The source of our service must be God, and the basis of our work must be the fire from the altar. In serving God we need to have not only the proper source (which is God Himself) but also the proper basis, the basic principle of our work.
If we don’t have the proper basis, even though we may have the right source we may work for God by our zeal or knowledge.
According to Leviticus, the basis of our service has to be the fire from the altar of burnt offering; until the fire comes, there’s no service. We serve God because there’s a fire burning in us. The God who sends us for His service and who is the source of our service is the fire burning in us!
God is the fire in us: He is the energy, the fuel burning in us. The basis of our service is not spiritual training or learning, zeal, ability, and knowledge, neither is it the need for service; the unique basis of our service has to be the fire from the altar.
If we carry out the service based on anything else besides the fire from the altar, we may incur judgement upon our service. The Lord may allow us to serve Him in this age not having the proper basis, but He will not let us go in the next age; things may go well today but the fire will come and will test everything.
We need to be before the Lord concerning our service so that He may shine on us thoroughly; our service has to have God as the source, with the heavenly vision, in the Body, according to the divine revelation, in our spirit in the gospel, with the proper humanity, and the basis of our service has to be the fire from the altar.
Our God is a Consuming Fire (Heb. 12:29)
Our God is a consuming fire (see Heb. 12:29; Deut. 4:24; 9:3). Fire consumes, and as it consumes, it purifies, energizes, brightens, and causes us to shine. Fires are fierce, severe, and to be feared; we should not play with fire.
Our God likens Himself to a consuming fire; fire is merciless: it consumes everything in its way. We should not think that we served the Lord for many years and so we’re fine; when fire comes, it is merciless, and anything that’s not compatible with God’s nature will be burnt away.
As the burning One, our God is holy; holiness is His nature, and whatever does not correspond with His holy nature He, as the consuming fire, will consume.
God’s holy nature is like fire: absolute, pure, like fire, and we as His serving ones need to be “fire-proof”, that is, take the fire from the altar as the basis of our service, otherwise we may be saved, yet our work may be consumed (saved as through fire).
In Daniel 7:9-10 the Lord’s throne was flames of fire; its wheels were a burning fire, and a stream of fire issued forth and came out from before Him. The fire coming from God’s throne indicates that God is absolutely righteous and altogether holy.
On the one hand we as believers come to the throne of God as the throne of grace, but at the same time we need to remember that our God is a consuming fire, and the throne we draw near to is filled with fire.
The Lord Jesus came to Cast Fire on Earth (Luke 12:49-50)
The Lord Jesus came as the Son of Man not only to save the lost; he came to give us the divine life in abundance, and in Luke 12 He said He came to cast fire on earth. Christ came to cast something on earth that will burn and ignite the earth. The Lord wants to see this fire lit up on the whole earth.
As God who became man, the glory of Christ’s divinity was concealed in His human body (which acted as a “human shell”); He was the grain of wheat waiting to be cast into the ground so that through His death the shell of His humanity would be broken down and thus allow the fire of His divinity to be released.
The release of the glory of Christ’s divinity through His death and resurrection was to cast fire on earth (John 12:24). THis fire is the impulse of the spiritual life, an impulse that comes from the Lord’s released divine life.
Ever since the fire of His divine life was cast on earth, there was much conflict – some give their life wholly to God, while others oppose; the conflict us due to the devil who is against the divine life being released.
But Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ have “caught the divine fire” – we have received the divine life, and the fire of the divine life is burning in us, causing us to testify of Christ, preach the gospel, live Christ, and serve God.
From the time of Christ’s resurrection, a fire has been burning on earth, starting from Jerusalem and throughout the earth, reaching us and burning in us and through us.
Day by day the divine fire burns in us, desiring to spread out so that this divine energy would burn others also and fill them with the divine life. God today moves through the divine impulse put into us by the fire which He released through His death and resurrection.
Thank You Lord for coming to cast the divine fire on earth. Hallelujah, we as believers in Christ have “caught the divine fire” – we have the impulse of the spiritual life, the divine life burning in us! Lord, burn in us to remove anything negative and sinful, and motivate us by Your burning within to serve You, live You, preach the gospel, and allow You to spread through us to bring the divine fire to others! Oh, may the fire of the divine life burn in us and through us, and may this fire fill the whole earth!
The Seven Spirits of God are Seven Lamps of Fire, and the Word of God is a Fire
In Rev. 4 and 5 we see the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God, which are the seven Spirits of God. The seven lamps of the lampstand are for enlightening, but the seven lamps burning before the throne of God are for enlightening and for the carrying out of God’s administrative government.
The seven Spirits of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit, are the seven lamps of fire burning for the carrying out of God’s administration (Rev. 4:5). Our Triune God is a burning God: the Father is a consuming fire, the Son came to cast the divine fire on earth, and the Spirit is burning to carry out God’s administration on earth! Amen!
The fire burning out of the midst of the thornbush in Exo. 3 is the Triune God, the God of resurrection (see Exo. 3:2, 4, 6; Matt. 22:31-32). Our God is the God of resurrection, a burning Triune God, and He calls us – just as He called Moses – to do His work, a task humanly impossible to do, by the fire of His divine life.
God needs a seat for His flame to rest; the moment we see that we are a thornbush for God to rest as the flame in, burning with God as the fire and the fuel, we are qualified to serve God. The God of resurrection wants to burn on a despised, useless thornbush; this is the basis of our service to God.
Furthermore, as seen in Jer. 23:29, 5:14, and 20:9, the word of God is a fire that burns us and many of the things in which we have confidence. The word of God is a fire that burns us; when we come to God’s word, we receive not only nourishment but also something burning in us, burning away anything of the old and bringing in the impulse of the divine life to energize us.
As we read the word of God and pray over it, many of the things in which we have confidence are being removed. Sometimes, we may not want to speak for the Lord and even to mention Him, but the word of God is in our heart as a burning fire, and we can’t hold Him back.
Hallelujah, when we touch the word of God, it is fire, burning in us to the point that we cannot hold it back!
Lord, enlighten us and burn in us as the seven Spirits of God to carry out God’s divine administration and purify us to produce as the overcomers. Cause us to realize that we are a despised and useless thornbush, but the Triune God of resurrection is burning in us, and the divine flame takes us as its seat to rest on! Hallelujah, the God who calls us wants to burn in us yet not to consume us! Lord, may Your word burn in us to remove all the impurities and energize us to work for God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee for this week, and The Issue of Christ Being Glorified by the Father with the Divine Glory, ch. 1 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 6 / msg. 6, The Basis of Service — the Fire from the Altar.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# O God of burning altar fire, / O God of love’s consuming flame, / Make pure the flame of our desire / To win the lost to seek Thy Name. (Hymns #927)
# Christ is coming as a judge, all His people to meet. / All our work He’ll test through fire before His judgement seat. / So burn in me today, Lord! I open to Your searching. / Burn the wood and fill with gold; I’m desperate for Your purging! (Song on God as burning fire)
# In the wilderness for God! / Just a common bush aflame! / Thus may I be, blessed Lord, / For the glory of Thy Name. / Just a common bush to be, / Something in which God can dwell, / Something thru which God can speak, / Something thru which God can tell. (Song on the burning bush)
About aGodMan
The thornbush has a special meaning in the Bible. When the Sadducees were debating with the Lord concerning resurrection, the Lord said, “Concerning the dead, that they are raised, have you not read in the book of Moses, in the section concerning the bush, how God spoke to him, saying, ‘I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob’? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living” (Mark 12:26-27). The Lord Jesus referred to the thornbush in Exodus 3 when speaking concerning resurrection. As those who have been gained and are being used by God, we are a thornbush according to our old, natural man. However, there is a fire in us; God has come to us in the fire. The God of resurrection, the life of resurrection, and the glory of resurrection have come to the natural man.
The holy fire of God coming to the thornbush means that God came forth to be among His chosen people….The Angel who came to the earth was Jesus Christ, the One who was sent by God and is God. Verse 8 says, “I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians.” Where did He “come down” to? He came down to the thornbush. When the God of resurrection came forth as the Angel of Jehovah, He came forth in His Son, Christ Jesus, the One whom He sent. He came forth in the form of fire in the thornbush, man. (Witness Lee, The Operation of God and the Anointing, pp. 82-84)
Amen! … Lord Jesus! We are but a thornbush, despised and useless, but with the Triune God of resurrection burning within us, as a consuming fire for His service. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! Amen.