Pentecost, Fire, and the Undivided Heart

Watch the full teaching here:
https://www.youtube.com/live/QndasYPh5a0?si=GW8KsifjuM_AQQiM

This Sunday, Chris Berglund shared a powerful Pentecost teaching titled “The Highway to Zion: The Ascent of the Soul.” What began as a reflection on Pentecost became an invitation into something deeply personal and profoundly corporate: the call to live with an undivided heart before the Lord.

Chris opened with Jesus’ words:

Matthew 5:8
“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

He reminded us that the word pure carries the meaning of being undivided. Purity, then, is not merely about outward behavior or religious performance. It is about the soul being gathered into union. It is the fragmented places within us being brought into wholeness by the fire of God’s love.

We do not have two identities.
We do not have two natures.
We do not live from two communion tables.

In Christ, we have been made new.

The fire of God does not come to destroy the person He loves. It comes to refine what is divided, expose what misrepresents Him, and reveal His image in us.

Clean Hands and a Pure Heart

Chris connected Jesus’ words to Psalm 24, where David asks:

Psalm 24
3 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart…

In a New Covenant understanding, clean hands and a pure heart are not something we manufacture through self-effort. They are the fruit of what Christ has already accomplished in us.

We have been given a new heart.
We have been cleansed.
We have been brought into His presence.

But now we are called to live there by faith.

Chris also drew from Zechariah 3, where Joshua the high priest stands before the Lord in filthy garments while the accuser brings accusation against him. But God commands that the filthy garments be removed and that Joshua be clothed in clean robes.

This is the Gospel.

The old man is removed.
The robe of righteousness is given.
The accusation is silenced.
Access is restored.

Then in Zechariah 4, the mountain becomes a plain, and the headstone cries, “Grace, grace.” Chris connected this to the mind of Christ—the renewal of our thinking until we come into agreement with the One who lives within us.

Not by might.
Not by power.
But by His Spirit.

Pentecost and the Reclaiming of the Nations

Chris then gave a powerful overview of Pentecost through the lens of the nations.

He reminded us that in the biblical worldview, the story of sin and fragmentation is not only understood through Genesis 3, but also through Genesis 6 and Genesis 11. At Babel, humanity gathered in self-interest and attempted to build a tower—a religious system independent from God. The result was confusion, scattering, and the disinheritance of the nations.

But Genesis 11 does not end with Babel.

It leads directly into the call of Abram.

Genesis 12 carries the promise that through Abraham’s seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. Chris pointed us to the beauty of Pentecost: Jews from the nations had gathered in Jerusalem for the feast, and the Spirit came like fire.

The fire that once came upon the temple now rested on people.

Each believer became a living temple.
Each one became a resting place for God.
Each one became a fiery witness of His presence.

Pentecost was not merely a private spiritual experience. It was God’s redemptive answer to Babel.

Where Babel scattered, Pentecost gathered.
Where Babel confused language, Pentecost made the Gospel heard in many tongues.
Where the nations had been disinherited, Christ began reclaiming them through a Spirit-filled people.

As Chris taught, God was sending people back into the nations to bear His image and reveal His nature. The fire came so that the people of God could represent Him rightly in the earth.

The Fire That Protects What God Has Revealed

One of the strongest themes in Chris’s message was the fire of God.

He spoke about what theologians sometimes call threshold judgments—moments in Scripture when God’s presence comes in a new way, a covenantal threshold is crossed, and there is an immediate judgment that protects what God has just revealed.

This is not judgment as a contradiction to love.
It is judgment because of love.

When God reveals His presence, His nature, His priesthood, or His glory in a fresh way, He does not allow that revelation to be immediately misrepresented. The judgment comes to preserve the purity of what He has just entrusted to His people.

Chris first pointed to Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5. Pentecost had just happened. The Spirit had come like fire. The people of God had become the temple of the Holy Spirit. A new Spirit-filled community had been born. And immediately, Ananias and Sapphira attempted to participate in that community through deception. They sold property, withheld part of the proceeds, and presented themselves as though they had given everything. Peter’s question was not, “Why did you keep some of the money?” but, “Why have you lied to the Holy Spirit?” At the threshold of the New Covenant community, God would not allow the purity of His presence to be mingled with performance, deception, or religious image-management. The judgment protected the integrity of the Spirit-filled people He had just formed.

Chris then connected this to Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. The priesthood had just been inaugurated. Fire had come from the Lord and consumed the offering, confirming His presence among His people. But immediately afterward, Aaron’s sons offered “strange fire”—fire God had not commanded. They attempted to approach God on their own terms and misrepresent the priesthood at the very moment it was being established. The judgment was severe because the revelation was holy. God was preserving the priesthood from being defined by human initiative rather than divine presence.

Then Chris spoke of Achan as Israel crossed the Jordan and entered the promised land. This was another threshold moment. Israel had passed through the waters, a picture of death and resurrection, and was stepping into inheritance. Jericho belonged to the Lord as a kind of firstfruits. But Achan held back silver, gold, and a Babylonian garment. He carried the residue of Babylon into the beginning of Israel’s inheritance. At the threshold of possession, God would not allow the new land to be built on hidden mixture, self-interest, or attachment to the old order.

Finally, Chris referenced Uzzah as David brought the ark of the covenant to Zion. David was restoring worship and bringing the presence of God into the place of His resting. But the ark was carried on a cart instead of on the shoulders of the priests, and when the oxen stumbled, Uzzah reached out to steady it. It may have looked like a helpful act, but it revealed something deeper: the presence of God cannot be stabilized by human strength. At the threshold of Davidic worship, God would not allow His glory to be carried by the methods of the Philistines or supported by human hands.

Each story reveals something sobering and beautiful: when God’s presence comes, His love protects what His presence reveals.

The fire of God comes to preserve the purity of His nature.
It confronts deception.
It exposes mixture.
It removes self-interest.
It judges human strength.
It protects His people from bearing His name in vain.

This is why Chris said the fire refines and reveals. The fire addresses the mixture within us so that what remains is not self-effort, distortion, or divided affection, but the clear reflection of Christ in us.

Like gold in the refiner’s fire, the process continues until the Refiner can see His own image reflected in the gold. God is not trying to destroy what He loves. He is preserving His image in the people He has filled with His Spirit.

Bearing His Name

Chris also brought fresh meaning to the commandment:

Exodus 20
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”

He explained that this command is not merely about avoiding profanity. To “take” the Lord’s name means to bear His name.

Israel was called to bear Yahweh’s nature before the nations. To take His name in vain was to carry His name while misrepresenting His character.

This matters deeply for us.

We are not simply called to speak about God.
We are called to reveal Him.

We bear His name when our words, thoughts, relationships, and lives begin to reflect the One who has made His home in us.

Chris reminded us of a phrase we have carried for years:

“When you cease to hurt one another with your words and your thoughts, you will enter into the river of love, the river of life.”

That is part of what it means to bear His image.

The fire of Pentecost is not only about boldness to preach. It is about becoming a people whose words, thoughts, relationships, and witness no longer misrepresent the One who lives within us. His fire comes to make us undivided, so that His love can flow through us without mixture.

The Ascent of the Soul

The highway to Zion is not a climb into distance. It is an awakening into union.

We ascend because we have been brought near.
We become pure in heart because Christ has made us whole.
We bear His name because His Spirit now rests upon us and lives within us.

This is the invitation of Pentecost: to become an undivided people, filled with the fire of God’s love, bearing His image to the nations.

The same Spirit who came like fire in Acts 2 is still forming a people who carry the presence of God—not by might, not by power, but by His Spirit.

And the cry over us is still:

Grace.
Grace.

Reflection Questions

1. Where do I still feel divided, fragmented, or pulled between two identities?
2. What would it look like for me to live more fully from the truth that I have been given one new identity in Christ?
3. How have I understood the fire of God in the past—as punishment, purification, love, or something else?
4. Are there places where I may be “bearing His name” but not fully reflecting His nature?
5. What would it look like for my words, thoughts, and relationships to more clearly reveal the image of Christ?
6. How does Pentecost change the way I see my own life as a temple of the Holy Spirit?
7. Where might God’s love be protecting something He has revealed in me, in our community, or in this season?
8. What would it mean for The Gathering to become a people who carry the fire of God’s love together?

Watch the Teaching

You can watch the full message here:

The Highway to Zion: The Ascent of the Soul | Chris Berglund
https://www.youtube.com/live/QndasYPh5a0?si=GW8KsifjuM_AQQiM

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