Today’s 333 Devotional: “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 truth that if people were left to their own devices, and free to choose their own life course, they would go from bad to worse unless this is reversed by God’s grace.

We see this outcome in the book of Judges. When things were good the people started to do what was right in their own eyes, and in the process left God’s word and ways behind. As a result, they soon found themselves oppressed and in dire straits. They then cried out to God who delivered them, and this happened time and again.

God doesn’t desire His people to stay in a state of moral decay and live under His divine judgment. So, God delivers His people, that is, He sends down holy fire, or what some 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)

Throughout the Bible, fire is symbolic of God’s presence, power, and purity. In fact, the Bible speaks of the need for 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 language comes out of the word for fire.

As God’s people, we need to pray for God’s fire to fall, we need to pray for revival fire much like 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)