Immediately the fire of the Lord flashed down from heaven and burned up the young bull, the wood, the stones, and the dust. It even licked up all the water in the trench! And when all the people saw it, they fell face down on the ground and cried out, “The Lord—he is God! Yes, the Lord is God!”. (1 Kings 18:38-39 NLT)
Sometimes we as Christians seek the fire before the Word, and we have the cart before the horse.
In the section leading to our scriptural reference, 1 Kings 18:30-37 NLT, a description is given of the building of the altar upon which Elijah was to call down fire. Although the people did obey Elijah and construct the altar, we see very little encouragement for his efforts. When you go out on the limb for God, very few go with you, but when the Devil cuts the limb, the tree falls, and the limb stays there; everybody is there to congratulate you. Such is the path of walking by faith.
The way of the world says that seeing is believing, whereas in the Kingdom of God, believing happens before seeing. As Christians, we often desire to see God’s fire and glory, the working of miracles, and rightly so. Yet, the Bible says in Romans 10:17 NKJV, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” We ask for fire without faith if we are not grounded in God’s Word.
If God has given you a promise and asked you to step out by faith, don’t be surprised if your fan base is pretty small. You may not get too many likes on Facebook, or the tweets are not really encouraging. Remember this; little is much if God is in it. God delights in taking a small flame, breathing upon it, and making it into a consuming fire.
Belief in God’s Word always comes before the fire.
The image is used with permission from Microsoft.
Ken Barnes is the author of “Broken Vessels,” published in February 2021, and “The Chicken Farm and Other Sacred Places” published by YWAM Publishing in 2011.
Ken’s Website— https://kenbarnes.us/
Ken blogs at https://kenbarnes.us/blog/
Email- [email protected]
