Fire on the Altar

9 October 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Several years ago I preached a series on The Seven Spirits of God. One of the Seven Spirits of God is Fire. It is highly significant that when God first spoke to Moses He did so in the burning bush (Ex. 3:1-3) . This was the precursor of his encounter with God a Sinai when the whole mountain was on fire (Ex. 19:18). The presence of the Lord for 40 years in the wilderness was the pillar of fire that stood over the Tabernacle every night. And perhaps the most significant of all was when the Holy Spirit descended at Pentecost He sat as flames of fire on each believer. The universal and consistent character of our God is that He is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). And the consistent characteristic of anyone who has anything of the Spirit of God living in him is thathe is on fire for God. Jesus spoke of John the Baptist that he was a burning and a shining light (Jn. 5:35). And so should we be.

Recently we were at a very good church here in Chiang Mai. The pastor said our great need is more praise. While this is true I thought he is wrong. Our great need is not more praise but more burning hearts. If our hearts are burning there will be praise, but, tragically, it is possible to have praise with cold hearts. This is hard work. If there is not a direct correlation with our hearts and our lips this is not spiritual but simply a religious performance. Jesus told the woman at the well that God was a Spirit and the true worshipers of God must worship Him in spirit and truth (Jn. 4:23). If it is not true it certainly is not worship.

The other night I was watching a very good message by Ravi Zacharias on You Tube. Pammy came to get me and said “we must go to Hang Dong to a meeting tonight”. I really didn't want to and replied, “You go. I want to stay here and listen to Ravi Zacharias.”. But she insisted the meeting was being sponsored by her close friends Kasari and Peter, and the special speaker was a brother from India. I thought, “If he is from India, Ravi Zacharias is from India, and maybe he might be interesting”. But I wasn't prepared for what happened. That was the first time I was in the World Church, and was surprised. It must be the largest church in Chiang Mai. It must have a seating capacity of close to 1,000 and there might have been 700 there that night. Peter was up front leading the service and is daughter was leading the singing. I have to give his daughter high points. She is one of the sharpest young ladies I have ever met. She is 22, but she was clearly at home leading singing on that platform. But the praise service was leaving me cold. Tragically, there is a false concept in many Pentecostal circles that the fullness of the Holy Spirit is measured in decibels. They have a 5,000 watt speaker and scream into the microphone. I used to go to a charismatic service here in Chiang Mai, where I had to be careful where I sat as the decibel level in the room was at the audio damaging level. It is common that many rock music fans have permanently damaged their hearing by listening to rock music at a physically damaging level. I have been in a few meetings in Peter's church where I had to sit there with my fingers in my ears to keep the pain level down. That was what was happening Friday night. Needless to say my heart was not burning with praise but there was a certain amount of a different kind of heat I was trying to control. After 30 minutes Pammy said the most startling thing that has ever come out of her mouth. She said, “This is not of God. Let's go home”. In stunned amazement said, “That is the most spiritual thing you have said since we have been married”. When I married her she was a cracked Pentecostal. I said “I am going to make a conservative out of this girl”. Now she was more conservative than I am.

Bless his heart, I like Peter (a Thai pastor) very much. You certainly can't fault him for lack of enthusiasm. He is always standing on the platform shouting “Hallelujah”, but somehow I feel this is “strange fire”. One of the significant events of Sinai was shortly after the Tabernacle was erected, and the fire of God came down on the sacrifice; Aaron's two sons, Nadab and Abihu, put “strange fire” in their censers and the Lord killed them on the spot (Lev. 10:1,2). This was the OT equivalent of Ananias and Sapphra lying to the Holy Ghost shortly after Pentecost in Acts 5. By that dramatic act at Sinai the Lord demonstrated forever that there is a difference between the genuine fire of God on the altar and “strange fire” of human production.

One of the most basic requirements of true worship of God is fire on the altar. A phrase that is written repetitively in Leviticus is “a sweet savour unto the Lord” (Lev. 3:5 and many other places). For true worship to be possible there must be three things present. First there must be an altar, secondly there must be thesacrifice, and thirdly there must be fire. A sacrifice lying on the altar without fire is simply a carcass (Gen. 15:11). A carcass is dead meat. And there is not a pleasant fragrance about stinking dead meat. If we want our lives to be a sweet savour unto the Lord there must be those three items of an altar, a sacrifice, and fire. A sacrifice is something that costs. David said, “I will not offer to the Lord that which costs me nothing” (2 Sam. 24:24). If we are really serious about serving the Lord, best it be a sacrifice that costs something. If we are not willing to pay the price for Jesus, how can we say that our lives are a sweet savour unto the Lord?But there is one more element that is vital. Only the Holy Spirit can convert a sacrifice into that which is genuinely spiritual. It is fire than changes the solid mass of meat to the next state of gaseous smoke. If there is no fire, all we have is our dead meat.

I feel that a tremendous amount of our service to Jesus is simple human energy, operating in the flesh. Who doesn't want revival? This is a word that has been on missionaries lips in Japan for 60 years and we have yet to see it. I say we haven't seen it, but technically I have seen a moving of the Spirit. The greatest revival I have seen in Japan happened in Kichijoji. But it was totally unsung and had limited impact. It was totally different than the ear splitting, deafening, meetings I have been to in Chiang Mai. It was in sister Koyama's apartment in Kobe where ten people were sitting on the floor in a leaderless, dull service. But for one year I was never in a service that you couldn't kook around the room and see tears streaming down Christian cheeks. You talk about burning hearts; our hearts would burn from Sunday until Tuesday and then we couldn't wait for Sunday again. The main characteristic I know of a burning heart is tears on our cheeks – not screaming hallelujah. And, man howdy, what did that produce? I saw that little gathering blossom from 10 to 100 in a year.

Bless their hearts, Kasari and Peter have been trying to produce revival for five years. At least once a year they have special meetings with a big promotion. Every poster that they put up reads “Revival in Chiang Mai”, and Peter's church is still hovering around 15. We have seen a tremendous amount of effort but we haven't seen the first drop of the revival rain of God. I hear a lot of talk about revival but 95% of what I have seen is simply human effort trying to serve God in the flesh.

Not to be too negative; there is a word that must be said for shouting. A young fellow I was taking to Laos one time said to me, “I cannot shout loud enough for which my Lord Jesus is worthy.” That is a very good word. The walls of Jericho came down with a shout (Jos. 6:20). It was when the men of Judah gave a shout that God smote their enemies (2Ch. 13:15). Six times in Psalms we are enjoined to shout for joy (Ps. 5:11; 32:11; 35:27; 65:13; 132:9,16). It is interesting that Ps. 47:5 says, “God is gone up with a shout and with the trumpet” and 1Th. 4:16 says “The Lord Himself shall descend...with a shout...and with the trump of God”. While the Book of Revelation doesn't use the word shout, yet it certainly does describe a very “great voice” saying “Alleluia” when Jesus gets on His horse to ride out for Armageddon (Rev. 19:1-6). I am not opposed to shouting. My goodness, when my heart is bursting with joy, how can I keep from shouting? Shouting has its place in the economy of God but no amount of hoarseness is going to bring down the Holy Spirit.

I like Kasuri and Peter but I strongly suspect that all their earnestness and well meaning effort is not likely to produce a genuine moving of the Holy Spirit. What will? I don't know. But I believe a great deal of Spirit led prayer, with humility, repentance, and tears might help move the needle. In most places that I have heard of, where there has been an overwhelming sense of the presence of God, a great hush fell over the audience. The Scottish evangelist, Jimmy Stewart, in reporting on the moving of the Holy Spirit he experienced in eastern Europe in 1947; he said the presence of the Lord was so awesome that people did not want to disturb the atmosphere with noise, and would leave their cars at church and walk home. I long to see the Lord in the land of the living, but no amount of fleshly effort is likely to being the fire of God down upon the altar to consume the sacrifice.

Holy Father, You said You would pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground. You said You would pour Your Spirit on our seed (Isa. 44:3). Lord, look on me and poor Thailand, and do it for Jesus sake. Amen;

                                  bill