Fire From Heaven

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 33, Fire From Heaven.

"And fire came out from before the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the pieces of fat on the altar, and when all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces." Leviticus 9:24.

This wasn't a spontaneous moment. Before this scene, Aaron and his sons spent seven full days in consecration — seven days being prepared, washed, clothed, anointed, taught. Real encounters with God's glory are almost never a shortcut. They grow out of a process. And after those seven days came the eighth — the day everything happened.

Notice where the fire came from. The text doesn't say the people lit a beautiful altar and God approved from a distance. It says the fire came out from before the LORD. God acted. God answered. The people brought the offering, prepared everything in obedience — but it was God Himself who lit that fire. That changes the whole scene: this isn't people straining to reach God through religious effort. It's God coming down and confirming that He accepted what was offered.

And the fire left nothing behind. It consumed the whole burnt offering, consumed the fat on the altar — all of it. No piece left over, no doubt left standing. When God accepts an offering, He doesn't accept it halfway. He consumes it completely. And that's good news for you today: when you truly hand something over to God — a worry, a sin, an area of your life you've been holding onto — He doesn't do a partial cleanup. He consumes what you give Him.

Now look at the people's reaction. They watched the fire come down, watched the offering be consumed right in front of their eyes — and the first thing they did was shout. It wasn't a heavy, fearful silence. It was a shout of joy. Because real fear of the Lord doesn't smother joy; it releases it. When you truly understand who God is, the natural response isn't just frozen reverence — it's joy that comes out through your mouth.

And right after the shout came the posture: faces to the ground. Explosive joy and deep humility, in the same instant, in the same body. That is the mark of real worship — it shouts and bows at the same time. It celebrates and humbles itself with no contradiction at all.

So think about your own prayer life. Have you been expecting God to actually answer when you pray? Or have you been praying out of habit, not expecting any fire to fall at all? Leviticus 9 invites you to expect again — to bring your surrender with real expectation, knowing the God who answered with fire on that altar is the same God today.

So here is the call: before breakfast, bring God one concrete surrender — something specific, something with a name — and say out loud, "Lord, I expect You to answer." Don't pray out of habit. Pray expecting fire.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.