The Fire that Divides
Background
The Lord gave the scripture below to a sister at a prayer meeting during the week. It is precisely what we do not want to hear, but it contains a contemporary Word we must hear. I am convinced about this because I sense that my most recent shorter teachings are outlining the type of spirituality the Holy Spirit is seeking to release in the Church in Perth. These teachings have been a heavy burden on my life, and this one is no exception (Jer 23:33; Mal 1:1).
“I came to cast fire on the earth, and would that it were already kindled! 50 I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how great is my distress until it is accomplished! 51 Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. 52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. 53 They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” (Luke 12:49-53)
Family Worship
Jesus “I came…” statements encapsulate the highest purposes of his life. Some of these pronouncements are justifiable famous, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10, “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10). “I came to cast fire on the earth” is a much less popular because it is a clear statement of judgement (see Luke 3:9, 17; 9:54). To us, unlike the prophets and saints in heaven (Rev 6:9-10), judgement isn’t appreciated as a holy and godly thing. In scripture God’s fire usually consumes idolatry (Deut 32:21-27; Jer 17:1-4). In our current context I believe that the Lord is angry about “family worship”.
Opinion polls in Australia https://www.bandt.com.au/revealed-whats-important-to-australians-right-now/ consistently reveal that the most important thing in the life of Australians is not money or pleasure, but family. Family comes before God; by definition this is idolatry. This struck me forcefully the other day when a local pastor said he had lost about a 1/3rd of his congregation of young adults who had discovered during Zoom services for COVID they preferred to spend time with their own household rather than gather with the people of God. The Lord will not tolerate this “family first” problem indefinitely. Jesus said, “If you want to be my disciple, you must, by comparison, hate everyone else—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life.” (Luke 14:26). Who obeys this command?
Fitting In
In the power of the Spirit the Jerusalem Council directed the Gentiles to abstain from “what has been sacrificed to idols, and from blood, and from what has been strangled, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28-29). Since all of these activities were common among gentiles in the ancient world, this was a command not to “blend in”. The highly visible location of many church buildings across Perth testifies to our lengthy history of “blending in”. Whatever happened to Jesus’ prophecy, “you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake”? The answer appears immediately, when “the love of many will grow cold” (Matt 24:9, 11) we begin to “blend in”. Our “first love” has grown cold (Rev 2:4) because by and large we are addicted to “the Australian dream”. Marriage, family, mortgage, car, travel, restaurants, coffee shops… What happened to make the first Christians earn a reputation as “haters of the human race” (Tacitus, Annals 44.4 c. 11 A.D.)? Answer: they were a communion of saints.
The Communion of Saints
Contrary to popular perception “saint” simply means “holy one”, and “holy” simply means someone separated out by God to God. This is how the demons knew that Jesus was “the Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24). And remember, the Lord never had a superior “holier than thou” attitude, but all who had sensitivity of spirit recognised his unity with the Father. Since sin separates us from God, sacredness of life separates us from sinners (Heb 7:26). Such sacredness is not a matter of trying to keep the Ten Commandments, it is a wholly a matter of being more like Jesus. Christ is our holiness (1 Cor 1:30). In being more like Jesus we will infuriate many people, both outside and inside the Church. We will live out the truth of being, “to one (perishing) a fragrance from death to death, to the other (being saved) a fragrance from life to life” (2 Cor 2:15-16). In this dynamic of finality, the tragic and the glorious cannot be separated.
What About the Fire?
The fire which Jesus longed for was the intensity of the whole burnt offering (Gen 8:21; 22; Lev 1:9) of the cross through which his unconditional sacrificial love would ascend to heaven as a “fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Eph 5:1-2). The cross, not his teaching or miracles, was the place where Christ was most manifestly God (Phil 2:6-8 NIV). It is the fiery love of the cross which in the End will bring about a final separation (Matt 25:41). Put simply, when the love which “binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Col 3:14) is rejected, even the closest of ties, the family, fly apart. The infinite nature of God as love (1 John 4:8), when revealed by the Spirit through the communion of the saints, proves to be irresistibly polarising to all forms of self-love. As such, the character of the Church as a community of salvation which “shares in the divine nature” (2 Pet 1:4) divides at the very deepest level. Such divisions are a present prophetic sign of the final separation at the end of the age (Matt 13:40). This is a very painful thing to believe and to testify concerning. Yet it is wholly biblical.
Do We Really Want Revival Fire?
I do not believe that most Christians want revival. Certainly not revival with the dimensions outlined in this study. Day after day I hear stories of the immense cost of following Jesus at a family level in nations where other gods or ideologies reign. But at the same time the testimonies of the miraculous work of the Spirit in these situations are stupendous. When the favour of God is outpoured on his holy people everything is intensified, envy and hatred (Mark 15:10; 5:17; 13:45) as well as irresistible attraction to Christ. One of my favourite songs was written by William Booth, for in the early days the Salvo’s were publicly maligned. http://www.songlyrics.com/kingsway-music/o-god-of-burning-cleansing-flame-lyrics/ Read the lines, pray them through, decide if you really want the fire. Then, if you do, begin to weep in prayer and proclamation for the turmoil and division of what must come. Such is the power of the gospel (2 Thess 1:3-10).