The Lord has been speaking to me about the church being ‘Elijah’s Wood’. We have been in the river of His Presence for many years and now the wood for the sacrifice is soaked. If you remember the story of Elijah and the Prophets of Baal in 1 Kings 18:20, Elijah challenged the false prophets by suggesting they each put a sacrifice on top of dry wood and see whose God would answer with fire from heaven consuming the sacrifice.
The Prophets of Baal went first and waited and waited and waited, but no fire. When they got tired of waiting on their god, they decided to drum up some activity to get his attention, which amounted to nothing more than the works of the flesh. Even to the point of shedding their own blood (v 28).

Then Elijah sets his altar. Not only does he lay the sacrifice on top of dry wood, he begins by REPAIRING the altar. Then he proceeded to lay a foundation of 12 stones, and then he lays the wood (not just in any order, but in God’s order) and the sacrifice on top of that. Now lets pick up with the soaked wood. He tells his assistants to pour 4 barrels on the altar, to fill them again and pour them out again, and finally to do it a third time.

Now water is everywhere, even in the trench around the altar. Then Elijah prays, and the heavens are rent because in vs. 38 it says, ‘THEN (after he did everything in obedience and trust) the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. Then the people knew that the Lord was God.

Now lets think about the church and pick up with the church being the wood that has been in renewal for years. Those who are going to even be in the river have had the opportunity to get wet. You are either soaked and saturated with His Presence and ready to be put on Elijah’s altar, or you are stubborn and rebellious and operate by the works of the flesh and are on the Prophet’s of Baal altar.

You either have the government of God resting on you (12 stones) because you have given up striving and self-promotion and the need to ‘be’ somebody, or you are in the campfire of Baal shouting and screaming and laboring (shedding your own blood) and forgetting it is the Blood of the Lamb (the sacrificed bull), not your own blood (works).

Soaking in the river with His purpose of getting you ready for the fire is what is needed. The river precedes the fire. The church has to go through the fire. The river brings comfort like the cloud by day did, and the fire brings illumination to the darkness in our own souls like the pillar of fire did by night . Don’t think you can get in the river and that is it, for there is a fire that must follow, and the time you have spent in the river is to prepare you for the fire.

The Elijah’s have God’s heart for the wood (church), and repair the altar. God will not break a bruised reed and He will repair to get us ready for the fire. The Elijah’s have been coming and putting the wood in order, or setting the house of God in order. And the river has been flowing getting the wood saturated and soaked, now come the ‘Forerunner’ or ‘John the Baptist’ company and they are the ones carrying the fire! They come into your midst and are carriers of the Fire of His Holiness, and after they leave it seems as if all hell has broken loose! Well it has, but it is breaking loose from your life, which is what the purpose of the fire is! To get the darkness out of our hearts and out of the church!

I don’t know about you, but I want to be in Elijah’s campfire, where the remnant will come out tried and true and ready for the battles in the days ahead for the Bride to overcome. I am often asked why it seems as if some people never go through any fire in their life and others go through a raging fire. Why is that? Well let me ask you, which campfire does the fire fall?