His love for us is like that--a more firey and passionate and all-out-love than we can even imagine! The most fierce mother-child or father-child bond or the most passionate love relationship are not enough to describe the love of God. When we receive His love, its like lighting a torch within us. In Song of Solomon we read that many waters cannot quench this kind of love.
In Revelations the passage that stands out to me is chapter 3, verses 13 to 15. "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches...I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth."
John the Baptist said that Jesus would baptize us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (See Mat. 3:11-14.) “Our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:29.) To preach Christ is to preach what He is. Without fire, there is no Gospel, only cold dead words. I’ve heard it said: “In His house, God wants a blazing altar, not a refrigerator. God is a fountain of flaming glory.”
Hebrews 1:7 states, "He makes His ministers a flame of fire."
Jesus said, “I have come to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (See Luke 12:49.)
The physical effect of God upon Moses was that his face shone with God’s radiant glory. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 3:7-11 that the glory on the face of Moses faded away, but the glory that God gives us now remains and is much more glorious. Are we, His ministers, on fire for Him?
Smith Wigglesworth said, “I believe God’s ministers are to be flames of fire--nothing less than mighty instruments, with burning messages, and hearts full of love. They must have a depth of consecration, so that God has taken full charge of the body, existing only to manifest the Glory of God. A Baptism into death in which the person is purified and energized…”
I remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the gift of God [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity--He has given us His POWER! (See 2 Timothy 1:6,7.)
Brian Simmons wrote, “Undistracted devotion to Jesus will brand the heart with burning passions. Nothing can be compared to this love. Intense, unyielding, like a million nuclear reactors of blazing fire....This is the seal He invites you to place over your heart! It is a seal that will brand you for life...God says: My love for you will be consuming as the very flashes of fire from My burning heart. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over all your being until you are consumed! (See Song of Songs 8:6 The Passion Translation.)
You never have to advertise a fire.
Everyone comes running when there’s a fire.
--Leonard Ravenhill
May our hearts be ablaze in our loving devotion to You, Lord Jesus God.
Wherever we go, let us leave revival fires in our wake!
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