” a FIRE I came to cast upon the earth … “
Luke 12:49 (Lit. frm Grk text)
—Jesus appeared to His disciples and several others gathered in the upper room the evening of the day God His Father raised Him – FOREVER – from out of among the dead (Lk. 24:34-36; Rom. 6:9).
—His body had laid lifeless not twenty hours earlier in that tomb, behind a massive stone, with temple guards on the outside standing watch to make sure His disciples didn’t come to steal the body (Mat. 27:66); but those eleven men had been way too scared to pull off anything like that (Jhn. 21:19).
—Now, here He was, in their midst standing, speaking peace into them, showing them the scars of His crucifixion, speaking peace a second time into them … And then, …
——- … breathing in them Holy Spirit – God His Father’s Spirit – Who had breathed that very morning into His dead body ‘Life‘ …
— …
—… THEIR life! (Jhn. 20:19-22; Rom. 7:11; Acts 2:24, 3:15b, 5:30)
— …
—–… Selah …
— …
—God, Almighty God, our Awesome God, took His power and exerted it … more than what all He had done at creation? … Whatever was the power of His word for those six days at creation’s dawn, the power of the Spirit of His Word now – yet already through Jesus having been spoken (Jhn 12:49-50; 6:63b; Mat. 1621:b, 17:9b, 23) – in the darkness, again (Gen. 1:2-4), of the pre-dawn of this first day of the week, of the New creation about to be, was at that eternal moment, in finite creation, on the verge of bursting in the greatest force this creation had ever experienced (Mat. 28:1-2).
“… the SURPASSING greatness of the power of-Him unto us, those believing, according to the working [the energizing] of the [dominionative] exerted-strength of-the forceful-might of-Him, which He-wrought in Christ, having-raised Him from-out-of (among the) dead …” Ephesians 1:19-20a (Lit. frm Grk txt)
—The power of the Spirit of Almighty God’s Word was going to reveal that the truth of Life was the power of the Spirit in His Word.
—God’s ‘Word in the flesh’ had laid dormant, for three days and three nights, in that stone enclosed, sealed grave. Even so, death itself, which had hungrily claimed countless millions (Pro. 27:20a) since Adam had welcomed it back in the garden, didn’t intimidate even a smidge Holy Spirit, Almighty God’s own Spirit.
—Father was about to show ALL of creation the power of His rhema Word – His speaking / flowing / living Word – the potent supremacy of the might of the Spirit of His breath as that which IS the Force of Life in His Word. For this was going to unveil to mankind His awesome goodness towards mankind, the true nature of Himself, the ‘from eternity’ intent of His heart for us unto us, the very forceful, powerful, dominionative LOVE behind the sacrifice of His only begotten Son, for you and I – for every single individual born of the seed of Adam (Rom. 5:15b-21).
“God, ‘Love’ He is“ I John 4:8b,16 (Lit.frm Grk text in Grk wrd order)
“Love is patient, ” I Corinthians 13:4a (NASB)
“The Lord is … patient … not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance.” II Peter 3:9 (NASB)
For God so loved THE WORLD,
that He gave His only begotten Son,
in order that everyone – the one believing into Him –
might not perish,
rather have life eternal.
John 3:16
—God the Father had not just been thinking of His Son in that tomb, Beloved. He had on His heart, in this exertion of His power to eternally raise His Son from out of the realm of the dead …
“He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, AND WAS RAISED ON ACCOUNT OF OUR JUSTIFICATION.” Romans 4:25 (NASB) (Ref. also Rom. 3:21-22, 5:1)
—God, Father, was thinking of us!
—The power of the resurrection of Jesus, of Christ Jesus our Savior, our Lord, was about us, Beloved. Father had sacrificed His only begotten Son to Grace-gift us forfeited glory, His very life, that which the first Adam had discarded.
—No longer was man, made in the image of God but lost to the Adamic nature of that first man who’d ceded life, stuck to perpetually have a death sentence. “Righteous” was now the decree of heaven’s God because of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus His Son for the seed of Adam. That shed, holy blood forgave, eternally, and thus broke and FOREVER REMOVED the very power of … missing the mark of God’s glory. (Heb. 10:10, 14-15,17-18; Rom 6).
—For ANYONE choosing to believe into God’s Good News of this His costly and only means of redemption, there would be stripped forever the hopelessness of always coming short of the glory, of never getting to wear the glory – God’s weighty estimation of His nature as our “Christ Jesus” robe of righteousness, Christ Jesus, this last Adam’s image now ours (Rom.8:29a; II Cor. 3:16-18). It was now Him, Father God, as Holy as He is, causing us to be born again into and unto the HOPE of Glory …
—–… of Resurrection glory – the power, the fire of the reality of this resurrection … and then the ascension … and Throne seating … of Christ Jesus our life! (I Peter 1:3; Rom. 5:2b; Col. 3:1-4; Lk. 24:25-27, 32; Jhn. 1:12; Eph. 1:15-23).
—The power of God’s Holy Spirit breathed into the dead body of Jesus at the very moment He caused Jesus, the Spirit of Jesus, to come resurrect from out of where He’d descended for those three days and nights (Rom. 7:11; Mat. 12:40); Father had given to Jesus His authority to take up His life after laying it down (Jhn. 10:18). Holy Spirit, from God, joined as one with Jesus in exerting THIS authority,
—… and there was nothing that hell or its lord could do, but watch in horror.
—satan didn’t just lose one Man when Jesus rose from the dead, Beloved. God was decreeing His righteousness, and therefore His Life, to EVERY SINGLE seed of Adam who would bow their hearts and their heart’s voice in believing faith to become of this New bloodline, the Last Adam’s bloodline (Rom. 10:9-10; Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, 10:13), and thereby giving themselves to the Glory transformation by Holy Spirit, through the Word, into this Resurrection glory of their Savior.
—Death was no longer the ultimate ruler of man. (Heb.2:14-15)
—Those remaining disciples, gathered in that upper room the night of the day Jesus raised from the dead, were witnesses of the truth of what Jesus had stated, that He would be raised three days after having been put to death on a cross (Mk. 9:31 et al).
—They had to have gazed over and over at the holes in both His hands and both His feet from of the nails that had held fast His beyond recognition form to that wood, and then back to His face and into His eyes, while His precious voice was breathing life – unforgettable living and weighty words of life-giving life – into their ears, to slowly let sink into their hearts and minds this reality, that Jesus, their Savior, was actually standing right in front of them, physically, (He had just eaten a piece of fish to show them He was really alive before them – Lk. 24:41-43). They were really beholding, and hearing the voice of their friend (Jhn. 15:15b), the Man for Whom they had, three years earlier, left everything to follow, Who had been, three days ago, crucified and then pierced through with a soldier’s spear after He’d died, the very first man ever … to beat death! They were actually looking at Him and listening to Him.
—Their awe and joy had to have been bursting in their hearts (Lk. 24:14a). The promise Jesus had made to them shortly before His being betrayed was surely now ringing in their ears:
“I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and NO ONE takes away your joy from you.” John 16:22b. (NASB)
—No one, since the fall in Eden, had EVER witnessed anything like this. This was THE most powerful event to have ever taken place. Death itself had been dealt a death blow when the breath of Holy Spirit breathed, in one breath with the authority of the breath that God the Father had given to His Son, into that dead, but untouched by decomposition, body in that tomb (Acts 2:24-32).
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?“ I Corinthians 15:54b-55 (NASB) (ref. also Isaiah 25:7-9 & 1st 4 lines of Hosea13:14)
—As this one massive, eternal, death-breaking Resurrection breath of God’s Holy Spirit breathed Life into the body of Jesus, … the breath of OUR Justification … our very … Eternal life, an appointed angel, watching the Son of God lift Himself up off of that hewed out rock where His dead body had been placed, stepped down out of heaven to roll away the sealed stone covering the entrance, for this King of kings to step out – ALIVE – to be revealed to creation in the glory of God’s ultimate Divine Authority, the force, the very power of His Life in His Holy Spirit breathed ‘Word’ …
—… and the earth itself shuddered to its core (Mat.28:2).
—Jesus our LORD/Lord arose, inside of that sealed tomb, Beloved, without those grave wrappings in which Joseph of Arimathea had wrapped His emaciated body, after having removed it from the cross, after somehow pulling out the nails that had held it for hours to that wood up on Golgatha’s hill (Mat. 27:57-60). Jesus was very much alive! Forever! He got up, off of that hard stone. The glow of Almighty God, the weighty estimation of the glory that had been the first Adam’s covering, clothing, was now emanating exceedingly from the whole being of this Last Adam, to unveil to fallen creation the hope of the glory to which redeemed man is destined in Christ Jesus. (Mat. 28:3)
—Jesus had walked through tightly shut doors that night to stand before His disciples. Life on earth, from this time forth, for ALL the Earth, would never be same.
““You are witnesses of these things. …
BUT
you are to stay in the city until
you are clothed with power from on high.” Luke 24:48-49 (NASB)
—Jesus was very much about to cast a Fire into the earth. It had everything to do with all that His sacrifice accomplished. It had, and always will have, everything to do with the Finished work of the cross of CHRIST!
—Howbeit, the Fire that Jesus came to cast into the earth did not have, nor ever has had, anything, whatsoever, to do with redeemed man’s ability to share such truth! Look again at Jesus’s command, the emboldened words, and let sink into your heart and mind why Holy Spirit is commanding Jesus (Acts 1:2, 4) to give this charge.
“you are to stay … until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Unveiling The Unfaded Grace-Truth of This Promised, Decreed Baptism
— The Spiritual truth declared by the LORD, ” ‘Not by might nor by power, BUT BY MY SPIRIT,’ says the LORD [YHVH] of hosts” (Zech. 4:6) comes to be New Covenant flesh and blood reality within redeemed believers through baptism BY Christ Jesus our Lord Himself from heaven’s Throne in Holy Spirit and Fire. (Some of you need to read this statement over and over until the blood of Jesus through His Spirit by this Biblical truth wipes clean every thread of lie which has been sewn into your thinking, no matter whoever taught it carrying whatever theological degree, that this “baptism in Holy Spirit” is actually presently something demonic – Ref. Lk.11:11-13).
—Jesus was not going to require of His disciples, then AND now, what was never required of Him. As perfect Jesus – God’s very Word in Flesh (Jhn. 1:1) – three years previous, still needed to be clothed with, to be baptized in, His Father’s Holy Spirit, in order that the true unveiling of Who God really is, in Word AND Power, is made manifest before sinners, so as to unveil the full context of His exact character of perfect love (Jhn. 1:14, 18; 10:38; 12:45;14:9b; Heb. 1:3a) , thus also the Promise of Father God for us, spoken a number of times through the prophets in the Old Testament, was going to be poured out as a reality of all that means “being born again/being born from above/ born of water AND of Spirit” (Jhn. 3:3,5), so that we, too, might manifest still our Heavenly Father’s exact character through our transformed lives, yes, in Word and Power, through our Lord Jesus Christ (Jhn. 14:12-20). Are you listening, Beloved?
“To Christ I have been co-crucified, I live though, yet no longer I; He lives, rather, in me. That (life) which, then, now I live in (the) flesh, in faith I live – the (faith) OF the Son of God, the (One) having loved me and having given up Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 (Lit. frm Grk txt)
“Truly, truly, I tell you, the (one) believing into Me, the works which I do also that (one) will do, AND GREATER (works) than these will he do because I, to My Father I am going”. John 14:12 (Lit. frm Grk txt)
—The grace to live by the faith OF the Son of God (exactly as Paul wrote it in the Greek), to do not only the works which Christ Jesus did, but even greater, is through Jesus baptizing us in Holy Spirit and Fire. These things simply cannot be done, Precious one, apart from this ‘never-having-been-removed-from-the-earth’ decree of John the Baptist, this ‘never-having-faded’ promise and work of Jesus our Lord from heaven’s Throne.
—The “Fire” in Jesus’s baptizing us in Holy Spirit and Fire is in the revelation of the truth of ALL the totality of His suffering’s accomplishment – the stripes that shredded Him for our healing of every single physical malady, WHATEVER that may be, to the nails that graced to us Holy God’s unmeritted, unprecedented, unconditional full forgiveness and thus broke and removed every single sin and guilt and shame, and darkness’s authority to hold any of that over us (Lk. 24:27-32; Isaiah 53; Col. 2:15) – clothing us and consuming us, as that which pours out from Him Who still bears the crucifixion scars in His flesh, towards grace-gifting the world Kingdom of Heaven Liberty, towards them tasting and seeing just how Good is our God.
—The Fire which Jesus came to cast into the earth, Beloved, is about the consuming love of God through the sacrifice of His only begotten Son for every single seed of Adam (Rom. 5:5-10; I Jhn. 2:2) – from every tribe and tongue and people and nation – to utterly, BY THE POWER OF HOLY SPIRIT CLOTHING US, redeem, from every single shred of everything and anything that has to do with the robbing glory death of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil … so that we might put on and be completely transformed by the resurrection glory of our Savior.
–IIt has to be by the demonstration of Spirit and of power through baptized in Holy Spirit and Fire believers, so that the believing into Jesus, of precious souls, their faith, might be in the power of God, not in the persuasive words of men’s wisdom no matter how theologically sounds it seems. (I Cor. 2:4-5; Jhn. 10:37-38). Why? Because eternity from the sacrifice of Jesus’s cross touches the souls of men through this, and therefore cannot be robbed or dissipated, as can persuasive words of man’s wisdom.
—What has to hit us from all that took place that night the disciples stood in awe and praise of the impact of their hearing and seeing their Savior alive, Who had been marred more than any man in the beating and stripes, and then crucified to death only three days earlier, that all of this taking place before their eyes and in their ears WAS NOT SUFFICIENT to sew lasting, spreading, augmenting seed in their own land, let alone nations. The power of their words from of this night, apart from baptism in Holy Spirit and Fire, God Himself knew would not capture hearts towards God, towards believed “God is only crazy awesome Good”, “Peace towards God” from generation to generation, from Jerusalem to the end of the earth, let alone accomplish the glory transformation needed from out of the Old Adamic nature into the New Creation in Christ Jesus … because it would still all come short of the robe of authoritative glory for which Jesus’s entire sacrifice paid, even from the very character of all that is ALL-Mighty God as ‘Love’.
—If this that was taking place in that upper room that night, to which they were eye-witnesses, was inadequate to carry out the Great Commission mandate of Jesus, [right before His ascension (see last verses of Matthew 28)] apart from Jesus baptizing in Holy Spirit, as He did of believers throughout all of the book of Acts, how much more, then, is this promise of the Father to every succeeding generation since then.
“The (One) after me coming, MIGHTIER than me He-is, …
He-Himself, YOU will-He-BAPTIZE
IN Holy SPIRIT AND FIRE!“
Matthew 3:11b (Lit. frm Grk text)
The Fire
” a FIRE I came to cast upon the earth … “
Luke 12:49 (Lit. frm Grk text)
— This Fire, Beloved, that Jesus came to cast into the earth is wholly and completely about setting ablaze, literally, our very … speech … the breath of our lips, the very words of our tongues … way, WAY, WAY more than the church has understood.
—Why?
—In order to wholly and completely set a Fire into the earth that fully burns up and consumes to nothing the air, the voice of the prince of the power of this age, of the wisdom of this world – the “way that seems right to man, but who’s end is death” – from out of God’s people’s thinking and mindset … AND SPEECH … and to boldly, before the eyes and ears of this world, unveil the truth of God’s goodness! … (which was the very thing about which the serpent lied, at the beginning, causing man to be stripped of glory in Eden, in their eating from the wrong tree upon which he had slithered to accomplish his deceptive “logic”).
—Too many redeemed saints are not just biting the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil, they are feasting on it … daily.
—It robs from a simple childlike believing Jesus (Mk. 10:15). It kills faith into faith growing (Rom. 1:17). It strips a from glory unto glory augmenting. Hope is robbed, so faith can’t take root (Heb. 11:1); for the truth of God’s open-heaven/ never-stopped pouring out love – His loving-kindness and Goodness – is tsunamied by the eyes-and-ears capturing media noise. The fruit of their lips, their daily Monday through Saturday natural speech, bears witness that Life from The tree of Life is not the flowing reality of their life. The springs of the water of life, the fountains of the life of Holy Spirit in them, of which Jesus speaks in John 7:38-39, through the Word in them has been jammed up by the junk, the noise, of this present age (ref. Gen.. 26:18). They have not taken heed to Father God’s warning exhortation from Proverbs 4:23; “Above ALL guarding, guard your heart; for out of it are the issues of life.”
—We need the fire, a fresh Baptism in Holy SPIRIT and Fire, from Jesus to sweep through our own fields to burn clean the overgrowth grassy weeds and junk weed trees. Then we need to go back to planting, to let be seeded, the joy & simplicity of the gospel good news alone of our Jesus. It is from this private place with Him, Beloved, that the Fire He came to cast into the whole earth is fanned into the blaze to which it is to become.
And the tongue is a fire …
Behold, how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire!” James 3:6a, 5b (NASB)
—Are you willing and ready to put all your arguments on the cross for justifying eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil? Are you willing to give Jesus, to God our Father private time to at least let Him do by His Spirit any grace working He would in order to let Him transform your heart and mind through His Word, to let Him, by His Holy Spirit, take away your appetite for the tree of the knowledge of good and of evil?
—And, for those of you, Beloved, who need to hear this: are you willing to put down forever all the arguments against the present, never having faded, never having been removed from the earth, Baptism by Christ Jesus in Holy Spirit and Fire, to have what He promised and so Grace-gifted the early church?
—Lift up your voice, Precious Ones, to Jesus alone, and ask Him to baptize you (afresh) in Holy Spirit and Fire.
—This world is CRYING OUT from silent lips but screaming hearts for GOOD News, and creation is groaning for the revelation of sons and daughters of God who look like and sound like Jesus this side of the cross, in Holy Spirit breathed Word AND Power (Rom. 8:19-21). For it is a revelation, an ongoing revelation, of Jesus, CHRIST Jesus, alone, that this world needs! Nothing else. No one else.
—…
—Just Christ Jesus and Him crucified, their Awesome, Awesome, crucifixion scar bearing Savior and LORD/Lord.
—…
—It’s time to let our LORD Jesus cast, in our generation, the Fire His baptism to the cross paid for in His blood.
—Because the outcome gift to the whole world is the Tree of Life, and a River of the Water of Life from Heaven’s Throne.
You are GREATLY loved, Beloved.
Mark D.
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If you would like to read this series – “Baptism by Jesus … in Holy Spirit and Fire” – in its successive parts, here are the links in order:
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** – Beloved, you are free to print this and any Kairos for your own study. Take the time to go through these scriptures, and let the Holy Spirit write them and bear witness to them in your hearts and minds. Let the Word of God and the Blood of Jesus and the witness of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of you wash through you and renew your mind. These blogs are meant to be Bible studies, so you are free to print up any newsletter of this blog site for your own study. Feel free to copy and reset these Newsletter with lines in them for notes.
—If you have never believed into Jesus Christ, you can do so now, from your own heart and words. If you wish help to pray, pray, “LORD Jesus, I believe You died for me and as me because You love me. I receive Your Forgiveness for my sin. Thank You for shedding Your blood to cleanse me, for making me clean, for breaking the power of sin in my life, for transforming me as a gift of Your Grace to me. I ask You to live inside of me. I thank You, Jesus, for giving me eternal life, that I might know You and Your Father, as my God, forever. In Your Name, LORD Jesus. Amen!”
—For those of you who have believed into Jesus; take communion often (I Cor. 11:23-26; Lk. 24:30-31a). Let communion be a refreshing of the Blood and the Spirit (Heb. 9:14) to cleanse your conscious from sin consciousness to righteousness consciousness, that you are indeed clean, as a gift of His grace. You are no more, Dearly Beloved, under condemnation; rather, you are under justification – eternally! (Rom. 4:25b, 5:21;b; Heb. 9:11-12). You will find the Holy Spirit of Jesus unveiling Jesus to you from the scriptures like you’ve never seen Him before.
kairos – (Kahee-ros’) – Strong’s concordance defines this word: “an occasion, I.e. set or proper time.” The Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible (NASB) defines this word; “season, time, but not merely as a succession of moments, which is chronos,” [from which we derive the English word ‘chronology’]. “Kairos, however, implies not the convenience of the season, but the necessity of the task at hand, whether the time provides a good, convenient opportunity or not.” This must be understood. Strategic times of the Lord do not necessarily imply good or convenient times. We are in Kairos times. Maybe not good or convenient times, but definitely strategic, opportune times because of the season we are in. We must have “ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches,” (Rev. 2:29), so as to respond correctly to the Kairos time.
* Some Scripture for this letter is taken from the (NASB) – NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE, (c) 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. Other references translated from Grk. Txt as presented in T. Newberry’s Englishman’s Greek New Testament, Zondervan Publishing – 1982- originally published in London, Eng. 1877 Scripture references not showing a Translation in Brackets are this writer’s translation from the Hebrew Massoretic Text as it appears on the web-site “qbible.com”, our from the Greek text of Thomas Newberry’s “Englishman’s Greek New Testament”. Some definitions given to Hebrew words are also referenced from qbible.com website, as well as from Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament, Baker Book House Company, (C) 1979
Several Translations and study guides to which this author refers are taken from biblehub.com website.