Throughout recent centuries God has been restoring piece by piece that which was lost when Adam and subsequently all mankind fell. The process of restoration involves first the revelation of what is to be restored. It is revealed as being reality for the time in which it is to be restored.

Over 500 years ago salvation by grace through faith was restored. In the early 20^th century, the revelation of the baptism with the Holy Spirit was restored. The gifts of healings and miracles were restored. Later in the mid 20^th century, prophets were restored, and then in the latter part of the century and into the first part of the 21^st century, the apostles are being restored. These are just a few of the most recent major restorations to the Body of Christ.

Now that the prophetic is restored, God reveals what He is doing to His prophets. As the prophets proclaim the revelation of what God is doing, it begins to come to pass. A true prophetic proclamation resonates in the hearts of mature believers and prepares God’s people to receive the next piece of restoration from God.

Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets, Amos 3:7.

The Restoration of the Baptism with Fire

This may not be fresh to some of you. However, the greater revelation of the fire portion of being baptized by Christ Jesus with the Holy Spirit and FIRE is being freshly revealed and made real in me.

Mat 3:11:  I (John) 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.

New or fresh revelation is God uncovering for us what has always been. It is as if God lifts up the cover or lid, and our eyes are opened to fresh revelation. We may then marvel that we have not seen before this obvious reality that is now so clearly exposed.

I believe that in this season, the lid is NOT being gently lifted off the revelation of THE FIRE of GOD. The lid is being blown off with an explosion of power.

This will be more than the revival fire that has been poured out historically time and time again. In revival we cried out for God to SEND THE FIRE. His fire has now come and we are beginning to grasp what it means to be baptized by Christ Jesus with the Holy Spirit and FIRE.

This does not involve the hype and showmanship of highly promoted performance-based conferences. This is not a stage or platform production. The fire of God is not geared to man-made staged performance. You can lay aside the rock bands and high powered so called “praise music” with its costumed and choreographed dance. The fire of heaven is coming down in the person of Christ Jesus in the Holy Spirit. The Body of Christ will come forth filled with the Spirit of Christ from within and saturated with the fire of Christ upon us.

Living Water and Fire

Probably most if not all of us have been experiencing to some degree the inner working of the baptism and fullness of the Holy Spirit – the gifts, peace, inner power, joy, and more. However, most of us have probably not truly experienced the baptism with Fire coming UPON us in this present season. The fire of God is the glory of Christ falling upon us from above. It is the Christ in us coming together with the Spirit of Christ from above. The restoration of the baptism of fire is coming upon us exploding the powerful works of Christ Jesus into a desperate and failing world.

The fire of His glory is suddenly coming upon purified holy sons and daughters of God. The glory will not rest upon mixture or flesh, as the revival fire of the past has done. The Holy Spirit was poured out on flesh in revivals and outpourings in the 90s, and a measure of fire came for a short season. This that is now coming forth is much more and will be Spirit to spirit. Mixture will be quickly burned away, and only pure holiness will remain in the fire.

This past Sunday afternoon, I was meeting with a few close friends. We were seated in a relatively close circle each sharing from our hearts and from the scriptures. Something was said about being thirsty for the coming of more fullness of God or something like that. I heard in my spirit that it was in us and needed to flow out of us as living water. I read a couple of scriptures from John.

John 4:13-14:  Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life."

John 7:38:  "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water."

As I read these verses I began to feel a strong stirring of unrest and dissatisfaction within. I began to proclaim that it is in us. We have it and are not letting it flow out to each other. We thirst and do not have, because we are not pouring out the rivers of living water to each other. I don’t have it because you are not letting it flow out to me. I was saying something like that when suddenly the fire of God fell upon me.  The Spirit of God came UPON me and fire (glory) came upon my being like I have not experienced in a long time, if ever before.

At my age, I usually get up from a seated position slowly with help by pushing myself up with my arms. When the fire came upon me, I suddenly leapt straight up from my chair with shouts and did some sort of a rapidly stepping scooting sort of a dance or something in a tight circle as tongues and words flowed profusely from me. I could not see anything but the glory. I fell back into my chair and prophesied and praised as the river poured from me. As far as I could tell, glory filled the room and impacted us all. I do not sing at all, but at some point in all this, I actually flowed into spontaneously leading worship choruses. Prophecy, prayer, and praise flowed like a river.

It was like the flow of living water (Spirit) from within flowed out and met the fire of God. Perhaps this is a key to the fire (glory) falling upon us. First the dissatisfaction with our not flowing the living waters of the Spirit of Christ out of us. At the instant we begin to flow the living water, the fire comes.

It is as if the inner flow of the living water of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of God’s people can meet up with Holy Fire and create explosive power. The heavy lid of religion with its erroneous theology of doubt and unbelief and our personal gods of prideful self-consciousness have held back the release of the power of the Spirit, creating an extreme back pressure in the bosom of God’s Spirit-filled people.

In the natural realm water contained in an enclosed vessel that is heated with fire becomes steam pressure. As the fire increases the pressure builds, and when the lid comes off, it explodes. At best we have been experiencing small leaks of power flowing out to the atmosphere of the world from the sons of God.

The pressure for the release of God from within us is now ready to explode into the world as God helps us to blow our lid off to full-out release the explosive power of spiritual reality of Christ Jesus.

First the Cross, Next the Spirit, Now the Fire

After the cross, the resurrected Christ Jesus gathered with His disciples before ascending to the Father and gave them instruction. They were sent by Jesus to do the same work God sent Jesus to do by the same power. Then He breathed the Holy Spirit into them (John 20:21-22).

Prior to this moment the disciples had not received the Holy Spirit. Even though they had followed Jesus and believed He was the Son of God, until Jesus died on the cross they remained of the first Adam. Because of the sinful state of mankind, they could not fully receive the Holy Spirit. However, it was at this moment after the cross, the sin curse had been broken and those who followed Jesus were able to receive the Holy Spirit from the breath of the resurrected Christ. Jesus breathed the Holy Spirit into them much as God had originally breathed His Spirit into Adam (Gen 2:7).

At this point redemption became a reality for the disciples who now had the Spirit of God in their lives. For the first time since Adam, the Holy Spirit was again within men other than Jesus. However, they did not yet have the full empowerment of the life of Christ Jesus within and upon them. He was still standing before them awaiting His ascension to the Father.

Christ Jesus had to return to the Father and become a “life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). Only then could the Holy Spirit impart the fire of Christ Jesus to dwell with and empower the disciples who would receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The disciples were instructed to not depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the empowering baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:4-8).

All of this took place in a relatively brief period of time. The cross and resurrection had broken the curse of sin and changed the sinful state of the disciples, opening the way for Jesus to breath the Holy Spirit into them before ascending to the Father. Then the promise of the Father could come at Pentecost in the full baptism of the Holy Spirit and FIRE. These works of God were being planted into the world to be multiplied in the fullness of time when all things were made ready.

From the revelation of the work of the Cross by grace through faith being restored around 500 years ago, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit about 100 years ago, to the revelation of the kingdom of God life on earth in the past few decades, to the recent restoration of true holiness by the Spirit within, to the today restoration of the FIRE of Christ Jesus coming UPON pure-hearted Holy Spirit-filled people of God, the restoration continues.

The Fire of God is the Glory of Christ Jesus

Forerunners of FIRE are emerging now. The real and fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit with fire will soon spread to the corners of the earth bringing the manifest presence and power of God into view of all. It will bring great empowerment to the humble and sudden destruction to the pride and loftiness of man. The progressive transformation to the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven is now being clearly seen by God’s people. The gospel of the kingdom is restored and being widely proclaimed. The FIRE of the Spirit of Christ is coming upon Holy Spirit-indwelled people bringing God-empowered LIFE.

The Sword of the Lord Comes with Fire.

Ron McGatlin

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