A few years
ago, while listening to a dear man of God, I heard him refer to a common phrase
that is used by most Nigerian Christians each time they pray, or while they are
in the church and most especially when they encounter what
they consider to be satanic opposition or demonic activity. The term am talking
about is ‘HOLY GHOST FIRE’ .He was essentially emphasizing the fact, that most
Africans do not give and that when they do give, they give very little.
Then he said, no wonder, most Africans are poor, and suffer a lot of demonic
attacks, and defeat from the devil, because the secret of being rich and
receiving and having power with God, is giving, as revealed in the word of God .Then
he said, all that the y know how to do
is to shout –HOLY GHOST FIRE- which has no chapter or verse in the Bible, and
that was when he got my attention.
This now brings me to the subject of
our discussion today-Do you make fire when you pray? The scriptures have a lot
to teach us about the fact that real prayer generates fire. King David
in Psalm 141 verse 2 states thus:’Let my prayer be set before thee as incense;
and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.’ The man of
God recognized the fact that there was a spiritual activity that followed
prayer that could release smoke and that could
burn as an incense and ascend before the throne of God.
This was latter to be demonstrated by the man of God by the
name –Elijah. The first time he did it was when he had an encounter
with the prophets of Baal as is written in the book of First
Kings, chapters 17 verse1, then the whole of chapter 18.Thus in chapter 18 and
verse 37 we read: “Hear me, O Lord, hear
me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast
turned their back again. 38 Then the
fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and
licked up the water that was in the trench.39 And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they
said, The Lord, he is God; the LORD, he is God.”This is the first account
of how that Elijah brought down physical fire from heaven through prayer. He
repeated this a second time in 2 Kings chapter 1, when an angry King, sent a
band of fifty soldiers to go and bring him down from the mountain top where he
was, thus in 2 Kings chapter 1, verses 10 and 11 we read, “And Elijah answered and said to
the captain of fifty, If I be a man of God, then let fire come down from heaven
and consume thee and thy fifty, And there came fire from heaven, and consumed
him and his fifty.” If you read verse 11, you see the same feat
repeated.
Actually, King Solomon, who came directly after king David,
saw such a manifestation, after his prayer, during the dedication of the temple,
as stated in 2 chronicles chapters 6 and 7.Thus in chapter7 and verse 1, we
read; “Now when Solomon had made an end
of praying, then fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering
and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the hou se”.
Now in the New testament book of Revelation we read in the eight
chapter thus, i.e. Revelation chapter 8 verses 2 to 5; ”And I saw the seven angels which
stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.3And
another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ;and there
was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of
all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne.4 And the
smoke of the incense, which came with the prayers of the saints, ascended up
before God out of the angel’s hand.5 And the angel took the censer, and filled
it with fire of the altar, and cast it into the earth: and there were voices,
and thundering and lightening, and earthquake.”We can see from the this
last instance, that the prayers of the saints in heaven, is indeed a tangible
raw material for the angels of God to work with, and that after the mixture,
incredible power is demonstrated.
Conclusively, I believe in the existence of the HOLY GHOST
FIRE, because the fire that came down and consumed the captain of
fifty and his fifty was called, the fire of God, and the HOLY GHOST, is God (refer
to 2 Kings chapter1 verse 12).Many times, in our prayer meetings, especially in
truly living churches, some individuals fall down, and begin to shake, and cry
out in pains, and when this happens, many onlookers, are confused. They wonder, what the hell in this whole wide
world is going on ?, what they don’t understand, is that when a truly righteous man prays effectually,
and fervently, he generates fire –HOLY GHOST FIRE-which in turn, torments and
tortures, contrary spirit beings which are true personalities, that though they
are invisible, they are real. These evil beings which have forcefully possessed
the weak and the ignorant are tormented and driven out by fire, because demons
cannot stand the fire of God .
