Summary

Show Notes

Quotes

Scriptural References

Takeaway

Ken: I think once the Holy Spirit is manifest in your life, you receive Him in a personal experience. Afterwards, it's like the baptism of Jesus. After He was baptized—mm-hmm—He was driven into the wilderness and He was tested. And I think the baptism of fire is absolutely testing every believer that has a relationship, a walk with God.

Ron: Let's say they come around a true disciple of Christ, someone that the fire is being applied to. And they come around that person, and they begin to have a relationship with them, and all of a sudden their lives start coming under the fire.

Before, we're okay, you know, no big deal. I'm walking with God, God's blessing me, life's happy, everything's good. And then they come into a relationship with somebody that is under the baptism of fire, and they're going into sonship and they're growing into sonship, and all of a sudden their lives start falling apart.

And they go, "What's this strange thing that's happening to me?" Well, it's not really strange. You committed to the baptism of fire. It's a good thing if you truly want to walk with God and you want to be a son and you want to grow and mature. 'Cause without that, you're just a Christian walking around with the gifts of the Holy Spirit and happy-go-lucky.

Ken: So the issue is, be careful what you ask for. 'Cause if you're looking for a walk with God, just like the Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years, you're gonna find a lot of trials, a lot of tests, a lot of things coming up to test your faith. Are you going to accept the Word of God? You're in a relationship with Him, and His hand is on your life, and He's leading you by His Spirit, even when you're not seeing it or feeling it or experiencing it.

Because that's the issue right there—it’s really about becoming a son. In Hebrews, it talks about—God takes us—I'm paraphrasing now because I don't remember all the words—but it talks about the fact that God is going to try us and bring us to a place where that, because we are sons that we've been called by God, we're going to go through discipline, correction, instruction. And it's gonna be contrary to what we think God wants us to do because we're still too much in our human minds about what God wants. What He wants is a disciplined son that He can lead by His Spirit.

Ron: You have to really want to walk with God. You may not define what a baptism of fire is, but you want to walk with God. And when you want to walk with God, God will bring those to you that will impart that experience to you, and you'll begin to enter into it. And then you have to be dedicated to it again. When you hit that wall of fire—you know—your life starts falling apart and things don't make sense anymore. What are you gonna do?

Debbie: You have to desire it. You have to want to give yourself to it. Why do you think it—you know—the road is narrow that leads into the Kingdom? Not easy for them to find. Not many will find it because they haven't set themselves to really walk with God.

Lois: Straight is the gate and narrow is the way, and few there be that find it.

Ken: Why don't they find it? Because in their heart, they have not completely given all to Christ and made Him Lord of their life. We have to come into the Lordship of Jesus Christ and be led by His Spirit in that order. Because if we don't, you may have had the most glorious born-again experience, and you're just ecstatic over it, and you're going off on how wonderful it is—and the next day, forget all about it. Without that commitment to the Lord during that time, it's really interesting because that's what God does. He calls us. He says, “Many are called, but few are chosen,” and it's not about receiving Christ and then expecting to be raptured out. This is, to me, the biggest lie from the enemy that ever was—that you can receive Christ and then just wait to be taken out.

That's not what God's looking for. He's looking for sons. He's looking for people that will give Him their whole heart and relate to Him on a relationship that we see in Revelation chapter 3, when you open the door and allow Christ to come in and have that relationship. And then you walk with Him and listen to Him and be guided by His Spirit. That's what He's after. I think this time right now, that we're in right now—Tabernacles—we're believing and expecting, and I've seen very much evidence of the Parousia during this time. God is here ministering by His Spirit. Yes, He's an ever-present help in the time of need, and we know that. But we know that by experience because we've been through the fire.

Ron: One word that I would apply to this thing of the fire is experience. You can have a lot of faith, and you can have great doctrines, and you can have a lot of head knowledge, and you can believe many, many wonderful things—which are true—unless you've experienced those things, they're meaningless, really.

Because everybody has them. Even atheists—they know what they don't believe, and Christians know what they do believe. But guess what? None of that really holds water with the Lord. It's what you've experienced. And how do you experience it? Again, it's dedication, it's commitment, and it's the fire of God.

Ken: When we realize that to give all means literally that you give up your way of thinking, your way of existence, your way of expectancy—your life doesn't belong to you anymore. It belongs to the Lord. Yeah. Now, that's a hard one for a lot of people to take. They just want some religious order that they can say, “Well, I accepted Christ. Now I'm ready to go to heaven.” Well, okay, if you want to settle there, that's your choice.

What a privilege to know the Lord and to walk with Him. There's no greater life that you can live. I know in the beginning, as you're going through the fires, it's difficult, but you know what? He that endures to the end, the same shall be saved. I think that's what Hebrews says, and I believe that with all my heart. But the enduring is not just putting up with things—it's giving yourself to the will of God.

Ron: I press into this relationship with the Lord. Our God is a consuming fire. So basically, I'm pressing right into the baptism of fire. What's gonna happen to my life? Well, basically, it's gonna get burned up. You know, I mean, it's not really too complicated—'cause our God is a consuming fire. He's gonna burn up everything that's not Him—wood, hay, stubble, goodbye.

And I might even consider some of that gold, and He goes, “No, not really.” And it gets burned up. That's where the commitment comes from, because that's where the rubber meets the road—when you start going through that and seeing your life burnt up before you, and you know, things that you've even believed—they're just not happening. You just go, “Well, Lord, I'm just here. I'm just here.”

Lois: My life is not my own.

Ken: You know, that's something that's very, very deep. And a lot of people have trouble with that because they have ambitions, they have places to go, people to see, and things to do—and all of that is confronting. You know, if you say, “Well, I give all to the Lord,” well, what does that mean? I mean, it means just what we said—it means all.

So that means Mike, who lives in Washington, sells everything he has and comes down to Oregon because of the leading of the Lord. It means that all of us have done things like that in our relationship with God.

Debbie: To be a Kingdom disciple means that I'm no more my own man, but I'm Christ's man. It means that giving of myself away to Him, that I have no more right or title to myself, so that I have no more claim upon myself, and I'm no longer at my own disposal. To be a disciple means to belong—body and soul—to Christ, now and evermore, for Him to do with me as He wills. That's exactly what it is.

That fire—fire burns out everything except to do the will of the Lord, to do what He wants. We're seeking first the Kingdom and His righteousness, and He'll take care of everything else.

Ron: As He comes closer to us, now we'll find things come up in us that are really, really not pleasant. And I think the only thing that's gonna hold us is our brother. We're not gonna be strong in ourselves because of what God's bringing us into in this oneness and body ministry. I think you're gonna come to things in each of our lives where we have to give over to our brothers and sisters, and they're gonna have to keep us in and minister to us and help us along.

If we can walk with God without our brothers and sisters, then why have the body of Christ?

Ken: It's the way God made it. We didn't do that. He's the one that designed the whole program, and we have to walk according to His will, not according to ours. That's why independence—to be independent—is a dreadful thing, because then you face everything all by your lonesome, and you can't.

And you can't. There's no way you can. No way. I love the family. I love the body of Christ. It's always about oneness because I know that's the key to our moving into everything that we're looking for in the Kingdom.

Mike: The word that jumps out to me is interdependence. Coming to the revelation that, you know, I'm not who I am today because of anything I've done other than submit myself to my brothers and sisters, because they're the ones that created me by their prophesying over me, washing me with the water of the Word, and creating me by the prophecies.

And that part I am so thankful for because I recognize it wasn't anything I did other than submit myself to that. I see that submitting to them is submitting to the Lord—it's one and the same. Why this whole thing of oneness is so key, because you recognize that Christ is the Head. We are part of this many-membered body, yet He is bestowing His authority in and through this body as we humble ourselves and submit to Him and His will in doing it His way.

Ken: So one of the keys, Mike, in that is He set us into the body according to His will. That's right. Yeah. And in that, we don't defend ourselves or just pray for ourselves to go along and be something special in the Lord.

No, we pray for our brother. We give our life. No greater love has man than he gives his life for his friend. And that's what we do. Yeah, we give our lives for each other because that's a calling of God on each one of us.