...PDF Version
AS READ BY KENNETH B VISSCHER
The Fire Of God
God does not have different kinds of fire. He does not have one type of
fire which He uses to baptize the believer and to cause upon their heads the
cloven tongue to appear. Nor does He have another kind of fire which displayed
itself in the pillar of fire over the sons of Jacob (Israel) while they fled
Egypt under the rod of Moses. Nor does God have an eternal fire which will rage
with vehemence and with a torment that is unfathomable even to the grossest of
sinners. The fire that God has which God owns and which is God’s person is only
one singular kind of fire, very simplistic and very necessary as to the
revelation of His person. This fire cannot burn that which God has approved and
cannot approve that which God abhors. The flames of this fire work the same way
upon the Godly and the ungodly, it can only remove that which caused men to be
estranged from the divine love which is in the heart of God.
God has the strangest of descriptions, a definition which genders two
equal responses from either end of the spectrum of His character. He is love,
and He is a consuming fire. In both cases nothing can be separated from either
side, all who come to Him will experience both sides of God and no one will be
separate from God in that experience. The soul that returns to God will know
His love and fire in equal balance and will find their lives in full
restoration because of the interplay of both sides of His character. Perfect love and perfect fire.
The fire which is the person of God is the emphasis of this paper, that
the fire which denotes His judgement and retribution also denotes His
restoration and power to complete a person into His full favor once the dross
has been removed. The dross each soul carries from the fall of Adam is
addressed by this fire and is cleansed away by the spirit of burning, not
because the soul is responsible for it being there, but because God is
ultimately the responsible one. He was the one after all who allowed defilement
to come into man by providing the means for this to happen by the creation of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The Creator made such a variance in His creation, both in the earth and
in the heavens. In the earth we have such a vast array of life, a varied display
of His handiwork. The animal kingdom, the vegetation, all that is life and all
that is inanimate in the world is varied by myriads of examples. No two
snowflakes have ever been the same. No two finger prints have ever matched.
Each creature has its own distinct character. The constellations also display
this myriad of variance. Space goes forth eternally with colors and sizes and
styles of constellations and patterns set intelligently according to the
original purpose of the Creator. This is the work of Father God. It is His
handiwork. But when it comes to His fire, He has only ONE KIND. There is NO
variance and NO shadow of turning and NO display of a myriad of personalities
with God. He changes not and His fire is never more than one single simple display.
A vast creation with such variance, but God Himself has NO variance. He is
fire, He is love and that is the totality of His person. His fire and His love
are not two separate entities in Himself, they are
ONE.
So from one of the first revelations of God given to man we see Him in a
burning bush not consumed, a revelation of the glory of His person to Moses,
later as a pillar of fire. In both instances the fire was the same. But that
fire was set into a variance before men. The Tabernacle in the wilderness had two
altars within it which displays this variance. The Brazen Altar held the dying
sacrifice and the Altar of Incense held the worship for the sacrifice achieved
and to admire the person of God. In both cases the same fire ignited those
altars from the pillar of fire, but both altars have a variable meaning to men.
The Brazen Altar is replaced now by the cross at Calvary. The Altar of Incense
by the members of His Church who worship Him in spirit and in truth. For God it
was a singular fire, but for man it was fire with two purposes. One for sacrifice, one for worship. So it is for the
manifestation of the Sons of God, they will have been cleansed of their dross
by the sacrificial burnings and they will be ministers of the flame of fire by
their identity with the Lord in the eternal glorified state. The Sons of God
will be ones who so partook of the fire that they became that fire. They become
the flaming brands going forth to consume death from off of all mankind and
creation.
The Spirit Of Burning
Adam was held responsible for his disobedience to God by taking
part in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but the consequence of that
disobedience has been greatly maligned and misunderstood by many in our day. The
temptation he endured was the thought that he and his wife would be as god’s
knowing good and evil, his wife being first in that temptation. The same is the
nature of man in our day now as it was then. The temptation always follows the
same pattern, to be as god’s, to know good and to know
evil. The focus of delusion is always to set one up over the display of the
course of life as though one can control their own destiny. Every time a person
takes control of their life and causes their life to be a life filled with the
knowledge of good and evil, they fall into the same temptation that Adam and
Eve had. They bring God down to where they are and they bring themselves up to
where God is. What we forget is that God was the one who also took
responsibility upon Himself. He created all the conditions needed for the fall
of Adam and Eve to take place. God created all that was necessary for creation
to come into bondage and corruption and into subjection to dying and death. So
ultimately, God held the greater part of the responsibility for the fall of man
and for the bondage unto corruption of this creation. Not only did all of that
come into corruption upon the earth, but also in the whole of the heavens also.
The entire expanse of the infinite universe also waits for this corruption to
end. The fall of this creation was just as much a part of God’s creative power
as the creation itself. It was set in motion by Him for wise ends and to reveal
still that singular part of His person, the fire of whom He is and the love by
which it works.
So then we have God with the greater responsibility for the fall unveiling
His purpose, and His plan; leading Adam and Eve forth into a cursed earth where
the “dust” of man and the “communion” of man is bound
to this earthly level. God was now separate from that which was greatest in His
approval, the creation of man on the 6th day. The ultimate purpose
for this creation and for this fall was not just to return to the image of the
Creator, but for man to learn about the “person of God” by a means that now would
be proven to him. For the fall itself paled against
the colourful backdrop of God’s greater purpose, and that was to reveal the
full measure of His person in daily communion to this creation which was now
destitute and demeaned by the disobedient act but subject now to His
restorative power. The creation and mankind would therefore understand and
experience the grace of God along side of the fire of God in cleansing from the
effects of the ingested forbidden fruit. Man would know two minds, the natural
(carnal) mind and the mind that has wisdom (spiritual in dimension), which mind
is the mind of God Himself through the person of Christ; hence two natures of
God working to eliminate the natural mind and to enhance and release in full
measure the mind of His spirit.
God is seen in this two faceted character of His person by John who
beheld God upon the Throne. He described God as a “jasper and a sardine
(Sardius) stone” when God was looked upon. “And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto
an emerald.” Revelation 4:3.
Ø How could anyone in this
world know God by grace if that person were not first in need of grace? Hence
the jasper face
of God.
Ø How could anyone know God in
this grace if they first were not fallen? Hence the jasper face of God.
Ø How could anyone know of
their sinful carnal nature as fuel for the fire if they first did not know that
fire? Hence the sardius
face of God.
Ø How could they know of the
fire if they first were not found carnal and lacking the true mind of the
spirit? Hence the face of God in the sardius
stone.
Both sides of the face of God takes place from the position
of the eternal Throne set in a rainbow which to look upon is like an emerald. Whatever
could an emerald rainbow convey to they who not only approach TOWARDS the
Throne, but from whence God comes forth unto us FROM the Throne, a meeting
place? The emerald looking rainbow speaks of unity. As we approach the Throne
to cross the bands of these bright everlasting colors, we come first defiled
from the fall. But as God comes forth unto us over this magnificent display of
His power, He comes as one cleansing us from the power of that fall. He comes
and makes those who first come into a company of perfectly unified people. Who
would be the first ones to come to this threshold of the emerald rainbow before
the Throne except those who are first fruits unto God and unto the Lamb even
the Army of the Lord? They first must pass over the rainbow sea. That emerald
sea is the very same in typology as the rent veil betwixt the holy place and
the holy of holies which housed the ark and the glory of God, the emerald
represents this veil now open so that we can approach unto God but more, that
God may freely approach unto us. It is the first state of binding that which is
spirit with that which is natural in creation.
God not only has the sea of His fire, the sea of His heated
glass, but he has given understanding in triplicate that the sea that is set as
an emerald rainbow round about His Throne is all one and the same sea. This is
where glory comes unto God and God comes with that glory unto those traversing
this sea known as “Over”-“comers”, making His “Over”- “comers” one with Himself.
It is here that we see the fall of Adam culminated in a
people who have taken on the image of their Creator, who have crossed this
expanse before the Throne and who have had God cross the expanse as well unto
them, who made them all one with Himself. Ah! Here is the mystery of it! The
emerald sea before Him whose face is as Jasper and a Sardius stone, this sea is
the testimony of your life dear reader! It is the years of who you are in Him.
Across this sea you traverse enduring the conflicts and trials of tribulation
and woe, for from you falls off all that is in defilement, all that comprises
your volley of personal curses. From you falls all that separates you from
enduring the full gaze of He who sits as a refiner upon the Throne with a face
set as Jasper and Sardius, whose name is Holy. As you approach Him, He rises
from the Throne and approaches you so that you may both meet upon this emerald
rainbow sea. How great this meeting, but how harsh to your natural mind, to
your fallen life! For it will destroy in you anything that His fire would
search for and it will enhance in you all that His person finds righteous in
you. Such is the expanse of this sea, the emerald sea upon which we first are
unified in carnality, but then unified in the mind of the Lord once the expanse
has been traversed. It is here that God works out the miracle of your great
salvation, it is here, upon this emerald sea that your testimony culminates in
perfect unity with the person of Christ, making you one with Himself.
Not only is the sea causing you the torment of the loss of your carnal nature,
but it is also displaying to you the grace of God in miracle power to restore
you and to refresh your image back into the image of your Father. It is the
undoing of the fall of Adam in your own life.
There is an order to this
expanse, to the passing over of the emerald sea to return unto the Father and
for the Father to pass over that same sea to be reconciled to fallen man. Each
one in their due order is called and the expanse and the territory of their
crossing is not diminished, but is enhanced by personal experience in each soul
in due time. That is as relates to being removed from the curse of the fall.
However, the purpose of this writing is to concentrate on those who obey the
Lord now, who are allowing their lives to now be consumed in the fires of the
Lord in cleansing and in trial. Who do not shirk the working of the personal
cross or of the process of the second death in their lives.
It is for them who are obedient that these things are written so that they may
be encouraged and know that the Lord is right on time
with His purposes and with His promised coming.
To Be Continued...........
Kenneth B Visscher
Copyright