Guest speaker Yan Hadley spoke tonight on ‘Combustible Christianity’, how we need the fire of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Is 64:1-2 expresses a yearning for God to meet with us, ‘as when fire sets twigs ablaze’, and certainly, we need the fire of God to bring conviction of sin, reviving the church and drawing unbelievers to conversion. Revivals in the past (eg 1857 in the USA when over a million people were converted, or 1859 in Ulster, when 100,000 were converted, with men falling in the mud outside churches as they repented, or the Welsh Revival of 1904 when in three months, 100,000 people were converted) remind us of the power of God which can sweep through areas: in 1906, the Pentecostal movement began in a ‘tumbleown, dirty, wooden shack’ in Azusa Street, USA: there are now over 600 million Pentecostal/ charismatic Christians in the world. Revivals can occur anywhere (the 1907 North Korean revival lasted for almost 40 years; the Hebridean revival in 1949 saw four services held every night at 7 p.m., 10 p.m., midnight and 3 a.m., such was the hunger of people to meet with God. We pray God will revive His church once again, for we need the passion, enthusiasm, boldness and eagerness which revival brings.
Matt 3:11 reminds us that Jesus will baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire. As we surrender everything to God, set aside all distractions and seek God with all our hearts (see 2 Chron 7:14), we can be aglow and burning in our service to God (see Rom 12:11, Amplified version).
The ‘fire triangle’ speaks of the three elements necessary for fire to burn: oxygen, fuel and heat.
In the spiritual realm, oxygen is the presence of the Holy Spirit with us (Acts 2:2-3). Fuel is provided by God’s Word (Matt 4:4). Jeremiah described God’s word as a fire burning within him (Jer 20:9), and we need to hunger and thirst for the presence of God if we are to see God move in power (see Ps 42:1, Ps 63:1, Ps 84:1 for descriptions of this yearning.) Heat consists of a consciousness of God’s presence, conviction of sin and a compulsion to share Christ. The disciples on the road to Emmaus knew something of the ‘burning hearts’ which God can bring (Luke 24:32). May our hearts too burn for God.