Holy Fire, a devotion by Keona J. Tann

On the 16th of February 2021 I had a dream which prompted me to do some research about fire in the Bible.

Dream

Let me unpack my dream first…. in my dream Trav (my husband) and I were helping out some firefighters and we went to a caravan park that was at the base of a hilly mountain range to assist (I’m not sure where we were as I didn’t recognise the place I saw in my dream). When we arrived at the caravan park the fire was still a bit away from the site, but thick heavy smoke could be seen rising up behind the ridge of the hill nearest the caravan park. At first we rested in a cabin, but then we were asked to make sure all the residents were awake and ready to act, it was no longer safe to evacuate so the plan was to make the park as safe as possible by wetting down cabins/tents/surrounding grass areas as well as clearing debris etc. When we had done all that and arrived at the other end of the park (furthest away from the mountains) the fire had escalated, and it began racing down the hill towards us. I watched in horror as a firefighter raced down the hill just in front of the fire, he was slipping and sliding down the slope in a mad dash to escape the flames (which thankfully he successfully did). The lead firefighter gathered us all together and we just stood and watched the fire draw closer and closer. I kept looking around for an exit, saying: “what’s the plan?”, feeling panic rising in my chest. I then watched as 2 streams/tongues of fire raced ahead of the main fire, along the main path towards us, again I was looking around and expecting the lead firefighter to urge us to move but there was silence and we stayed in place. Then a surprising thing happened, the fire did not reach us, instead it suddenly stopped a little way away from us and then the entire fire just receded, it rolled back up the hill and then disappeared.
When I awoke I prayed and asked God to reveal what the dream had signified.

Holy Fire

I was reminded that God refines us with His holy fire:
“For in a visitation of the night you inspected my heart and refined my soul in fire until nothing vile was found in me. I’ve wanted my words and my ways to always agree.” ‭‭‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ Psalm‬ ‭17:3‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
“O Lord, we have passed through your fire; like precious metal made pure, you’ve proved us, perfected us, and made us holy.” Psalm‬ ‭66:10‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬

Not consumed

As I have reflected some more upon my dream I was struck by the fact that the wildfire, that appeared to be blazing out of control, did not actually harm us. I sensed God reminding me that although His holy fire is fierce it only consumes what He commands it to, for example:
When Moses was tending to his father-in-law’s flock he was led far into the wilderness to Sinai, the mountain of God. It was there that the angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in the form of a blazing bush and although the bush was engulfed in flames, it didn’t burn up, it was not consumed by the fire. Moses stared in amazement. (see Exodus 3)
Daniel 3 unpacks the awe-inspiring story of the Jewish men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. They were in charge of the province of Babylon when the ruler at that time, King Nebuchadnezzar, made a huge gold statue (it was ninety feet tall and nine feet wide which is 27 meters tall and 2.7 meters wide), the king instructed everyone in the region to bow down and worship this statue at the sound of musical instruments. When news reached King Nebuchadnezzar that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down and worship the statue, he flew into a rage and ordered that the men be bought before him. When they arrived the King gave then one more chance to bow down and worship the statue, warning that that if they refused they would be thrown immediately into the blazing furnace. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied: “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God whom we serve is able to save us. He will rescue us from your power, Your Majesty. But even if he doesn’t, we want to make it clear to you, Your Majesty, that we will never serve your gods or worship the gold statue you have set up.” Upon hearing their reply King Nebuchadnezzar’s rage increased and he ordered the furnace to be heated 7 times hotter than usual! Then some of the king’s strongest men tied up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and threw them into the furnace fully dressed. The flames of the furnace were that intense that they killed the soldiers as they threw the three men in. Then suddenly, Nebuchadnezzar jumped up in amazement declaring that he saw four men, unbound, walking around in the fire unharmed! And he exclaimed that the fourth man looked like a god! The king went as close as he could to the door of the flaming furnace and shouted: “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stepped out of the fire. The high officers, officials, governors, and advisers crowded around them and saw that the fire had not touched them. Not a hair on their heads was singed, and their clothing was not scorched. They didn’t even smell of smoke! The king praised the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and then promoted them to even higher positions in the province of Babylon.
I love that powerful story SO much!
And the last example I’ll use is the promise that God made to Jacob, which as believers we too can gain encouragement from:

“When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2 (NLT)

Final reflections and prayer

So let us never restrain, quench or subdue the fire of the Holy Spirit. NO! Let us always be receptive and responsive to the workings and guidance of the Holy Spirit, let’s be quick to recognise, respond and obey (‭‭see 1 Thessalonians‬ ‭5:19‬‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬.
I sense God’s invitation for us today:
“Fasten me upon your heart as a seal of fire forevermore. This living, consuming flame will seal you as my prisoner of love. My passion is stronger than the chains of death and the grave, all consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over your entire being.” ‭‭Song of Songs‬ ‭8:6‬ ‭(TPT‬‬)‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬
So let’s pray…
Jesus, I thank You for the fulfilment of the promise, the manifestation of Your request, I praise You for the fact that God has sent to us the great Helper, the Comforter, Advocate, Intercessor, Counsellor, Strengthener, Standby, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit that is with us forever! Holy Spirit when I cannot form the words to pray, come and help me. Assist me to pray with groanings that are too deep for me to understand but You will know exactly what they mean. Thank You for granting me the ability to speak in tongues, the love language of Heaven, the Spirit-inspired intimate mysteries uttered only to God. Enable me to have a soft tender heart, to speak to You with my liquid words, my tears.
Holy Spirit I invite Your cleansing fire to come and consume ALL that defiles me in Your sight. I lay out my life before You – my heart, my mind, my body, my spirit, my dreams, my desires, I lay it ALL upon Your altar of love and invite Your fire to fall. Through Your refining fire I am
proved, perfected, made pure, made holy and I’m saturated with your goodness. Set me ablaze for You Lord, cleansed, made new and empowered to do the good works You have set for me to do. Almighty Lord God let Your will be done in and through my life, in Jesus’s beautiful, powerful and holy name I pray. Amen.

Do you have a fire related verse that you reflect upon? Please share it with us in the comments.

Many blessings,

Keona

Notes:
In my prayer I refer to John 14:16-17 where Jesus said that He would ask the Father to send to us a Helper…. I have paraphrased the Amplified version.
Speaking in tongues is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14:2, I have paraphrased the The Passion Translation and referred to their footnotes. Also note that Open Bible lists 100 verses relating to praying in tongues.
Romans 8:26 explains that there are ways that we can communicate to God without words and Psalm 38:9 in The Passion Translation describes tears as being our liquid words, I LOVE that!
Also note that Open Bible lists 100 verses relating to fire.