Fresh Fire

FRESH FIRE…….why would I need it, and what purpose does it serve in my life? Well, travel back with me to when the Israelites were being barbarously beaten on the daily in a scolding hot desert climate. They endured this at the hands of the Egyptians all so they could keep up the pace for building specialty shrines for dead Pharaohs and palaces for the ones still living and in power. A time when they had lost their compass for what God intended for them in the first place. The generations that kept the stories of God’s plan and provision for Israel had passed. Or, they were no longer active enough in their culture of captivity to impact the youth and speak God’s truth and hope.

Then in a distant land a man who once grew up in and around the palaces of Egypt worked with his hands in the dust of the field like a Nomad. A people (Israel) with no true North. A man (Moses) with no true North. No purpose, inspiration, direction, or flame to light their way. A spark and a flash of light on a mountain caught Moses attention, and in an instant God flipped history upside down. You know the story well, a bush that wouldn’t burn out, and ground that required the removing of scandals due to God’s imminent Holiness. I don’t need to bore you or lecture you with the rest of the story in detail. God used an ashamed murderer with a speech impediment to speak to the ruler of Egypt and set a timid, passive, and wandering people free———by way of a sea that swallowed an entire army in an instant.

Here’s my conclusion from my own observations of God’s “Fresh Fire” in scripture. God is the OG of “Fresh” events/miracles. 1. Burning bush (first and only occurrence), 2. Split the sea (with a continual Eastern wind overnight —first and only), 3. Blood on the doorpost (first and only), 4. Visible tongues of fire at Pentecost. 5. Led Israelites by a pillar of fire by night. On and on and on God worked in a new way, for the first time, and his movement, his guidance, his inspiration to his people was fresh and powerful.

Today, if you got a prayer on your heart, don’t pray for the same outcome as you’ve experienced before. Pray for God to surprise you with new outcomes, new miracles, new people in your path, new visions for the future. Pray for fresh manna each day, fresh air in your lungs, fresh intuition on who to pray for, call and encourage, evangelize to. Pray for a fire so fresh and so hot in your soul that people can feel the warmth and love of God radiating through you. A wind that feeds the fire in such a powerful way that your flame burns bright in the darkest nights when people are the most desperate and in need of Jesus.

My final note. Peter was a warrior for Christ! Many times he misread situations, acted in an overly zealous and out of control way, and even denied Christ and made a fool of himself. But let’s be real, we all make a fool of ourselves daily. What God wants you to remember….he took Moses the murderer, Peter the denier, Jacob the deceiver, Rahab the Harlot, etc, etc, etc. He gave them a fresh wind, a fresh fire, a new purpose and a new hope and destination in life and the afterlife. Peter denied Christ and could have chosen the same fate as Judas. In his shame he could have run off and hung himself and just called it quits on life. But instead, he accepted responsibility for his failure, he turned back to his Savior, and on the day at Pentecost when the fire of the Holy Spirit burned hot and rested on the heads of a great multitude. Peter the denier got up and spoke with authority, forcibly pushed his past shame aside, and thousands came to believe in Jesus that day. So stop with the self shame/hate/loathing and lack of faith for what God can do through you. It’s an affront to what God is truly capable of. We need to see ourselves as God does, and stop letting our pride and egos get in his way. Trust him to light you up so hot that your flames can be seen for miles and miles by those who need Jesus!

No person is too far from God, too ice cold to catch fire for Him, or too stagnant in their sin to receive God’s fresh wind in their life. What Fresh Fire means to me is this - IT ONLY TAKES A SPARK OF THE HOLY GHOST TO LIGHT THE WORLD AFLAME FOR GOD’S GLORY!

I write this with faith, hope, and love for what God’s doing, and still gonna do!!!

-Nick