The Fire of Preparation — Lance Lambert

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire

Would you turn with me to a number of scriptures? First, in the New Covenant, in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke, chapter three, and just one verse. Verse 16. John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but there cometh he that is mightier than I, the lachet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose.

He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire. Then if you will turn to the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and the book of Exodus, and chapter three, from verse one. Now Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the back of the wilderness and came to the mountain of God, unto Horeb.

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, and he looked, and behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will turn aside now and see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses, and he said, here am I. And he said, draw not nigh hither. Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

Pentecost and the Fire of the Spirit

If you will turn back to the New Testament and to the Acts, the book of the Acts of the Holy Spirit, and chapter three, chapter two, I'm sorry, chapter two of Acts, from verse one. And when the day of Pentecost was now come, they were all together in one place, and suddenly there came from heaven a sound as of the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

And there appeared unto them tongues parting asunder like as of fire, and it sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The Living Sacrifice and the Renewed Mind

And then again in the New Testament, Romans, the Roman letter of the Apostle Paul, and chapter 12, Romans 12 from verse one. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritually intelligent service and worship.

And be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say through the grace that was given me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but so to think as to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to each man a measure of faith.

For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office, so we who are many are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. And having gifts differing according to the grace that was given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of our faith, or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry, or he that teacheth to his teaching, or he that exhorteth to his exhorting, he that giveth, let him do it with liberality, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness.

Just a further word of prayer. Beloved Lord, we're so thankful that we're here gathered. We thank you for your grace and mercy toward us. We thank you, dear Lord, that we believe that the prayer that Jerry has just prayed the Lord will answer, and he will meet us in his word.

Make your word a living reality to every one of us this evening, from the youngest to the eldest. Meet us, Lord. We are living in days of enormous turmoil, conflict, shaking, trouble. And Lord, we feel in our bones that it is not going to get better.

Now, Lord, all we can do is to ask that in your mercy you will meet with us, where we are complacent, wake us up, where we are lukewarm, make us white-hot, where our love has somehow died, give us back our first love, where our passion has long since departed, our zeal for the Lord's house, restore it.

Lord, do something in our hearts this evening, and we shall be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. Dear Father, we stand by faith this evening into the anointing which our Lord Jesus won for us at Calvary, both for the speaking of your word, for the translating of it, and for the hearing of it.

Hear this, our prayer, which we ask in the name of our Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Amen. I think you all know by now that the theme of this conference has been preparing the way for the coming again of the Lord.

My responsibility in this has been the way of Christ. I don't want to go over what I've already said in the last two occasions, but I want to ask one simple question. Where is the fire of God? Where is the fire of God?

The Fire of God in Church History

All through the history of the church, every time that the Lord Jesus has launched a new initiative by his Holy Spirit, there has been fire that has burned within those upon whom the Lord Jesus came. By the Spirit.

It was a fire that turned human society upside down. It was a fire that led thousands to the Lord. It was a fire that brought about an expression of the church in that day, a building of the church. And then traditionalism, organizationalism, denominationalism, and all the other isms slowly took over.

The fire went out. And the interesting thing is that it seemed that nobody noticed it. The fire had gone. Dear child of God, how in the world are we to prepare the way for the coming again of the Lord without the fire of God?

There is no, I am not talking about strange fire, foreign fire, occult fire. I am talking about the fire that was in the heart of the Lord Jesus when he came into this world and was born of a woman and endured those 30 years of contradiction and gainsaying.

And finally, by that fire of the Spirit, offered himself up to God on the cross. That fire of the Spirit of God that raised up the Messiah Jesus from the dead, that fire that was poured out on the day of Pentecost to become not just the fire in the Lord Jesus, the zeal that was in the Lord Jesus, but the fire that was to dwell in 120 very ordinary, very usual human beings.

It's a very interesting thing that we hardly know any of their names, just a handful of names we know. But on that day when the Holy Spirit was, poured out by a risen, glorified, enthroned Messiah, something happened in this world on this planet which has never happened before in the long years of its history.

120 saved human beings were joined to a head at the right hand of God. It was as if head and body and organism had been created by the Holy Spirit, by the coming of the Holy Spirit, by that fire of God that came into all 120 of them.

Dear children of God, listen to me. That fire in those dear people within hours had brought about 3 ,000 conversions. There were 3 ,120 and that fire burned within them. Within weeks, it was 5 ,000. Within more weeks, more months, it was 8 ,000.

Even a great company of the priests and Levites believe. The whole encrusted establishment of the temple, of the priesthood, of the scribes, of the Pharisees, the Sadducees, they could not do anything.

It turned Jerusalem upside down. It turned the whole of Judea upside down. It turned Samaria upside down. And for the first time, those who were Samaritans, saved by the grace of God, the fire dwelt in them.

And the Jews who had despised the Samaritans so greatly, they were joined together. Within a short time, the Apostle Peter stood in that drawing room or whatever room it was of that centurion officer's home in Caesarea, the military headquarters of the Roman occupying force.

A whole number of Gentile officers of the Roman army were present. And a Messianic Jew stood and for the first time preached the gospel to Gentiles, full-blooded Gentile. And as he was speaking, something happened in that meeting.

The fire of God that was in Peter burnt within him. And suddenly he became aware that they were no longer listening to him. This is not so strange a thing for us preachers. Only sometimes for other reasons.

Would to God it was the same reason as Peter. He suddenly realized they were not listening to him. Something had happened. The fire of the Spirit of God had jumped from Peter into full-blooded Gentiles and saved them.

It was the beginning of the most successful evangelistic crusade ever launched. It was to take the whole world. It went as far north as Armenia, as far east as southern India, as far south as Ethiopia and beyond in Africa.

As far west as to Spain and France. As far west as Britain. The gospel was preached in London. It was then called Londinium. 14 years after the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. According to church tradition, Joseph of Arimathea preached the gospel for the first time in Britain.

If it, but not all traditions of nonsense. It was the fire of God. Now, my dear friends, wherever we look in the Bible, we find that fire is the expression of the presence. When he spoke with Moses, the whole mountain was enveloped in fire.

Moses and the Burning Bush

We could say so much more about this, but it's everywhere in the Bible. At the great, one of the great turning points in divine history, Moses, dear Moses, he was 80 years of age. Doing what he had done for 40 years, looking after smelly, unhygienic goats and sheep and camels and donkeys.

It was in the backside of the desert, so-called, in our dear old version. And he saw a fire. I suppose it had been a day like any other day for Moses. After all, he'd had 40 years of them. And he probably thought to himself, it's a thornbush.

A dead old thornbush, spontaneously ignited by the sun. But he looked back 10 minutes later, and it was still burning. And he thought, that bush must be quite a big bush. Half an hour later, he looked back, and it was still burning.

Then he said, I think I'd better go across and see this great sight. This huge bush. These thornbushes, they're two a penny in the desert. And when one dies, it just often goes up, spontaneously in fire.

I've seen it myself. But as Moses came near, God spoke to him, out of the bush, out of the fire. And he said, Moses, Moses, don't come any nearer. Take the shoes from off your feet, for the ground whereon you stand is holy.

It was one of the greatest, as I have said, one of the great turning points in divine history. Moses was about to meet with God. Only the Lord, with his great humor, could have arranged and appointed such a meeting.

After all, we would have expected the Lord to take a stately palm tree, with its marvelous forms, and just imagine it, the fire up there. And Moses looked and said, goodness, that palm tree's on fire.

And then the Lord said to him, Moses, Moses, take the shoes from off your feet. The ground was very magnificent. It all speaks of royalty, of magnificent royalty. Or he could have taken what is called in the King James, the Shittim tree, the acacia of the desert.

This was the tree that finally, the wood was, the furniture of the tabernacle was made out of this Shittim tree. Wouldn't it have been marvelous if the Lord had burst, as it were, into fire in a Shittim tree, in an acacia tree?

And Moses would have said, oh my, and later he would have said, isn't this amazing, this typology? I mean, this is the house of God, you see? There's the dwelling place of God, it's wonderful. But the Lord, if I may put it reverently, and it's a little hard, got himself into a thorn bush.

Not even taller than Moses' waist. And from the ground, God spoke up to Moses. This is holy ground, he said. Furthermore, it was a dead. It had lived its life, expended its energy, and died. You would have thought the Lord would have at least got a green thorn bush.

They even have flowers, very ordinary little blossoms. But at least you would have thought the Lord would have been decent and taken a nice green thorn bush. But it was as if God was saying to Moses, you are 80 years of age, you've lived your life, expended your energy, and as far as you're concerned, you're going to die in this desert.

In fact, this is the beginning of your ministry. This thorn bush is you. This fire is me. And I will use you. You are the bush that burns with fire and is not consumed. And I will speak through you again and again and again.

I will speak to Pharaoh and to all the leaders of Egypt. I will speak to the children of Israel. You are the bush that is dead and I. When the fire and the human vessel that knows it is nothing get together, something divine history is made.

Israel as the Thorn Bush Preserved by God

It matters not where you turn. You will see this illustrated everywhere in the Bible. But it was not just Moses and his God-given service. It was as if the Lord was saying, Moses, this bush, dead with thorns and prickles, is Israel.

And I am the fire in this bush, never forget it. Moses did on one occasion. He was so angry with them, he struck the rock with his staff and said, you rebels, he forgot that God was in the bush. And God said, you shall not go over into the land, but you shall see it from afar.

It is amazing that Israel, with all her faults and all her failings and all her weaknesses, through the long years of her history, has been kept by the grace of God. And finally, after the greatest tragedy in her long history of suffering, the Holocaust, she was born as a recreated state and nation in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And she is still alive amongst the nations of the world. It's amazing, the flame has never died. It's dimmed, it's almost gone out. It has almost been extinguished. But even in its most terrible times, there has always been a Daniel or a Nehemiah or an Esther or an Ezra all the way through.

The Church Against the Gates of Hell

If you've followed me so far, let me take you a step further. It is as if the Lord is saying, this old thorn bush is the church. You can't have been in the church for too long to discover that it has a lot of thorns.

You get easily scratched in fellowship. But the fire is there. Because as our brother Stephen has underlined twice, at least, the Lord Jesus said, you're Peter. He'd even said, you're gonna deny me three times.

But upon, you are a little pebble, Petros. But upon the massif of the rock, Petra, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. It is amazing to me that the church is still alive today.

And when we look at church history, we see the most extraordinary things. I have to curb myself because of time. But it is amazing, ever since the Lord Jesus made this declaration, the gates of hell have sought again and again to prevail against the building work of the Lord Jesus.

And there are times, we have to say it, when they seem to have been successful, when it seems as if the fire has gone, the zeal has gone, the understanding has gone, when it has died into a human organization, often the persecutor of real children of God.

But then the Lord has been, as always, faithful to his promise. The gates of hell. I personally don't like the word Hades. I know it's the correct Greek word, but I wonder what it means, especially to you young people.

I mean, the gates of Hades? Well, then I said to you, well, there's the gates of the departed dead. That doesn't help you very much, does it? Well, so is it, it's the forces of death. Well, that's good.

But I think the old King James, when Tyndale put hell, it's much more descriptive of what the Lord meant. The gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That is, all the strategies of Satan, all the purposes of Satan, all the goals and aims of Satan, they will not prevail against the building work of the Messiah.

Revival Fire Through the Reformation and Christian Movements

And if you look through church history, you will discover again, again, and again, the Lord Jesus from the throne of God launches a new initiative by the Holy Spirit. And once again, there's fire. It doesn't matter what you call them, Montanists, Donatists, Paulistans, Albigenses, Bogomils.

There were these strange names that were given to these people by others. They never took those names. It was a fire that burned. And once again, the church came back to its original foundation and its original character.

There was the headship of Jesus by the Holy Spirit. There was fellowship. There was growth. There was salvation. There was the preaching of the gospel. You take the Reformation. There was a fire in the Reformation, whatever you may feel about anything else.

When Martin Luther, that Roman Catholic monk, got saved, a fire burned within him, and nothing would stop him. The Catholic church called him that drunken monk, but there was a fire and a passion and a zeal within him.

Could you believe that the almighty Roman Catholic system could be turned upside down and inside out by the word of God, preached by people like Martin Luther and Dulles Zwingli, John Calvin, and others?

It was a fire. Then it died. Then you have the Anabaptists. In Salzburg, there is not a single fountain in which Anabaptists, children of God, were not drowned. Tied up in sacks, babies, children, parents, and drowned.

But a fire burned within the Anabaptists. Whether you call them Mennonites or Stundists or General Baptists, it doesn't really matter. The fact is, a fire burned until it became an organization. Or again, something happened.

Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian Fire

I can only tell you a few of these things. Something happened when this young aristocrat wandered around a museum, and suddenly he saw an oil painting. It was an oil painting of the crucified messiah.

It transfixed him. He stood before it for one solid hour without moving, and his eyes could not get away from the word underneath the painting. I have done all this for you. What have you done for me?

Into Nicholas, Count Zinzendorf's heart, came the Holy Spirit. The fire burned within him. He went back to his estates in Moravia, opened his castle and all the estates to refugees, of which there were thousands, fleeing from Catholic persecution.

It is an amazing story. They even had troubles. Well, I just said, it's a thornbush. This church, a dead old thornbush, with plenty of thorns and prickles. They were having a bad time, and then they thought the best thing to do was to seek the Lord, and the Holy Spirit fell upon the whole crowd, knocked them out, laid them flat, and the flame of fire got into them all.

It was the beginning of the 100 years prayer meeting. They went everywhere. The fire so burned within them that they chose to go to the most difficult places on the planet, up into the mountains of the Himalayas, into the Arctic.

They actually caught leprosy from caring for the lepers, and rejoiced because they said, now we're lepers, they will understand us. They sold themselves as slaves to reach the slaves, being brought over from Africa to the colonies, to the Caribbean and the colonies in order to reach slaves.

John Wesley and the Great Awakening

There was nothing that the Moravian brethren would not do. John Wesley was a legalist of the first order, but at least he believed the word, and he read very clearly about going into all the world and preaching the gospel, and he felt very clearly that he should go as a missionary to these colonies, now the United States of America.

You've just had the celebration of your Independence Day. He came as a missionary to the Red Indians, and he wrote in his journal, oh God, I have come to convert the Red Indians, but who can convert me?

But on the way over, he went over to Holland to get the boat to the colonies, and in the middle of the Atlantic, an enormous storm arose, and it looked as if the ship was going to go down with everybody on board.

It was clear to John Wesley that the sailors, the captain, everybody believed they were doomed, and then in the lower part of the ship, Wesley heard the sound of singing, and he thought, oh, the ship's gone down, I'm in heaven, but then he saw a light shining through a door that was ajar, and gingerly he went over, pushed open the door, and there were 40 Moravians fleeing from Europe to the colonies.

They had babies in arms, children on their laps, and they were singing hymns, and Wesley thought, oh God, if I only had the faith that these people, so Wesley went to the States, and a few years later, he returned to Britain as a failed missionary.

He'd been unable to convert anybody. Then he heard of a meeting in Fetter Lane in the city of London, and he heard that a Moravian preacher was going to preach, and he thought, I will go to hear this man, and sitting there, he listened to one of the Moravian preachers reading the preface to one of Martin Luther's commentaries, and as he listened, he said, I felt a strange warming.

So amazing was John Wesley. It was the beginning of the great awakening that swept through Britain and swept millions into the kingdom of God. He and his brother Charles Wesley, George Whitefield, went everywhere through Britain, through these colonies and elsewhere, preaching the gospel.

Millions came to the Lord, even those who were considered to be subhuman like the miners in Britain. It changed Britain, and historians today believe that it saved Britain from the French Revolution. It was a fire.

At 94 years of age, dear Wesley still preached four times a day in different places, riding from one place to the other on horseback in the ghastly British weather. When he died, King George, who had lost the colonies, thank God, King George, who had lost the colonies, no believer in God decreed three days of mourning for Wesley and decreed that he should be buried in Westminster Abbey.

George Fox, the Quakers, and Social Reform

There's no end to this story. Once the fire gets in, I think of George Fox, who could not find salvation until God met him in the hills. George Fox began what was then called the Society of Friends, because he didn't want to call it Christians, because he said, some are seekers.

It was Cromwell who said, it is best to be, he said, it's good to be a seeker, but it's much better to be a finder. The Quaker movement spread over Britain and over these colonies and changed society.

At one time, one third of all the Quaker preachers were in prison. So what did they do? They turned the prisons into Bible schools and criminals in the prison found the Lord and then were trained and went out as preachers.

So in the end, there were more Quaker preachers. It's an amazing story. Through the Quakers came nursing. Through the Quakers came child reform. Through the Quakers came prison reform. Dear friends, I could go on and on.

I could talk about the brethren and the fire that came into the brethren. It was amazing. They stopped children being sent up chimneys by act of parliament. This fire of God, when it gets into believers, is tremendous.

The Danger of Complacency and the Need for Fire

The trouble is, it disappears. Complacency, affluence, being comfortable, Laodicean conditions take over and the church die. Well, dear friends, I don't know if I've bored you stiff with all my stories, but I want to tell you something.

If the fire of God does not get into us, there is absolutely no way whatsoever of preparing the way for the coming again. It is as simple as that. I don't really know what more to say to you. Only that you and I need that fire.

Charles Wesley wrote a hymn, a short hymn, after he heard his brother preach on it, the fire. Oh, thou who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart, kindle a sacred flame of love on the mean altar of my heart.

There let it burn for thee with inextinguishable blaze and trembling to its source return in humble prayer and fervent praise. Jesus, confirm my heart's desire to work and speak and think. Still let me guard the holy fire and still stir up thy gift in me, ready for all thy perfect will.

My acts of faith and love repeat, and the rest of it, what's that? Till death. Till death, thine endless mercies seal and make us. Dear people of God, it is a continuous source of amazement to me that the Apostle Paul, writing the Roman letter, sums up everything in this one word.

The Gospel's Goal: Presenting Our Bodies as Living Sacrifices

I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, which is your spiritually intelligent worship and service. He had spent eight chapters on expounding the gospel, from chapter one to eight.

He spent three chapters expounding election, the election of the church and the election of the Jewish people. And he summed it all up in these words. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable.

In other words, what he was saying, if I may put it in my own words, was this. The goal of the gospel is that you should be a living sacrifice. Oh, you say, don't say that. That's dreadful to say. I thought the goal of the gospel, we should be happy, joyful, skipping like lambs.

Did you say sacrifice? Well, I didn't get saved to be a sacrifice. I got saved to have all my needs met. I got saved to be satisfied. But the goal and the aim of the gospel is that you should be a living sacrifice.

It is the goal and aim of election. In other words, the reason God has chosen you, the reason he has foreordained you for this thing, is that you should serve him. Now, let's be honest. Our biggest problem is our self-love.

I spoke about it yesterday evening. I'm not going to speak about it again, except to say this. Our problem is our self-love. My will, not his. My way, not his way. My agenda, not his agenda. Is that not the problem?

When you and I present our bodies a living sacrifice, we have taken all the different problems and in one single act, we have finished them. No longer my will, his will. Listen, I better read it because I'm getting old now.

I'm sorry to say. And sometimes I misquote. Here it is. And be not fashioned according to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. I want to be honest. I want to tell you, it's very simple.

All of us are conformed to the fashion of this world. It's our natural habitat. And it's only natural because we are born with that kind of constitution. So it's only natural for us. We think like the world.

We act like the world. We're supposed to be Christians. Of course we're Christians. We're converted. We're baptized. We go to church at least once a week. But we actually act like the world. We're fashioned according to it.

How can we break the mold? Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. The only way that can happen is when you're living sacrifice. And here is the second thing. That ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Let's be honest again. Why do we have such a problem with the will of God? We only are happy with the will of God if it falls into line with our will. Ah, yes, we're so happy. We cannot prove what is the good, perfect, and acceptable will of God unless we're a living sacrifice.

Something else. We shall never know the fellowship of the house of God. Never know the fellowship of the body of Christ unless we're living sacrifices. It is not just that Paul's mind is wandering here and now he speaks about us being many members, but we're all one body in Christ.

You notice that we're one body in Christ. It comes out of being a sacrifice. Dear child of God, it's really all that I've got to say this evening. These conferences have been going, I am told, by either for 36 years or 38 years.

There seems to be a slight discrepancy between our brothers on this matter. But it's either the 38 or 36 years. 37. Who? What did you say? 37. 37, there you are, got another one now. The three brothers have a different idea, but still, it doesn't matter.

Laodicean Lukewarmness and the Call to Renewal

37 years, I think we're in the middle age spread. We've got so much, we're almost saturated with the truth. We've become complacent, comfortable, and very happy. The condition of the church in Laodicea, I hope it cannot be written over us.

I am rich, I've gotten riches, and I have need of nothing. The Lord's estimate of these people is totally different. You do not know. You are wretched, blind, naked, poor. Is it possible to think we have need of nothing?

And in fact, we are wretched, miserable, poor, blind. Well, you say, I don't think it's possible with us because we're alive to the Lord. Well, I think the church at Laodicea thought it was alive. Where do you think it got the riches?

How do you think they got them? Why do you think they think? They said, we have need of nothing. Dear folks, we need the Lord. We need that fire of God to burn within our hearts. Whether you're the youngest person in this auditorium this evening or the oldest, we need the fire.

Personal Fire and the Call to Stand

The end of the finished work of the Lord Jesus was to pour out the Spirit upon that 120. There was one flame of fire for every one of the 120. You can't live in someone else's zeal, someone else's fire.

You have to have that fire yourself. Now, listen to this word. I think the Lord is calling us to be living sacrifices. Are you ready? Why don't we have a word of prayer and ask the Lord to speak to us?

Shall we bow our heads? Lord, you've heard all that I've said this evening. You alone can apply it to each of our lives. Will you do something this evening in us? Will you challenge us? Will you meet with us in a new way?

Will you restore our first love? Will you kindle again that fire of yours in our spirit here as Lord? Now, while your head's bowed, is there anyone here who has the courage to stand up simply by standing up to say, I'm lukewarm, I need the Lord?

Please stand up. Now, maybe also there are those of you who are alive to the Lord, but you feel in your heart that you're not a living sacrifice. Well, you may be standing already, but if you want to join these folks, do so.

Dear Lord, you see everyone who in their heart has made a transaction with you. You are the only one that can make this real in us all. Lord, we need that fire of your love, the flame of your love burning once again upon the mean altars of our hearts.

We need that first love, Lord. Let your Holy Spirit come upon us all. Make the Lord Jesus a living reality to every single one. And Lord, this lukewarmness, it's dangerous. You said you would vomit us out of your mouth.

Lord, make us white hot for you. No matter what the problems are that we're moving into, no matter what the economic or financial conditions might be, no matter what the climatic conditions might be, Lord, make this a real transaction.

Fire us with the fire of your love. Bring us back to where we were at the beginning. Help us to repent for our lukewarm. We ask it in the name of our Lord, Jesus.