Emblems of the Holy Spirit: Fire
The best definition I can find of “emblems of the Holy Spirit” is: God’s chosen illustrations from natural things to help us to understand the work of the Holy Spirit, whereby, through the physical senses, we may get a clear grasp of important spiritual truth.
The first emblem of which I want to speak is fire. There are three things that this holy fire does — it searches, it purifies, it illuminates.
I. FIRE SEARCHES.
Some years ago, at the beginning of one of the Northfield conferences, a minister preached on the text, “Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.” Through the whole audience there was hardly a man that did not rise to show that he wanted to receive that power. A week later some of them were in a wretched state. They found that they were not ready to receive the power, and we had to turn to the one hundred and thirty-ninth Psalm, last two verses. What a day it was! I believe that ureal good was done when we got on our faces and made this prayer from our hearts: “Search me, 0 God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” There is no use talking to others until we are right ourselves. “Search me, 0 God” — not my neighbor, not my friend, but vie. If the Holy Ghost searches us, it will be a heart work.
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Emblems! of (he Holy Spirit. 95
This is precisely what God’s holy fire does; it searches. When I was going through the land of Goshen in Egypt, a few years ago, as I came near the city of Alexandria, I saw the strangest sight I had ever seen. The heavens were lit up with a new kind of light, and there seemed to be flash after flash. I couldn’t understand it. I had heard that the Khedive had died, and that a new Khedive was coming into power. I found later that England had sent over some war vessels, and the moment that darkness came on they had turned their searchlights upon that city. It was almost as light as at noonday. Every street was lit up, and I do not suppose that ten men could have met in any part of Alexandria without being discovered by that searchlight. Now I am anxious that God may turn His searchlight upon us, and see if there be any evil way in us; and when we get right ourselves there is no trouble about reaching other people.
2. FIRE PURIFIES.
“I indeed baptize 3*011 with water unto repentance,” said John the Baptist, “but He .shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with lire.” Until the Are came the disciples were not qualified to work for God. They were all the time making blunders. The two sons of Zebedee, afterwards noted for their meekness and humility, wanted to call down fire from heaven and consume a town in Samaria that had refused Christ the common hospitality of that day. Christ caiue not to destroy life but to give q6 Short Talks by D. L. Moody.
life. The disciples never did a thing or said a thing that was worth recording until the fire of Pentecost came and took the dross out of them.
There are some things that water cannot do. It may cleanse the outside, but fire searches not only the outside but the inside; it is penetrating. Take a lump of quartz, filled with beautiful pieces of gold, which you can see sparkle. If dust gets on it and covers up the gold, you can wash the dust off. But there is one thing you cannot do with water — you cannot get the gold away from the dross. There is only one way to do that — put it into the fire and melt it. Then the pure gold will come out, and the dross may be thrown away. What we need is to have the fire kindled that shall burn up all the dross and let the pure gold shine forth.
Notice also in the Bible that when God called a man to do a higher service He met him in fire. Moses had all the wisdom of the Egyptians. He had been forty years in the schools of the Egyptians; he had been forty years back there in the desert; eighty years, and yet that man never did anything good that was worth putting on record! In fact, he made a blunder; he killed an Egyptian and had to flee. His life was a failure up to the time that God met him at the burning bush. That marked a new epoch in his history, and if you meet the God of the burning bush you will remember how you met Him. From the time that God met Moses at the burning bush, he became one of the greatest powers this world ever had. Isaiah and Job and Jeremiah and Moses, all of them had to fall before God and see their utter unfitness for the work.
Have you who have gone into Christian work ever had any such experience? Have you ever passed through the furnace, and been taught by the Spirit of God that all your natural gifts go for naught unless you have the fire of heaven in your soul? You can’t go on heavenh missions without heavenly fire. When Isaiah saw the vision of God’s glory he said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” Death to self; that is what it means. The first step to a higher service is the end of self. God’s way up is down. God never yet lifted up a man high that He did not cast him down first; never. Self must be annihilated. When we get to the end of our own power, then it is that the power of God is manifested in us.
People say they haven’t strength. The fact is, they think they have too much. People say they haven’t wisdom. The fact is, they think they have too much wisdom. Oh, may this fire come upon us., and burn up all our own strength and wisdom, so that we may lean upon God’s strength and God’s wisdom!
You ask, “How am I to humble nryself and get to the end of myself?” I will tell you. One look at God does the work. Isaiah saw God lifted high on His throne; and what a blessing he has been all these centuries. Why? Because he was purified by the God of heaven and received a divine call. Let this purifjang process go on. If there is something wrong in your life, make up your mind you are going to get right, first of all. No man or q8 Short Talks by D. L. Moody.
woman is ready to receive the gifts of God until the heart is right.
3. FIRE ILLUMINATES.
When God has searched and purified you and made jtou a vessel fit for His use, the next thing is, He will illuminate you.
What this country wants is some illuminated Christians — men and women lit up by the Holy Ghost. If we are so lit up by the Spirit of God it will not be necessary for ministers to stir us up to work; they will have to hold us in. In Hebrews, the first chapter and the seventh verse, we read, “And of the angels I Ie saith,Who maketh His angels spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire.” A flame of fire! that is what we want — illumination. As the Quakers call it, an “indwelling light.”
What did the one hundred and twenty disciples get on the day of Pentecost? Illumination. The light of heaven flashed in upon them. Remember Stephen’s shining face. We see very few illuminated Christians now. If every one of us was illuminated by the Spirit of God,how wecouldlight up the churches! But to have a lantern without any light, that would lie a nuisance. A Christian without light is like that. Many Christians carry along lanterns and say. “I wouldn’t give up my religion lor yours.” They talk about religion. The religion that has no fire is like a painted fire. They are artificial Christians. Do you belong to that class? You can tell. If you can’t, your friends can.
There is a fable of an old lantern in a shed, which began to boast because it had heard its master say he didn’t know what he would ever do without it. But the little candle within spoke up and said:
“Yes, you’d be a great comfort if it wasn’t for me! You are nothing; I’m the one that gives the light.”
We are nothing, but Christ is everTthing, and what we want is to keep in communion with Him and let Christ dwell in us richly, and shine forth through us.
I have a match box with a phosphorescent front. It draws in the rays of the sun during the day and then throws them out in the dead hours of the night, so that I can always see it in the dark. Now that is what we ought to be, constantly drawing in the rays of the Sun of Righteousness and then giving them out. Some one said to a young convert:
“It is all moonshine being converted.”
He replied, “Thank you for the compliment. The moon borrows light from the sun, and so I borrow mine from the Sun of Righteousness.”
That is what takes place when we have this illumination.
When the early Christians had been purified, and at last were ready, they lit up all Jerusalem, and the light spread from Jerusalem to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. I believe if we could get that fire of Pentecost into the church of God, Christianity would have a mighty power.
The tabernacle in the Wilderness was lit up all the time. The cloud of the Lord was upon it by day, and the coud of fire was on it in the night, in the sight of the house of Israel throughout all their
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journeys. Then when Solomon had fin shed the temple in Jerusalem the Shechinah came in and filled it with the glory of God, and the fire burned there day and night. What do we represent now? Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost. As the Holy Ghost lit up the tabernacle in the desert, and the temple at Jerusalem, so we are to be lit up by the Spirit. Let us ask G od to keep this fire burning.
One verse from Jeremiah: “Then I said, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name. But His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” When we are filled with the Spirit of God and the Word of God, we cannot but speak. We cannot but shine. A lighthouse does not need to make itself shine; it can t help it. You don’1 have to put up a notice.. “This is a lighthouse.” The light tells its own story. I pity a person who goes around with a little light saying, “Look at my light; I shine.’’ If you are filled with the Spirit of God you will shine so that no one will need to be told.
I do not know of anything that America needs more to-day than men and women on fire with the lire of heaven; and 1 have yet to find a man or woman on fire with the Spirit of God that is a failure. I believe it is utterly impossible. They are never discouraged or disheartened. They rise higher and higher, and it grows better and better all the while. My dear friends, if you haven’t this illumination, make up your minds you are going to have it. Pray: “0 God, illuminate me. 0 God, fill me with Thy Holy Spirit.”