It started with a simple question during prayer. I had been reading about hell, and something didn’t add up in my mind. So I asked God plainly. “LORD, how can hell burn if there’s no oxygen in it?”
There was no lightning bolt. No audible voice. But I felt Him lean in. I’ve learned over the years that when God answers, He doesn’t just satisfy curiosity, He pierces through layers I didn’t even know were there.
And this is what He began to show me. “For our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:29
At first, that verse confused me. Isn’t that a reference to His holiness? What does it have to do with the fire of hell? But then the Holy Spirit whispered something deeper. “You’re thinking in human terms, oxygen, combustion, science. But hell isn’t governed by earthly laws. It’s the full unveiling of divine judgment.”
That struck me. I had always pictured hell through earthly lenses, flames like the ones we know. But God reminded me that in the beginning, He created fire and physics. And just as He caused a bush to burn before Moses without consuming it (Exodus 3:2), so too can He cause a fire to burn where no air exists. Because hell isn’t natural. It’s supernatural.
Then He led me to another passage. “And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night” Revelation 14:11
Boom! There it was eternal torment, without end. Not symbolic. Not a metaphor. Not a poetic exaggeration. And He said, “This fire doesn’t burn skin, it burns My truth rejected. It burns My mercy despised and it is fueled not by oxygen, but by the absence of Me.”
That wrecked me. That made me choke with truth, and I wept with reverence.
I realized that hell isn’t terrifying because of fire it’s terrifying because God isn’t there. No breath, no light, no hope, no more second chances. It is existence cut off from the very One who is Life and breath.
Then the LORD reminded me, “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10 and “He delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” Colossians 1:13
That’s when it hit me. The real miracle isn’t that hell burns without oxygen. The miracle is that Jesus Christ descended into that darkness took the weight of sin, felt the separation, bore the judgment so I’d never have to taste it.
The question I asked in prayer led me to worship in awe and wonder.
Because this God holy, just, all consuming doesn’t owe me any answers. But in His mercy, He gives revelation. Not to satisfy my curiosity, but to deepen my conviction and thank Him I won’t be there, not because I’m good, but because He is.
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Fire That Burns Without Air?
