Daily Scripture Threshing for Tuesday, June 8, 2021
Today’s Text: Matthew 3:1-12
Key Verse: Matthew 3:11 (ESV): “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
Fire primarily symbolizes the guiding presence of God among His people. But it also symbolizes His judgement and wrath against the disobedient. When God appeared to Moses in the form of a fire in the burning but not consumed bush, He was telling a parable to Israel that He had been present with them through the ordeals, and that’s why they were not consumed. Fire also portrays God's sanctifying power, and protection. But it also symbolizes one more thing from, and within, the context of today’s text; which unfortunately, many seems to be ignorant of. You desire the baptism of or with fire? What does this mean to you? I suppose you are asking for a surpassing presence and power of God in your life. You’re not incorrect to do so. What you seek is also not incorrect; but you are, and it is, being incomplete.
The assertion of fire in the prophecy: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” foretells of the martyrdom of men and women who are immersed in the spirit and in the pathway of discipleship with Jesus. All the persecutions promised by the Lord, the narrowness of the Christian path, the Daily denial of self, carrying the cross, and following the unpopular Savior all represent the believers' baptism. The words as spoken by John the Baptist prepares us for what Christ said: “You are blessed when people hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject your name as evil, because of the Son of Man.” (Luke 6:22) Therefore, when you desire the baptism of the Holy Spirit, get ready also for that of the fire. By the first, we are plunged into the creative, transforming and informing Spirit which becomes our source of life, sanctification, power and wisdom. But we are also plunged into the second: a life of persecution. and dying daily.
Quote for the Day: “The Church today must face one of two or both query(/ies): what are the evidences that we are baptized with the consuming fire of the holiness of God? Or are we truly baptized with the Holy Spirit and fire?" (Simon Olatunji)
Prayer: O Lord, regardless of all the waters of difficulty and danger, of persecution and tribulation that await the journey, please give me the zeal for you. Baptize me with Your Holy Spirit and fire, in Jesus' name. Amen.
With all my love and prayers,
Rev Simon Wale Olatunji, Ph.D.
The Darling Bishop (DaBishop)
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