Preaching a 'PURE' message; free from the Fires of Hell...

I wish to share something the Holy Spirit has been dealing strongly with me about. That 'something' is the 'purity' of [u]our[/u] teaching and preaching. I will deal mainly with myself here as I wish to please the Lord in all things. We simply cannot preach on 'Hell Fire' [i]with[/i] 'hell fire' (the fire of hell).

James tells us that the tongue is a 'fire' and can be set on fire of hell (James 3:6). It is interesting to me that God used cloven 'tongues' like as of fire in conjunction with the coming of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2). Christ is said to have to come to baptize with the Holy Ghost and with FIRE (Matthew 3). Jeremiah writes:

Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a [i]burning fire shut up in my bones[/i], and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.

This is the unction of God as it is described by a person informing us of what it is like to have the Lord put a word in a person's 'mouth'. It is the fire of the Lord, evidence of the Holy Spirit ready to speak to a people.

BUT, there is another fire also. And that 'fire' does not come down from above. You will recall that Nadab and Abihu, Aaron's sons, once [i]presumed[/i] to offer strange fire before the Lord. They were devoured by the fire of God and Aaron was not allowed even to mourn. They were priests before the Lord and when in service for Him, they were to use 'his fire' [u]alone[/u]. They were not at home. They were on business for their King.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

I cannot allow frustration to become the 'fire' that fuels my passion to minister. I cannot allow the years of rejection to grab ahold of my heart and spark the beginnings of a 'strange fire' in ministry. Every time I speak, it must be what says the Lord.

But the wisdom that is from above is [u]first pure[/u], then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. (James 3:17, 18)

The Greek word for 'pure' here is [i]hagnos[/i] and it means 'free from sin' or 'chaste'. Imagine preaching on holiness with a word that was 'unchaste' because it was fired by the wrong flame. the message was right, but the heart was not.

A preacher walked off a platform years ago in southern Missouri and stated, "I really skinned em' from Dan to Beersheeba tonight!" Can a person take pleasure in 'skinning' the people?

I was sitting in study recently and the Holy Spirit said to me, "You teach and preach with sarcasm." My first response was, "Sarcasm is the Devils wit." I knew right then to check myself and not 'interject' little silly statements that originate in my frustrations and not in God.

I believe that we are coming to a stage when God is going to start dealing with some issues in the Body of Christ. I am reminded of how when I was a child some family member would be 'out of line' and a whole host of corrective statements would be thrown out towards them, until, DAD came home. When DAD came home, we did not dare say a word. HE was dealing with them and if we tried to get our 'two cents in' we met with his correction for [u]our[/u] shortcomings, that HE had remembered and WE had been ignoring.

We talk revival, but I wonder if folk really want revival? I seem to recall some people dropping dead in the revival in the first several chapters of Acts. Like Job and the whirlwind. We talk a bunch of stuff till God shows up and speaks. I would entreat that we ought to use caution in these Last Days that we don't become 'Nadab' and 'Abihu's'. That when we speak we know its the Lord and not some [i]strange fire[/i].

Well spoken Robert.

this is great, thanks brother Robert

I don't preach (women shouldn't), but I have heard times when preachers have given 'tounge lashings' instead of preaching the word of God from a pure heart. This is a needful message and needs to be heeded by any preachers out there.

very encouraging message.

Robert, a very timely and prophetic word! It grips my heart.

How often - if our deeper desires were to be laid bare, would we hear ourselves saying, “Lord send fire down to destroy those obnoxious sinners.” – or maybe something much tamer, or maybe just passivity - but just as deadly?

You succinctly expose an immoral motive: wishing the fires of hell on people. However, we are called to be ministers of reconciliation, instruments of MERCY. That is the gospel, and we are called to preach it - with the fire of God burning in our bones.

I don't preach

(women shouldn't),

Could we not say that a failure to preach the gospel is no different than inflicting the fires of hell on people?

We can't depend on those select few who stand in pulpits on Sunday mornings and give a talk.

Diane

I cannot allow frustration to become the 'fire' that fuels my passion to minister. I cannot allow the years of rejection to grab ahold of my heart and spark the beginnings of a 'strange fire' in ministry. Every time I speak, it must be what says the Lord.

No wonder Paul says we are living letters. Whatever is burning in our heart will affect the ways we treat others - whether good fire or bad fire.

"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things." Rom. 15:15
Diane

[u]our[/u]

Brother, am not feeling especially talkative of late for a variety of reasons but this is something just as well the Lord has been trying to get through. That word is key and the other a derivative from this;

I knew right then to check myself and not 'interject' little silly statements that originate in my frustrations and not in God.

We talk revival, but I wonder if folk really want revival? I seem to recall some people dropping dead in the revival in the first several chapters of Acts. Like Job and the whirlwind. We talk a bunch of stuff till God shows up and speaks.

Just as well this. Have something rather disjointed about a "Revival for the remnant", it needs some work ... some sifting. But this question of revival, so confused and abused and full of a thousand different interpretations. Why seek after it, for what reasons? Best I can tell and for the motivation to pray for it, by description ... A change in the atmosphere and as a corrective, a leveling of everything, a re-ordering by Gods will, intent and purposes. To be put to silence. Think we need it in general and in specific, even those who are walking closely, diligently, even those who wish and long and pray for this don't really understand what they are asking for... Might it come anyway.

I wish to share something the Holy Spirit has been dealing strongly with me about. That 'something' is the 'purity' of our teaching and preaching.

1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. 2Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. 3So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and [b]yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment[/b]?

I believe that we are coming to a stage when God is going to start dealing with some issues in the Body of Christ. I am reminded of how when I was a child some family member would be 'out of line' and a whole host of corrective statements would be thrown out towards them, until, DAD came home. When DAD came home, we did not dare say a word. HE was dealing with them and if we tried to get our 'two cents in' we met with his correction for our shortcomings, that HE had remembered and WE had been ignoring.

1 Peter 4:17-18 For the time [is come] that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if [it] first [begin] at us, what shall the end [be] of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Thank you for sharing Pastor, I believe that God's wrath is upon much of the church (i.e. the called out ones) and my heart is broken because of them are totally unaware of this. May the Lord God pour our his gift of repentance upon this land and wake up before it's too late.

I know this is changing the subject in question, but the subject of so called 'women preachers' came up. Scripture says clearly that women are not to have authority over a man. The first church I attended had a female pastor, and the church was constantly rife with problems. The best thing I ever did was leave. However, I don't see in Scripture, which is the final authority as far a I am concerned, that women cannot be missionaries, but not to oversee a church.
Getting back to the subject, we are to speak the truth in love. Let's do so. God bless.

Scripture says clearly that women are not to have authority over a man.

By far most people aren't even in church. Yet they see Christians in various aspects of life. How do we minsiter (preach) to them? What do they see within us - the fire of God or the fire of hell?
Diane

Good!

Thank you Robert. This is confirmation. The Lord has been dealing with us on that same issues. Thank you for the word.

Patrick

Good post, Robert.
Thanks for sharing this.

Yesterday there was a man on T.V. who was preaching how God came down with a Rod on the backs of His Children.
I cut him off, for God chastens us in Love.
I asked my Husband what Sinner would want to come to a God like this?
I also heard another Preacher preach in a Church, and He said, Who God loves He beateth the Hell out of them.
A lot of the Ministers in Pulpits are trying to keep control of the people.
The Holy Spirit has to be in control for souls to be saved.
May we look unto Jesus, and crave the Pure Word of the Gospel.
God Bless all,
Nellie

Good word and timely :-(

I once heard someone say that when the Lord begins to send a revival, [i]the margin of error grows thin[/i]. I believe what they meant, was that when God shows up, He puts 'our input' to silence and speaks Himself, as who He is, GOD ALMIGHTY.

If you look at Job's counselors, it seems to me like some were trying to lead him to [i]repentance[/i]. They were leaning upon their own understanding and interpreting the situation from their own reasonings. Did you notice there was [u]no[/u] prophet that came and said, "Thus says the Lord..." Finally, after all those voices had spoken themselves 'thin', God broke His silence with a series of questions.

Prophets are not merely people who rail upon sin and iniquity. Those characteristics do not qualify a person to be a Prophet. The Pharisees would fit that description. Prophets are messengers from God coming to bring [i]His Word[/i] to the situation. [i]Generally[/i] that word is an "IF-THEN" statement. IF you will do thus and such, THEN I will do thus and such.

We look to the past and think that if we do what those people did then we will have revival also, and this has some truth to it. Some fundamental things [i]never[/i] change. Jesus gave HIS definition of repentance when He spoke of Nineveh. God SENT [u]Jonah[/u] to that city. God SENT Jonah with God's [u]message[/u].

I heard a story told by our pastor of how a person in the early part of the 20th century decided they were going to imitate Smith Wigglesworth's methods. For those who may not have heard, he once PUNCHED a person in the stomach at what he believed was the direction of the Lord. The person was healed of their stomach condition! Another person tried the same thing, but had no such 'Word from God' and the results were fatal.

As revival approaches, we need to make a separation between what is 'US' and what is 'GOD'. I tremble to get up and speak some word, waiting on the Lord to assure me that it is His message and not mine. I am more conscious of the solemn RESPONSIBILITY of speaking to His people and the lost 'rightly' than I have ever been. We will give an account to God for what we say and HOW we say it.

I think if the FEAR OF GOD is going to fall, it must fall upon the ministers FIRST. If we don't tremble at the WORD, why should the people? If we don't tremble to speak what God is saying, who will? If we don't tremble to walk into the Court of God, why should the hearers feel conviction? Would to God that repentance preachers would so tremble at the fear of God when they stepped up to speak, that their appearance alone would cause shock and wonder. Being 'serious' about God in speaking to the people is not manifest always by railing on sin, necessarily, it is a fearful self-examination as to whether or not God is well pleased. Is God saying this, or am I?

So long as ministers run like sheep to a slaughter into the pulpit, the fear of God will never come down. We need a divine [i]hesitation[/i]. We need some serious self-examination. We sometimes wonder what its going to be like to give an account to God? We have some insight from God's dealing with Job. Keep in mind that this was a man that did not Sin against God with his mouth:

Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, [u]Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?[/u] Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. (Job 38:1-3)

To think that those men probably thought they were bringing Job to repentance. They probably thought they had the 'remedy' for his predicament. BUT, they had DARKENED counsel with words without knowledge. Knowledge of what? Things that are past finding out apart from God revealing them. And this is the folly at looking around and making assessments and trying to 'reason' a solution in our times. God has to give the remedy. We are utterly helpless, even with a mother load of past experiences and victories.

"Don't remember the former things, and don't consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing. It springs forth now. Don't you know it? [u]I will even make a way[/u] in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.(Isaiah 43:18, 19)

If a way is to be made for salvation God must make it. These are desperate times and man's device is not [i]meet[/i] for this hour. We need to tremble before the Lord ourselves. We need a fresh revelation of the Fear of God before we can preach it, for it cannot come by the precept of men (Isaiah 29:13).

yes, let us abide in the Lord or we will continue to be like job's friends, who judges without godly discernment.

my concern with christians is they judge too much and do a little self examination of their own hearts. even if our judgement is right on a person, what about us? are we clean before God or are we again judging hypocritically. though we may not have the same sin as the one whom we judge, but are we in sin in another area? let us also examine why we judge. is it to prove we are right or are we broken, passionate for His truth, truly wanting to give God the glory? we should even tremble at judging others if we, ourself is not right with God.

so many christians have missed out on true men of God and His messages because they have judge outwardly just like job's friends. don't be deceived, we may judge right here and there at times, even people of the world can judge outwardly and get it right but if we are not crucified with Christ we will miss God all the time, daily.

when we are one with God we will judge righteosely. we will not judge outwardly, but see the motives of the heart and will be able by God's Spirit speak right into that heart, in the same way Jesus spoke right into the hearts of the pharisees.

yes, let us first, seek Him and get right with Him. let us allow God to do a thorough examination of our own hearts. if we will not allow God to break up our fallow ground and purge the sins in us then we should not even speak like we know the truth. we must come to realization that God hates hypocrites. we can read the gospels and see clearly that Jesus despise the hypocrites. those are the ones He rebuked. let us also read rom. 2:1-5. allow these verses to sober you up.

but thank God He has made away for us to live not like the pharisees! thank God He has sent us a Helper to help us overcome sin. He has given us divine power (grace) to live in godliness, never do we have to stumble in darkness if we abide in Him (2 peter 1-11)

yes, let us go and abide in Him. let us come closer to the Light that He may cleanse us from all sin that we may truly glorify Him upon the earth. to God be all the glory! none of us Lord! let it all be you!

Brother, this is exacting.

i felt lead to also add this, if we, ourself is not right with God, we will judge our brothers and sisters with bitterness and self righteosness. we will judge with a critical and prideful spirit. not birth out of love and truly being concerned for their souls. such evil to judge in this way. outward judging is all about self gratification. wanting to feel good about ourself. many will go quickly to judge our brothers and sisters after they been rebuked by the Lord. instead of crying out to God to be cleanse, they instead go and fine someone weaker in the faith and shoot them down so they can feel better about themselves. this will make them feel more holier standing next to someone more sinful. may the Lord reveal to us all how evil it is to judge in the flesh, to judge hypocritically.

Amen, Amen, Amen,Amen,Amen.