A Sermon Delivered on Wednesday evening, May 20th, 2020, by
Evangelist PAUL ACQUAH, Live on MZ Radio London, UK
The Bible is very clear about having an active pursuit of Jesus in keeping His fire burning inside of you. So many who start out on fire for God do not remain in the same fervency that they once had. You see, being on fire for God doesn’t come automatically. You have to intentionally work at it. Staying on fire for God and understanding the things of God are so important in the times we are living in. Peoples eternal destiny depends on God and us and how on fire for Jesus we are. We have one life, and we don’t have the luxury of wasting it. God has not called us to a trivial life. He has called us to a life of divine purpose and destiny.
In this message: “Staying on fire for God,” I encourage you to fan into flame the fire of God in your life
and be constantly zealous for the things of God.
If you have to describe your life today, how would you describe it? Is your life a wonderful, exciting
journey? Is it a continuous challenge? Or one not knowing what to accomplish? Is your life a painful
disappointment?
Well, you can describe your life in many different ways, but Jesus came to give us life and give us more
abundantly. Abundant life is a life which is fulfilling, a life of contentment. Not a life without heartache
and sorrows and troubles. But then, a life which even in the midst of troubles and difficulties, you can step ahead and beyond all that. A life that can surpass all of that. Halleluiah! And that’s the life that Jesus came to give to us. But sometimes we find ourselves dry and hollow and with lack of zeal for the things of God.
Maybe you are stuck in life, you feel like a prisoner, and you are not getting anywhere. You don’t know
what’s happening to your life, but you want to get back to where you used to be. You want to be on fire for God again.
How do you keep the fire of the Holy spirit burning? How do you keep what God has done in your life
fresh? If you have not trusted Christ as your saviour, you can receive Him and be on fire for Him. It’s really up to you. It’s not God who determines whether you continue or not. People talk about; have you got hungry? Have you lost your first love? Have you got dry? Sometimes people lose their desire to go on and as a result they become dry and empty. But then, the Bible says that there is a race of life for everybody.
God has set a course or path for all of us and we are to run and win.
How do we become dry and stay off track?
There are many reasons for that. Usually because we are distracted by something,
Sometimes it’s someone or some influence of other people who are actually distracting us. That’s why the Bible says that blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path
of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; 2But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His
law, he meditates day and night. 3 He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers of water, that brings
forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper. (Ps 1:
1-3)
So be careful who you associate yourself with. We are to associate with the God kind. God wants us to
associate ourselves with Him and with His people. So how do you become dry and lose your zeal for the
things of God? Maybe it’s because the person gets busy in their business. The busier they become the less time they have for spiritual things. They find themselves in other interest in life.
Sometimes it’s a particular pleasure that has attracted them. For example, Sport or some hobby or whatever it might be. But you see, it’s a drift in process, it doesn’t happen at once. A person doesn’t just decide I will stop praying, stop reading the Bible, stop giving, stop going to church, stop serving and do my own things.
It’s a gradual process. Before you know, you become empty and I pray that, that will not happen to you.
Their eyes begin to move in other directions. And they have many reasons to justify themselves. I love
God and He loves me. They can even say, ‘you don’t have to go to church every Sunday’. What they don’t
know is that they have been tricked by the devil. Little by little, Satan causes them to drift. And if somebody doesn’t get their attention, before long, they have become so dry and have lost their zeal for the things of God.
So, another question is how do you stay on fire for God? How do you get back on the route to fulfil God’s
purposes for your life? The first thing you’ve got to do is to acknowledge that you have become dry and
losing or have lost the fire. The Bible is not as important as it used to be to you. You are not excited about
God’s word. You are not excited about Godly music. You find yourself more excited by things that are not
related to the spiritual. Then you know that obviously things are not happening the way they should be and that something has got to be done.
And when that happens, people will say; have you lost your first love? They keep talking about all these.
They want a new outpouring and a fresh touch. They even say; oh God come and revive us. There are partial truths in all that, but one thing which is wrong in all this is that, when most people get dry or hungry, when they realise that they no longer have the same zeal that they used to have, they basically go back to God and say God what’s wrong? God will you touch me – and they are waiting on God to do something in their lives. But let me tell you my friend, it’s not God who has determined that His power has an expiration date and ceases after a certain period of time. I will prove it with Bible quotations. God never put an expiry date on the power He gave you for you to have a new fresh touch from Him all the time. No. It’s totally up to you if you want to stay aflame for God.
It’s really up to you, how full of the zeal of the Lord that you want. How full of the joy of the Lord that you
want.
Many keep saying; ‘we have to pray to God to pour out His spirit’. As if God is up there with His arms
folded and saying I’m not going to do anything until so many people pray.
It’s not God who has held back revival. Do you know who has held back revival? It’s you and me and all
followers of Christ. We are the ones who are to determine how much of God’s power is flowing on this
earth.
The only limit to the power of God lies within you. God knows no limit to His power. He is still God
almighty. We limit Him in our asking, in our lack of faith in our attitude towards Him and in our lack of
obedience.
If it were up to God, everyone would be overwhelmed with His power. But the problem is, He has to flow
through people, and we limit God in our tradition and the doctrine of men and other things to stop His
power to flow through us.
WE MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY – RISE UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Don’t be stagnant in your Christian life but be dynamic. Use who you are to impact people. Continue to
stay on fire for God.
God has deposited spiritual fruits in every born again Christian. In the Spirit, we are not empty, we are
not hollow, we are not dry people on this earth. We are not to live and die without impacting anybody. Let’s turn our Bibles to Gal 5:22 -23 and see what God has deposited in us.
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
23gentleness, self-control.
Sadly, many of God’s children, if not a great majority of them are living in spiritual stagnation and bearing
no spiritual fruits. They’ve got themselves into a place spiritually, where they are just as dry and empty as
if God never deposited any spiritual fruits in them as stated in Gal 5:22 – 23
Let’s be careful because any believer can find himself in that kind of place. That’s in spiritual stagnation.
You may be a new believer or an experience believer who has seen the mighty power of God at work in
you or through you to impact others. But it seems at times you are empty, and you keep looking for God to do something, to stir you up but nothing seems to be happening.
What you need to do is to stir up the gifts already deposited in you to stay on fire for God. Doing this will
help get you out your time of dryness and spiritual drought. God never put expiration date on all these fruits that He deposited in us. Not at all, they are there. We need to activate them and bear fruits.
We are responsible for maintaining the fire and the spiritual fruits that have been deposited in us. And we
can only do so by stirring ourselves up and be on fire for God at all times. God has given us the lifestyle of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control.
Be aware of what God has already deposited in you and activate them to impact others.
You already have what you need to live for God.
His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of
Him who called us by glory and virtue, (2Peter 1:3)
See the tenses whether they are past tense, present, or future tense. They are already given onto us. So, the power is already there. It doesn’t expire. It’s there to continue flowing through you. God never put
expiratory date of what He has given us pertaining to life.
See through the knowledge of him. He granted us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything
for me to have a great life is already granted to me. Everything for me to have a Godly life, He has already
granted it through the full knowledge, absolute knowledge of Him.
4 by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
Verse 4 says, participating in divine experience. How can we participate in divine experience? It’s like
doing things together with God. And so, the fire is there to work with God, to do exploits and to impact
others.
Participation means associates. This is wonderful. This is extraordinary. It refers to a fraternity. Being
together with God.
The Bible goes on to talk about divine nature. It means God kind, like we say mankind. So, we are associates of the God kind. He said through these promises, through this knowledge of God’s word. He brings us into a place where we become associates of the God kind. No wonder the Bible says, I and the children God has given me are for signs and wonders. Hallelujah!
I pray that you will stir up your spirit and maintain the fire God has deposited in you.
Jesus is the only saviour of the world. Have you received Him?
Do you want to receive Him?
All you need to do is to put your trust in Him and if you will, you may pray this prayer:
Dear Lord: I recognise that I am a sinner and need to be saved.
I understand that Jesus died in my place and suffered the judgment of all of my sins.
I believe that Jesus rose from the dead and He is at the right hand of the father.
Lord Jesus, I surrender my Life to you.
Come and Live in my heart and be my Lord and saviour.
Thank You for saving me. Amen!