How To Keep The Fire Burning

In this episode, we explore how to keep your passion and desire for God burning through right doctrine, intentional discipline, and consistent spiritual habits. Discover why what you believe shapes your life, how studying the Word builds a strong foundation, and why maintaining your spiritual fire requires a system of continually feeding it. Listen now and learn how to build a life rooted in truth, cultivate daily habits that keep your fire burning, and remain useful for God's purpose.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Christ-like being Christ-like. Did you learn a lot in that series? Are you sure you don't sound like it? Praise God. Thank you very much. Thank you. There's so much to unpack in the scripture. I would say the word of God is inexhaustible. Inexhaustible. I mean, you can't exhaust the scripture. It always produces and it keeps producing. So today I want us to touch on um how to keep the fire burning. Amen. How to keep the fire burning? This is an important topic because a lot of believers struggle in this area. They find that they were once on fire for Christ. When you first received the gospel, do you remember how you was when you first received the gospel? You received the gospel with all your heart and you were on fire. And then over time you found that a fire started going down and down. Amen. And you wonder like why. And you fight, you fast, and you do everything, and the fire is not coming back. Amen. There's a few things there that we'll touch on. Amen. So you have you have there's a there are fit things that you must find yourself doing if you are to keep that fire burning and burning strong. Amen. There are things that you must hold very close to your heart if you want that fire to never burn out. You and you have to be aggressive about those things. Amen. I can proudly say that I've been on fire for the Lord for years. Praise the Lord. For years. The fire hasn't gone down. Amen. From college. I preached the gospel. I collided with the authorities doing it. I preached. I preached to my friends. My basketball friends. My gift took me to America. I preached over there. Amen. And that their lifestyle over there is different. I went to Minnesota. I preached over there. Praise God. Came back to the academy over here. I preached again. I preached to my head teacher. I preached to my head coach. I got kicked off the team for preaching. And I got kicked out of the academy for preaching. Amen. The fire in me drove me to preach. Do you understand that? If you have that fire in you, you cannot but preach. You may find that your knowledge is not high, so you may be preaching a little bit off, but you're preaching nonetheless. Amen. So I can proudly say I preached and I preached and I didn't stop preaching. Some people look back in their lives and they say, I made some mistakes when I was young. Yeah. And if I could go back, I would change it. No, I don't have that story. I gave my youth to the Lord. I gave my youth to the Lord. Some gave their youth to music. Some gave it to sports. Some gave it to girlfriend and boyfriend. Some gave their youth to money. Amen. I was proud. I gave my youth to the Lord. Which is one of the key things that He asks us to give him in your youth. He said, Give me your age. Amen. And you won't regret it. Yeah. Those who have given their youth to the Lord will tell you, it's the best decision you can ever make. Praise God. But the beauty of time is that you're still alive. And if you haven't given your youth to God, you can give your coming years to God. And He will restore all the things that He was meant to give you as a young man or young lady. He can give it to you now. Isn't that beautiful? Who wants that? If you had missed anything, because you know you may you may not know. If I had missed anything, I want that thing. You want that thing? Yes, sir. Are you sure? Yes, sir. Then do well to listen to what I have to tell you. Amen. You know, I won't sh I won't shout on the pulpit, it's not my style. Praise God. I will talk, and those who listen hear. Amen. All right, let's go to Second Timothy. Alright, Second Timothy Chapter 2, verse 21.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Thank you, sir. Second Timothy chapter two from verse 21 says, Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the master, prepared for every good work.

SPEAKER_00 7:57

Amen. My Bible says, And if a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Amen. Now remember, I said we are discovering how to keep the fire burning. Okay, so keep that in your spirit. Now Apostle Paul sends a letter to the young man Timothy and says to him, purge yourself from these things. Amen. Now the word purge there is a catharo. Yeah, write that down. Ekataro. Ekataro means to completely rid yourself. Aggressively, thoroughly rid yourself. Okay. So it's uh it's an aggressive describing word. Alright, it's an adjective, it's it's telling you not only what to do, but how to do it. It says this thing should be thorough. So some of the synonyms you may see when you look up this word is um thoroughly cleansing, okay, aggressively purging, quickly, diligently removing. Are you following? So these are the synonyms that you may you may come across when studying this term. Now, this is important because I want to show you what he's asking us to purge ourselves from, and it's not what you think. Because I know in these types of messages, you hear, all right, purge yourself from sexual immorality, and you're like, Oh, that's something I've been struggling with. Praise God, pastor's teaching about that. I'm telling you, that's not what he's talking about. That's not what he's talking about. He says, This thing that you're gonna discover now, he says, purge yourself from it. This is something you must attack with everything you have. Amen. Alright, let's go to let's jump to um verse 15. So we're going backwards. From verse 15.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Thank you, sir. Second Timothy chapter 2 from verse 15 says, Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. Thank you, sir. Verse 16, but shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. Verse 17, and their message will spread like cancer. Himeneus and Philetus are of this sort. Nevertheless, the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal. The Lord knows those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Praise God. So the Bible, this I found this to be interesting because as I was reading, I found I thought that I thought, you know, the way all of us would think, when he says purge yourself, purge yourself, I was thinking he would say alcohol. Okay, women run when you see women, run the other way. I was thinking on on that line, and as I continued reading, I found that he he was actually saying, purge yourself from wrong doctrine. Listen, this thing called studying will make you mature. He said, purge yourself from wrong believing if you want to be a vessel of honor that God will use, okay, to do great things, he says, purge yourself, thoroughly cleanse yourself, aggressively remove yourself from wrong doctrine. He says, Himeneus, all right, and his friend were spreading wrong doctrine, and he says, cut that out because it has the potential to multiply. Praise God. I've said this before, and I will say it again. What you believe will shape your entire life, what you believe, the God that you serve is the God that will turn up. Yeah, some believe, all right, that uh God giveth and he taketh away. Have you heard that before? The Lord has, you know, a child will die, and someone will say, The God gave us the child and he took away the child. And some people have founded their lives on that. You got a good job, you lost the good job. You said God gave and God took away. They founded their lives on that. Some of our parents founded their lives on those types of teachings. Do you know how dangerous it is to climb from that side? To believe that you lost a good job, a nice job, a good paying job. You said God took it away. Ask yourself why? Why would He take it away? Why? To what end? I've heard that a lot at funerals. Some of you are behaving as if you've never heard this thing before. I've heard it at funerals. I've gone to the funeral and they've said, you know, God gave and God took away. Brother, he didn't take anything away. He didn't. When God gives, he gives without repentance. You know what that means? When he gives, he pays no attention to what he gave anymore. It's up to you what you do with it. Yeah, he's so full of gifts. Why would he give you a gift and take it back? An abundant God full of gifts. Think about it. That relationship was from God, but God took it away from me. I didn't deserve that relationship. Have you heard that before? Brother, you lost that relationship because you had no discipline. You lost that job because you had no discipline. Say, I'm gonna climb on the right side of the mountain. I'm gonna believe what the Bible tells me to believe, not what tradition has taught me to believe. So we find, I can tell you where that came from. It came from Job. Job was upset, he had lost his entire family, and Job said, He, you know, he was he was responding to his wife. He said, Should we only serve God when things are good? God gives and he taketh away. Job had it wrong, Job got it wrong. Because the the the other prophets show us that God doesn't do that. Amen. Don't live by the book of Job. Okay? The book of Job was lamenting. Don't build your life around someone who complained. Job was complaining, he had lost his entire family, his children died all on the same day. Properties, children, everything. You don't you don't follow such a man. Amen. You take the meat, you take the meat, you take the meat, that's it. So there are things we can learn from Job, but that's not one of them. That's not one of them. Good doctrine. Say good doctrine. He says, Study to show thyself approved to God, unto God. So you're not showing yourself approved unto men, you're studying to show God. All right, you're showing yourself approved unto God. That's why I encourage you when you come to church, bring a notepad and a pen or your iPad and write what you're learning because it's called studying. Study to show yourself approved. Study, study. Did you know that the Bible says the just shall be delivered through knowledge? Did you know the Bible says that? So, we what we have in Africa, and I'm allowed to say this because I'm human first, and I'm African second, but what we have in Africa is this uh idea that you must run and get deliverance, and you get prayed for and you're collapsing and you're rolling on the floor. Then you stand up, I'm delivered. You're not delivered. What happened there was a devil was casted out of you, but you weren't delivered. Deliverance is through knowledge, information. Praise God. You see, I remember, all right, a young gentleman came to church. He said, My my my mom is very aggressive. She she beats me, she throws things at me, she's burnt me with the the uh what's this thing? Um the iron, you know. So we summoned her his mother and said, We need to speak with you, we need to find out what's happening here, why why are you so aggressive? She came to church, she told us about her life, and we found that many doors were opened for evil spirits to come in. Amen. And we had prayed for her. We prayed for her, that evil spirit left, praise God forevermore. She went back home, she was fine for two months. The boy wasn't complaining. After two months, the calls began to come in. She started again. Of course, she started again because the only thing she received was prayer, but she didn't receive the knowledge, the knowledge of the gospel, the knowledge of the gospel. Say after me, I shall be delivered through knowledge. Say the just are delivered through knowledge, praise God forevermore. Study to show thyselves approved. Can we emphasize that verse for a second? Thank you, Holy Spirit. Look at that, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed. Amen. Many people's Christianity has brought shame upon them because they're not studying. Your Christianity brought so much shame to you. Yeah, prayer doesn't make you a good father, prayer doesn't make you a good husband. Prayer doesn't even make you a good Christian, the knowledge does, the information does. Are you learning? It says, A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. I love this part. Rightly dividing the word of truth. Oh, so what that tells me is that there's a wrong way to divide the word. There's a wrong way to divide the word. And many of us have grown up on that. A wrong way to see things. How many Christians up until today burn incense in their house because they believe that it casts the devils out? Wrongly dividing the word of truth. Amen.

unknown 23:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:01

How many Christians have sent I've I've seen churches sent out people from the church for having long hair or dreadlocks? Someone walks into the church with long hair, right? As a man, and he gets sent out. Because that's not how we do things as Christians. That's not biblical. You'll be surprised that Jesus had long hair. Amen. And not make up what you believe Christianity is. Amen. It's expensive to live off what you think. You understand? It's cheaper to live off what you know. It's expensive to live off what you think.

unknown 24:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Just go and read the book. Tell your neighbor, read the book. Tell them, read it. Read the book. It has so much to offer. Verse 16, it says, But shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness. It didn't say it will increase unto more unrighteousness. It said ungodliness. You understand that? I'll explain. Ungodliness is attached to how you behave. Unrighteousness is attached to who you are. Okay? Unrighteousness. When you see the word unrighteous or righteous, it's about who you are. Ungodly is now the behavior. Purity is a mind thing. When you hear the word be pure, is of the mind. Be godly is of the behavior. Be righteous is the person of Christ in you. Praise God forevermore. So what does that verse actually say? Blessing, can you read that verse for me one more time?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Thank you, sir. Second Timothy chapter 2 from verse 16 says, But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

So it says, shun, shun, put away, put away, put to the side vain babblings. All right. Profane speaking. Because it gives birth to more ungodliness. Put it to the side. Put it away. Because these things have a way of multiplying, like a cancer, and these things come from what we call wrong doctrine. When you're around people who are speaking wrong doctrine, the more you hear it, the more it multiplies in your spirit. I had a soul that um I was ministering to. And this is an older lady, so she's a she's a she's a motherly African older lady, and she starts ministering to him. He's in his 30s. She ministers to him, and uh he calls me and says, I'm I'm talking to a Jehovah's Witness at work, and everything she's saying seems correct. I said, Of course it will seem correct. I said, Why wouldn't it seem correct? Of course it will seem correct. I said, Okay, so tell me what she's saying. So the first area that she hits is uh healings no longer exist, miracles will be done away with, prophecies will be done away with, and so she tells him prophecies are not real. And I asked him a question. I said, Have I prophesied to you before? He said yes. I said, Have I told you private things? He said yes. I said, How is it not real? He said he doesn't know, but it just sounds like what she's saying is true. Which enforces what the scripture says that that believing is not about seeing. Are you listening? Jesus did so many miracles, people still didn't believe. So seeing is not believing. He saw me. I literally called him and said, You're at this location. If you turn left, there's a Tesco across the road. Turn right, there's a co-op on your right hand side, you're on your way to harm someone. I can tell you the color of the weapon you have, put it away, you're going to jail. I called him and told him all the details, something he planned in his heart. I reminded him, he said, I don't know, man, this seems real. So prophecy is not proof. I could have healed his foot, could have come off. I put it back. Still not proof. You know what proof is? It's of the heart. It's of the heart. So the lady was going on, so I thought, I said, God, I don't want to get into a back and forth with an elderly lady. But he was egging me on, you know. He said, like, sir, if you can just get on the phone and because can you debunk what she's saying? So I said, okay, no problem. Reluctantly, I get on the phone and I let her talk. Yeah. She spoke for about half an hour. She spoke for half an hour. I didn't want to be rude, so I just let her speak. After half an hour, I got a bit tired and I said, Can I speak now? She said, Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, you can speak. Amen. I started speaking. 30 seconds in, she caught me. She just started talking again. So while she was speaking, I said, God, this isn't gonna work. This is she's gonna trip me into an argument, and I have the anointing, I have something to protect. I'm not gonna do that. So I said, Lord, what do I do? And the Lord said to me, Let him finish his day at work. When he's out of the environment, then you can attend to him. Now that's an important instruction because the Bible did tell us to purge ourselves, remove yourself out of the environment, out of that which is intoxifying you. Are you listening? So I waited. 1 a.m. He finished work, he called me on his way home, very depressed. So I ministered the word of God to him. Ministered the word of God. He said, No, no, no, how can she how can she get in my head like that? I said, It's because you're a spiritual baby. The Bible tells us you don't give your ear to them. Because once you give them your ear, it has a way of multiplying. There's a supernatural element to unrighteousness, it multiplies. You don't have to do anything. Have you ever had one filthy thought that turned into a million? Ah, you're acting holy. These people are holy. Okay, okay, no problem. It is well. Have you ever had one angry thought? Should I let me take it to a better level? One angry thought that turned into a million angry thoughts. Are you sure? Yeah, okay. So so what happened there? You gave your mind and your heart to that one angry thought, and it gave birth to a million angry thoughts. Say after me, I will thoroughly cleanse. I will thoroughly cleanse myself. I will thoroughly cleanse myself. I will thoroughly cleanse myself, aggressively cleanse myself from wrong doctrine. Now, why is this important and related to keeping the fire burning? Because what you build on is called your foundation. The fire has to burn on something. If the fire is burning on vain babblings, it will go out sooner or later. But if the fire is burning on the truth, that thing can't go out. Amen. It can't go out. I've met multiple pastors in my time of pastoring, yeah, and a lot of them, when we go to pastors' meetings, sometimes you go to pastors' meetings and I hear the way they talk. Some of them say, you know, I had a sp this special case. I had this case, very special case. I came to church and uh I was afraid. How will I deal with this case? How will I handle this case? How will I deal with this case? How will I deal with that case? Amen. And whilst I appreciate that, I thought to myself, it's not for you to handle. If you're teaching them the truth, the truth will handle it. The pressure is not on me to handle your case, the pressure is on the word to handle your case. Are you listening? Yeah, so I feel no pressure to handle your case. No matter how the case is, whatever the case is, when it comes on my table, I take it and I put it on the word, and the word will do what it needs to do. Praise God. Because I'm founded on that. I'm founded on the word. Say I'm founded on the word, I'm founded on the word of God.

unknown 34:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:19

Praise God. So number one, the number one way of keeping the fire burning, keeping that desire, you know, to want to serve God in your heart to keep that fire burning. The number one way is believe correct. Right believing. Amen. So at the top there, just write doctrine. Okay. Even in verse 19, which I find to be interesting, says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God. Yeah, nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. And let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Praise God. And then if you jump to verse 21, it talks about how God will use you as a vessel, a clean vessel. You understand? God will use you as a vessel. Now, the second thing that you must put in place to keep the fire burning is systems. One of my favorite words, systems. Let's go to Leviticus chapter six. Leviticus chapter six from verse twelve.

SPEAKER_01 36:17

Thank you, sir. Leviticus chapter six from verse twelve says, And the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it, it shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the burnt offering in order on it, and he shall burn on it the fat of the peace offerings. Verse thirteen A fire shall always be burning on the altar, it shall never go out.

SPEAKER_00 36:47

Alright, let me debunk this for you. It says, And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning. Now, um disciple blessing, you're gonna be reading incrementally as I ask you to, okay. Uh first thing I want you to write down is fire has an expiration date. Any fire, no matter how big it is, if it's not tended to, has an expiration date. So we have bonfire night, right? We set fires. Have you ever set fire to a bush? Have you seen a fire burn something before? The moment it finishes burning that thing, it needs to burn. What happens? The fire's gone. Because the fire is feeding. Hallelujah. The fire is feeding. If the fire is not tended to, it expires, it stops. Now, notice in that verse, he said that uh the fire will not be put out, but the priest will come every morning to put the wood in the fire. That's a system, brother. You understand that? Every morning, every morning, you want that fire in you to keep burning the way it was when you first gave your life to Christ, you've got to do something. You have to have a system where you are attending to that fire every morning, you are the priest in charge of that fire. Amen. How do you expect the fire to grow in your spirit if you're not feeding it? You put fire on top of oil. What happens? Talk to me now. Talk to me. We have educated people here. What happens? Some people are doing the all I know. What's this? I want to I want to hear you. What happens when you take oil and fire and you mix them? Increases rapidly. Okay, all right. Anyone else? More aggressive. What happens? Burns brightly. I love that one. All those three are really nice. Let's clap for them. Really nice. Very nice. Amen. Now, what happens? All right, when you put water on fire. Talk to me now. Someone's doing this. Let's talk. What happens when you put water on fire? She said oil splatters. It is well when you put water on fire. What happens? Extinguish the flames. Anyone else? Dies down. Anyone else? Hmm? Quenches the fire. Now, now, can fire feed on water? You gotta listen to what I'm asking you. Can fire feed on water? Are you sure? Can fire feed on water? Some people are remembering what they studied in school. Okay, one house. Let me hear, Brother Anthony. Yep. It depends on the kind of fire. Very good answer. Very technical answer. Alright. I'm talking about traditional fire. Okay. Traditional normal fire. Alright. Can can can normal fire feed off water? Okay. So what I'm trying to explain to you, alright, is that when you look at that verse, God didn't ask the priest to go every morning and take a bucket of water and throw it in the fire for it to increase. He said, Take wood and put it inside. Take wood and put it inside. God wasn't concerned on where he will get the wood from, whether he has wood. He said, Go and find it, put it there by the morning so the fire can continue. What am I trying to tell you? Number one, it's your responsibility to keep that fire in your heart burning for the Lord Jesus. Number two, it's your responsibility to find out what is the wood, that material, what is it that keeps you going? Because wood is different to everybody. Are you listening? So you gotta find what is wood to you. For some people, when they wake up in the morning, they have to worship. You're way too quiet. They have to worship. Worship is their way into the throne room of God. And you will know it because you wake up in the morning, you just feel it in your spirit. Like I just have to sing, I just gotta sing. Worship songs are coming from you. You see, if you quench that feeling, what you don't know is you're quenching the Holy Spirit, and that's how you discourage him from working with you. Because the Holy Spirit is gentle, so when he talks to you, it will be gently. When he prompts you, it will be gently. You have to be discerned enough to pick up on what he's doing and follow his lead. Praise God forevermore. Yeah, for some others, you just feel a pull to your Bible. A pull to your there's just a pull to your Bible. Find your material, your wood, your material. Put it in the fire every morning. Amen. For others. Is your confessions what excites you? You gotta deal with it in the morning. In the morning, why why because I asked the Spirit of God, what why why the morning? What is it that's significant about the morning? And the Lord Jesus said, In the morning, all right, you get to deal with all the results of the day. Number one, number two, remember that which is deposited in your spirit. Uh, the primary thing that deposits in your spirit is your dreams. So you've woken up, the seeds you have in your spirit are from your dreams. And I know this because I know some of you have woken up angry because of your dream. You saw one of your uncles in the dream, he was strangling you. You woke up, you've seen him, he greets you, you walk on, you don't even want to talk to him. Why? Because he strangled you in the dream, not knowing it was just a dream, but you've acted on that because dreams have a way of planting seeds in your spirit. Are you listening? Yeah. So you got when you wake up in the morning, the first thing you must do is tend to those seeds in your heart. Tend to them. 5 a.m. in the morning, 4 a.m. in the morning, 6 a.m. in the morning. You're struggling with your spirit walk because you don't have systems in place. Praise God. Let's round up. Amen. No, we have to because of the time. Amen. They gave me a paper. You know what that means. We have to stop. So you better send him emails and messages. It's him. Praise God. Thank you, Holy Spirit. And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it, it shall not be put out, and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning. Lay the burnt offering in order upon it. And he shall burn thereon the fat of the peace offerings. Praise God. The last verse, 13, the fire shall ever be burning upon the altar, it shall never go out. God is so interesting. He has a way of reflecting his wishes through nature. You understand? You know, if you study the Bible, you find a lot of fun facts about, for example, the serpent and the lamp. Amen. Um, I think one of them was that the urine of a lamp is uh a cure to a serpent's venom, something along those lines. There's a lot of fun facts like that. That you find out that the Lord set all of this up in the scripture for us. No, it's not the urine, it's the blood of the lamp. The blood of the lamp. Listen to how deep that is. The blood of a lamp has an anti-venom to the poison of a snake, the blood of a lamp. Hey, what's what's what do we call the Lord Jesus? The lamb of God, the lamb of God. Amen. Even if you skip to the burning bush, it's so interesting when you read this with the revelation I just gave you. Go back to the burning bush. It it didn't say the burn, it said the burning bush. It was burning on something. Fire needs a foundation. The question is, are you the right one? God bless you.