Spirit and Fire

John says, “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.” Matt. 3:11.

The Holy Spirit and the fire cannot be separated. The one cannot be present if the other is excluded. The Holy Spirit brings peace and joy; the fire consumes our self-life and causes pain. Just as the fire dwells in the Spirit, so the Spirit also dwells in the fire. God is Spirit, but He is also a consuming fire. Heb. 12:29.

The fire will begin to work as soon as a person has been baptized with the Holy Spirit. If we have gotten to know Him and the power of His resurrection, then fellowship with Christ in His sufferings will immediately follow. God’s will is our sanctification, but a person who wants to do the will of God will soon feel pain and will share in the sufferings of Christ. God has no pleasure in someone who draws back, who spares himself. The image of Christ comes forth in us through obedience to the Spirit. Christ offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit, and God brought up our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the power of the blood of an everlasting covenant. Heb. 13:20.

Enemies of the cross of Christ try to hold on to the power of the resurrection while at the same time rejecting the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. This is precisely where people go astray. Spirit and fire, power and pain—these are inextricably linked. God never allows them to be separated. Only ignorance and striving for carnal comfort will cause a person to attempt to separate them. And it goes to show that such people always end up going astray.

If we want to differentiate between the Spirit and the fire, we could say that the Spirit is grace and the fire is truth. Grace covers and keeps us, until the fire has done its work. Righteousness will only become visible in those areas where the fire has raged; that’s where the new soil appears, where righteousness dwells. The intention of grace is not to cover and hide, but to preserve for the fire. God’s wrath is not fulfilled in the grace; His burning wrath requires that the fire do its work. A criminal can be pardoned, but someone who serves out their sentence has paid for their crime and has been cleared in the matter according to the law of the land. It is the same in the spiritual realm.

God requires us to bring spiritual sacrifices in Christ Jesus. You can get around this by saying that Christ has been sacrificed so that I didn’t have to be. That is true, of course, but it is not the truth that leads to sanctification. Sanctification requires our consent and our obedience to God’s will. If we suffer with Him, we will also be glorified with Him. If we do not suffer with Him, we will not be glorified with Him. The cross is a weapon in our hand. It will keep self-life and carnal pleasures from taking control. Satan cannot thrive unless you “spare yourself.” The world nourishes the flesh in every possible way, which is why all sorts of evil spirits thrive in and around worldly people.

The cross drives Satan out. Jesus overcame on the cross, and there we overcome with Him. There is power in the word of the cross; it gathers and unites.

When the word of the cross is allowed to work, the church becomes one; but when people allow themselves to be governed by pleasant feelings, evil spirits thrive.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God—with us. 1 Pet. 4:17. God has come forth from His sanctuary to pass judgment, and He begins with the saints—with us. The judgment was fulfilled in Christ, and now it is being fulfilled in those who have been baptized with the Spirit of Christ. Thus, the way, the truth, and the life are revealed. All of God’s burning demands toward mankind were satisfied in the Spirit of Christ. Therefore, this Spirit requires that God be satisfied in every person.