The Flame of God

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;” – 2 Peter 1:5

One experience with God, no matter how earth shattering, how magnificent, how powerful, is not enough to coast on all the way to a home in heaven.  No blessing you received today, will carry you for the next thirty years.  There is no spiritual elixir of invincibility.  No miracle pill, or prayer.  Like a fire, you need a spark, but you also need maintenance.  Sacrifice is the fuel that feeds the flame.    

Sanctification is simply the reunion of God and man.  It is a spiritual experience, obtained through grace, by faith; accomplished by the Holy Ghost.  It can and will bring you back into perfect fellowship with God, but it is not designed to be obtained, and then put on a shelf like a piece of fine china.  When you are a sinner (one who intentionally disobeys a personally known law of God) you are nothing but logs, a pile of raw material; but don’t be discourage everyone is, until they give their life to God.  When you repent (that means you make a U-turn, away from sin and to God), God forgives you and you feel wonderful!  Now you’re a stack of logs, the lattice and tepee looking kind.  You are a ready vessel, waiting, for the flame.  When you have totally consecrated everything and “reckon ye also yourself to be dead indeed unto sin”; God sends his blessed Holy Ghost to set fire to your ready vessel; he pours out his Spirit.  Now you are sanctified, now you are alive, now you are burning………. now what do you do?  The experience describe above is a powerful, wonderful experience, but again, the initial ignition is not enough to carry you through your whole life.  You need to begin to add to your new-found faith.  God is consistent, and he will consume whatever sacrifice you continually give, but you must continually and diligently give.  Give your all, day after day; each morning rising with the same prayer as our Savior “thy will be done.”  As you diligently add to your faith, to the fire; it grows and dispels the darkness around it.  Furthermore, it attracts those who are cold and travel wearier, to the flame of God.  The fire of God is fed for God and burns brighter and brighter to bring in the lost to the light of God.  We all must come to see that when we believe the debilitating misconception that the initial flame is to be obtained, felt, and then ignored; we cease to burn long enough and bright enough to draw many others, and we certainly decrease the power of God in our lives.  Moreover, the flame soon goes out and we are left in utter confusion with no sure testimony.  As the thorns and thistles choke the seed and it becomes unfruitful.  So, a fire that is ignored is deprived of fuel and flames out.  By and by, the Holy Spirit is continually grieved until it departs.  Grieved at a heart that no longer desires to feed the flame of God, rather longs to consume the lust in the world.   

God will set ablaze willing souls.  However, without feeding the flame they will burn out.  The neglect is not solely, but certainly one of refusal to sacrifice.  Sacrifice is the fuel that is needed to sustain and can only be added with our consent.  If you have not been set ablaze, then please, at all cost, seek the flame of God.  If you have, then feed the flame, and burn for him who hath brought you light.  As wonderful as obtaining sanctification is, living sanctified is far better.