The fire of God can make you climb Atwea mountains and scream for 25years till your lungs collapse. It can make you stay indoors in contemplation, even to the point of asking God to call you home immediately because you have had of a glimpse of divinity and want nothing else.
But I tell you, the manifestation of that fire when you descend, will not be shouting, clapping and stamping your feet in prayer, jumping in church and quoting scripture. It will be when you look in the mirror and no longer recognise yourself. When the one who used to steal, has no longer an idea of what theft is; the one addicted to drugs, porn, masturbation… is now clean from that filth; the abusive parent or spouse, is now loving and tender.
The true fire of God that consumes is more than physical healing and miracles. We are grateful for all these but it is more than that. It is when you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, directing you and you, as one consumed by that fire, come to the point of complete surrender.
What this fire does is to lead you into love. Love for God that translates into self-denial even with tears. Self-denial so we can love our neighbour. So that we can become intercessors and not accusers of the brethren. It is when the only thing that matters to us is that in all our dealings, Christ is made known.
That right there is the fire we should pray for. We’ll see a different kind of people on our streets, in our markets, in political offices and especially, today, in our churches.
But practically, what does this fire in action look like after it has transformed us on the inside? It translates into seeing the needs of the neighbour next door and lending a hand. Praying for the priest, pastor, boss or public official who is living out of integrity instead of only condemning them. It is when we seek to correct others in love.
It includes adding Mobile Money (MoMo) charges where possible when you make MoMo payments just as you would want to be done to you the other way round. When we love for the environment- not littering which we sometimes do in church, we rekindle the fire.
We would consciously seek the good of posterity in our financial transactions as a nation and in the policies we make. We would go into marriage seeking how best to love our spouse and not how quickly to outsmart them should there be a divorce. It is paying your transport fare even when the conductor forgets to take it from you. It is returning money to the waakye seller when she gives you more change than she was supposed to.
The true fire of God works on our character. And as our character is transformed, people see the fruit of the Spirit in us. We become for loving, more gentle, kind, self-controlled, patient. We experience peace which transcends all understanding within us no matter our circumstances. And we maintain peace with our neighbour.
Situations no longer have to determine how we respond. Just like that we become new creatures living righteously, not for show but to please our Father in heaven. This transformative quality of the fire of God only responds to a life of obedience. Yieldedness! That’s the secret code!
