The Glory of the Lord filled the Temple and The Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Fire Acts 1:8 but you will receive POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My WITNESSES both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth. What does it mean to be WITNESS? The witness here is mar-toos which is where we get the word martyr from. μαρτυς mar-toos of uncertain affinity; a witness (literally (judicially) or figuratively (genitive case)); by analogy, a martyr: => martyr, record, witness. (From Strongs Greek) The Holy Spirit comes upon us empowering us to be a martyr(dead to self) in order to witness the life of Jesus. The Spirit does this by consuming the sacrifice of our life. He comes upon us as a fire consuming the desires and idols of our hearts. Jesus came to baptize us for this purpose. Matthew 3:11 “As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and FIRE. 12 His winnowing fork is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear His threshing floor; and He will gather His wheat into the barn, but He will BURN UP the CHAFF with UNQUENCHABLE FIRE.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to be that unquenchable fire within that burns up the chaff in order to clear the threshing floor of our hearts and to lead us into fiery trials that consume the desires of our hearts. Jesus is our example. This is what happened after the Spirit of God came upon Him(v.16) Matthew 4:1 Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. The results of enduring through fiery trials are evident as you come out into the other side even more filled with and empowered by the Holy Spirit to be a witness of Jesus. Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. When the Spirit of God came upon the disciples, He came as a fire to consume the sacrifice of their hearts so that the Spirit could fill them in the places where these things once abided within their hearts. Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues as of FIRE distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance. What is to be understood is that as the Spirit comes upon you, then He consumes you of yourself to bring you to your death, so that He can fill you with Himself to be a witness of His life. This is what John the Baptist said of Jesus....John 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. The Church is the New Covenant Temple(1 Corinthians 3:16) and is thus foreshadowed by the Old Covenant Temple of God. The Old Covenant Temple was cleansed by sacrifice which foreshadows the believer laying down his life to serve God. When this happened then the temple was filled with God just as the believer is filled with God when he is a martyr and lays down his life to witness Jesus. King Solomon dedicated the temple to the service of the Lord through sacrifice by fire. 2 Chronicles 5:1 Thus all the work that Solomon performed for the house of the Lord was finished. And Solomon brought in the things that David his father had dedicated, even the silver and the gold and all the utensils, and put them in the treasuries of the house of God. v. 6 And King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him before the ark, were sacrificing so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered. As seen in verse 6, Solomon and the people made their own sacrifice before God so that the Lord did not need to consume the sacrifice. The Lord honors the intentional sacrifices of our hearts as we dedicate and lay down our bodies as living sacrifices to God to worship Him in spirit and truth(Romans 12:1). The Lord reveals that he honors this sacrifice and dedication as He fills the temple with His Spirit. 5:13 in unison when the trumpeters and the singers were to make themselves heard with one voice to praise and to glorify the Lord, and when they lifted up their voice accompanied by trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and when they praised the Lord saying, “He indeed is good for His lovingkindness is everlasting,” then the house, the house of the Lord, was FILLED with a cloud After this we see the Lord sends the Fire of His Spirit to consume the sacrifice that remains and He once again fills the Temple. He does this as a foreshadowing of His Spirit consuming the sacrifice of a believers heart as the believer dedicates himself to the Lord. Once again the Lord then fills the temple and this is done to anoint it for His service. As God consumes the sacrifice of our hearts, He fills us anointing us and empowering us for His service, as His witness. 7:1 Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house.
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 08:01:41 +0000
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