The Holy Ghost Fire of God Can Burn Continually & Brightly in You
- Summary: I don’t want my Christian life to be like a sputtering candle, but like a roaring bonfire. It takes effort to keep burning with holy fire, but the results are well worth it.
James 3:5-6
- •• This is a negative illustration of how a spiritual source (here, “hell”) can set a portion of a person on fire (here, the tongue), and how that in turn will affect the entire person.
•• Just change the source to heaven, change the affected portion to our hearts, and watch the holy fire burn!
•• The principle is clear: any portion of our lives that is “set on fire” has the potential to set our entire being on fire. We should be greatly desiring that our hearts be set on fire by God for Him and His work. If our hearts are on fire for God, we will begin to speak forth for Him with power and effectiveness, because “those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart” (Matthew 15:18). Lord, cause our hearts to burn with holy fire!
- •• Even God Himself is said to be “burning” with His passion for that which He cares about.
•• Personally, I’m not content to plod along day by day, just waiting to die and go to heaven. I want to “burn” with zeal for the things of God in this life ... and then go to heaven in God’s good timing.
•• This much-to-be-desired holy fire of God, this sacred passion, comes into us in several ways. Let’s go see.
- •• A big measure of the holy fire of God comes in the baptism with the Holy Spirit. When I was filled with the Holy Spirit in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1971, I experienced a substantial and enduring increase in my excitement for the things of the Lord.
•• Matthew 3:11 tells us that it is a baptism with Holy Spirit fire (KJV: "with the Holy Ghost and...fire"). Professor D.A. Carson writes of the Greek grammar here: “...the one preposition [en] governs both ‘Holy Spirit’ and ‘fire,’ and this normally suggests a unified concept, Spirit-fire or the like” (The Expositor’s Bible Commentary on Matthew, p. 105). The Holy Ghost baptism is an impartation of Spirit-fire! (of Holy Ghost fire [KJV], as some Pentecostals call it). When the 120 were baptized in the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the tongues of fire that appeared upon them was further evidence of this being an impartation of Holy Ghost fire.
•• Matthew 3:11f also indicates that the baptism with the Spirit will have the effect of burning out the chaff. So this Holy Spirit fire has also a beneficial cleansing effect in our lives.
••1 Thessalonians 5:19 “Do not put out the Spirit's fire." Don’t quench it! Let it burn! Let the baptism with the Holy Spirit and fire cleanse you and empower you. Don’t resist it; “let it burn!”
- •• Let your heart burn from the presence of Jesus. That’s what the men on the road to Emmaus experienced when, even unknowingly, they were in His presence.
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Hebrews 12:2-3 “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus [KJV: looking unto Jesus].... Consider him...” Let that be your daily practice. Fix your eyes, your focus, your attention, your thoughts, on your Lord and Savior, Jesus. And begin to experience greater fire in your hearts from your awareness of His presence with you.
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- •• Invite Him (spiritually speaking) to sit with you and open the Scriptures to you as you read His word, the Bible. Your heart will burn within you.
- •• The purpose of this holy fire, of this godly passion, is expression. It must not, it “cannot”, be held in. The prophet experienced an inner pressure to speak, to declare, to express the name of God and the word of God. The bottled-up word of God was “like a fire” inside him, and he could not hold it in.
•• If you bottle up fire, pretty soon it dies out. So open up! Speak out His word from within you. Two things will happen: (1) the fire will touch others; and (2) God will feed and increase the fire within you.
- •• If left untended, every fire goes out. I enjoy camping, and I especially enjoy campfires in the evening. They blaze brightly and bring much cheer ... until you stop feeding them new logs, and pretty soon they go out. There is a spiritual lesson there.
•• Live a life of spiritual readiness. Tend your inner fire, keep it burning. Otherwise, it will fade out and end up being only faintly glowing embers.- • Treasure the Holy Spirit’s anointing ... stir it up.
• Fix your eyes on Jesus. Let Him talk to you and open His Word to you.
• Share the fire, express it, give it out, speak up.
- •• Do these things, and God will keep His holy fire burning within you. And you will find yourself continually bearing fruit for Him, both in your own life and in the lives of others. And when growing numbers of God's people are stirred inwardly by Him, we will begin to see increasing Spirit-fire in the Church and see revival begin to break out. So keep your lamps burning for the Lord!
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Check out our related sermon: Keep Your Lamps Burning with the Holy Spirit's Fire in You
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©1995, 2015, 2018 James H. Feeney.
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Pentecostal Sermons and Bible Studies
by Pastor Jim Feeney, Ph.D.