It's Time to Fight Fire, With Fire!

Exodus 7:10-12

“So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the Lord had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent! [11] Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic. [12] They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.”

There is a word that has been in my mind all week, it’s the word ‘Fire.”

If someone were to walk into a room and yell, ‘FIRE,” the whole atmosphere would change, hearts would race, eyes would open wide, nobody would just sit there, everyone would be looking for the exits wondering where the fire is, and somebody would run for the fire extinguisher.

But I want to tell you this morning about a fire, that we don’t want to run from. A fire, that we’re not looking to extinguish, and that shouldn’t send us running for the exits. Friends I am talking about a fire that we should be crying out for; the fire of the Holy Ghost!

What we're seeing in this text is a power confrontation: The power of hell versus the power of God. I am compelled to tell you today; the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ must catch FIRE. There is an unholy, satanic, and demonic fire that is being unleashed in the earth today; and the sleepy, sloppy, passive, half-hearted slumbering, half-baked churches and church members aren’t qualified to deal with it. It’s going to take a Holy Ghost Fire baptized church that can pray heaven down and cast hell out.

Hell is on fire: The devil is sending his fire out against the church. In other words, the snakes are coming out of the woodpile, they're coming out of hiding, they are bringing hell fire destruction, and friends I’m telling you, that a bunch of wet blankets won’t extinguish their poison.

I am sure that most of you have heard the saying, “You’ve got to fight fire with fire.” Well, it’s true; nothing less than the fire of God that can put out hell's fire.

Even Shakespeare spoke of this fire against fire, “Be stirring as the time; be fire with fire; threaten the threatener, and outface the brow of bragging horror.”

Friends you might be saying by now, “you’re laying it on pretty thick aren’t you, surely it’s not that bad?” Yes, it is that bad! And any Pastor, minister, evangelist, or leader that does not sound the fire alarm to anyone who will listen is failing in their call, and is inviting disaster.

When witches are banding together and calling for the country to join them in casting spells hexes and curses against the president and the Supreme Court: We have a problem and it's not a disagreement of political parties, it's spiritual warfare! The snakes are coming out of the wood piles!

 And the most important thing the ministry can do today is to equip the saints to fight.

It's time for the Church to pray! ‘Now I lay me down to sleep’ prayers won't work here. If the church in the book of Acts would have prayed those type of wimpy prayers for Peter, he would have died. But the church went into deep spiritual warfare, they went into heaven-shaking, hell-breaking, unceasing prayer, and God sent an angel who delivered Peter from the same fate that James suffered.

It's time for the church to wake up! This is no time for the church to rest on her laurels, is the time for the church to catch fire!

I haven’t been focused on the Holy Ghost so much lately, because I think it would be neat for you to speak in tongues. I am focused on the baptism in the Holy Ghost, because hell is being unleashed against the church and in the world, and the only thing that will qualify you, equip you, and empower you to fight against it, is the Power of the Holy Ghost and Fire.

The Holy Ghost baptism is a fire baptism, you cannot separate the fire from the Holy Ghost. Fire has always been a symbol of the Lords presence among his people. Fire has always been an identifying characteristic of the people of God. Fire is heavens answer to our prayers, and it is heavens solution for our weakness. Fire is Heavens witness to an acceptable sacrifice, any time God finds an acceptable sacrifice he testifies and responds to it, and answers from heaven by fire.

Romans 12:1

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.”

Fire is Contagious; if there is material, the fire will burn. Proverbs 26:20 says, “Where no wood is, there the fire goeth out:”

Wherever there are hungry hearts, the fire will burn!

The Fire of God will burn out of you everything that is not like God; it will burn out selfishness, anger, drug addiction, alcoholism, lust, bigotry, fear, pride, deceitfulness, and unforgiveness. There are too many people in the church who want to know God, just as ‘Blesser,’ but God is not just a “Blesser,’ He is a possessor! God wants to possess you, He wants to fill you, control you, and flow through you. Jesus, the Holy Ghost, wants to make you a channel of his power.

When the Holy Ghost came on the day of Pentecost: He came as a rushing mighty wind and tongues of fire. Why? Because God knew the church without power was no match for the devil. He knew that hell’s fire was burning against the church, and the only thing that could put it out was fire From Heaven.

It’s still true today: I pray about many things through the week, but at the top of my list, and first in priority is, God send the fire. Baptize me with fresh Holy Ghost, and Baptize your church in the Holy Ghost.

The fire of God is not a mental concept or idea to be analyzed by the mind: The fire of God is the tangible manifested power of God – it is Heaven touching earth. The power of God invading the earth's realm, consuming your mind, your soul, your body, and setting you on fire for his Kingdom Sake.

This is not a time for the Church to go AWOL, it is the time for the church to catch fire, so that we can fight hell’s fire with fire from Heaven.