Video Transcript: Strange Fire

In this lecture, we start a new section called the two fires of conflict, PeaceSmart Relationships course. 

These last several sections, we've been talking about how understanding God's purpose changes your priorities and responding to conflict.  And we talked about four of God's purposes in conflict at the trap of offense; to deliver people from the trap of offense, to transform people at the trap of offense, to reconcile and restore relationships at the trap of offense, and to destroy the works of the devil at the trap of offense. 

Because we understand that these are the Lord's purposes, among others, there will always be more, there will always be those purposes that are specific to the conflict and the parties involved in that conflict, that you have the privilege, either as a participant in the Wildfire, or as an intercessor, or as a leader, to perceive what the Lord's purposes are, to seek the Lord, ask Him to reveal to use His purposes, and then to set your priorities accordingly. 

Well, now we move on to this next leg of the Peacefire triangle, which is the power section, and how responding with God's power can change your possibilities in conflict.  When we talk about power in responding to conflict, I'm talking primarily about the responses we make, the attempts that we make to put the fire out.  What is it going to take to extinguish the Wildfire and having this discussion about the power to extinguish the Wildfire, I'm going to start with this section I call Strange Fire. 

A Strange Fire I take from the story of two of Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu in the Old Testament book of Leviticus Chapter 10.  They were the sons of Aaron and they worked in the tabernacle under Moses. And they were assigned with the daily duties around the tabernacle Ministry of offering the sacrifices of keeping the altar lit and the altar of incense lit.  

And in Chapter 10 of Leviticus, we read Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu took their sensors, put fire in them and added incense, and they offered unauthorized fire, or Strange Fire as the King James translates unauthorized, before the Lord, contrary to His command.  So fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.” 

Now, you may think, Brian, that's a pretty strange story to put into a course about conflict and what it takes to extinguish a Wildfire.  But the example of this story illustrates for us a principle that we often fall into as Christian leaders in responding to conflict.  

Nadab and Abihu tried to do God's work in a way that the Lord had not authorized.  They didn't light the altar in the manner in which and with using the fire was which He had ordained.  So when I use the term Strange fire, I mean trying to extinguish the Wildfire in a manner that does not glorify Jesus Christ, nor that has been authorized by Jesus Christ.

Aaron’s sons sought to perform God's will in their own way.  Strange Fire comes to the Peacefire, with an agenda for a desired outcome, the lantern, rather than to please and pursue the Lord's purposes.  Strange Fire attempts to extinguish the Wildfire without a relentless reliance on Jesus Christ.  It can sometimes stem from presumption.  

We think we know what the Lord is doing without praying and prayerlessness will never bring us a resolution to extinguish the Wildfire when we aren’t relying on Jesus Christ.  So we may have a thought in our own mind, well this is what I need to do.  I'm sure the Lord would approve of this.  The Lord desires us to rely relentlessly on Jesus Christ, in the same way that Jesus Christ relied relentlessly on the Father during his earthly ministry.  

And so when we try to extinguish a conflict Wildfire without spending time with the Peacefire, we're going to introduce Strange Fire into the dynamic of the conflict.  Strange Fire focuses on pursuing an acceptable outcome for the parties rather than reconciliation that glorifies Jesus Christ.

In the court system in which I practiced here in the United States, the court system seeks to name a winner and a loser in each case that comes before it.  The court doesn't try to reconcile the parties.  The court doesn't care about relationships.  Their role in the civil court system is just to settle the matter, because the parties haven't been able to do it themselves. 

At the Peacefire, when we introduce Strange Fire, we may be pursuing an acceptable outcome to the parties.  But when we don't rely relentlessly on Jesus Christ in that process, we may well settle the ownership of the lantern but we will fail to reconcile the relationship because only Jesus Christ can bring that reconciliation that restores relationship and heals wounds. 

I participated in mediations and conflict resolution processes where parties would come in, all Christians, and their goal was to resolve their dispute.  And there's nothing wrong with that.  But recognize that sometimes the parties aren't ready to reconcile.  So you may resolve the property issue but until the heart issue is resolved, till the relationship is restored, there is no reconciliation and the fire is still burning. 

Our temptation, when we use Strange Fire, is to address the property issue but not to address the relationship issue.  Sometimes in conflict as a Christian leader, you're going to encounter situations where one or both of the parties are not yet ready to reconcile.  And because we will try to make that happen, using Strange Fire, when we're not seeking the Lord, when we're not relying relentlessly on Him, we can try to make that happen. 

We know it's the Lord's desire.  We know it's one of His purposes. But His timing is His alone. And sometimes parties just aren't ready yet, the Lord is still doing something.  He's at work exposing something else, or their heart is so hard that they just are not ready and not in a place where they can lay down their interests yet, where they can lay down those desires and come to the PeaceFire.  And until that day happens, reconciliation cannot occur.  It will be a false peace or peace faking. 

So be prepared.  You will encounter conflicts where you will be ready to reconcile or one of the parties that you're working with will be ready to reconcile with the other but the other will refuse.  Wait on the Lord.  Remain at the PeaceFire.  Continue to pray and intercession for those people.  But resist the temptation to use Strange Fire to strong-arm someone into a settlement to cause them to do something that they really don't have peace about doing, just in order to resolve the lantern. 

The Lord is always at work, and He doesn't need our help in accomplishing His will outside of His direction.  So, Strange Fire, our attempt to extinguish the Wildfire and do God's will our own way. 

In addition to Strange Fire, there is another approach to resolving conflict that we'll talk about in the next session that, while intended to extinguish the Wildfire actually causes the Wildfire to accelerate.  I look forward to sharing that with you next time. 

God bless you and we'll see you then.