Keeping the flame burning brightly ever...

How do we stay on fire for God?

Just penning some of my thoughts down hope that this will encourage some! I find that I was asking myself this question recently, why we sometimes can be so on fire after events like church camp or fire conference to cite a few examples but a month or so later lose that passion and zeal. While there are different seasons in our lives, yet there must be more than just being on fire for awhile! So I asked God and He showed me a picture of a fire. If you've ever helped out in BBQs (I hope you have been or else that shows I've been doing too much), you'd see that there are a few elements to having a fire that will give you well cooked tender BBQ goodness.

1) The fire-starter
Ah...this is the encounter with God that is equivalent to the burning bush experience. It must be divine, it must be awesome. Many times we feel that such experience is all too common, but these are the encounters that change men from mere men to men who are ready to serve God. Moses had his, David had his, Ezekiel had his, Peter, Paul, John, James and many more. Many of us have been encountering God! Be it at church camp or during fire conference or during service! But yes alot of us have if you haven't ask God for such a power encounter that will change your life!

2)Fuel
Every now and then we need to add fuel when what is there is already burnt up. This is where we need to ask God to refresh us! I believe adding fuel into our lives is when we go to church weekly and hear God's Word and worship and see what God is doing in the lives of others around us. We need to be committed to coming to church and participating actively in the ministry and the direction the ministry is heading!

3) Fanning the flame
Every fire requires oxygen! I'm sure you've seen a satay man fanning his satay! Fire is fanned by daily commitment. Like it or not, the truth of the matter is that christianity is a conglomeration of daily disciplines that build up our lives for Jesus. There can be no changed state of the soul or mind if you do not allow such thoughts to continue root themselves in your minds. The fact is we need to cry out for the lost daily or else we'll slowly lose the fire and passion in our lives. Try starting a fire and leaving it alone for a long time, we don't even need to extinguish it it'll die out by itself.

Some other notes:
-Our passion is never seen outwardly by the level of emotion and hype! Fires that burn with alot of flame may not be the hottest fires, the white glowing embers are often hotter! It's whats inside that counts and the amount of time and committment we put in, in the secrecy of our prayer closet and in the depths of our thoughts. While flames and smoke will definitely rise up obviously, its easy to tell if someone is really on fire but the real battle is inside you own room when you pray and seek His face.

-As people standing around someone's fire, we are responsible if the fire dies out. Let's be vigilant to see what's happening in the fire's of others around us and not just bystanders. Occasionally some may not be monitoring their fire perhaps more common in people who are inexperienced in the art of BBQing, but when we are nearby we need to help out! Throwing in the fuel of encouragement ever so often, and encouraging each other to fan the fire personally.

-Protecting the flame. Our enemy who wants to stop us from enjoying our BBQ will always extinguish the fire. That's when we need to guard our fire, when our eyes are on the fire the enemy cannot attack it but the enemy often distracts us first with something else of less importance before throwing a pail of water on it! As people who stand aroung we also need to intercede in the situation and chase the enemy away.

Let's all seek to stay on fire and go out and do God's work wherever He has called us to! Let's not after sometime choose to return to our old state of sian-ness and hardness towards the lost, we are responsible with the burdens God has given us!