Don’t Let Your Fire Be Extinguished!
One
channel that I like to watch on TV when I can’t find anything good on is Animal
Planet (lol don’t judge me, they have some good shows!). One of the shows on
this network that really captivated me is I
Shouldn’t Be Alive. The show depicts extraordinary stories of real people
that survived extreme circumstances, beating the odds, basically they probably
should be dead, but they lived to tell about it. The climax of the show is
obviously when the extreme circumstances occur (i.e. the individuals falls of a
cliff, is lost at sea, etc). When these “extreme circumstances” occur you see
these individuals survival instincts kick in and they are fighting with
everything they have to survive and the majority of these individuals are
injured in some way. I said all that to say that one of the crucial things
needed for survival is warmth, especially at night. One thing people always say
is build a fire to stay warm because the temperature in some geographic areas
drops significantly at night and you will need a fire to sustain you and keep
your body temperature regulated…
The
other day I opened my Joyce Meyer’s Battlefield of the Mind devotional (which
is amazing by the way!!! I highly recommend it!!!) and began reading . Each
devo begins with a scripture. And this one’s scripture was II Timothy 1:6-7: “That
is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan
the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner
fire] that is in you…For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of
cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a
spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline
and self-control." Now I’ve heard verse 7 numerous times, my mom has quoted it
to me and my siblings on many occasions, but I had not heard verse 6 before and
that caused me to pause and really dissect that verse in order to gain a full
and rich understanding. It took me about 15 minutes before I even got to the
rest of the devo. This scripture really wrecked me!!! Allow me to share what
God showed me…
Verse 6
instructions us to stir up, fan the flame of the gift of God that is within
you. Let’s look at stir up first. When you go to make a cake you don’t just dump
all the ingredients into a bowl, then pop it in the oven and call it a day
without stirring all the ingredients together. You won’t get a very good cake.
You have to stir/blend all the ingredients together creating a smooth batter.
Now I love to look words up when I’m studying (I have the Dictionary App on my
iPhone, so I can quickly look up words while studying the bible) to insure that
I fully comprehend the meaning of scriptures, so I looked up the definition of
to stir and there were two definitions that stood out to me:
The first definition for to stir
was: to
implement continuous or repetitive movements of one’s hand in order to cool, mix, agitate, and/or dissolve. I am learning that I have to
habitually, continuously and purposefully do things i.e. study the Word, pray, spend time with God in
order to grow when it comes to the gifts God has blessed me with and just my spiritual walk in
general. You need those continuous movements in order to get the beautiful end result, the delicious
cake. You cannot get to where God is calling you to be without consistency and perseverance!
You just won’t get there! We have to do our part in stirring up the gift.
The second definition of to stir
was: to
affect strongly; excite; to incite; instigate or prompt. I began to question myself…when was the
last time you were excited about the things of God and what He’s doing in your life?!? #Selahmoment
And that
leads me to the next part that caught my attention…fan the flame. So I read it
a couple times…fan the fame…fan the flame…fan the flame…Then I googled Why do you fan the
flame and came across this blog by Willis Howell. His blog began by listing the commonalities between literal and spiritual fire.
1) Both
need fuel to continue burning
(This is muy importante!!! So much so that I had to say it in Spanish!!!).
2) You
must respect it! You can’t be careless when it comes to fire!
3) If
you aren’t careful, fire can be extinguished! If left to itself, the natural
tendency of any fire is to go out. This is why we must fan the
flames it keeps the fire going.
Howell goes on the talk about
Leviticus 6:8-13. In this passage the Lord gives Moses specific instructions to
tell Aaron and his sons regarding burnt offerings. There is one piece of
information that is reiterated 3 times and that is “the fire on the altar must
be kept burning, it must never go out,” (Verse 9, 12 & 13). I read the
commentary of my NLT Life Application Study Bible (This is another product that
I highly recommend! Life Application Study Bibles are the BOMB.com!!! They are
absolutely amazing for studying the Word!) and this is what it had to say about
the fire any why it had to keep burning:
The
holy fire on the altar had to be kept burning because God had started it. This represented God’s continual presence in the sacrificial
system…God’s fire is present in each believer’s life today. He lights the fire when the Holy Spirit comes to live in
us…” (I
don’t know about you but I don’t want anything that God starts within me to be
extinguished!)
When you get saved there is this
fire, this zeal, this passion that is on the inside of you. You have a strong
desire to please God; you are for all intent and purposes on fire for Jesus!!!
But life happens and sometimes priorities get all screwed up and God somehow ends
up at the bottom of your list (Its crazy how we do God sometimes!?!) I know I
have found myself doing everything else except spending time with God and
reading the Word, etc. I had time for Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TV and all
other manner of things, but no time for God or those days when I did remember
Him (And
sometimes it wasn’t even that I forgot about God, but I had ignored Him)
it was the end of the day and I was too tired to even open my bible. So I would
tell myself, “Ohh I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll spend time with God tomorrow (I’m
so thankful that God doesn’t do me the way I sometimes do Him!!! #stillgrowing
God just enlightened me while typing this blog…God
should not be an option in your life; He is not a multiple choice question! You
can’t go to God sporadically…Ohh I acknowledge you today God…Ohh but I’m gonna
ignore you tomorrow. God should be a constant in your life, always a part of
it, always acknowledged and included. ) I have found myself
thinking sometimes Mariah, read your bible, you really need to study your Word
and I don’t listen to my own advice (I can really be hard-headed sometimes) And
it’s just like where is my desire to spend time with God, where is that fire
that I used to have? Why am I not excited about the things of God the way I
used to be?!? I used to be sooo hype about God!!!
Let’s go back to Leviticus 6.
Another instruction that God gave to Moses to tell Aaron and his sons was to, “…add
fresh wood to the fire…” (Leviticus 6:12). They were to fuel the fire with
fresh wood to keep it burning because the fire could never go out! And
then it dawned on me…Mariah!!! You aint been fueling your fire!!! And you
wonder where your passion, your zeal, your fire have gone. You been so caught
up in everything else, except God that you have messed around and let your fire
go out!!! #prioritycheck #lifecheck
Don’t get so caught up in this
world and stuff that you forget about Numero Uno!!! Everything else can wait,
God and your relationship with Him is what’s truly important. Don’t let your
fire be extinguished, fan those flames, fuel your fire, do everything you can
to keep the fire burning, it must never go out! As I mentioned earlier, when it
comes to fueling your fire, you cannot do this sporadically. That is a trick of
the enemy! Your fire will go out if you continue that way. You have to be
consistent. It has to be a daily habitual thing. You can’t open your bible
Sunday at church and then not even look at it the rest of the week. You can’t
pray on Sunday at church and then the next time you talk to God is next Sunday
at church. It will not work that way!!! That is not how you fuel your fire. And
the God we serve deserves so much better!!! He should always, always be first.
I’m learning in this walk that
#lifechecks should be a daily thing. Ask yourself did I put God first today?
Did I even acknowledge Him?!? Make sure that you get that quiet time in with
you and God, spend time with Him, worship Him for who He is, pray, listen, and
study His Word. God has called you to greatness. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I
know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not
to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” God has called you to do
something great. Some have been called to preach, others to teach, some to be
missionaries, others to sing, but in order to walk in that calling you must
fuel fan your fire by spending time with the one who called you. I was on Instagram
the other day and someone posted something that punched me right in the face:
How
are you called to preach, but don’t spend time with the one who called you?
How
are you called to sing or lead worship, but don’t worship the one that gave you
the voice?
How
are you called to play an instrument, but don’t spend time with the one you’re
playing for?
And then this popped into my
head, “How are you called to teach the Word, but you don’t spend time with the
master teacher, God, studying and learning the Word so that you can be
effective in ministry? A good teacher should always be learning. You will never
know it all, there is always something more that God can reveal to you.
So please don’t let your fire be
extinguished, but fuel/fan that flame!
If your fire does go out, know
that you cannot rekindle it, only God can do that because He’s the one that
started the fire.
If you’ve allowed your fire to go out because you’ve pushed God to the bottom
of your list get on your knees and sincerely repent, and ask God to please
rekindle your fire and thank Him in advance for doing so, and then do better.
When you know better, you should do better. Learn from your experience and ask
God to help you to do all you can to keep the fire burning. On this walk we
will make mistakes, stumble, and fall but none of that matters. What matters is
that we get back up and continue this journey growing spiritually because
ultimately we want to finish this race and hear our Father say, “Well done thy
good and faithful servant!” So do not stay stuck, if you discover your fire has
gone out, when you do that the devil wins. Get up! We serve a forgiving God!
Again I say repent and move forward! Because as I said before God has great
things in store for you! Be encouraged! I hope this blog blesses you as much as
it blessed me just writing it! God loves you to pieces and I do too!!!
Mariah <3
