FIRE

               FIRE                  

Fire… Attractive… Warmth… Something about fire, it draws one in… The campfire… The open fire place… The dancing flames… One can lose themselves in just staring at the open flames of fire…

Jerimiah’s ministry, his calling, his anointing, the word of GOD that was in him, he compares it to fire… Jerimiah preached that word that was in him with none effect to his people… None converted… None repenting… None turning…

The picture we see of Jerimiah is he is buried to his neck in waste… One little ray of light from the afternoon sun and that of the moon on a clear night… His description of the word of GOD is as a fire to and in him…

Jer 20:8 For since I spake, I cried out, I cried violence and spoil; because the word of the LORD was made a reproach unto me, and a derision, daily.

9 Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.     KJV

It was in his heart and he could not contain it… He became weary in trying to hold back what the word of GOD that was in his heart…

·        The fire looks to vent…

·        The fire looks to escape…

·        The fire looks for oxygen…

·        The fire breathes…

And so, it was with Jerimiah… It was in his heart… The word was in his bones looking for an escape, a way out…

Jack London the author of the classic, “The Call of the Wild…” Jack London tells the story about a dog that like as most dogs, they are loyal and loving… So it is with Buck for his owner, Jack Thornton… However, there was in Buck an attraction and yearning for that of the wild… That call never subsided, it was forever there… It was irresistible, it pulled at him… It’s call he lived with every day, every night, and every minute… Yet, what seems to keep at bay the urge to run off into the wild, and abandon Jack his owner for the wild, is but two things…

The love for his owner and his fire…

Buck is caught between two very different worlds… The wild and its call and the fire at the side of his owner… The pull, the inward struggle, the fire that blazed within the little cabin seemed to hold him from answering that “Call of the Wild…”  Deep within the forest the cry called to him… And inside Buck the restraint of that primal urge to run and run and embrace the unknown, was the memory of the fire… Always the fire, and the love for Jack that brought him back…

Fire… Always the fire…

Jerimiah’s call two very different worlds…

·        One side of Jerimiah said, no more… Not one more word…

·        No one is listening…

·        No one taking heed, I’m wasting my time…

·        The side of Jerimiah that never saw the desired results said, it’s an impossible task I have been given…

It’s only impossible when you are the one demanding the results…

Our focus is as always the end, the destination, the desired results…

However, I believe that God isn’t so much just looking for results… He is looking to see what our response of what we will do with the fire, even when there is no desired results… The results or no results aren’t on us… It’s what am I going to do with the fire???

·        Jerimiah, will you smother it???

·        Will you run from it and look to deny it???

·        Will you put it out??? Or will you vent it and let it breathe???

Never mind what others say… Never mind their wish to ignore, squash, or even kill you in the process of giving themselves to the putting out the fire…

If you are the Jerimiah of your generation, just like he, you have to decide to either follow the fire or run into the wild away from the fire…

Which call will you follow, the fire or that of the wild and the unknown???

For Jerimiah to have followed anything but that of the fire would have put him at following whatsoever his flesh would want to follow… Whatever he desired to follow…

I do know this to not follow the fire is to follow your own passions a fire that is of your own making… A fire that will never satisfy… A fire that will never bring true contentment, nor a fire that GOD desires…

·        Give me the fire of GOD…

·        Give me the fire that satisfies the soul…

·        Give me the fire that burns on the inside…

·        Give me the fire of HIS word…

·        Give me the fire that burns away sin, conquers self, and defeats devils, and gives me Jesus and HIS heaven…

The fire… Jesus said…

John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.    KJV

And like Jesus, HIS church said of the fire:

Acts 4:20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.    KJV

FIRE… WE NEED THE FIRE…