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| Tongues Of Fire |
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By Bernice Selvig Forward It is a remarkable thing that quality prophetic teaching can remain so fresh and vital. These thoughts were first written in the 1960's and my spiritual father edited them into the current format in the 1970's. Many decades may have passed, but the message is just as alive, and still urgently needed. These thoughts inspired me when I first found them in the early 1970's; they still inspire me today. I highly recommend this collection of notes to all -- a must read if ever there was one. Note - All references to violence should be interpreted as referring to aggressive prayer only, for that is what the writer intended. P. I. Editor
TONGUES OF FIRE In these days the Lord is speaking to His faithful people about a great end-time revival. This revival will begin in the Church and will grow to fill the whole earth. All things will be shaken so that only that which cannot be shaken will remain. The Lord is preparing a company of people within His Body the Church, who will be purged, brought together in unity, given a clear vision of His purposes, and formed into a prophetic voice to speak the revival into existence.
HUNGER FOR THE OUTPOURING God is looking for intercessors with a burning desire to see God's final outpouring. He is speaking into the depths of our being about the outpouring, saying. "Receive it fully. Do not be content with a small portion. "The appetite of the flesh has continually crowded out your hunger for the Spirit, because your flesh has been hungry for many things. I am moving to burn out your desire for the things of the mind and the appetites of the flesh. I am imparting a great hunger for the outpouring. "By My mighty power I will break your complacency. You are in a crisis time. You have never needed God as you do now; and I your God am offering My treasures to you as never before. The spirit of laziness and complacency can keep you out of My great treasure. "When you are fully prepared and strengthened, the great awakening will reach out to the multitudes. The burden of intercession is being given to you to bring this outpouring to pass on the earth. Did the people not come and pound on the door, and gather in the street on the Day of Pentecost? The adversary wants to send you out prematurely and continually. But as you stay on your face before Me, I will draw them. Your work is to respond to the Spirit of your God. He will lift up Christ and draw men to Him."
The purpose of this
outpouring is to: The key is the fresh outpouring of the Spirit. He will purge God's people and convince the world of the need of Christ. If we set our hearts toward the outpouring, God will send all that we need. There is a great desire and yearning in the heart of the Lord to send this visitation. He is calling for intercessors that will let Christ the Intercessor pray through them. Unless many hear the voice of the Lord calling us to intercession, it will be too late. For the grain will have fallen to the ground; the antichrist will have taken over the Church and the nations; judgments will be unsheathed with darkness and suffering following.
INTERCESSION IN THE SPIRIT By the intercession of Christ Himself a door is being opened for us. The spirit of intercession is being poured out on those who are willing to lay down their lives for God in this way. The Lord says: "Receive the spirit of intercession." The flesh and the adversary try to make us deaf and unresponsive to this call. The Lord asks of us a willingness to enter our place of prayer, and to devote ourselves to prayer in the Spirit. As we do, we see the Lord seated on His throne, His ear listening and His heart open. The Holy Spirit makes intercession according to the will of God. The Lord is giving us a tremendous gift. He wants us to step out violently into it. We must proceed by faith, not by feelings. Spiritual maturity means coming out of the realm of the emotions and natural reasoning. In fact these are both opposed to prayer in the Spirit. By faith we will move out boldly into prayer in the Spirit. Through the gift of tongues the way in the heavenlies is cleared of opposing forces. The language of the Spirit flows to the throne of God. Jesus is talking to the Father, presenting the power of His Blood. The Father in turn is pouring the Holy Spirit to hungry people around the earth. The Spirit exercises the authority of the Father and the Son to enforce the defeat of the powers of darkness. When the heavenlies are cleared of the evil ones that were opposing the work of God, or the meeting, or our own spirit, we can feel a profound change in the situation or the atmosphere. This praying in the Spirit is one of the mighty spiritual weapons referred to in 2 Corinthians 10:4. Great consecration is necessary to exercise the gift of tongues in spiritual warfare. We have to proceed by faith in spite of all natural resistance. By an act of will we place ourselves on the side of the Spirit to resist the powers of darkness that want to block us. "Stir up the gift that is in you," Paul wrote to His spiritual son Timothy. It is often necessary to stir up or to exhort one another to exercise spiritual gifts (Hebrews 10:25). Each time we pray in the Spirit we are bringing down another stronghold of the enemy. Some day the battle will be finished. Now we are engaged in the building of God's Kingdom on earth. The Spirit is presenting the need of the whitened harvest field, and the need of the labourers that must be thrust out into it. In preparation for the end, the Lord desires His Spirit to be poured out in fullness upon the earth. As we pray, the Spirit is presenting the cry of the Father, because the Father is waiting for the early and latter rain, so that the earth can bring forth the harvest.
TONGUES OF FIRE IN INTERCESSION The Lord gives a Baptism of Fire as well as a Baptism in the Spirit. The fire accompanies the tongues. As we pray in the language of the Spirit, the fire comes into operation. This is not a fire that we can feel. The Lord feels the fire and Satan feels the fire. The fire presses against the Lord. He desires for His children to press Him. The fire will move His hand into action on behalf of the sin-soaked world which is awaiting its judgment. The judgment of fire will be turned against Satan and will bring about his defeat.
The purposes of these
tongues of fire are to: The Lord promises: "As you march into this mighty ministry of intercession, I will take you in ever more deeply. The more you enter in, the more the riches of your Lord will unfold." Nothing less than the Baptism of Fire will move this generation. Therefore God says: "I want you filled with the Holy Spirit and fire. It is the fire that will bring down every stronghold of Satan." When we go out into the field to preach the last day message, we will have tremendous opposition. But the mighty fire of the Lord will consume the opposition, bring down the adversary, loosen men from their bondages, and bring them to repentance." God has given us discernment to recognize peoples' bondages, and He has given us tongues of fire to set them free. "As you yield yourselves to the tongues of fire, they will burn up the dross in you. When your mind has doubts and your heart condemns you, yield to the spirit of intercession and the tongues of fire. He will purge you, and use you mightily.
PURGING THE FLESH AND THE HINDERING SPIRITS God is moving with the mighty triumph of Calvary to burn out our great hunger for things of the mind and the appetites of the flesh. He is purging from His Church all hindrances to revival, so that He can empower it with His Spirit.
1. Self-preservation spirit The Lord is trying to put us under His complete will. The self-preservation spirit hinders His word. It spares the flesh. It seeks to justify. It shields the flesh in ourselves and in others. The whole Body needs cleansing from self-preservation. This spirit must be torn down violently by prayer in tongues and by piercing prophetic utterance. When self-preservation is brought down, the Word will be able to rise violently in us to speak against Satan, so that Satan will have to leave, because God has ordained that we should bring Satan down.
2. The flesh and natural ways "If you had been fully immersed in the things of God, you could be sent out into the fields that are ready for harvest. But you are not ready. You have been going only by what you have been taught. But "now," the Lord says, "the teaching rain has come. I will teach you by My Spirit." The Lord is moving to redeem you from yourself. He commands you to lift your eyes from yourself to Him; to look on the Lord Jesus, to turn to Him with all your heart. He brings you to a low door, where you will lay yourself down and pick up the burdens of others. He wants us to see the bondages, the traps Satan sets for us, so that we can help one another. He tells us to minister to one another by laying on of hands, imparting gifts to one another. He wants us to get our eyes off ourselves and onto Him.
3. The spirit of passivity Passivity is a tool of the antichrist to keep the saints from entering into the treasures of the Lord. Sitting passively is like closing a damper on the chimney; the flames die down. If you close yourself up, the wind of the Spirit cannot blow upon and fan the flame. If you become lukewarm and passive, the raging winds will beat down upon the foundation you have received. The Lord does not want a lukewarm, passive people. He says: "The violent take the Kingdom by force." Be violent in your spirit. Build persistently upon the foundation the Lord has laid. Use the weapon of violent prayer in the Spirit. With it you will continually be freed from the prison and go forth to invade the territory of the enemy and drive him back. As you attack the spirit of passivity with the violence of God's Spirit, your prayer will become as a wind fanning the flames. A fire will well up in you, and will reach forth in mighty power.
4. The spirit of delusion Delusion is believing something untrue about ourselves, or others, or about situations. The enemy plays on our natural tendencies. If we have a tendency to exalt ourselves, then he makes us over-confident. We say we have no needs. We can do all things. If we have a capacity for discouragement, the enemy tells us that God is not in us, that we don't have the Word, that God can't use us. We can rarely see the delusions in ourselves. We need the discernment of our brothers and sisters. We need the girdle of truth. Jesus is the Truth. His Spirit is the Spirit of truth. The love of the truth defeats the spirit of delusion. The helmet of salvation brings our minds under the protection of the Blood of Christ, cleanses us of delusions, and gives us the mind of Christ. Without it we are susceptible to doubt, fear, delusion, spiritual upheavals, and uncontrolled emotions. 5. Religious or lust spirits Religious spirits bring us in bondage to misconceptions so that we focus our attention on external matters -- dress, ritual observance, and the like. It may lead us to seek spiritual pleasures - pleasures in possessing, pleasure in being, pleasure in knowing. Or it may even lead us to seek salvation or spiritual power or ministry or maturity as ends in themselves and for our own benefit, rather than seeking the Lord for His sake. Desiring or being attached to anything less than the Lord Himself is in fact lust. The spirit of lust is the opposite of the spirit of love. We cannot harbor lust of any kind, no matter how subtle, and still have ultimate communion with God. The lust power must be broken and the love of God, a pure union, established. When we walk with Him, He provides the joy, the peace, the life, and the romance.
6. Unteachable spirits "Is there any discipline in the Church? the Lord asks. In effect we often say that we would rather go the way of the world and be illegitimate children than to be disciplined. For Scripture says that the one who is not disciplined is an illegitimate child. We must submit to and endure correction. God says that no illegitimate child will inherit the Kingdom of God. If we take the disciplining we are true children of God. Discipline is lacking in homes and schools these days, because a wrong spirit has taken control of the families and the schools since the official establishment of humanism. A lack of discipline opens the doors for unteachable spirits to control the children. When people then want to become Christians, these unteachable spirits bind them so that they cannot submit to the will of God. Churches made of up of undisciplined people lack the power of God and the anointing of the Spirit. We need to come violently against these undisciplined and unteachable spirits in ourselves and in the Church. We need to submit ourselves to the Lord's discipline and let Him teach us the way of obedience.
7. The domineering or Babylonian spirit The spirit of Babylon begins with idolatry and false religion. In our day it manifests itself as humanism. The serpent presented this to Eve: "You can be like gods, knowing for yourselves good and evil." But, since from that day on it has always been Satan who presents this temptation, the eating of this fruit means submission to Satan. It seems that man is being exalted, but in fact the Babylonian spirit is taking over. Let us build a tower, lest we be scattered. The Babylonian spirit manifests itself in the political and economic realms. The structures of men prevail and each man seeks his own purposes. In the church this means that secular political structures are substituted for divine order. This spirit will oppose the scriptural ministry gifts of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. It will oppose Body ministry. There will be a power struggle in which the leaders will endeavor to dominate. There will be others who will try to control the leaders and assert their own authority. None will hear Jesus' teaching that leaders must be as servants, and that great men are those who humble themselves. Almost every church has someone who is greatly exalted and whom everyone fears to challenge, and who stands with a iron hand to keep Christ from being the Head. This is actually the headship of Satan invested in a human being. This spirit will strongly oppose the ministry of the apostles and prophets. It does not want the gifts of the Holy Spirit to come forth. The corrective for this spirit is the New Testament order - Body ministry, ministry gifts, especially the prophets and apostles, the spirit of Truth. God asks us to lay aside our own individual concerns, and in great violence storm the gates of heaven, to clear the way for the prophetic ministry so that the full message may be given to them. "The Truth will be a mighty weapon on your lips. The Spirit of truth in you will set many captives free."
The antichrist is a thief and a robber (John 10) First he steals our hunger for the Lord, then our spiritual understanding, then our sight, then the anointing. Then he injects his poison and kills -- kills the anointing and our communion with God, and eventually our spiritual life. The antichrist comes in like dust when the wind is blowing, seeping into the cracks, under the door, around the windows. He entices us out by thrills in high places, drawing us out into the world, making us insensitive to the Lord and His Spirit. But the Lord says that in these last times He is preparing a company of spiritual virgins. These virgins are free of every spirit except the Holy Spirit. "The Lord is speaking into the depths of your being, calling you to be willing to be purged and cleansed. You have operated by these other spirits and not borne fruit. But as the genuine Spirit of the Lord comes in, there will be great fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will resist and drive out the antichrist." We have heard that the antichrist would come as a world ruler. But the Bible is a spiritual book, not a history or economics book. God is talking primarily about what will take place in the Church. People in Jesus' time missed Him because they were looking for a political leader. So now the churches have been blinded and looked for the wrong thing. Meanwhile Satan has moved into the churches unrecognized. We need spiritual discernment. 1 John 1:18-27 speaks about the presence of antichrists and how to discern them. He says: "You have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth." It is the anointing of the Holy Spirit, revealing the truth to us that enables us to identify and combat every false spirit. In the Church the antichrist spirit gives a thirst for personal power, personal ministry, the spectacular, but no real love for Jesus. The Spirit of God will not exalt an individual or a church. He will bear witness to and exalt Jesus. As individuals we lust after recognition and fellowship for ourselves. We say, "I am lonely. I have many needs." The Lord made us lonely on purpose, so that our communion would be with the Father and the Son. Then He says: "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another." We need not go around looking for someone to understand us. Our proper goal is fellowship with our God. He will give us the fellowship we need. We will know one another after the spirit, not after the flesh. When we yield to the knife of circumcision to have the capacity of pride, the reasoning of the natural mind, and all else that exalts itself cut out, then He will impart to us His lowliness, humility, and submission. These are the qualities of the valley. Then in lovely sweet communion with Him, we will know Him as the Lily of the valley, sweet and fragrant. The exalted and reasoning mind misses Him. But we will be down on the plane where He walks. He is always the goal. The ministry and fruitfulness are on the other side of union and communion with Him. He is calling us to make haste, for there is great need on every side. In these days God is not making a show in external things. He is doing a hidden work of the Spirit. He says to us: "I have given you tongues of fire. But this is not a visible fire; it is an inner power. I anoint you with oil. But this is not a visible oil that drips from fingers. I release the fire to burn as a fire in your spirit. As the abundance of the oil is added, it will spring into a mighty fire that will bring a great illumination throughout the earth." In every period of time the Lord has had His appropriate way of ministering. God is moving in a new way. This is a fresh visitation. God is a God of originality. He is not bound to the patterns of the past. He will break the old patterns in you and will release to you manna which will be fresh daily.
THE SPIRIT OF PROPHECY The end-time revival must be spoken into being by prophetic words (Ezekiel 37). We are engaging in a mighty warfare which takes place in the heavenlies and on earth (Revelation 12). It must be fought with spiritual weapons (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; Ephesians 6: 10-20). Paul said that he wrestled with the wild beasts of Ephesus (1 Corinthians 15:32). He was not talking of lions and wolves, but of principalities, powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. So when he wrote to those at Ephesus after he left, he admonished them to be prepared to face the same forces. He told them to take the whole armor of God and He mentioned it piece by piece. The one offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. There was no written New Testament word at that time -- only the Old Testament, but the Word was mighty in their mouths, Peter said: "We have an even more sure word of prophecy (2 Peter 1:19)." The Word of God, whether spoken or written tears down the principalities and the rulers of darkness. Again today we are fighting a great battle with similar forces in the heavenlies. The Word must be spoken. This Word will do what a sword did in the hand of a warrior in that day. The sermon that Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost was purely prophetic, for his understanding had been darkened and he did not understand much the Lord had talked about. But that day the power of God through the prophetic word, brought conviction to thousands. Prayer in the Spirit opens the way for prophecy. We need more than an occasional gift of prophecy. We need the continual anointing of the spirit of prophecy which enables us to speak the fiery, liberating, life-giving Word. This spirit of prophecy is like the river in Ezekiel 47 that flows down from under the threshold of the sanctuary. In Revelation 19:10 this is called the spirit of prophecy. The gift of the Spirit wells up, but the spirit of prophecy is like a mighty immersion. The spirit of prophecy is on a higher plane than the gift of prophecy. The weapon we use in our warfare is the mighty Word of the Lord. It breaks down strongholds that you cannot break or bring down in the natural. The pattern for this spirit of prophecy was manifested in Moses' day when the spirit of prophecy came on the seventy elders (Numbers 11:16-18; 24-25). There is a receiving of the spirit of prophecy similar to a baptism. As the Holy Spirit abides when He fills us, so this spirit of prophecy can abide. What will the prophet do? He will hear the Word of God and speak it fearlessly; like John the Baptist standing before King Herod and saying: "You have your brother's wife, and she is not yours;" or Nathan standing before King David, when the latter sinned with Bathsheba, and saying: "You are the man." We are entering a bold, fearless restoration that begins with uncovering sin. If the flesh repents, God sends judgment on the demon. If the flesh refuses to repent, God sends judgment on the demon and on the flesh. Jehoshaphat said: "Listen to the prophets and you will prosper." The prophet is God's gift to the Body. Those who listen to the prophets' words prosper. There is great need of this ministry. Satan will oppose the establishing of this ministry. But he cannot prevail if the Body unites and comes against him, diligently praying for the establishment of New Testament ministry. The churches cannot be set in order until this ministry is in operation. Churches have been dominated by deceiving spirits. They have been under man's control. Since churches have often followed men instead of God, they have been taken over by this deception. The Lord is commanding us to go forth with the mighty fire of God burning in the depths of our being. The truth will be a mighty weapon on our lips. The Spirit of truth will speak through us to cast out deception, to set many captives free. The Spirit of truth cannot come into tainted vessels. He will purge us and fill us. The Lord Himself will be the Truth in us and shine through us. The Word of truth on our lips will be as a mighty sword. A little fire can be put out easily. When a fire burns strongly, you can't get close to it. But when the oil pours in, no one can stop that fire. This is not human enthusiasm. Be filled with the fervent white heat of God. The Pharisaical spirit polishes up the flesh, and tries to do some good works. But the true Kingdom of God places all the emphasis on what God imparts -- the righteousness of God, the fire of the Lord, the Spirit of the Lord, and the full salvation of God. The prophet will speak restoration into being. Joel spoke of a restoration. Jeremiah gave tremendous promises of restoration. From Isaiah 40 to the end He speaks of restoration. He will do a new thing; now it springs forth. He will make the dry lands pools of water. When the poor and needy cry for water, He will satisfy their thirst. The Spirit of the Lord lifted from the Church because of coldness and worldliness. Now at the end of time He is restoring the Spirit. With the sure word of prophecy God' s people will speak into being a mighty worldwide outpouring of God's Spirit, and a mighty army formed for God Himself to manifest His praise and His glory to the ends of the earth, that His Kingdom in all its might and glory may be fully manifested on the earth.
By Bernice Selvig
About this Article: One time, when the little church I served in Montana was going through a difficult time, a lady named Bernice Selvig appeared at my door and announced that the Lord had sent her to intercede. She rented a little house, shut herself in and began to pray. Six months later, when the _____ was past and we had learned many lessons, Bernice moved on to another place to do a similar ministry. While she was with us, she gave me some notes, containing a series of revelations, prophecies, and teachings that she and a little prayer group in St. Paul Minnesota, had received a couple of years before. Over the years since then I have repeatedly come back to this collection of notes and learned from them. It seems particularly appropriate for me at this time to assemble them into this present, somewhat abridged and slightly rearranged form, so that they can be available to a wider circulation. I believe that this message is even more urgently needed in the Church now than it was in the 1960s when it was first heard. The intercessors and the prophets are needed as never before. And how can we survive, if we do not experience the type of revival presented here? Edwin Stube
(Edwin Stube died many years ago now, but he
had a great influence on my spirituality, and I consider him a true father in
the faith - P. I. Editor) |
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