April 3.
The Fire Encounter

Exodus 3:2

And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

If you’re going to go forward with the Lord you need to at least have a fire experience. Sometimes the reason you don’t see us move any more than we do is because we have not had an encounter with fire. There is something about fire that takes the coldness out of our lives and helps us move when we don’t feel like moving. There is something about fire that makes you shout when you don’t feel like it. It makes you run when there isn’t anybody behind you. It makes you laugh when nothing seems funny. It makes you cry when nobody bothers you. And anytime you see fire in the Bible it is symbolic of the presence of the Lord. Elijah said, “I want the real God to answer by fire.” And fire came down from heaven and licked up all of the water. Jeremiah wanted to quit preaching one day; and he discovered that his license was not on paper, but like fire shut up in his bones. And on the day of Pentecost, tongues, like live coals of fire, came and sat upon each of them indicating “the presence of the Lord.”

Likewise, I’m glad that I’ve had a fire encounter, because it’s amazing what happens when the Holy Ghost fire comes upon you. Fire accomplishes many things. Fire purifies; whatever impurities are on the inside are burned out. Also fire makes you move. The Bible says the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush. Now most of the time if we get ready to get a message to somebody, we want to use a Ph. D. to get the message to the person. We don’t want an ignorant person carrying a message, but look at what God used. He took a bush to get a man’s attention. Not a majestic tree or a huge oak, but just a plain old bush and put some fire in it. On that occasion Moses had his fire encounter.