Have you met the Raging Fire? That blazing heat that burns off all that is unworthy? That presence that blasts off, that by the nearness refines while it terrifies?
The intimacy is shocking, such holiness, such intolerance for that which we embrace foolishly thinking it gives us freedom and power. Gone, gone, gone are the ways of man in Your presence. Chaos and all the things that would attempt to dethrone are laughed to scorn. No power, no authority known unto man stands here. No place to hide, no way to misdirect, no lie is even able to be uttered for Your divine aura repels all strength that does not come from Your throne.
This is where I long to dwell. This is where I want to build my home, my eternal home.
No other place houses such clarity. No other place houses such peace.
Much like the terror of sudden thunder, or the flash of unexpected lightning, so does Your truth strike fear to those who hear, for whoever hears it are suddenly brought unbearably close, into the fire, the heat only burns if you don’t let go. But for those who long for the fire, they draw beyond the unbearable, they welcome the purging, they surrender to the flames sweet embrace. Such an aroma of blessing, the burning of the dross.
It becomes desire to be fully known, and fully surrendered. Unbearable intimacy, terrifying proximity, but when you let go, you fly, with wings of fire. Its light fills your eyes with flame. Holy flame, holy fire becomes your vision. A touch of the eternal blazes forth cutting through all, making any attempts of your failing flesh and weakened heart flutter away like ash.
Its ridiculous, insanity, unbelievable, why would anyone do this? Why would anyone feel comfortable here? No fancy invitations. No welcome mat. No greeter but the flame. No cup of water for relief. Only fire. A goblet of fire. No comfortable couch to sit on, only an altar, only an altar. An altar for living fire. A fire that enters in your heart, your mind, your soul, and doesn’t die. No it doesn’t die. Never lacking strength, never dying out. Never does it dim. A living fire, it threatens to shed off this mortal body, it threatens to engulf our hopes and dreams. It alights our imagination, our past, our present, our future. All that we have, saved up for ourselves, all that we have stored up for our own survival. It enters there, it looks at it with a smile and a word,
Security?
Only in that holy raging inferno, only in the Triune flame, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Security in anyone else? Ha!
The only security lies beyond reason. The only assurance dwells where we cannot see. The only certainty in a realm we cannot hold and touch. A place we need to be reborn into to enter. This Kingdom of Fire, where the King has a sword that comes from His mouth.
-Brian Carter