335. Salt and Fire

“For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.” Mark 9:49.

John the Baptist says, “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” Matt. 3:11.

Many people in our time have experienced being baptized with the Holy Spirit, but who can bear being baptized with fire? The truth of the matter is that the Spirit of God withdraws from every soul who does not endure the fire in the power of the Spirit because the Spirit and fire cannot be separated.

“I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how distressed I am till it is accomplished!” Luke 12:49-50.

This verse makes it clear that Jesus was distressed concerning the baptism of fire.

The disciples wanted a prominent place in heaven. Then Jesus asked them, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” The baptism Jesus is talking about is the baptism of fire. The disciples answered Him, “‘We are able.’ So Jesus said to them, ‘You will indeed drink the cup that I drink, and with the baptism I am baptized with you will be baptized.’” Mark 10:37-40.

From this it is quite clear that we, too, must be baptized with fire and drink the cup (of suffering) that He drank if we want to be glorified together with Him.

God’s Spirit gives us strength to endure the fire, and it is this fire which burns and sears away all pride, party spirit, respect of persons, stinginess, hatred, etc. We have plenty of examples of people who at one point were baptized with the Spirit, yet do not have the faintest notion regarding the fire. If they had, the evil would have been burnt up. Yet they express hideous evil both in their words and their writings. From this we can safely conclude that the fire has not even come close to doing its blessed work, which is to burn up everything that resists God’s Spirit.

Some years ago people wrote about the fire falling in this place and in that place. However, I have since visited these places where the fire was supposed to have fallen and found that their hovels are still standing. Nothing has been burned down, and nothing new has been built up. They continue to live in division and disagreement. So they must have been mistaken when they wrote about the fire having fallen. What they meant was there was a revival, which later ebbed away.

That is how things are. If there is a lack of God’s light and knowledge, erroneous expressions are thrown around haphazardly. This can be easily done since the darkness among the religious and the nonreligious masses is so great that just about any spiritual folly is accepted.

But God’s Word stands steadfast and immovable, while all the distortions and folly of the times run the gauntlet, trying to avoid the sharp, two-edged sword. So be careful what you write and say; for no one can say, “We are the only ones who know,” or “Wisdom will die with us.” God searches all things, and those who are counted good before Him will be raptured when Esau is searched out, and when the extent of the fire damage is recorded. May that damage be very great, so that the hope of glory can also be great.

Everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.

Those who want to serve God in Spirit and truth become a sacrifice for the fire and the salt. Living fish and living animals are not salted. They have to be slaughtered first. “If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin.” Rom. 8:10. This is the body that the salt and the fire are to do their work in. This is the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ, which come as a result of living according to the promptings of the Spirit. Only then can the body be presented as an acceptable sacrifice to God. Rom. 12:1. Without this sacrifice, it is impossible for us to become spiritual people. The requirements are great, but then the glory which can be attained is also very great.

If we have given a gift to God’s cause, this sacrifice must be seasoned ith salt, and if the sacrifice hurts, then we ourselves are seasoned with fire. That is the perfect. When we put off a sin, it hurts, and the fire eats into it, but we must let the sacrifice lie there in the barrel covered in salt, so to speak. Then it is a whole sacrifice, and we will become thoroughly saved from sin. One sin after another is dealt with in this way. Just think of tobacco, talkativeness, the lust to gossip, vanity, vain glory, etc. These are all things that it can be good to get into the salt barrel.

“If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” Mark 9:43-50. This is something that you yourself must do.

We cannot avoid the fire; either we take it now, or we take it later.

But is there so much evil in a human being that we need so much fire and salt?

Well, just read the newspapers, and you will see that they are full of murder, killings, and theft. Even religious leaders, when they see their position threatened, are full of evil; so a lot of fire is required to burn away all this wild grass, which sneaks in from the world and into the congregations of God. Not only is a glorious baptism of the Spirit needed to overcome this evil, but also a glorious and powerful baptism of fire.

“Salt is good, but if the salt loses its strength [Norw.], how will you season it?” As long as the salt can permeate the meat, there is strength in it. Then it hurts; and if a person has not yet given up everything, he cries out. This is why we should all have salt in ourselves, and have peace with one another. That is the perfect: to have fire and salt in yourself, and at the same time anoint your head as if nothing new is happening.