When God begins to move among His people, His presence will reveal things we had not considered before the fire of God fell. The revelation of God’s fire is a cleansing fire. It is a revelation of His love for His people. 

The Lord’s consuming love will expose our failures and assumptions so He can heal us so we can see Him more clearly. In those moments, we will have a choice to make. We can either run from His presence or embrace His exposure, allowing the Lord to move among us.

After Moses revealed the law of God to Israel, it became a clarifying moment. To continue to follow God would require that Israel live according to God’s plan for their lives and for the nation. God’s law would create a distinction between Israel and the surrounding nations.

“At the mountain, the Lord spoke to you face to face from the heart of the fire. I stood as an intermediary between you and the Lord, for you were afraid of the fire and did not want to approach the mountain. He spoke to me, and I passed his words on to you” (Deuteronomy 5: 4-5). Jesus is our Mediator in this New Covenant. He is doing something so new in our time that we might be afraid of what we hear Him saying. It’s not a time to be afraid. It’s time to trust the Lord as the heat of His presence intensifies.

The word “fire” refers to the supernatural fire of God’s presence. It’s a burning fire so hot that it will burn away our excuses and compromises. Without the fire, nothing will happen. When the fire of God is released, all things will change.

“The Lord spoke these words to all of you assembled there at the foot of the mountain. He spoke with a loud voice from the heart of the fire, surrounded by clouds and deep darkness” (vs.22).  In those moments when the fire of God falls among His people, a recalibrating reevaluation of our lives and our worship will take place. It will become a somber moment as the process begins. 

A reevaluation is happening now within the Church where many are hungry to see God do a new thing. Before this happens, we must repent of anything that hinders the process of that reevaluation. A reevaluation will change our attitude toward sin, leading to profound shifts in the Church that will cause us to abandon what we thought was important but mattered little to the Lord. 

In that moment of reevaluation, it will be in our time like it was in the time of Moses, “The Lord heard the request you made to me. And he said, ‘I have heard what the people said to you, and they are right. Oh, that they would always have hearts like this, that they might fear me and obey all my commands! If they did, they and their descendants would prosper forever” (vs. 28-29).

We are standing on the threshold of a great reevaluation that’s underway within the Church. God’s cleansing fire is a moment of reevaluation that will require our repentance before we can move forward. There’s nothing to be afraid of when the fire of God falls. The fire of God is an expression of His transforming love for His people that will make all things new.