Does Your Heart Burn For Him?

Have you ever repeated something to emphasize the importance of your message and even repeated it with a little change to make sure the meaning is clear? If you’ve ever raised kids, coached, or worked in an environment with team dynamics, I know you understand!

God did and does the same thing.

In Leviticus 6:8-13, Jehovah, or the great I AM, instructed Moses to keep the fire on the altar in the tabernacle burning. The key detail was the fact that the fire was never to be extinguished. Not only that, but it was supposed to be “kept burning.” Burning. Not a gentle glow with embers crackling quietly. The fire was to burn.

Why?

The fire was to represent the consuming nature of God Himself (Hebrews 12:29) – His very Presence. The altar was the designated place for offerings to be presented for the purpose of atonement or the forgiveness of sin. The consuming fire would accept the sacrifice offered as our reasonable sacrifice in view of the Most High God’s mercy, love, and grace.

Jehovah – the God of holiness and righteousness – would abide in the tabernacle with sin confessed, sacrifices made, and the consuming fire purifying flesh and sin.

The application in our lives over 3,000 years later is the fact that we are to burn, to be kindled, from the Source – Jesus’ Spirit. Our fire should not be of our own making, not from the fuel of this world which burns as stubble.

The blaze of our faith is no figure of speech. The New Testament demonstrates an Old Testament principle with Jesus Christ as the sacrifice offered for the atonement of sin, and the Presence of God abiding with those who invite Him to stay and tabernacle.

Turn to Luke 24. Jesus has been publicly scorned, flogged, then crucified on a Roman cross of execution used for criminals. Jesus was placed in the borrowed tomb – needed only for 3 days. Angels had appeared to the women coming to dress the body and honor their friend and Rabbi, Jesus. But the tomb was empty because the power of the Holy Spirit literally brought the dead corpse of Jesus back to life.

Jesus Christ was resurrected and alive.

He appeared along a seven-mile road to a group of men “hurling words” at each other in discussing and debating about the ministry of Jesus and the whereabouts of His body, while searching for meaning. Jesus was invited by these men to walk along this road to Emmaus. As the conversation turned to Jesus, He escorted these men along another road – the journey back in time from Moses to the prophets. Every account cited by the risen Christ pointed to the Messiah’s first coming and the events that had culminated with Jesus’ death and crucifixion.

As these men urged Jesus to abide and linger with them over a meal, their eyes were opened to see Jesus – the risen Savior...before He vanished. At that moment, these travelers said to each other, “Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

Take the time to watch the complete teaching below, but take a moment now to see the parallels between Jehovah’s instruction.

Jesus was invited to abide. God first loved us and desires to tabernacle and abide with His people. Jesus was the sacrifice offered to atone for sins, as required for love, forgiveness, and fellowship with the Presence of God.

The never-ceasing fire burning in the Old Testament was at the altar. Our very lives are directed by that which occupies our hearts and minds. What occupies your altar, the space of your heart that holds your objects of devotion, your loves and obsessions, and the seat of your very being?

It’s time for you to acknowledge what Jesus already knows. Does your heart burn for Jesus? Is there a kindled fire that indicates the very Presence of Jesus Christ, the King, in your life that emanates from within your being? Has your heart ever burned for Jesus?

How can your heart burn for Jesus if you can’t answer these questions with a “yes?”

Make sure you have sacrificed self and accepted Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. Those are two separate ways to know Jesus! As Savior, we know Jesus as Redeemer who has saved us from the debt of our sin by purchasing us. Knowing Jesus as Lord is to know Him after dying to self and placing Him on the seat of your life’s throne for governance and rule (see last week’s blogpost, He Reigns...Well, Does He?)

If Jesus Christ is both Your Savior and Lord, your altar is set for His fire to burn. We have to invite His Spirit to abide and seek His Presence. The fire of Jesus burns in the hearts of the faithful. This fire burns in those overcoming failures, flaws, and the fights in the spiritual world. The fire of Jesus’ Spirit burns in the hearts of those living under an open heaven. The Spirit revealed Jesus through the healing of spiritual blindness and the understanding of God’s Holy Word.

Do you want to burn for Jesus? You have to get close enough to the fire to catch ablaze. The Abba’s House family of faith welcomes you and needs you. Come burn with us!

Looking for a Miracle? Start listening for a Prophetic Word!

As the Easter Season nears, many are looking for their own miracles and need a miracle in their lives. Is that you?

Often, the Road to Glory and the miracle of promise begins with a prophetic word. John records seven of these spoken by Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John that should offer us hope, promise, and strengthen our faith.

These seven “I am” statements made by Jesus reflect on the declaration of Jehovah to Abraham when He asked for God’s Name. I AM that I AM.

Jesus declared Himself to be:

• The Bread of Life, Who uniquely and supernaturally satisfies in contrast to things of this world, in material goods, wealth, or attainment.

• The Light of the World, Who pierces the darkness of destruction, disunity, and despair in a chaotic culture. If you have Jesus, you have an assignment to reflect His light as part of your purpose.

• The Door for the Sheep, Who laid down His life to give access to all of humanity to the covenant relationship with God and the blessed promises to those who enter in.

• The Good Shepherd, Who pursues the lost, tracks down the strays, disciplines the rebels, comforts the weary and hurting, and provides for His own.

• The Resurrection and the Life, Who gives His Spirit, the very One Who raised Christ Jesus from a tomb after a brutal death on a criminal cross of the Roman Government. Jesus removed any fear of death for those who have accepted Him and believe.

• The Way, the Truth, and the Life, Who makes the singular way to God the Father in this covenant relationship of adoption as a child of the Most High with eternal salvation.

• The True Vine, Who grafts in the branch of each believer to give eternal life through His Spirit, eternal power through the connection to life, and the fruit of the Spirit that reflects the nature of the vine. Good fruit comes from branches connected to Jesus. Bad fruit comes from the connection to this world and its sick culture.

In John 11:25-27, Jesus teaches us about the prophetic word spoken to His dear friends which applies today and forever. He is the resurrection and life, but our circumstances may speak louder than God’s Word, if we’re not faithful in our reading, praying, and abiding to the vine.

Jesus loved these friends. Jesus taught us that being connected to friends and family matters. But God’s Word says that Jesus delayed His response to a desperate letter from Mary and Martha about the deathly illness of their brother, Lazarus. Jesus waited two days after receiving word of his dear friend’s illness.

Have you ever gotten impatient with God? Have you questioned Him for not showing up on your terms? You’re not alone. Gideon, Moses, David, and many more wondered where God was in their need. The explanation lies in John 11:4 as to why we experience delays.

“This sickness will not end in death but is for the glory of God.”

Do you see delays and even the answers of “No” to your prayers as for God’s glory?

When Jesus did arrive, Martha confronted Jesus in great sorrow and anger as her brother laid dead on the fourth day in a tomb – wrapped, decaying, with the smell of death emanating from the tomb. As Jesus exchanged words with Martha inquiring of her beliefs, He saw that she believed in eternal resurrection.

This purposed occurrence yielded many things, but two are especially important.

Jesus wanted Martha, Mary, and all present at the moment to understand that prophetic words are for the future days, like the resurrection of the dead and in heaven, but also for the here and now. This was such a time.

Do you have a current need? Do you need a now miracle? What are you doing to speak the words of promise declared by Christ? He is the Resurrection and the Life! He is the one who calls forth our dreams entombed in the death of our doubt and drama. Jesus is the One Who is well able to speak the grave clothes off our tangled lives in bondage to sin, fear, addictions, illness, whatever your need.

This prophetic word which produced a great miracle made its way to the High Jewish Court, the Sanhedrin. The Jewish leaders’ power was threatened, and they envied Jesus’ following. Oh, dear friends, never underestimate the rage, vengeance, and destructive responses from established systems of this world in response to a prophetic word that comes to life because of your faith and the faith of all believers operating on the Word of God and the promises He has made.

Jesus’ words to release a dead Lazarus from the clutches of death are the same words we must speak, believe, and live today in a dead culture that’s rotting before our eyes and a dead Church that is better known for our disunity, lack of power, condemnation, lack of lives changed through salvations, wayward focus and priority on things of this world instead of God’s Kingdom come and His will being done by those who are supposed to bear the resemblance to Jesus.

Today, Jesus is calling you out. “Come forth!” Remove the grave clothes and live!

Go deeper in study and learn more about a prophetic miracle. Listen to the complete teaching by Pastor Ronnie.