To light a fire can be easy to some and it can be a difficult task to many but to keep it burn is where the work lies. When you try to light up your lantern through match-stick, the striking of the match-stick against the box is the first step. It can get this done at the first strike or after many attempts. And believe me it can be frustrating when you don’t get it done after some trials. Yet a greater task is to keep the fire burning after it has been lighted up. You have to guard it against the blowing air and keep the lantern fueled to keep the flame burning. Failure to fuel the lantern will lead to quenching of the fire.
As a matter of fact 90% of Christians thirsted after God’s genuine fire right from the time they got saved; many got fed up and quit placing a demand on God for His fire after several attempts of prayer but no fire. Only few Christians continued and persisted till they got the fire and they are men of authority in the realm of the spirit around us.
Igniting the Fire of God in your life may be frustrating after many attempts but it required persistence and consistence to contact it. I know you have tried you best to carry this ancient mantle of fire. You have fasted and prayed yet nothing to show for it but if only you won’t give up and stay in the secret place, the fire will be yours.
The fire is always in the secret place waiting and seeking for men who will dare pay the price.
Can you please, don’t give up on your quest to carry the genuine fire? Can you please tarry as long as it will take you to carry the fire? Can you please pay the price to carry the one thing that can shape this generation for God?
Yet we cannot deny the fact that there are men among us that have once carried the genuine fire of God but they cannot sustain it to burn. Many minister of God have become yesterday men of fire. They encountered God in the past and did tremendous things but they have become a tale that is been told.
You may succeed in contacting the fire but you need to keep the fire burning and this is done through prayer and the word.
God’s fire is ignited by the scripture but intensified through communion.
Church history has taught us that ordinary men can walk in tremendous God’s power if only they can give themselves to prayer. Every revival and divine intervention in the scripture and in time past was birthed out of prayer.
Prayer is a key element to bring down the power of the Highest.
Moses, Elijah, Elisah, Joshua, and even the apostles were all men of prayer. They operated in such dimensions that we have never been seen before because they gave themselves to prayer. Please note that God setting you on fire won’t be done outside the place of communion.
What is lacking today is the spirit of prayer that the general of faith had. The spirit of prayer will invite the spirit of fire. Anywhere you sense the spirit of prayer in the atmosphere, be sure to see fire in operation and men on fire. This generation lacks the capacity to stay in the place of prayer. No wonder we do little compare to what our fathers has done.
Consider Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42
Every time we find Mary at the feet of Jesus she is there to receive a blessing. In John 11:32 she fell at His feet when she had a burden over her brother Lazarus. Later in John 12:3 we find her at His feet giving Him her best as she anoints Him and wipes His feet with her hair.
We find Martha busy, too busy, and having trouble in the kitchen. She comes worrying about all sorts of things to the extent that she was resentful toward her sister for not helping her and she became demanding of the Lord to get what she wanted done. She wanted the Lord to straighten out her sister and rebuke her for not helping, but the Lord gave her a rebuke.
Jesus told her that while she was very busy serving she had missed the most important part (Communion) and Mary had chosen that part: to sit at Jesus’ feet and it was the one thing that was needful or necessary. Jesus’ word showed that not only was it the most important, but it was permanent, “that … which shall not be taken away from her”.
In the Christian life our choices are not usually between what is good and what is evil. Usually the choices we must make are between what is good and what is best. So often our lives are consumed with many good activities, but we are so busy about these things that we neglect what is most important: spending time with our Lord.
Activity is not spirituality: you can be everywhere in the church but nowhere in God’s presence. You can be busy for God and yet doing nothing for God.
Oh! How will I feel to know that I wasted precious years pursuing things I perceived are good but they don’t score grade with God.
We have many ‘Marthas’ and few ‘Marys’ in the church today. Most times we are consumed with the planning and execution of programmes: be it crusades, congresses, conventions and camp meetings and we have little or no time to seek the face of the Lord.
Most of the times, the quest for success (financial, marital, ministerial, family, academics and career) consumed us so much that communion become a once in awhile thing.
Success is good but we shouldn’t sacrifice our fellowship with God on the altar of running after success.
When you do, you will begin to do anything to attain successful status even if it’s against God’s standard.
When you allow your quest for success to consume you, it will get all your attention with little and no time for God. It will stylish push you out of God’s presence and water down your love and devotion for you.
The greatest danger is that quest for success unchecked can bring you to a state of lukewarmness where you are not burning for God again. For you to be on fire for God, you must still in fellowship with God.
Luke 24: 13 – 16
Notice, these disciples had communed with the risen Lord! But it had been Jesus who initiated the fellowship. Jesus said that ‘true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him’. John 4:23.
God is seeking people who will fellowship with Him. He is looking for men that will commune with Him. If you want to set your heart on fire, make fellowship your dwelling place. When you come into the place of fellowship shut the door of your personal needs and let your focus be on Jesus. Exchange your self – centeredness to Christ centeredness.
When you worship, it must first displace you at the center of your life and enthrone God. That is when you will begin to see your inadequacies and your need of God. The reason why we don’t experience the multifaceted moves of the Spirit is because we focus on our needs. Our programmes focused on our needs and little or nothing about enthroning Him.
Our services focus on deliverance, healing, blessing, prosperity and family life. These constituted our prayer points when we gather. Even when we hold praise and worship services, we are concerned about how we sing and dance and less concern about pleasing His Majesty through our worship. Great worshippers engage in worship that highlights God’s glory through lofty words of praise.
God is seeking for worshippers in every nation, city, church, and home. I asked the congregation one day: which one is easy to do; to pray or to worship? Everyone chorused worship. Then I said when you worship God, He will by Himself seek you and initiate fellowship but when you pray, you are the one seeking God and initiate fellowship. There is a realm fasting giant can’t access, there is a realm prayer warriors can’t access – the inner court room of God is reserved to only worshippers.
God is seeking our fellowship and communion, but we must respond. Notice v28 “He made as though He would have gone further.” God seeks our fellowship but He will not force Himself upon us; He will not stay where He isn’t welcome.
These disciples ‘constrained Him to abide with them’, if they didn’t He will pass on. Most times the Lord Jesus has come to your abode to seek commune but you didn’t constrain Him to stay and He felt. Some of us had missed great encounters because we don’t know how to host His presence.
Communion with Him is what you need to ignite the genuine fire you have ever wanted. Persistence and consistence is needed in the secret place to contact the fire that you need. You want to carry the ancient fire then stay in the secret place as the men of old did.
It is he that dwells in the secret place and not he that visit the secret place. Your dwelling in the secret place makes you become like the One who owns the secret place. The more you dwell and fellowship with Him, the more you begin to absorb His personal trait. God’s nature is fire, if you need fire, stay close to Him.
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