“Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures.” Luke 24:32
Dear Ones:
Scripture calls God “…a consuming fire.” When God revealed Himself to Moses, Scripture again tells us, “….And the angel of the Lord appeared to him IN a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, ….the bush burned with fire, but was not consumed.” (Ex. 3:2) What does fire speak about when we consider God? What is He seeking to communicate to us also in John’s vision of Christ whose “…eyes were as a flame of fire?” (Rev. 1:14)
On the road to Emmaus, after the resurrection of Christ, when He came alongside the two disciples who were walking in the way, “He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures concerning Himself.” (Luke 24:27) These disciples would later speak of a burning in their hearts when Jesus spoke. This was most certainly the work of the Holy Spirit who took the words of Christ and spoke powerfully and convincingly to these disciples. Many centuries later, it was Charles Wesley who wrote: “Come Jesus Lord WITH HOLY FIRE, Come, and a quickened heart inspire, Cleansed in Thy precious blood: Now to my soul Thyself reveal, Thy mighty working let me feel, Since I am born of God.” Here you have the disciples, who in the time of Jesus, walked with Him and heard His word. Then you have Wesley who is speaking of the same “burning,” the result of Christ’s working in the heart by the Spirit. What of today, and us? Has He ceased to be the God of the burning bush, or the “consuming fire,” or that One who speaks and causes a burning in our hearts?
What about His ministers? Are they truly ministers of fire? Yes. They are such first of all because God declares them to be so. They are such secondly because the same “spirit of burning,” the Holy Spirit, has not ceased be that holy fire. He IS the fire. It is as we minister His word, in the power of the Spirit, that the effects of this fire are known, felt, and revealed. It was Wesley who also wrote on this subject: “…burn up the dross of base desire, and cause the mountains to flow.” What is Wesley’s expectation? It is for the work of the Spirit in the heart, mind, and soul, to “burn up” or “consume” that which is not of Christ. May God give us grace to believe Him for His highest and best now, today, delivering us from that which will not count for eternity.
Dear Father, blessed Giver of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of burning, speak to our hearts and grip us by the truth of Thy Word. Burn through all that is not of Thee in our hearts, enabling us to put our trust only and wholly in the Lord Jesus for all things. And give us grace to BE ministers of fire, those who minister Thy Word in “speaking and preaching,” in Spirit and truth, that others may truly be reached by Thee for Thy glory. We thank Thee, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad