Recently, we talked about the burning that comes before the ashes. True repentance always precedes a divine exchange. Today, I want to talk about a different kind of burning. Let’s consider some examples from scripture.
The sign of God’s presence to Moses.
“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” (Exodus 3 NIV) A burning bush that was not consumed.
A sign of God’s protection to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They were thrown in a fiery furnace for their refusal to bow to an idol. “He [Nebuchadnezzar] said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.” (Daniel 3 NIV) But they were not consumed.
A sign of God’s power at Pentecost.
The men and women gathered and waited as Jesus instructed. ‘Then all at once a pillar of fire appeared before their eyes. It separated into tongues of fire that engulfed each one of them.’ (Acts 2 TPT) And yet, they were not consumed.
The Lord keeps talking to me about the transition from burnt offerings to Burning Hearts. The Law with with its blood offerings laid the meat upon the altar and the fire of God utterly consumed it. His Beauty for our ashes is a jubilant, yet scandalous, theme throughout the Bible and our lives.
And now through the cross, the last offering is made. Talk about scandalous…Jesus has sacrificed the last drop of blood for us.
One for all, once for all. Hallelujah.
Incredibly we now have a new, living covenant. A new pathway, a new eternal reality even as we walk the earth. The Living Savior has breathed into us the Holy Spirit who burns within. Even the men on the road to Emmaus were struck by how their hearts burned in their chests as they walked with the Resurrected Jesus. The fire of God. And yet. we are not consumed.
How then shall we live?
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Romans 12:1
Never again will blood or remorse for sin be the marker of holiness. We are living sacrifices. Living. Continually being surrendered to His mercy.
So what pleases our beautiful God?
Is it the morose sense of doom and guilt, regret and shame of the Law? I say wildly with flailing arms of praise — Heaven’s No!
Freed from the Law, we each now have the Burning Heart of God within our very being. Holy Spirit fires us to greater and greater purity and burns off the world-soaked dross.
God’s white-hot Love now fuels what fear and sorrow never could. Our lives are forever intermingled with the Divine. We are anointed. The place where heaven and earth meet.
Oh let us worship brightly as we carry the Life that is truly life.