“And that he died for
all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto
him which died for them, and rose again.” -2 Corinthians 5:15
Once we are set ablaze by God’s Holy fire, i.e. the Holy
Spirit. We then begin to burn, and like
a natural fire it is hard to ignore; but like a natural fire, the fire from God
must be fed. The question for this week
is:
How do we feed our
spiritual fire?
Short Answer: Absolute obedience to God.
Long Answer:
When you have the Holy Spirit dwelling within; you have the ultimate
instructor. The Holy Spirit will teach,
guide, lead, and exhort better and more precise than any book, professor, or
mentor could ever hope. Does this
alienate those resources, my opinion, no.
However, it does further the necessity to obey the Holy Spirit first and
foremost. Furthermore, when the fire of
God burns within you, no longer are you living life to please yourself, but you
live to please “him which died for them.”
You live to please God, Jesus, and you long for the direction of the
Holy Ghost. They are one and agree in
one, so living to please one, will please them all. Not to mention it will give you the highest
joy, peace, happiness, and take you to a home in heaven. Granted, you won’t look like the world, talk
like the world, or live like the world; but you will have something the world
does not, and draw them to something that they know not. This too will be a blessing to you because
you “love your neighbor as yourself.”
This will all happen organically as the Holy Ghost guides you, and you
follow, each day living out our Savior’s prayer “Thy will be done.” The need for the Holy Ghost in our lives is
also coupled with the need to maintain clarity and commune with the Holy
Ghost. This is where the value of having
and establishing good spiritual disciplines is paramount. They help to consistently maintain a close
relationship with Him who we live for and aid us in having constant clarity so
that we always can discern what God would have us to do. Disciplines like: daily reading our Bibles,
habitually attending church, spending time in prayer, and always being willing
to speak a word of utterance when the door is open; to name a few. Furthermore, we must be always willing to
cast aside anything that will compromise the clarity and communion with the
Holy Ghost. Our relationship with Christ
must be as intimate as a good marriage, and the communication as often. Your spiritual life should be akin to that
sweet old married couple that has been together for fifty years. They know each other so well that they can
look at each other and tell what one another is thinking. Their communication is so effective it is
basically undetectable and perfectly natural.
So, should our relationship be with Jesus Christ; we should be so close
to Him and so intimate with Him that we need not ask every waking minute “is
this your will? is this your will?” We are so in tune with him that it rightly
flows out of us. This is the sanctified
experience. Putting too much emphasis on
receiving the Holy Ghost is akin to putting too much emphasis on the wedding
and not the marriage. The initial union
is beautiful, but the lifelong relationship far better.
In closing, the question presented was: How do we feed the
fire? Absolute obedience to God. By giving diligence to spiritual disciplines,
after you receive the Holy Ghost; will provide clarity and communion so that
you may always know the will of God through the divine leadership of the Holy
Ghost. Then all that follows is
obey. Obey, obey, obey; no matter how
dark the night or how rough the storm; know His will and do His will and you
will never burn out, in fact, you will burn brighter still.
