A corporate baptism of fire is coming upon the Church. John the Baptist said, I baptize you with water for repentance, but one is coming after me who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire (Matthew 3). We are fast approaching the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. Just as water cleanses the body, fire cleanses the lips, the heart, the soul. The baptism of fire is not for some fun flippant reaction to God, it is going to bring the fear of the Lord, so we obey the Lord. Just as we teach our kids not to play with fire, we need to learn as the Church we cannot play with fire. Hebrews 12:28 says, “Our God is an all consuming fire!” He is not to be played with, He is to be honored, respected, obeyed and regarded as holy.

The baptism of fire will purify us from our sins, cleanse us from all unrighteousness, burn away the chaff, reveal the gold, and refine the silver. We need the fire of God to do a deep cleansing in the body of Christ. The fire is going to make us feel better, for we do not realize how miserable we are until we are truly set free. Just like what happened to the three men that were thrown in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3, the cords we are wrapped in are going to burn off of us. A corporate baptism of fire is coming upon the Church and we need it.

Zephaniah 3 says once the Lord releases the baptism of fire, “Then I will give to the peoples purified lips, That all of them may call on the name of the LORD, To serve Him shoulder to shoulder.” The fire of God is going to be so good for us, it is so needed for us, and it will remove all of the filth that is on us and when we come out of this baptism, we are going to shine like a bar of gold, we are going to be refined like silver and we are going to be so thankful God Himself chose to give us a corporate baptism of fire. It’s going to be a hot summer.