“There is a difference between having fire and knowing how to carry it.

Anybody who grew up on anime understands this kind of formation. Yu Yu Hakusho gives us a language for it. Whether we think about Yusuke receiving power through Genkai’s brutal training or Hiei learning to wield the Dragon of the Darkness Flame, the lesson is the same:

Power that has not been mastered can destroy the one carrying it.

Hiei can summon the flame, but the flame is not harmless just because it belongs to him. It is not safe simply because he can call it. Until he learns to bear it, govern it, and survive it, the power threatens to consume him too.

That is prophecy.

That is calling.

That is the Holy Spirit.

On Pentecost, the Spirit comes like fire. It fills the room. It rests on people. It gives language, courage, witness, and power.

But the fire of the Holy Spirit is not an excuse for spiritual recklessness.

Pentecostal fire still has to become cruciform discipline.

The Spirit that falls like flame also produces fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Self-control is not the absence of fire.

Self-control is fire that has learned obedience.”