When God’s Fire Falls

John Whitehead, president and founder of the Rutherford Institute said, “If there isn’t a revival in this country of some sort … we’re moving toward a state that would be very much like pagan Rome.”

There’s a generally accepted truth that says that people left to their own devices and free to choose their own course for life, they would go from bad to worse unless reversed by God’s grace.

We see this outcome in the Book of Judges when people started to do what was right in their own eyes, and left God’s word and ways behind in the process. As a result they found themselves oppressed by their enemies. They then cried out to God who delivered them. And this happened time and time again.

God in no way desires for His people to stay in a state of moral decay, and live under His divine judgment. So God delivers His people by sending down holy fire, or what some have described as revival.

“Restore us again, O God our Savior, and put away your displeasure toward us … Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You?” (Psalm 85:4, 6)

Fire throughout the Bible is a symbol of God’s presence, power, and purity. In fact the Bible speaks of the need of God’s people to purify themselves by the fire of God’s word and Spirit. So it’s not without significance that the words for ‘purify’ and ‘purge’ in the Greek come out of the word for fire.

And so, as God’s people we need to pray for God’s fire to fall, we need to pray for revival fire much as the prophet Isaiah.

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down! That the mountains might shake at Your presence. As fire burns brushwood, as fire causes water to boil — To make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence.” (Isaiah 64:1-2)