“He shall baptize you with fire” (Matt. 3:11).
Fire is strangely intense and intrinsic. It goes into the very substance of things. It somehow blends with every particle of the thing it touches.
There are the severe trials that come to minds more sensitive, to the minds that have more points of contact with what hurts; so that the higher the nature the higher the joy, and the greater the avenues of pain that come.
And then there are deeper trials that come as we pass into the hands of God, as we pass from the physical and intellectual into the spiritual nature.
When they first come, we shrink back from their unnatural and fearful breath, and we say: “Oh, this cannot be from the hand of a loving Father! This cannot be necessary to me.”
And then come the pains and sufferings from God’s own hand, when He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver, when He lets it burn, until it seems that we must be burned to ashes, and we are, indeed, at last burned to ashes.
But we must get the victory through faith. The moment you cease to fear it, that moment it ceases to harm you. He says, “The flames shall not kindle upon you.”
Simpson, A. B. (1897). Days of Heaven upon Earth: A Year Book of Scripture Texts and Living Truths (p. 51). Christian Alliance Pub. Co. (Public Domain)
Timely devotional! Just yesterday I read a FB post that said that the purifying and soul cleansing 'fire of the Holy Spirit' is a twisted translation of that passage and a 'dangerous distortion of Scripture. That prompted me to do a 'deep dive' into Bible commentaries we now have at our 'fingertips' regarding the passage and suggest to the FB poster that for believers who confess their sins and repent the fire baptism of fire points to the sanctifying and purifying work of the Holy Spirit, while for those who refuse to repent the baptism of fire has to do with judgment. Another responder agreed with the dual purpose of the fire of the Holy Spirit. Neither one of us…