falling fire

When I was a kid, I had this crazy idea: I would own a record company. I would sign a few praise and worship bands, get some big names to cross over to me, and have the coolest Christian comapny in the world. I would call the company Falling Fire Records. Yeah, I was a crazy kid.

I convey that long repressed memory to you because of a conversation I had with a few friends last night. We talked about the Holy Spirit. Who is He (or "it" as we seem to regulate Him to in worship)? Why do we not talk about Him or sing about Him other than the quick prayer or song for God to "send His Spirit down"? I'll admit it; I don't understand.

Many of you know I'm Baptist by now - and probably more than most denominations, we try to avoid talking about "the Spirit". Spirit issues are shakey ground, conjuring up images of faith-healings, speaking in tongues, exorcisms, and being "slain in the Spirit". To be honest, outside of goin to a friend's church once in a while and hearing people speak in tongues, all I learned about this ambiguity in my faith came from TBN specials showing people having seizures in church! I didn't want that. I don't still.

What I do want, however, is a fresh movement of God in my life and in the ministries that I am a part of. And, as my friends and I discussed yesterday, the "phantom problem" that we have been puzzling over in these ares may very well be that we have little concept of walking with God, of practicing His presence, of conversing and being taught by the Holy Spirit. We see someone as spiritual if they read large chuncks of Scripture and memorize them, or if they are particularly intellectual when it comes to theology, or if they always come to church and are on some kind of committee. But the people in the Bible who were filled with the Spirit of God were so filled because of their love of spending time with God. Enoch. Moses. David. The apostles. These men spent time with their Lord, and were used in amazing ways as a result. Change happens when zeal is mixed with truth (the whole "worship in spirit and truth" thing?).

I...we...all of us, need to experience God through the person of the Holy Spirit. Oh how I long for a day when I can be moved to tears over the lost, over a people or place! That I would be "led by the Spirit" somewhere, and that leading would be more than a spiritual guessing game! My question I leave you with today is this:

TODAY, what does a tongue of fire look like?