"Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm..."—Song of Solomon 8:6
The day of Pentecost is quickly approaching, and the Lord is inviting us to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. Are we willing? Will we allow the Lord to seal us with His fiery love?
The greatest gift God gave humanity was Jesus Christ, and the greatest gift He gave His Bride/Church is the Holy Spirit—the manifest presence of God in us. Unfortunately, many do not know Him like this, and honestly, many don't want to because they are afraid of what people might think.
I had a vision while leading worship that gripped my heart and left me undone. It was sort of like a scene from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame movie. We were enthusiastically singing a song that I wrote called, "Show Me Your Glory." The congregation was engaged in worship with hands raised as we sang, yet in my mind's eye I saw something different.
In my vision, I saw the Lord in the attic of a glorious cathedral hiding behind the beams. As we sang, the longing in His heart to come closer grew stronger, but He hesitated. He peeked His head out from behind the beam and asked, "Do you really want to see Me in all My glory?" I sensed that He was hesitant to reveal Himself only to be rejected once again.
I was brought past the rejection Jesus encountered as He walked this earth and went in the Spirit all the way back to when God revealed Himself, personally, to His people on Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19-20. They withdrew in fear and said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die" (Exodus 20:19).
I believe their response broke God's heart. God took the Hebrews out of Egypt so they could be His own special people. He bore them on eagle's wings and brought them to Himself. He came down in a mighty display of thunder, lightning, and sounds of a Divine trumpet as He descended upon the mountain in fire so He could talk to the people.
You can understand the rejection better when you realize that Exodus is compared to an engagement and the experience at Mt. Sinai to a wedding where, underneath a canopy of stars, God betrothed us to Himself and entered into a covenant with us. We became His and He became ours.
We Need to Encounter the Flame of God
"I remember you, the kindness of your youth, the love of your betrothal, when you went after Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown" (Jeremiah 2:2). As God led His newlywed Bride through the wilderness, the defining aspect of His presence was the pillar of Fire.
In Hebrew, the word presence means "face." To the nations this cloud/fire looked like God Almighty, the Destroyer, yet to those who knew the Flame, it looked like His Face. What you see really depends on what side of the Flame you are standing on.
It's only natural to be afraid and run when you don't understand something. However, in order to understand, we need to encounter the Flame of God. Moses ran up the mountain when the others drew back because he had already encountered the Flame when God first appeared to him in the burning bush. Moses learned how to handle the Flame and not get burned, i.e. Take off your shoes, Moses, this is holy ground. The Flame will know us and we will know the Flame, and as a result of this our face will change. Selah...
God Will Manifest His Presence and Write His Words on Our Heart
As I mentioned earlier, we are in the season of Pentecost. Beloved, I believe that Pentecost has as much to do with this intimate presence as it does with the power. Although Jesus did instruct His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the empowerment that would accompany the baptism of fire, this bridal connection goes all the way back to Mt. Sinai. Let me show you what I mean.
Pentecost, a Greek word meaning fifty, was an annual Jewish festival also known as Shavuot. It is commonly accepted that Shavuot is the anniversary of God's first revealing on Mt. Sinai. The Rabbinical scholars agree that seven weeks (49 days) after the Exodus from Egypt, Israel stood at the foot of Mt. Sinai and became married, so to speak, to God.
Pentecost/Shavuot is the conclusion of Passover (where the lamb was slain for our freedom) and is celebrated fifty days after Passover. We have been brought out of bondage, redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb to be His Bride, His most treasured possession, to worship Him freely, in Spirit and in Truth.
During the time between Passover to Pentecost/Shavuot, a great anticipation is building as a result of God's command to, "count for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the sheaf of the wave offering: seven Sabbaths shall be completed" (Leviticus 23:15).
This is called, "the counting of omer." An omer is a measure of grain, and every day we are to count up to the pinnacle point of our redemption—Shavuot/Pentecost, where God will manifest His presence and write His words on our heart.
The Pillar of Fire Went From Being With Us to Now Being In Us
The Bible tells us in Acts 2 that on Pentecost/Shavuot, 49 days after the Passover lamb was slain, a group of Believers were eagerly and obediently waiting in Jerusalem as their Master commanded.
Imagine yourself in that upper room waiting for the Promise of the Father as the Lord Jesus commanded. As a Jewish person, you would be in the process of this great count that leads up to Pentecost/Shavuot. As a follower of Jesus though, you certainly would have been wondering about this baptism of fire in the Holy Spirit both John the Baptist and Jesus talked about.
Suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a mighty rushing wind and a divided tongue of fire that sat upon each of their heads, filling them with the Holy Spirit and baptizing them with His Holy Fire, and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, glorifying God Almighty.
Yes, we will look differently when we encounter Him; we are supposed to look differently. It is interesting to note that the Greek word for manifest used in John 14:21 is emphaanidzo (Strong's #1718) and means: to cause to shine. Looking different is just the by-product of being in His presence.
In the wilderness, the nation of Israel looked differently from all the other nations because of the presence of God with them, the pillar of fire. We have been grafted into the sea-parting, mountain-quaking, miracle-making family of God. The Lord still desires to manifest His presence to us, in us, and through us. Pentecost was God's fiery kiss of love, searing and sealing His Bride, which moved the pillar of fire from being with us to now being in us.
"This Promise is to You and to Your Children and to All Who are Afar Off"
Beloved, it's not about a Pentecostal party; it's about the culmination of our redemption, His manifest presence burning inside of us. I want this, I need this, and I gotta have this! The good news is—we can have it; it is a gift from God to His Bride. "For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2:39).
We have an opportunity every day, but even more so right now at this point in time when the calendar points to Pentecost to receive this gift God is offering us. He is the ever-present God and He desires that, as Believers, we bring this Gift into the present. To make it a part of our history today, not just something we read about in the past.
Let's pray: Lord, I don't want to pull away from my Heavenly Husband anymore. I don't care what I look like; I want to be a burning one. Yes Lord, show me Your glory, show me Your face. Kiss me with Your Holy Fire and set Yourself as the seal over my heart, the guarantee that I am Yours and You are mine. Refine and define me by Your Seal of Fire. Amen.
Tiffany Ann Lewis
Dancing with the Flame of the Lord Ministries
Email: TiffanyAnn@tiffanyannlewis.com
Tiffany Ann Lewis is a worship leader and speaker whose heart has been passionately awakened by a God who sees us in our shortcomings and loves us in spite of it all (Ezekiel 16). It is this message of Hope, God's burning love for humanity, that she desires to share through word or song wherever she goes. Tiffany Ann has been ministering for over 10 years in prophetic worship throughout the Body of Christ. She worships with her family at Northway Church in Malta, New York, where she serves on the worship team.
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