How many times have you admitted that you love God but:
· When you stand up for prayers, you do not feel His presence?
· When you open the Bible to read, you feel it is puzzling?
· When you enter the church, you feel no spiritual awe?
· That you find no comfort in any kind of worship?
· Neither do you find it easy to keep the commandments.
What is the solution to such a common problem?
A certain prominent family in Los Angeles, contacted and invited me to visit them. I was greatly pleased and went to visit them. They then admitted that they had been very impressed with a Coptic family they visited in Toronto. They confessed that this particular family has changed their outlook on God as they felt that their hearts were illuminated with the fiery Spirit! The wife professed that from then on their greatest desire and wish was to be like this Coptic family.
WHAT IS A FLAMING HEART ?
A flaming heart is one which burns with the Spirit of Christ! Wherever this heart is found it kindles all hearts associated with it. This kind of heart is attached to the Lord, and is capable of altering people’s callous hearts into warm hearts, fit for a sacrifice of love that pleases God’s gracious heart.
A flaming heart confronts sin with power. Such a heart is capable of transforming those sins from abrasive thorns to nothingness. A person with such a heart transforms the love of the world with all its pleasures, into a life of thanksgiving to the Lord for creating such a beautiful world for his sake. He transforms the lusts of the flesh into spiritual sensational feelings full of love for the Lord!
A flaming heart can never be quenched "nor can the floods drown it" (Eccl. 8:7). It is God’s loving image – The consuming fire!
You may ask, my beloved youth, how can you attain a flaming heart? Such a heart cannot be attained by knowledge or by personal striving. It is the seed that God Himself plants in the believer’s heart. A flaming heart is one that holds the true living image of God’s Spirit the consuming fire (Heb. 12:29), who lives with the devouring fire (Is. 33:14). Who came to send fire on the earth (Luke 12:49). Thus, God then makes of the believer a creation similar to the fiery Cherub, and from the Church He makes a fiery vessel carrying God’s throne! Meet God’s inflamed Spirit and you will become a blessed flame!
BLOOD AND FLAME
Our Lord Jesus Christ came on earth to establish in us a burning spirit with His divine love. For this reason, St. John the Baptist looked upon Jesus from two integral perspectives:
(a) Propitiation by His blood: "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) Our Lord came to embrace man with His love. He took man’s position, and agreed to pay his debts of sin through the cross. And granted him to be the son of God as a divine gift. He took what is ours, and gave us what is His!
(b) Divine Flame: "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance; He who is coming after me is mightier than I…He will baptize you
with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matt. 3:11). The correlation between the sacrifice and fire starts from the history of redemption. The sacrifice suggests blood which purges all sins, and "without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb. 9:22). Fire represents the fiery work of the Holy Spirit, who transforms us into a burning flame of fire so that we can be worthy to be redeemed by this Blood.
A FIERY AGREEMENT
God was eager to constitute an agreement with man and make a covenant. So He asked Abraham to offer a sacrifice divided into two, after which, "there was a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces" (Gen. 15:17).
Do you want to enjoy a covenant of love with the Lord? Then first you have to enjoy real reconciliation with God! Through His sacrifice on the cross where you will meet the Lord, the consuming fire! He will then transform you to a burning torch with His Holy Spirit, extricating all coldness from your heart, creating out of you a spiritually inflamed person!
A FLAME FROM HEAVEN
Elijah was in great distress, when he thought that the priests were killed and the people turned their backs on God, the Living Fire! They became like icebergs who do not know the meaning of spiritual warmth. Elijah offered the sacrifice and poured many waters on it (12 jars). "Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering, and the wood and the stones and the dust, and it licked up the water that was in the trench" (1 Kings 18:38).
If you lose hope and think that everyone around you has lost their living practical faith, do not despair! Have faith in the fiery Spirit of God, who is capable of licking up the water from our hearts, consuming our earthly nature to make out of us a fiery chariot fit for the dwelling of the fiery God therein.
A FIERY GUIDE
The first encounter between God and Moses, the prophet and first leader of God’s people, was in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush! Moses was attracted by the beauty of the burning bush, and was fascinated as the bush was not
consumed! Afterwards God anointed Moses with the spirit of leadership.
Moses perceived the incarnate God in this burning bush, which represented the blessed Virgin Mary, who carried the Word of God, without being consumed of God’s Divinity. For this, the Holy Spirit prepared the Virgin Mary for the unique task. Moses also saw the Church of Christ in the burning bush! The Church which, through Jesus Christ, is empowered with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, thus grew to be an inflamed fire.
If you really want to be a true leader, accept the work of the Holy Spirit in you. Jesus Christ advised His disciples, not to depart from Jerusalem until "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." (Acts 1:8). The Holy Spirit will always be active in you unless you deviate from His work. Any spiritual leadership outside the circle of the fiery Spirit is apt to be fruitless!
My beloved youth, roam with Moses in the wilderness to the bush which is burning with Spiritual fire! Try to perceive the leadership of the Spirit Himself who appeared as a pillar of light leading the people, transforming their darkness into light, and the desolate night into the radiance of day!
Elevate yourself with Moses to Mount Sinai, the mount which was vibrating with God’s holy words, and inflamed as if with fire. Enjoy God’s work through the exaltation of the Holy Bible which can shake the mountains within you, transforming your heart into a holy dwelling!
My dear youth, accept with Moses the holy commandments of God, not as stony tablets, but rather tablets engraved in your heart with the Holy Spirit of God, and hear the Lord saying, "My words in your mouth fire" (Jer. 5:14).
A WALL OF FIRE
The people of Israel lost hope that they would ever be free from bondage, but the Lord assured Zechariah, "I will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst" (Zech. 2:5). Bear in mind that the devil has his fiery arrow always aimed directly at you, so that you would be under his bondage, as in Babylon, "the great city of harlots and abomination" (Rev. 17:5). No one can protect you from these arrows but the Holy Spirit of God, who creates a wall of fire to protect you. Furthermore, He is the secret of glory within you!
VOICE OF GOD AS FIRE!
David experienced a period of great depression, and fervently called on the Lord; and "He answered him from heaven by fire on the altar of burnt offering" (1 Chr. 21:26). When your surroundings seem morose and you are faced with melancholy and the whole world seems gloomy and desolate, call on the Lord through the sacrifice of His holy Cross. You will immediately hear His fiery voice answering you in your inner altar!
THE FIRE OF WONDERFUL GLORY
Solomon had made an altar for the Lord as an icon of heaven. God gave him a confirmation that his sacrifice was acceptable. Thus to declare His glory in His house as soon as Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and "the glory of the Lord filled the temple." (2 Chr. 7:1).
My beloved youth, are you ready to make an altar for the Lord in your heart? If your answer is "yes," pray with Solomon to perceive with the eyes of faith how the fire of the Holy Spirit works daily in your heart, to make therein His Temple your altar, and grant you glorious alliance with the Lord!
Briefly ask the Spirit of God dwelling inside you to work therein granting you:
+ A fiery heart inflamed with love to God and people, to make of it an icon of heaven.
+ A heart transformed into a fiery Cherub or a heavenly chariot.
+ Grant you in the merits of the cross forgiveness of sins through repentance, renew His covenant with you, extract from
your heart all worldly desires.
+ Make out of it a permanently illuminated lamp.
+ Bestow on you a spirit of leadership whose aim is salvation to all.
+ Transform the words of the Holy Bible to illuminated words, to be engraved in your heart!
+ Ask the Spirit of God to encompass you with His fiery wall, to protect you from the fiery arrows of the enemy!
Grant you His internal glory!
+ Bless your heart, and make of it a temple fit for His dwelling. and your soul a heavenly abode.
+ + +
Welcome, O Fiery Spirit Of God!
Come, O fiery Spirit of God,
Inflame my heart with Your fiery divine love!
Convert my coldness to a spiritual warmth.
Thus I will become as a fiery Cherub carrying You with joy!
O consuming fire, renew within me Your covenant,
So that I may carry Your fiery image within me,
And be considered as one of Your fiery inflamed servants.
