a dove. And a voice came from heaven:

You are My beloved Son.
I take delight in You!
(Luke 3:21,22)

Then Jesus returned from the Jordan, full of the Holy Spirit, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days to be tempted by the Devil. He ate nothing during those days, and when they were over, He was hungry. The Devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
(Luke 4:1-3 Holman Christian Standard Bible® ©)

We don’t just need information or leadership from the Spirit of God. We need to be changed by having our minds renewed (Romans 12:1,2). The process of Him leading us and informing us and transforming us looks much like he is having our enemies throw us into a furnace that has been heated seven times hotter than ever. When three of Daniel’s friends were baptized that way, their enemies were destroyed, their king was, to some degree at least, converted to honor Yahweh, they had fellowship with an angel or with Jesus in the fire, their bondages were destroyed, and they got jobs ruling over parts of the kingdom they had been subjects of (Daniel 3).

Where is the fire in your life? Are you expecting it to change you into the likeness of Jesus? Are you expecting it to be the process through which your God leads you to promotion and to safety?

Chase it. Be found by it. Be transformed.