Luke 3:16 John answered, saying to all, “I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
17 His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.”
This Sunday we will continue our live broadcast of our Bible Study. The topic is “The Sufferings of Christ”.
Your ego works overtime to avoid suffering. You will go out of your way to remove or eliminate pain. The pharmaceutical industry has obliged by creating a drug for nearly every type of suffering: physical and emotional. By numbing your senses, you can walk around in a state of euphoria. Their business model assumes addiction to come forth. They would like nothing more than to have a perpetual revenue flow from your willingness to mask pain in whatever form it takes.
What is the basic function of a nerve? It is to alert you of an issue. Pain is typically a symptom of a problem, not the problem itself. By masking pain, you never deal with the underlying issue.
Jesus knew it was necessary to suffer in order to complete HIS earthly calling. We all want the Baptism of the Holy Spirit yet most of us don’t want the Baptism of Fire. John, the greatest prophet, knew that it was necessary to have the chaff burned out of our lives. What is your acceptable level of loss?
On Sunday at 3PM CDT, we will focus on this topic. You can join us live or watch the recording at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-baptism-of-love