The Fire Protects from All Evil
If we are “in Christ”, we have been immersed in the fire that fell from heaven and alighted on the disciples who were baptised in the Spirit at Pentecost[1]. This is not a fire of wrath but purely one of divine approval[2]. John, who in the New Testament has most to say about the flaming eyes of Jesus and “the wrath of the Lamb”[3], is most confident about the power of Christ’s protective presence. “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.” (1 John 5:18).
John sees the death –dealing power of sin as overcome in the Christian life[4] and the believer cannot be ultimately harmed by Satan[5]. This is what it means for the church now to be part of the “Jerusalem above”[6], a present manifestation of the eternal city of refuge. It means the protective power of God’s holy presence; not necessarily a life of material prosperity and relational comfort. This explains why most of contemporary Western Christianity is not assured of the protection of God[7]. Peter provides direction,
“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. 13 But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. 14 If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” (1 Pet 4:12- 14).
Just as Jesus was rejected by men and precious to God[8], it is in the context of conflict caused by the gospel that believers are aware of the Spirit hovering over their lives as he did at creation, for Israel in the wilderness and over Jesus’ from the time of his baptism[9]. Since the Western church is largely passive and in friendship with the world[10], we can hardly expect it to experience the wall of God’s fire around it. However, I believe this is about to change.
A City on Fire, A City of Refuge
Enthusiastic believers often think revival means a mystical presence of God[11]. If however there is going to be a “fire wall” around our city – state – nation, this can only happen when each believer experiences and manifests the fiery presence of God in the fullness of their lives. This is much wider than (possibly valid) dramatic spiritual experiences in Christian meetings.
Demons will be driven out of social strongholds, the presence of the power of sin in communities will be broken and guilt and shame dissolved only as Christians emanate Christ’s holy presence in their friendships, educational institutions, government structures, hospitals, homes, shops, sports fields and wherever the fullness of the person of Christ seeks to manifest himself through the church[12]. Only a city on fire can be a city of refuge, and a city catches alight by a host of believers spreading the fire of God wherever they live, work and have their being.
Whatever dimensions of material peace and prosperity God has destined Australia to provide for the needy[13], the foundational refuge is a spiritual shelter from God’s own judgement and the Satanic onslaught around us[14]. What the Lord is seeking to release in the spiritual realms above us is a “sacred canopy”.[15] The meaning of this is found in the prophecy of Isaiah,
“In that day the branch of the Lord shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. 3 And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, 4 when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. 5 Then the Lord will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. 6 There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain.” (Isa 4:1- 6)
When a locality becomes a city of refuge in the Spirit, genuine socio – cultural transformation takes place. Under the canopy of the presence of God, the influence of the powers of darkness is shattered; somehow they cannot penetrate the structures of social life[16]. Crime rates drop, addictions are broken, marriages hold together, sensitivity and openness to God increases, signs and wonders occur, church attendance rises, Christians begin to emerge as leaders in positions of power, redemptive lift happens among the poor[17] and so on.
A Warning – all other Refuges will Fail
Our key text from Zechariah 2 is very encouraging, but it also contains a warning. The setting for the prophecy in Zechariah is one angelic power prohibiting another from rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem as before, “And I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand! 2 Then I said, “Where are you going?” And he said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its width and what is its length.” 3 And behold, the angel who talked with me came forward, and another angel came forward to meet him 4 and said to him, “Run, say to that young man, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls”. The word of the Lord is emphatic; he alone is to be the city’s defence.
This is a time when many Christians are seeking refuge in structures other than God himself: a Christian nation[18], a happy family, a good marriage, a prosperous life, a successful church, high moral standards, intense spiritual experiences etc. All these things may be sought “in Christ”, but where they are our primary motivation they take on the status of idols[19].
This is why Zechariah commands a coming out of Babylon, “Up! Up! Flee from the land of the north, declares the Lord. For I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heavens, declares the Lord. 7 Up! Escape to Zion, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.” (Zech 2:6-7). This is a theme expressly echoed in our key New Testament book, Revelation, ““Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great!…“Come out of her, my people,lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;” (Rev 18:2, 4)[20].
A church that stays behind its walls to enjoy the things of God will be opposed by God himself[21]. This is why revival movements that are meeting- centred always break down. Only a remnant purified by the struggle to live for Jesus in perilous times can experience and express the good news that he alone is our refuge.
God is Awakening
Holy grace is coming to burn through all the ego – defences of those who seek another refuge besides the King. For the penitent, this will mean unprecedented blessing, for the stubborn, great pain[22]. Where the grace of God is not received, the present relational and spiritual breakdown, with accompanying social indicators (like addictions) will become progressively worse
The prophet proclaims, “Be silent, all flesh, before the Lord, for he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.” (Zech 2:13). His key verb (“roused”) is used throughout the Psalms for Yahweh arising to act on behalf of his people and his name[23]. As a prophetic message to our city, we are being told God is awakening, and if he is awakening, a spiritual awakening in our nation is coming. This text contains yet further illumination for our time.
“Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord. 11 And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people.” (Zech 2:10- 11).
Various prophecies have been given about Perth/W.A. as a sending city/state into the nations[24]. I believe this text in Zechariah will find a level of fulfillment[25] in what will happen in WA as a missional state “soon”[26]. As peoples from many lands have migrated to Western Australia, either for life style benefits or as refugees, so we will see a flow of Spirit inspired missionaries back to these lands[27]. The effectiveness of these Western based missionaries will be multiplied because they will be backed by large financial resources and possess familiarity with the language and culture of the nations to which they are sent. The thrust of this outreach will correspond to the dimensions of “the holy land” in Zechariah’s prophecy (2:12) and the scope of the New Jerusalem from which the earthly city of refuge draws its life- “to the ends of the earth”[28].
[1] “divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in othertongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” (Acts 2:3- 4)
[2] This was the meaning of the fire that fell from heaven at the opening of Solomon’s temple, “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (2 Chron 7:1). The church is now the true temple of the Holy Spirit, the site of God’s eternal glory.
[3]Rev 6:16;14:10.
[4] Compare 1 Corinthians15:56, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
[5] Compare John10:28;17:12, 15.
[6] “theJerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” (Gal4:26).
[7] Whilst responsible stewardship is commendable, most believers seem as preoccupied with superannuation, insurance and so on as the world. This is hardly the stuff of New Testament Christianity.
[8] Isaiah 28:16, referred to Jesus in Rom 9:33;10:11; 1 Pet 2:4, 6.
[9] We have already observed thatIsrael’s consciousness of being precious to God came in the context of righteous suffering (Ps 72:14; 116:15).
[10] James warns, “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4).
[11] This is one rather valid criticism of George Otis Jnr.and the Transformation videos. Otis seems to teach that if only pastors come together in unity through repentance in a locality the glory of God will simply fall on the area with social transformation.
[12] “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (Eph1:22 – 23; see also4:10)
[13] “Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.” (Eph 4:28)
[14] These elements are a large part of the structure of the book of Revelation.
[15] A term coined by sociologist Peter Berger to explain how religion gives meaning to the universe within and beyond our immediate experience, so that humans are not faced by the terror of meaninglessness in their daily lives.
[16] The corporate “shield of faith” of the city wide church is projected into the heavenly places between the principalities and powers and people on earth (Eph3:10;6:16).
[17] A term used by sociologists to describe the economic and social impact of the gospel on poverty and dysfunction . See, for example, http://www.thecanadayhouse.org/index_files/Page358.htm
[18] The closer the coming federal election approaches the more this is evident.
[19] Note how the refuge text from Deuteronomy 32 ends with, “the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him.” (v.12).
[20] See my article Two Ways to Heaven One Way to God: Babylonian Power Today
[21] Some commentators believe this is what the “loss of first love” means in Jesus rebuke to the church inEphesus (Rev 2:4).
[22] I take this to be the meaning of those passages in Revelation that describe the intensified anguish of the repentant, e.g. “They (demons) were allowed to torment them (unbelievers) for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone.” (Rev 9:5).
[23] Psalm 7:6; 35:23 “Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication, for my cause, my God and my Lord!” ; 44:23; 57:8; 59:4
[24] For example, by Rick Joyner http://www.churchinperth.com/site/adetails.asp?ArticleID=1374 and myself Naked and Not Ashamed: A message to the angel of the church in Perth
[25] Throughout this paper I have been working on a methodology that sees old Testament prophecy containing multiple levels of fulfillment, the ultimate level of fulfillment, which is the primary one for passages used in this paper, Zechariah 2, Isaiah 4 etc.,is in Christ’s eternal kingdom.
[26] Prophets tend to see things from God as through a telescope, they generally look much nearer than they are in chronological time. This is a necessary element in the immediacy of prophetic communication.
[27] As I awoke one morning last year I “saw” multi- coloured streams of people flowing out to the nations. I understood this to be a unified missions movement both led and involving people from all races.
[28] This is the obedience Jesus commands: Matt 28:19 “make disciples of all nations”; Acts 1:8;13:47.