Rubbish Inferno: Fire and Water in the Church
Pictures in the Spirit
At our Perth Prayer meeting on Tuesday one of the members spoke of being inconvenienced in getting to the gathering by a rubbish truck in the street. As I began to pray into this, I saw something both unpleasant and hopeful. A vision appeared to my mind based on what the great missionary apostle Paul had to say to the proud Corinthian Christians. “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honour, but we in disrepute. 11 To the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, 12 and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; 13 when slandered, we speak kindly. We have become like the rubbish of the world, the dregs of all things, to this very day.” (1 Cor 4:10-13). The Corinthians boasted in their position and condition, but Paul compared himself to a homeless vagabond on the streets, or a piece of rubbish fit for nothing.
In my mind I saw heaps of rubbish being brought into barns to be burned across the city, these structures were church buildings, and people were briskly bringing in the rubbish in their lives to be incinerated by the fire of the Spirit of God (Luke 3:17). This is a picture of revival, where desperate men and women gather in churches committed to holiness for the express purpose of having the rubbish in their lives destroyed. We are far from this reality. In this picture the fires were burning outside the city, not standing for a physical location, but as a space beyond the respectability of civil society (Heb 13:10-13). More than that, a spiritual space separated from the round of self-congratulation characteristic of successful church conferences etc. where folk go to lengths to honour one another, but not according to the image of the cross. The fiery vision has a practical context of measurable obedience.
Refugees and Homeless
Someone in the prayer meeting mentioned they had just had a meeting to support refugees. Immediately after this another person read from Deuteronomy 10:12 with its emphasis on loving God with all the heart and soul. If they had read further, they would have noticed this, “You shall also love the foreigners/sojourners, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” (v.19). This is a call to identify with and care for the marginalised in our society. More was to come.
Affluent Australians are conscious of the visible scandal of homelessness today. Generally however we expect the government to “do something about it”. (Maybe if we all gave back our tax cuts for a homeless relief fund this would be possible, but that’s not going to happen is it!) Since Perth Prayer is in the centre of the CBD it’s impossible to avoid homeless people “littering the streets”. Then the Lord started to speak through another brother through the prophetic provocation of Isaiah 58:6-8, ““Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.” This is a very clear word, if we want revival we must bring the homeless into our houses. Whether we understood “houses” here as personal dwellings, churches or both, no great work of God will flow through us apart from this sort of sacrificial service.
River of Life
Then someone else prayed in line with Jesus’ words in John 7:37-39, “On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”. This is a great promise we all wish to see come true in our midst. But there is no way the Lord is about to send the Spirit to the Church in its present state, for if a river flowed through us it would emerge as a polluted, unclean stream (Prov 25:26; Jer 3:1ff.). The fire must fall first before the river can run bringing pure holy water nourishing the tree of life for the healing of nations (Rev 22:1-2).
Unity
Finally, another prayed from John 17; ““20 I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me….”. This is a great word, but I have heard prayed, and preached, countless times over the decades. Its glory is not being realised because a crucial component is lacking amongst us. True unity only come through deep humility in the Body of Christ. Presently, we are too much like the confident Corinthians and not enough like the lowly apostle Paul to manifest the supernatural witness of God.
Conclusion
A “wonderful exchange” is at the heart of the gospel. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor 8:9). Only as we become poor like Jesus can the marginalised, refugees, homeless, Indigenous, lonely, addicts, depressed, unemployed, abused….be brought into the household of God for cleansing and forgiveness in fire and water. The fiery inferno and raging cleansing torrent must pass through us first. But wait, I have just recalled another word brought forth in prayer. “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” (1 John 3:2-3 cf. 2 Tim 2:20-21). Through the command of God heard in the power of the Spirit self-purification is possible.
May we fill our churches with a desire for the rubbish in our lives to be burnt up with unquenchable fire so the Spirit might flow down the streets of our city. Hallelujah, it can happen! In Jesus’ Name.