By Precious Oli
Growing up, I liked the kitchen so much because at about age ten I had learned to light the stove and do simple cooking like boiling hot water and noodles. Sometimes, my brothers and I would light a broomstick and playfully swipe it while watching the sparks it produced. I learnt my lesson one night, sitting gently on the plastic gallon at the corridor, my brothers started their play again, this time I wasn’t playing with them but I watched them and enjoyed the fire.
Though, I nursed a little fear and gave them fair warning to take their play elsewhere. I guess they had grown used to me playing with the fire alongside the fact that I didn’t leave that environment; they didn’t take much weight to my words. Suddenly, a stray spark landed right on my exposed laps, I cried for mercy that night. My brothers received sufficient beatings for their action but it did not reduce the pain I felt or the scar it left on my laps for years even as I write.
When fire is lighted appropriately and at the right place, it is a useful tool, some call it a useful servant of destruction- in the positive sense now. It burns and clears the needful pathways. Fire fulfills purpose. But when it rages uncontrolled within the wrong atmosphere, it is a destructive giant that consumes everything and everyone that comes in contact with it.
The great evangelist John Wesley was not a nice conservative, conforming, Republican Christian. With no pulpit welcoming him he would ride out into the countryside, pick a spot in an open field, and begin to preach. He was compelling with his message and his presentation that large crowds began to show up to hear him.
Someone once asked Wesley how he was able to attract such large crowds with his preaching. Wesley responded, “I simply set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn.” Wow! Imagine such conviction.
The gospel lays much emphasis on men being set ablaze for the master’s use. There are so many convicting scriptures which encourages brethren to seek to be set on fire for God-burning with passion for the souls of men and the expansion of the kingdom.
Fire is a touchy word, and we need to be careful how we handle it verbally, as well as how we handle fire literally. We need to be aware that fire is both an instrument of hell and a tool of heaven. It is both a power for good and a power for evil. It is associated with both judgment and salvation. Fire is a symbol of God in the Old Testament. He revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. He led Israel by a pillar of fire. In Heb.1:7 His servants are called flames of fire, and the Holy Spirit is symbolized by fire.
On the other hand, fire is used in a negative way also. A sword of fire kept Adam and Eve from reentering Eden. Fire is a sign of judgment. God is called a consuming fire. The lake of fire is the fearful and of all who do not yield to the fire of the Holy Spirit. Fire plays a dual role all through Scripture. It can be a symbol of either heaven or hell. It can stand for fierce anger and hate, or it can stand for warm and gentle love.
As the Song of Solomon says in 8:7, “Water can’t quench the fire of love.”
This dual nature of fire leads to the paradox that the Christian is to both seek fire and shun it. A Christian is to be fire proof, and also to be filled with fire and ablaze with the Holy Spirit. The church cannot survive without fire, and yet it must fight fire continuously. Fire is both friend and foe, and the battle of life is fire against fire.
Unfortunately, I am not here to talk about how good the fire is because there is another fire which the bible speaks of, when ignited is capable of killing a man and strip a righteous man of his virtues. This fire has crept into the church, the hearts of men, under the sheets of ministers and capital tongue speaking, faith talking believers.
A FIRE THAT DESTROYS GENERALS
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?
Proverbs 6:27-33 (KJV)
Solomon uses the analogy of burning oneself to describe sinning
Every man is facing one fire or another. Either he is being a channel of the fire of hell, or he is being cleansed and motivated by the fire of heaven. T. S. Elliot has recognized this twofold fire and writes,
The only hope or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre-
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire
The destiny of every person is determined by which fire they allow to burn in their hearts.
I IGNITED A FIRE IN MY BOSOM AT ONE TIME
A brother I relate so well with moved to a new house and he asked that I come for a friendly visit but I declined on the note that I do not visit brothers. I guess I must have hurt him and misinterpreted his kind gestures. One thing he does not know is that I once lighted a fire and put it under my bosom. It not only burned my clothes, it wrecked my body and stripped me of the presence of God. I struggled for months and I tell you dear friend, those painful months are not to be written on sheets of paper and kept on display.
They were months of wandering and emptiness over a fire I have put out on time. Same I write to you about that you do not walk down this path which many have walked afore and heavily scarred. Am I living with guilt? Never, for grace found me, if not I may not have started my blog in the first place or had the confidence to write to you because I would be like one of those peddlers heavily striking your ailment but providing no balm to soothe your aches.
Read:There is really nothing wrong with sex
I was in my first year in school when I first met this young brother. We started off as friends with no strings attached until we took off our foot shields and walked on hot coals. Gradually and without much consideration, we carelessly threw caution to the wind and amidst the fair warnings from my friend explored the dangerous path of ungodly relationship. No! We did not have sex but what difference does it make when you have touched your bodies and the temple of the most high desecrated. Kai! One of the lies of the devil is that you have not done wrong as long as you engage in other “sexual” activities without actually having sex. Capital lies!
Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of a harlot? God forbid
. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
1 Corinthians 6:15-20 (KJV)
You reading this, could be walking down this path of carelessness and oh! I tell you are starting a fire you cannot control. The free visits to his or her place at night without a second party, the behind closed doors prayer meetings and heavy bible study (laughs). Excuse me ma, you are igniting a strange fire. The brief hugs, harmless pecks, caresses and oh! I see the way you smile when he lifts you up in surprise. Don’t worry, we have been there before. That carelessness has killed giants. God in his mercy may have wanted us to get together as man and wife for the expansion of his kingdom but we went ahead of ourselves.
I tell you in all sincerity and I boast not; before the bosom fire, I was on fire on God. You know that breakthrough in ministry that is almost at your doorstep after months of fast and prayers; deep groaning. You are sure as the air you breathe that there is a new dimension loading up in the atmosphere for you. Suddenly, that stray kiss happened, the romance and the oral sex comes in and in a spit of second, you feel a turbulence and like an ocean wash, everything you worked, cried and spent sleepless nights over searching the scriptures is gone.
That fire did not get so big today; you entertained it for so long. You allowed yourself click pornographic links that randomly popped on your screen. At first it seemed like nothing, it’s just a normal movie and before you knew it, every hour without that same ‘movie’ became tough and hell. Soon you graduated to fondling with your members for mere satisfaction……..fire under your bosom.
This bosom fire burns in the way that we dress. Dressing down is in. it is anything goes. Now the trend is the fewer the clothes, the better it seems. And I say that with a wry expression, not as truth. That is the way it seems to be going. It is almost like we have gone past even bad dress, and now it is to very little dress at all.
Our carelessness has landed us into troubles that we never thought of its grave consequences. I am not here to haul blames and judge your actions. I can only do that perhaps, if I have not been caught in the same web before. Even worse, ignorant of the finished work of the cross and the efficacy of the blood of the lamb
Come now, and let us reason together,
Says the Lord,
Though your sins are like scarlet,
They shall be as white as snow;
Though they are red like crimson,
They shall be as wool.
Isaiah 1:18-20 NKJV)
HOW DO WE PUT OUT THIS FIRE IN OUR BOSOM?
Carelessness comes in like a little fox. It is an attitude born of woundedness and finds root in hopelessness. It can perpetuate into a stronghold, little by little, until its grip is firm and visible.
- Ask
God’s truth is that we always have victory in Jesus. Anytime we cannot see our way out of our circumstances is an invitation to ask, seek, and knock for God’s answers until we do see them His way. Matthew 7:7 tells us, “Ask and you receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will open unto you.” I know you are weak to overcome carelessness. That is why Jesus came to die.
- Restoration
Restoring hope begins with restoring God’s order inwardly. Repentance is the first step. We must repent of adopting unbelief (iniquity) over God’s truth and acting out of the unbelief (transgression). Ask The Holy Spirit to come and heal your heart of woundedness and refill your soul with His captivating love.
God can restore us quickly once we come into His truth. He desires we pass the faith tests along our journey through life. It’s simply a matter of us awakening to more of His truth and activating it, as He leads us from glory to glory.
Luke 1:37 reminds us that “For nothing will be impossible with God.” Matthew 17:20-211 is clear that “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you. But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”
- Search me lord
It is critically important to get with The Holy Spirit and ask Him to search our soul to reveal all areas that have fallen prey to the enemy’s devices and to know what His methods are for overcoming them. Prayer and fasting together are power tools on steroids. So if you’re not hearing from Him immediately when you seek Him, you may need to fast until you do.
Moreover, Devil; your time is up………Game over
Prayer:
Dear God, please search my soul to reveal to me any carelessness and hopelessness of which I need to repent. I seek your truth to bring conviction and deliverance. What do you desire to awaken my soul to? Please open my eyes, ears, mind and heart to help me see and know this as you do. Thank you for your mercy and grace Lord. I choose to trust you in this, and I await your response. Amen.
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Read: Hosting the Presence Of God
Powerful And instructive piece,, more insight dear author…
Thank you Sir.
Thank you for stopping by
Amen to your prayer. Thank you for visiting sir.