STUDY: God's Fire of Acceptability

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             GOD'S FIRE OF ACCEPTABILITY
                     M F Blume
                    Sept. 27/95

Below is a study I made with the hopes of sharing some thoughts I received
of late with you.  These notes are open for more light and revelation, and I
pray you, the reader, might glean even further truths about this wonderful
topic.  I pray we all learn how to burn brighter than in the manner we
understand at this present moment, that Christ may be glorified very
greatly through us.

These are some thoughts the Lord gave to me which have helped me.  Hope
you enjoy them.

-------------------------------------------------------

Text:
Leviticus 9:7,23-24; 16:1-2,14-15,17,30


I preached a thought last Sunday night regarding the fact that we are
dead and risen with Christ, past tense.  Nowhere is there evidence
of a future crucifixion in the Bible for us as individuals.

I knew that Christ ascended after the resurrection, the very day He
resurrected, in order to present the blood to the Father.  That is
why He told Mary not to touch Him (John 20:17).  The High Priest demanded
that no man be in the tabernacle when he was on his way into the Holiest
to present the blood on the day of atonement, for fear they might
touch him (Lev. 16:17).  Jesus was on His way into the HOLIEST (He. 9:12,
14).

Jesus returned from the holiest, as it were, and blessed the disciples
as the high priest returned from the Holiest and blessed the people.
(See Num. 9).  He said, "Peace be unto you," and gave them POWER, as
He breathed on them saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost" (John 20:22 & See
Acts 1:8). He had been at the RIGHT HAND of power to take the book,
as in Rev. 5. 

Now the next thing that happened in the OT experience of Atonement was that
the fire fell from heaven and consumed the sacrifice from which the blood
was taken for the atonement in the holiest.

This was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, as the fire fell on the people
gathered in the upper room.  Cloven tongues of fire sat upon each of the
believers there (Acts 1:4).

One might ask, "Why did the fire fall on the believers if it was Jesus
>from whom the blood was taken for atonement?  The believers were not
sacrificed."

Oh, yes they were!  If we died with Christ then we WERE SACRIFICED WITH
CHRIST.  He died for us, that it might be said that we died!

The fire falling on the sacrifice on the day of atonement indicated that
the sacrifice was accepted.  God ANSWERED by fire.

1 Kings 18:24; 1 Chron. 21:26; 2 Chron. 7:1-3

Since Christ shed His blood in substitution of us, it was as though OUR
BLOOD was shed!  And since Christ's blood was aceptable, the fire fell
ON US!!!  We are not only resurrected with Him, BUT ACCEPTED WITH HIM.
He shed His blood for us.  We are acceptable.

Only in Him are we so.  Whenever we look to ourselves, immediately we
are unacceptable.

We must remain in Christ by faith and never look to ourselves for anything
worthy of resurrection life. Thus, it is a demand that we "Abide in Christ."
Jesus gave us a promise after He gave this demand.  Notice:  "Abide in me,
and I in you."  John 15:4.  If we will do our part and by faith ABIDE in
Him, He will then abide in us, which means He will manifest His resurrection
life through us.

Even 2 Cor. 3:18 gives this same pattern.  First WE look into the image of
God in Christ, and THEN we are changed into that same image from glory to
glory.

Paul prayed that Christ be formed in the believers again.  He implied
that the people were not abiding in Christ by faith, but looking to their
flesh, which caused Christ's Spirit to be hindered from manifesting
in their flesh.  (Gal. 4:19)  FIRST we look in faith, and THEN He forms
His image into us.

Jesus refused to look to Himself, but instead relied on the indwelling
Father.  And the WORD was manifest in flesh.  We, too, must allow the Spirit
of Christ, the WORD, to manifest in our flesh in resurrection newness of
life.

So, we who have the Holy GHost within us have experienced the fire of
God's answer of acceptability.  (God was specifically said to have
ANSWERED the people by fire.  OUR answer is water baptism, as 1 John
3:20-21 relates).  You must have a question in order to receive an
answer.  And the question was whether Christ's blood made us acceptable
to God or not.  God said YES!  And to prove it He gave us His Spirit.
This also answers the question of whether *my faith* in Christ's atonement
will make me acceptable.  God said YES!  Adequate faith causes one to be
filled with the Holy Ghost! 

Hence, burning with God's Spirit is synonymous with being acceptable to
God.  (Burning with the Spirit is being alive and vibrant in victory, able
to rise above trials, and not be destroyed by them.  People feel urged
to go on with God when around those on fire!)

Now, we must REMAIN on fire, or acceptable.  We were lit one day when
we received His Spirit, but we must KEEP THE FIRE BURNING.  Rom. 12:1 tells
us to  present ourselves as living sacrifices, "holy, AND ACCEPTABLE."
That implies FIRE! So long as we remain His and not our own, we will burn
with acceptability.

It is sad that whole church groups have lost the fire, which only proves
to tell us that acceptability has been lost; probably due to the pride and
fleshly mannerisms that many believers have replaced for sacrificial life.

"Living sacrifices" mean CONSTANT and CONTINUAL abandonment of the hold and
control over ourselves for self interest.  We are HIS.  This ensures that
we are ablaze in His Spirit of fire.  We are ever in blazing love for
Jesus Christ!

When complete congregations lose their fire due to worldliness or
pride and such, their faith is no longer in Christ as their means to
God.  Like Loadicea, they are operating in their rituals while Christ
remains outside, knocking on their doors that He might get in and sup
with them.  That made the Laodiceans LUKEWARM instead of HOT.  They were
not on fire!  Their faith MUST include Christ.  (Rev. 3:20)  Loss of
such faith cools the flame down.

To see Christ as outside the church and knocking that He might be let in
informs us that CHRIST IS NOT ABIDING IN the believers at Laodicea as is
required due to their lack of abiding in Him.  Our part is to ABIDE IN HIM.
This is a command for us.  And it must be done BEFORE He can abide in us.
Abiding in Him is REMAINING in Him by ever believing that I AM DEAD IN HIM
AND RISEN IN HIM.  Apart from Him I am nothing.  If we do this, our part, of
abiding in Him by faith, THEN and only then can it be said that He is abiding
in us. 

Jesus Abiding in us is not merely having us filled with the Holy Ghost.
It is having His Spirit flowing through uus as a branch is filled with sap
>from the vine that the branch might produce fruit.  Many of us have the Holy
Ghost, but not the fruit as spoken of in John 15:4-5.  The fruit is
listed in Galatians 5 (love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness and temperance.), and is also, in a word, PRACTICAL VICTORY
OVER SIN. The problem is a lack of faith in abiding in Him.  Too many
believers do not even perceive the truths of being dead and risen with Christ
already.  Many speak of their need to die to self, and they quote the words,
"I die daily."  Such words are OUT OF CONTEXT OF THE PASSAGE GIVEN.
Paul was referring to the closeness he comes to dying every day in literally
hazarding his life for the Gospel.  Read it!  (1 Cor. 15:31).

THERE is absolutely NO indication that a believer's crucifixion is FUTURE.
All references to OUR crucifixion are in the past tense.  (Gal 2:20; 2 Cor
5:14,17; Ro. 6:2-6).  In fact, just the opposite of future crucifixion is
seen.

How can we die daily if Paul explicitly taught that CHRIST DIED ONCE and
said, "knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more;
death hath no more dominion over him.  For in that He died He died unto
sin ONCE:..."?  Ro. 6:9-10a  And then Paul turns around and says that we must
reckon ourselves to be dead IN THE SAME MANNER AS CHRIST IS and with the
SAME BENEFITS OF DYING THAT CHRIST GAINED, that being the benefit that death
has no more dominion over him.  We say we must die daily, and Paul says
we already died once in Christ AND have no need to die anymore!!  Read it!

Our problem is that we lack faith in the fact that CHRIST TRULY died for us.
>ALL< the benefits of His death are our own, for He did it for us.  He
INCLUDED us in His death.

No wonder people are not in victory!  They do not even have the BASIC faith
required for victory!  That basic faith is that we MUST RECKON OURSELVES
DEAD WITH CHRIST - past tense.  Oh, yes! we must, if we have not, reckon that
to be so, but that does not mean we are not dead simply because we cannot
reckon that as true for ourselves.

One man said a blind man cannot see a flower, and although he has no awareness
of it's existence the flower STILL EXISTS.  Similarly, although many
believers cannot see their deaths in Christ as already accomplished, and thus
continue seeking to die one day, the fact still remains that they are dead
already in Christ.  They only need to come to believe that.

KJV: "Faith is the substance of things hoped for..."  He. 11:1a

The Darby translation brings it out more clearly and properly by saying
that "Faith is the substantiating..."  Substantiating a thing 
is making it true FOR US.  The flower exists, but unless the blind man
touches it, it is not real TO HIM.  His TOUCH makes it real for him.
Touch SUBSTANTIATES that flower to him.  Touching it does not create it,
but merely substantiates it for him.

Since we are dealing with UNSEEN FACTS, as our deaths in Christ, we need a
sense of some sort to SUBSTANTIATE IT to us, so that our deaths in Christ
as a past event become real FOR US.  It always has been real, but perhaps not
TO US.  FAITH is that sense.

Exerting faith in the fact that GOD'S WORD SAYS I AM DEAD, and regardless of
what I feel like, I AM STILL DEAD, actually substantiates that fact as REAL
TO US. 

THIS is the kind of faith that so many lack, and that is why they are
lukewarm and not on fire.

We will not present ourselves as living sacrifices to God unless we
realize that we are not our own.  We are SACRIFICED with Christ.  Believe
that and we will have the victory!


If we lack fire, it is an indicator that our faith is not the kind of faith
we are supposed to be exerting.  Jesus is the ONLY means to the Father.
Unless we exert faith IN HIM we will get the victory from no other means.
I cannot get a letter to Vancouver by another means in Baie Verte than by
going to the Post Office in town.  Likewise, unless I have my faith
in my death in Christ and my resurrection in Christ, I will not get
the power of God working in my life.  Let's put our faith where it is
intended to be - IN CHRIST.

God bless you all!