HH, Sir Godfrey Gregg D.Div
“Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire — He is God!” 1 Kings 18:24
The old test holds true still.
Fire quickens the dead. It runs along the barren ground, and its victorious glow awakens the seeds of some ancient prehistoric forest, slumbering beneath the soil. Just so, God’s flame, God’s grace, God’s radiant energy of life and love — must restore my spiritual vitality. I live, only when He kindles my soul out of its deathlike sleep.
Fire warms the chilled and cold. On the hearthstone, beside the leaping blaze — what was frigid begins to throb and palpitate with gladsome heat. So, when I have grown backwards in the service of my Lord, icily wandering, poor in my affection for Him and for His people, I only need the renewing of the Holy Spirit, and I burn!
Fire cleanses the defiled and stained. In the furnace, the gold is purged from the dross and comes forth pure and bright. And so the divine Spirit, by the meaning He infuses into the teaching of God’s Word, and into the discipline of God’s providence, must remove my lingering sins and must make me clean.
Fire equips the feeble with power. The beams of the sun in spring, end the winter and the poverty and the silence of the world. And so I, neither courageous nor enthusiastic, shrinking from great problems and expecting no striking victories — receive the gracious Holy Spirit, and I laugh at impossibilities.
Yes, it is the God who answers by fire, who alone is God. Sinners and saints, the individual and the Church, alike testify to it. From a full heart may I add my personal witness to the miracle of Carmel and Pentecost.
