Fuel vs Fire

Abraham did it. Moses did it. Saul did it. Even David it. Skip over to the New Testament and the disciples did it too.

Today, churches do it. Pastors do it. Para-church ministries do it. Christian authors do it too.

What is the “it” to which I am referring?

Trying to create the fire of God without God.

We see His fire, hear it, experience it, and feel it. And then at some point, we want to control it. So we decide we want the fire when we say, when we want, where we want, and how long we want it. Oh, and, who we want it to affect and who we don’t.

So we start trying to manufacture fire.

Try all the fire formulas.

This song will create the fire.

This post will create the fire.

This message series will create the fire.

This book will create the fire.

But all we can do as humans is start fires and fuel fires. We cannot … ever … create the actual fire. Physical or spiritual.

We get frustrated, disillusioned, off-track, and dangerous when we think we can create fire. And yes, for a bad pun, even burned out.

So, we must do the hard work to read, study, teach, write, serve, lead, follow, obey, and make ourselves available daily as the catalyst and fuel God uses both to start and to feed His fire where He says, when He says, how long He says, and to whom He says.

But we are not nor will we ever be the fire. That’s all God.

So, my friends, we must always remember as Christ followers, we are in the fuel business, not the fire business. God and God alone can create fire.

May you be His fuel this week.

Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. —Exodus 19:17-18 NIV

Do you see what we’ve got? An unshakable kingdom! And do you see how thankful we must be? Not only thankful, but brimming with worship, deeply reverent before God. For God is not an indifferent bystander. He’s actively cleaning house, torching all that needs to burn, and he won’t quit until it’s all cleansed. God himself is Fire! —Hebrews 12:28-29 MSG