One of the most profound symbols (messengers that point and participate) for the Holy Spirit is the symbol of fire. This symbol of fire is not a messenger of mechanized humanism where human merit and ingenuity are required; rather it is a holy messenger of divine power that enters the human spirit and ignites a spiritual fervor (what it means to have a burning passion> fiery drive/libido) which expresses itself as a fervent heat in the context to which the Holy Spirit is leading the believer to live and to minister from. One of the qualifying examples of this principle in holy sacred writ (the Bible) is when the Apostle James postulates: “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”. Applying this principle of spiritual fervor to prayer, the righteous man is communicating with the Lord from the context of burning passion and fiery heat within his spirit concerning the matters of his heart. Thus, this passage of scripture could read, “the effectual fiery hot communication of a righteous man’s spirit produces Holy Spirit intended results”. Essentially, the Holy Spirit encapsulates the believer’s spirit in an intensified spiritual fervor (what John the Baptist’s “baptize you with fire” suggests) as the Lord creatively directs (what the term divine providence means) the believer into the divine calling and destiny prepared specifically for them beforehand. An initial question asked of most new believers in Christ is, “How do I know what I’m called to do for the Lord?” and the answer must be revealed to the inquirers in two expressions in order for them to have the whole counsel of the Lord.The first expression is of a general nature in that all believers are called to fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28 in spreading the gospel throughout the nations. The second expression is of a specific nature in which the Lord directs the new believer into the specific area of calling and then signifies the specificity of His authorization to that area of ministry by intensifying the spiritual fervor in the heart of the new believer so that they are able to make clear identification. In other words, the new believer is able to clearly identify their specific area of calling in the ministry by the intensified spiritual fervor/burning passion/fiery heat they experience in their spirit when they engage the authorized area of ministry prepared for them beforehand. Another critically profound insight that must be entertained is that because the Holy Spirit is the eternal source of this messenger of fire within the heart of all born again believers, it cannot be thwarted or extinguished by any other power of human or satanic origin (all other species outside of these two are not endowed with cognitive ability to the degree of even posing a threat) bringing to pass the word of the Lord when it purports: “greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world”. Interesting to note is the realization that even though this messenger of fire cannot be thwarted or extinguished by humanistic or satanic power, it can, through the neglect of the believer, be dampened down to the point of not fully assisting the neglectful believer in their life and ministry. At this point of neglect, the believer can become vulnerable to humanistic and satanic measures that normally wouldn’t pose a threat to life and ministry. In a way, one could say that the believer has lost their fire; not in the sense that it has been extinguished permanently, but in the sense that the effectual fiery hot nature that produces Holy Spirit intended results is diminished. One of the greatest ways that humanistic and satanic powers try to induce this diminished capacity within the believer is through what we could term as “Traumatic Disruptions”. They appear to us in a myriad of forms and yet their disruptive nature can be denigrating to the fiery essence within the believer causing us to respond well below the concomitant power that rests within us. The key to managing these traumatic disruptions in the life of the believer is to turn within our hearts (psychological state>will/desire.>decision making processes) to the eternal source of the fiery essence in us and ask the Holy Spirit to increase the intensity of the conflagration in our spirits (what it means to be Spirit filled) until no existential force has power over us to cause us to fear. This is what the scripture concludes when it states, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him”. So, where is your fire believer? Right where it’s been all along; in the presence of the Holy Spirit! (Another Oil Point from Theology Nation)
Bishop Dr. Guy A. Cox