PROPHETIC WORDS

STRANGE FIRE, PURE FIRE

by Lyn Packer

June 2025

In mid-March the Lord took me into an extended revelatory experience over several days. Here is a summary of what I saw and heard. While initially I felt the visions were about New Zealand, and the work God is doing here, I believe they are for the global church as well.

Strange and Unsanctified Fires

I saw the Lord begin to walk purposefully across the country and begin to stamp on fires His children had gathered around. As He stamped on the fires a shockwave reverberated through the gatherings. Some people thought it was a natural happening, but discerning ones began to feel that something spiritually significant was taking place and they began to seek the Lord.

As He stamped on the fires I heard Him say:

“These are fires that look like My anointing, that look like My power but are not truly founded in Me. They are fires that have become strange fire on My altar. They are fires My people have gathered around that have brought some level of comfort, some level of warmth, some level of identity and camaraderie, but I am exposing them now as unsanctified strange fire.”

(We see a biblical example of false fire or strange fire in Leviticus chapter 10 where two of Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, offered incense with “strange fire.” The Hebrew word translated “strange” means “unauthorized, foreign, or profane.”) 

The Lord went on to reveal several types of unsanctified, strange, corporate and individual fires.

Corporate Fires

• Some fires were initiatives of people authentically called by God, but which had become soul-fuelled fires highlighting an individual’s ministry and image, or a church’s image, to attract people etc. These ministry’s insecurities became what made them keep the fire stoked and burning. They were often fuelled with slick presentation and showy gift use that released soulish emotions, not true transforming power or love. Their wounds informed their decision making, and their need to be proven to have value dictated their works. They provided people with a seeming measure of warmth, of camaraderie and comfort, a place to gather around, and identify with.

• Other fires people gathered around were stoked by religious activity, and fuelled by mans desire to become acceptable to God, or holy, like God, and were fuelled by the belief that they had to try and earn God’s acceptance, love and presence. “My pushing myself to pray, fast and reading my Bible make me acceptable, and my holiness is dependent on my will-power to resist sin.” These self-righteous religious works became the fire they gathered around.

• And there were some fires that were initially started by the Lord, but man’s ego misinterpreted the fire’s meaning, believing it showed that God was with them, that they were special, and that God was endorsing their works, their prayer, their crying out, their fasting, their righteousness. Many then became comfortable sitting around the fire, thinking their works were what brought the presence of God into their midst.

• Others were fires started by the Lord during times of visitation or revival. The Lord’s purpose for this revival fire was for the purifying His people of the dross in their lives, and empowering them with purpose and passion, that the awakened church would move out from there to disciple society, bringing reformation and transformation. Instead, God’s people chose to camp around the revival, and when the initial fire began to die down, they tried to restir it by reminiscing about its power and the glory in it, and praying for another visitation, and in the end that fire of awakening was wasted.

Individuals’ Fires

• There were also fires in the lives of individuals that had been polluted. Some of these were again religious in nature – individuals feeling that they had to perform a certain way for God to accept them, read their Bible more, pray harder etc.

• Others were people called to ministry who became caught up in building a platform for their gift and ministry, brand-building and the idea of celebrity Christianity.

• Others were individuals whose fire had grown dim because it hadn’t been stoked by passionate desire for the things of God, instead they were left going through the motions.

• Others were fires where people had once been surrendered to the Lord and His will, but the cares and draw of the world had caused their passion to wane.

During this time of encounter the Lord was very clear that He will open our eyes to see, and be able to discern between the true fire of the Lord and the false fires we have gathered around for comfort, acceptance, community and personal identity, or because the teaching there agreed with our personal beliefs. Many will leave the false comfort these fires provide and seek the presence of the Lord again, surrendering themselves afresh to Him and His will for their lives.

Reactions to the Exposure

In the visions, I saw some people crying out as they realised the fire they were gathered around was being shown to be a false fire. I saw them on their faces crying out, “Father forgive us, have mercy, cleanse our hearts take the scales off our eyes. Purify us.” These people had a genuine desire for God’s cleansing work to happen.

But then I saw the enemy try to infiltrate this group of people to win them back to his agenda. Some were persuaded by his suggestion that this was happening in answer to their prayers, and those people once again began to add the fuel of ego, nourished by the deception of the enemy, to the fire, and they ended up missing what God wanted to do amongst them. 

Others stayed in the place of seeking purifying, allowing God to cleanse them and recognising that God’s goodness and mercy were at work in their lives. This brought about an ongoing transformation for them that overflowed into the world around them.

I heard the Lord say, “I am not after a short momentary revival, I am after reformation, a transforming work that continues on from that initial flash point to bring a maturing in Me, a becoming more like Christ, that Christ may live through them, not just in them. My aim is that revival become reformation and lead to the transformation and discipling of nations.”

I saw others who got angry at God for exposing the falseness of their fire, and they sought to defend it against God, and against any that spoke out against their fire. These ones had closed their hearts because they didn’t want their comfort, or their belief in the false identity they had taken on to be challenged. I heard clearly the Lord say that those who continued to fight Him to defend their fire will in the end be left with cold comfort – little or no consolation, encouragement or sympathy.

Judging and Cleansing

I saw the Lord judging us as individuals and as the church. As He did, His love and power were released and people were purged by fire (Mark 9:49; 1 Pet 1:7), and washed by the water of the living Word, Jesus (Eph 5:26). This judgement, and our acceptance of it, resulted in people being set free, the dross in lives being burned up, and a purifying take place so that only the pure gold remained (1 Pet 1:7).

I felt Him say, “My judgement is not against you, or about punishing you. Your sins are forgiven in Christ. My judgement is against anything that holds you in bondage, anything that comes against you, that seeks to hinder your maturing as Sons and Daughters of God, and the formation of Christ within you. My aim is to bring you to wholeness – sozo, the fullness of salvation! It is about breaking you free from the illusions and lies that you’ve lived under, that have caused a confining and a constricting around your growth and been a prison to you .Don’t run away from My judgement; run into it, experience My mercy, love  and goodness, I am a refuge for the oppressed and a stronghold in times of trouble.”

(This is found scripturally in Rom 12:1-2; Psa 9:7-9; 103:6; Luke 18:7,8).

New Growth, Restored Identity, and Fresh Purpose.

This season of exposure, cleansing and refinement has been released, so that by His goodness the Lord may bring us, His people, into freedom and into a greater place of knowing Him, knowing our true identity, and our mission to rightly represent Him.

After the cleansing I saw the Lord breathe upon the land and new fires spring up. The Lord revealed that these fires were His fires, sanctified, holy fires of His eternal presence.

I heard Him say, “These fires are my ‘Ahika’, my home fire. My ‘home fire’ (ahika) will be a place where people gather around Me, and Me alone, as the true source of sustenance and community, not around fleshly man-made fires. In My presence, around My fire, they will discover their true identity, and find their place in My family, built on the revelation of being one with Me and because of that one with each other in Me. They will also find purpose there that fuels the desire to go out into all the world as My ambassadors, to see all come home to me.”

(Ahika is a Maori word used in New Zealand for a fire that represents having a claim to certain land. This fire was kept burning as a sign of a continued right to occupy. Sometimes it was buried in their tribal land if they had to leave it, and when they returned they lifted it from the earth and refueled it, so a fire was kept continually lit).

I felt the Lord say that even in this there are some who would be tempted

• to use these newly lit fires for their agenda,

• others that would say the fires are not true fires of God and would seek to dismiss the work He is doing.

I believe we will need to be watchful and on guard against these two extremes happening as God does new things, establishes fresh moves of His Spirit, new ways and places of meeting and bases to move out from. However, those with eyes to see and a heart to discern His presence will seek to keep the fire pure.

The Lord then went on to reveal that as these true fires spring up and become established, cared for and kept pure, that many would see their authenticity and purity and be drawn to Him by them.

I also felt Him say that He would whistle to the nations from the ends of the earth (Isa 5:26) and that New Zealand’s voice would be heard around the globe as it calls people back to Him.

Increased Revelation of His Goodness and Purpose

God is telling us that this time of exposure, of seeing fleshly fires extinguished and His assessing judgement being released, is to bring us into a fresh revelation of who He is and the good plans He has for our lives. We are called to be righteous ambassadors, spreaders of the good news, those who disciple nations and who shepherd and steward with wisdom.

As God’s fire comes in our lives and in our churches, let’s embrace His purifying work, and  with expectation look for the Lord to provide deeper revelation about who He is, who we are in Him, and our calling to love the world as He does.

Action point

Ask the Lord to show you the state of your personal fire on your personal altar, and be open to Him showing you the state of the fire on the altar of the church you attend. Freshly offer yourself to the Lord as a living sacrifice and ask for the cleansing, purifying fire of God to consume you so that the dross is removed and the true power and anointing of God restored.

BIO