“Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench” (1 Kings 18:38).
THE FIRE OF GOD
Elijah laid out a sacrifice but did not set fire to it. The prophets of Baal did the same. The prophets of Baal called on the name of Baal from morning until noontime, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no reply of any kind. Then they danced, cutting themselves to get Baal’s attention. Elijah began mocking them. “You’ll have to shout louder,” he scoffed, “Perhaps he is daydreaming”.
Elijah knew that God would bless his sacrifice with fire: “I will call upon the name of the LORD, and the God who answers by fire” (1 Kings 18:24).
And sure enough, that’s what happened: The fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice.
Elijah was a faithful follower of the living God, even though many people’s hearts had turned to Jezebel’s prophets, Elijah remained true.
And in a way we all lay down sacrifices to the Lord, they are not bulls but sacrifices of our hearts. We “offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Pet 2:5).
Perhaps we take time out of our day to show love and kindness to someone, or maybe we have a sermon to prepare, or possibly we want to invest in someone one’s life in some way, but whatever our sacrifice is, we need the fire of God to fall upon it so that the power of God is with us in our sacrifice.
If we give something to be seen, or preach because we have a good command of the English language, if we pray on street corners, and love the place of honour at banquets, how can God bless our behaviour? We show ourselves to be double-minded, hypocritical, insincere and that sort of sacrifice will never receive the fire of God’s blessing.
If we spend time in prayer, earnestly seeking God’s face, he will bless us by adding the fire of God to the sacrifices of our heart.
Jesus told the disciples to wait: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised”. Their obedience was rewarded: “tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them” (Acts 2:3).
John the Baptist had said that Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. That is the fire we need to make our witness for Christ effective, to make our prayers like Elijah’s and to make the sacrifices we make acceptable to the God of heaven and earth.
When the fire of God is in our hearts, we pray, preach and praise from the fire that comes from God. The fire of God will make all the difference to our work on this earth.
“Manoah took a young goat, together with the grain offering, and sacrificed it on a rock to the Lord. And the Lord did an amazing thing while Manoah and his wife watched: As the flame blazed up from the altar toward heaven the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame” (Judg 13:19–20).
May God put his fiery blessing upon all that do.