On cold winter days when I am going to be leaving the house for a number of hours, I usually get the fireplace piping hot and load it up with some nice green logs. Right before I walk out the door, I will shut down all of the air going in. The fire will continue to roar in its blaze for hours; sucking in any oxygen that it can find until the flames dwindle to a flicker. Finally, the once brilliant orange gleam of a fire will have turned to a dark grey. The coals still smolder as they use up any small amount of air that can be found. The fire has gone out, but hidden beneath a crusty layer of ash is an ember still burning.

The Christian Life can be much like this fireplace. Once we were convicted by our sins and set our burdens at the foot of the cross. We – if you have tasted salvation – were made alive to Christ. Our souls were set afire by the living Word of God and we were quickened (that is made alive) by the Holy Ghost. We were like the fireplace burning bright with new desires: desires to see others saved; desires to know more about the ways of life; desires to know the God who saved us. Oh how sweet it is to feel your heart burning with passion and desire for a wholly good and rightness end!

But sadly, it is not uncommon to have felt our fires grow cold. The passions that once decided every aspect of our lives has dwindled down and become a routine. It is only ceremony. The tears do not fill our eyes when we sing the great songs of faith, our prayers lie flat on the floor as we utter words that have little meaning. The fires of many good believers have become little more than slightly warm coals.

Are all who name the name of Christ predestined to this sad reality? Is this the end of all followers of Jesus? God forbid! The opposite is true! We are predestined to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ himself. That is the true end of all who have excepted Christ’s righteousness.

Romans 8:29 KJV

²⁹ For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

One day we will be conformed (made to be like) the very one who saved us. We should be growing more like him every day. The Bible commands us to have the mind of Christ, to be transformed by the renewing of our mind, and God commands us to be holy for He is holy (Philippians 2:5 Romans 12:1-2 I Peter 1:15 respectively). So why is it that so many professing Christians are not burning brighter and brighter as they live, but are becoming less passionate, less holy, less evangelistic, less Christlike? Why does our fire always seem to fade?

Before we answer that question I want you to survey your own life. Are you more concerned about souls dying and going to Hell than you were 2, 5, 10 or even 20 years ago? Are you still hungering and thirsting after righteousness as you once were? How is your prayer life? Please take a minute and check one of these three options honestly.

There are some things we must be doing whether our spiritual life is Quenched or Quickened. If you answered 1, 2, or 3 there are actions that must be taken. There are two things we must do to keep the fires burning bright inside of us. both of these require God’s grace and provisions for without him we can do nothing.

First, we must fuel the fire that God ignited in us. Fueled by the eternal Word of God, giving us “fresh oil” each and every day. This is more than reading the Bible. It is living in the Word of God. It is ordering your life according to God’s precepts and keeping his testimonies with our whole heart.

It is meditating on him in the night watches and waking with a holy zeal to commune with him. Fuel by itself cannot burn. It MUST be mixed with the air of prayer to keep the flames burning bright within us. There are many things that prayer must be in order to bring life to a flame, but prayer must be fervent. There must be passion in prayer. it cannot be the sleepy prayer of Peter, James, and John, but must be the zealous cries of agony that bring sweat and sometime blood. If you cannot cry out to God in passion and boldness, if your prayer seems to get no higher than the ceiling, if you do not believe that you have entered into the throne room of heaven, I will assure you your prayer will do very little. I am not saying that all prayers have to be this way. There are many times my prayers are simple, thankful, praiseful, and are even silent in my own mind. There are times when this prayer is right and appropriate. But if it has been days – or weeks, or, God forbid, years – since you have spent an hour in mournful passionate prayer then the fire of your soul is nearly extinguished. Yes, the first thing we need is to be fueled by the Word of God and powerful prayer. All things that require a fire must be present.

Second, we must not quench the Spirit. We are commanded this by Paul in I Thessalonians 5:19 right after he admonishes us to “Rejoice evermore. Pray without ceasing. [and] In everything give thanks…” To quench means to put out. We must not intentionally put out the fire that the Holy Spirit is trying to kindle in us. How could we quench the Spirit’s working, by neglecting to intentionally fuel it by the Word of God and prayer, but that is not the only way. Anytime we fail to obey the Spirit’s conviction we are throwing cold water on our spiritual fire. When we willfully and initially sin we are doing our best to quench the working of the Holy Spirit. If God is dealing with us about something, and instead of submitting to Him, we wrestle with the conviction or justify ourself we are quenching the Holy Spirit. Nothing will stop the Holy Spirit from working in us quicker than direct disobedience.

Is there something in your life that has quenched the Holy Spirit? there is time to make it right. God can reach down to the ashes of your life and stir the embers that are barely warm. He can quicken your walk. He is able but you must confess your sins to our great high priest (Christ Jesus).

1 John 1:9 KJV

⁹ If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Maybe you have never felt the fires burning in your life because you have never been truly born again. If so please check out the “Born Again?” icon on our homepage. There is nothing as important as your eternity. Maybe you have been saved for a long time and have never truly learned to walk after the Spirit and be led by the Spirit.

We are called to be fruitful. We must be abiding in Christ to become fruitful because it is by his strength alone that we are able to bear fruit. If we are abiding in Christ we will be passionately perusing the person of Christ in prayer and Bible reading, study, mediation and memorization, and not quenching the Holy Ghost of God by willfully disobeying his commands and promptings. Remember Jesus said…

John 14:15-31 KJV

¹⁵ If ye love me, keep my commandments.

¹⁶ And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

¹⁷ Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

¹⁸ I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

¹⁹ Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also.

²⁰ At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

²¹ He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

No matter where you are in life, God desires you to live in a passionate pursuit of the person of God.

S.T.
I Thessalonians 5:24
"Faithful is he..."