Burning Bushes

Only those who burn in the desert can impact the world. I want to burn like a bush day and night so that when people get around me the take off their shoes of sin and sickness and enter into His holy fire too.

What did Moses really see when in the desert He stumbled across that burning bush? The bush was on fire but it was not consumed. Moses in essence saw what he was called to be – on fire with God. The presence of the Lord literally on him burning with supernatural fire.

Consumed by God

This is such a prophetic picture for the ages. This is who we are called to be as well - Consumed by God. We must be consumed with God if we want to be consumed by God. The fire is the gift to move from the natural to the supernatural realms. It is the gift and the power to demonstrate God on the earth. On fire but not consumed, consumed but not burned up. I am using language in different array here to try to create an illustrated example. I believe this is an Old Testament prophetic picture and example of the New Testament baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Baptism means immersion. Baptism in water is immersion in water. In the original language it means to be dunked under and drenched. It is supposed to kill you, but since Jesus died that death for you, you are allowed to come up into a new life. It is not just a sprinkle, it is an immersion, a total covering from head to toe. Your wet, soaked, saturated… This is a baptism in the natural.

Well, there is also a baptism in the spiritual. It is the baptism or immersion in the Holy Spirit Fire.

As for me I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit Fire. Matthew 3:11 (There is no and between Spirit and fire in the Greek.)

I believe that when John prophesied this, it was an understood image in Jewish thought. The only other thing in their history immersed in fire like this was the burning bush.

You are completely immersed with the Fire of the Holy Spirit. It is an immersion with fire this time instead of water. You are like the bush, ON FIRE and now YOU ARE FIRE! Likewise this is not just a sprinkle, it is a consummation. So many of us settle for a spark when we should be flame-throwers!

The baptism in the Spirit is more than just speaking a few words in tongues. It’s a new life in the Spirit. Why stop with just a few words when there are whole languages to develop as you burn brighter and brighter each day?

God spoke to Moses out of the burning bush. It was not the bush speaking, but God. This is significant because when we are baptized in the Spirit, the gifts of the spirit begin to function and it is God who speaks through us. Also this is what He was revealing to Moses. If the bush on fire is what Moses was to become, then it would be God speaking through him, and not him speaking on his own. If God can speak through a bush then He can surely speak through us. (I believe this is why God became angry with Moses in Ex 4:14; this is one thing Moses failed to perceive.)

Marvelous Sight

Moses was out, like David would be hundreds of years later, watching sheep when suddenly…

The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed.

So Moses said, ’I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’

When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’

He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob,’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Exodus 3:2-6, (emphasis mine)

The fire continued and remained and so did the bush. The world may see Christians, but only when we are on fire, when we are burning bushes will they stop to see a marvelous sight.

For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Romans 8:19-21

There are sons of men everywhere, but only by supernatural revelation will the sons of God appear. And appear they will like burning bushes out in a desert.

Jesus came to give us this life in the Spirit. No longer do we have to look at a distance. Now we can be the burning vessel the Lord is speakng through. This is what the Lord was trying to do through Moses. John 16:7 If Jesus did not go to the Father then we are still looking at Him from a distance. Moses was looking at a bush filled with God. The disciples were looking at a man filled with God. This was unique awesome and perfect and as Bob Gladstoneputs it, showing us, showing the world what it is like for a man to be filled with God.

It was neccessary for Him to go to the Father, to accomplish the ascension so He could send us His Spirit. Just as I stated in the last article. Elisha’s Double Portion.

Now the veil is torn and we have access to the Father through Jesus Christ in the Spirit. We have access to all the fullness of Life, we access to the fullness of union with the Father. We have accesss to the fullness of His fellowship and the fullness of His ministry. We have access to the supernatural substance that makes the bush burn yet stay alive. The same supernatural substance the Jesus walked in.

I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled. But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished! Luke 12:49-50

Just as moses was sent to cast fire on eypt we are sent to cast fire on the earth!  We are the fire that He is casting, we are the burning ones!

Holy Ground

In the passages on the burning bush and the baptism of the Spirit, there is an interesting parallel. Moses was instructed to remove his sandals, and John says that he was unworthy to untie Jesus’ sandals. This implies that the One whom was burning in the bush was now here in the flesh. The ground was holy because the person in the bush was holy. The fire came in the bush, the fire came in Jesus, and now the fire comes in us. We bring holiness with us. Wherever we are the ground becomes holy from the power of the Holy One living in us.

Moses was in the desert, shepherding a flock, and he encountered a burning bush. John was in the desert, shepherding a flock, and he encountered a burning man. The world is in a desert and they will encounter us, a burning people, burning bushes, sent to show them who I AM is.

The Holy Spirit consumed the apostles as He did Jesus. Because of this the changed not only their own generation, but also every generation since. Can we not do the same? I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit for 12 years as of the time this article is written, however I know that there is more. I want to light up like the bush, on fire but not burned up. And I know that there more for all of us. I want to be a burning bush, a flame-thrower, a light to my generation and generations to come!

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