Fire

I was thinking about something my son-in-law, Pastor Steve Bellavia, said last night that I liked.  He said, “I would rather see some fire in the church than no fire at all.”  We were talking about fanatics, and people in general, in the church that get carried away with emotion.  When my wife and I were in church last Sunday the pastor was touching on the same subject.

I have been a Christian for many years now and for the most part I have been very excited about what the Lord has done for me and in my life.  In fact sometimes when I hear the Word of God preached, I am not talking about the watered-down version or the feel-good-can’t offend anybody message, no, I am talking about the true Word of God with the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the man and the Word he is preaching, I feel like I need to get out of the church before I do something fanatical and the ushers throw me out of church because they don’t understand.  

I am not a young man by some people’s standards, but I still get very excited when I think about what the Lord has done for me, as I have already mentioned.  Sometimes I feel that I have a hard time holding back my emotions.  Many times I don’t hold them back and there are times I brag about what the Lord has done in my life and my family and it seems to make many Christian people mad.  The way I look at it, the things I have experienced should be the norm and not the exception!

Why is it when we see people that are excited and those that boast about what the Lord has done in their lives we want to throw water on their faith and excitement?  It seems we want to make them just as dull and boring as many of those around them.  

Jesus wasn’t boring in His days on earth, think about it, people’s hearts burned when they heard Him speak and things happened.  Demons went screaming out of people, people were healed, the deaf heard, the blind saw, and the lame got up and started jumping up and down with excitement.  People repented and were broken over sins, He breathed on the disciples and said, “receive ye the Holy Spirit,” and they received power and went about doing what their Master did.  He fed the hungry and met the needs of the poor.  

While I am typing this the tears are forming in my eyes, they aren’t tears of sadness, but tears of joy and excitement because I feel that the Lord is using my fingers to type, filling my mind with the words He wants me to say.  I know I am not smart enough to write the things I have put down here, it has to be the Lord.

Jesus made a statement about the church of Laodicea in the book of Revelations in chapter 3 verses 15, 16, “I know the things you do, that you are neither hot nor cold.  I wish you were either one or the other!  But since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth.”  In their case they thought they were rich and needed nothing, but they were wretched and naked, wearing the wrong garment.  They needed to be covered by the Lord’s garment, the robe of righteousness and realize their own unrighteousness and repent.

But I also thought I would use these verses for this lesson because I think the Lord wants us to be on fire for Him.  I don’t think He wants lukewarm, dull Christians that just bore people instead of excite them for Jesus.  Don’t get me wrong, God is not the author of confusion, everything has to be done in an orderly fashion, but I don’t think that means to put the Holy Spirit in a box and not let Him take control of the service.  The Word says, “Unless the Lord build the house, we labor in vain that build it.”

Sometimes I think if the Holy Spirit was taken out of the world, many churches would just go on with business as usual and would never know the difference.  If the Holy Spirit isn’t moving in the service then we might as well stay home!  So when you see someone that acts a little fanatical and more excited than you are, or you are used to, just try the spirit and see if it is of God instead of judging the person and throwing water on their excitement and faith.  In fact you might look at it this way, some of their excitement might rub off on you and that might be a good thing, praise God!

I will never forget the time I gave a testimony in church about my asthma being healed miraculously, a man said to me after the service, “I had asthma worse than you ever did and now I have emphysema.”  Talk about throwing water, where was the rejoicing with those who rejoice and weeping with those who weep?  Well I prayed that he would get healed and I hope he will.

Enough said, thanks for letting me share with you.  This is something to think about, have a super day and God bless you!!