When the Holy Spirit baptizes someone, He immediately brings changes to the soul of that person. The heart now becomes enlightened with vision and understanding on a different level. The natural eyes and ears become dull to likely judgment, perception now takes place within their heart in reverence and the fear of God. There is still the human tendency to see, hear, and judge with natural understanding, but as the Holy Spirit processes the natural formations of a man, he becomes completely transformed. His meditations change and his ambitions become spiritual. This change comes on the threshing floor of the wind of the Spirit. Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire:
What is chaff? Chaff is not called chaff until it needs to be separated from the grain it protects. Chaff is called lemma. It is an important silk-like membrane that forms around the life of a grain that is in the tender stage of maturity. It brings protection from harmful insects and diseases that are prone to destroy the grain. It protects from blight or damage incurred by the surrounding elements. Lemma also protects the grains from drying out in exposure to drought and even natural sunlight. Lemma is of extreme purpose, so long as there is growth in the plant. Once the grain has matured, the lemmas must be separated or it will choke the life from the very thing it was so useful to protect. Now we understand that when the lemma is finished protecting, it becomes chaff. Chaff is good for nothing, humans cannot even digest it. It will spoil the life in the grain if it is not separated.
When the Holy Spirit baptizes the heart of man, there is no longer need for the protectionisms that were depended upon for so long. These personal comfort zones that we were so in need have become a danger to the life now within. The lemmas were so secure, we thought no one could take them away. Now they are in vain and will become damaging to the heart that has turned into a fountain and a running river filled with life. Oh yes! The lemma has now become chaff and has to be separated and driven away by the wind and burned with fire. V.12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into His barn; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
When the heart becomes baptized in the Holy Spirit, there is an accessory element of unquenchable fire that stays constantly with the Holy Spirit upon that man. This fire is not quenchable no matter how hard one tries. This fire is anti-chaff. It is designed to burn anything that seeks to stem the flow of the river. This fire is as active as the Holy Spirit because it is an integral part of the Holy Spirit. You have been baptized with the Holy Spirit and you have been baptized with this fire. As long as you walk baptized you will be under the power of His fire. This fire cleanses and makes dangerous things disappear and appear. Anything you tend to trust by common nature of the self-life, whether friends, occupation, agenda, hang-ups, biases, lifestyle, will become burnished amber tested by the fire of the Spirit. The temple of the Holy Spirit experiences a heavenly overhaul at His appearance and now it remains completely His to rest in through powerful demonstrations.
This bough of the Holy Spirit is called fire. It protects us at all times and keeps us separated unto the heavenly Father lest we lose the treasure that has been bestowed upon us. It causes our natural man to have many questions at times. As this holy fire does its purifying all around us, we can easily become discouraged until we see what it has fire-proved within us. Now we see these virtues of weakness that have become strengths through the proving of the fire; they are tempered, tested, purified, and cannot be burned up. It is almost a sure thing that our peers will condemn and misunderstand this process. You see, the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God. He says it is foolish and godless to him.
To be separated from the thing that was so needed to bring us to a certain place in our Christian walk, feels like losing all we have. Why? Because it was about all we had; brownie points and personal achievements with God that we deem as medals of our own goodness. We think we have done pretty well and perhaps we have in the eyes and ears of natural understanding. So long as we are satisfied with such self-approval, we will not seek the deeper life that is effectual through the power of the Holy Spirit. Chaff cannot remain in the sanctuary where the powerful Holy Spirit thrives. Hallelujah!
