What Quenches Our Fire

As humans, we have three main temptations: lust, pride and greed. These are the three temptations that satan has used to tempt Eve and Adam. The devil will use exactly the same temptations on you and me. Jesus Christ has given us weapons against these three main temptations. The weapons are prayer, fasting and giving.

Prayer defeats pride because the real reason why people don’t pray is not because they’re busy but because they’re proud. The cause of prayerlessness is never busyness; it is pride masking itself with busyness. The only way to defeat pride is to develop a prayer life.

Fasting helps us with lust. The lust of the flesh is connected to the desires and cravings of our body. When you fast, you will last. When you begin to fast, you take your flesh from the place of enthronement and you put it in the place of the crucifixion. In fasting, you intentionally decide to replace food with the Word of God. God counts not only us finding Him but us seeking Him. For the Bible says in Hebrews 11:6 that He is the rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.

The third weapon is giving. Giving defeats greed, (Mark 12:41-44). Jesus saw her giving but you don’t see Him approaching the widow and asking if she knew how they spent the money. Stop making excuses to avoid living a life of generosity.

I want to challenge you to live a life of prayer; I want to provoke you to live a life of fasting but I also want you to add one more thing to your spiritual discipline and that is to live a life of extravagant generosity. Every new season in your life always requires a new sacrifice.

Fuel For The Fire

Acts 28:2- 5 – “The native people showed us unusual kindness, for they kindled a fire and welcomed us all, because it had begun to rain and was cold. When Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and put them on the fire, a viper came out because of the heat and fastened on his hand. When the native people saw the creature hanging from his hand, they said to one another, “No doubt this man is a murderer. Though he has escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.” He, however, shook off the creature into the fire and suffered no harm”.

1. You can only build fire to the extent that you overcome the excuses of the flesh.

Sometimes people say they can’t build prayer, fasting or start giving because it’s currently raining in their lives. Maybe they are battling with certain sicknesses, weaknesses, addictions or struggles. They are letting the flesh make excuses for why they don’t build fire. You can battle with things in your flesh but if you choose to build a fire in spite of that, something will happen: you will conquer the lust of the flesh. Getting another deliverance is not going to change your lack of discipline. In order to establish a life of discipline, you just have to overcome excuses.

2. Somebody will start the fire but it is your logs of wood that will keep the fire burning (Acts 28:2).

Somebody or something else in your life will be used to start the fire. It could be a conference, a retreat, a small group meeting or a regular Sunday service – even a crisis or a situation in your life can kindle it. In Leviticus 6:12, we see that God always starts the fire but God doesn’t keep it burning. That is our role.

Impartation without hunger will lead to disappointment. Many of us have been disappointed because instead of going from faith to faith, we go from conference to conference. What keeps your fire burning are your logs of wood – your prayer, fasting, giving and your reading of the Word.

3. When you start to build fire, vipers will come out.

Typically, when you build fire, something begins to happen. The problems that were always suppressed will be allowed to surface. The fire did not create a snake, it only exposed it. Don’t blame God that ever since you got closer to Him, all hell broke loose. You lived in hell, you did not walk in obedience to God and when you got close to God, you finally stopped going with the current and experienced resistance. Just like in football, the moment you get the ball, the other team for some weird reason starts hating you. You have to overcome the resistance.

At first the fire will make you warm and then, the warfare starts. When the fire comes, it doesn’t bring snakes; it exposes what is already there. The most beautiful part about building flame in your life is if the fire exposed it, that fire can kill it. Everybody gets attacked but not everybody knows how to walk in dominion. What God wants to teach you is not to depend on the fire of your pastor but to build a fire in your own home so that if something comes against you, you have a place to drop that snake, nightmare, depression, sickness into. Our goal is not to create a place where you can get delivered; our goal is to create a place in your life where you can walk in dominion.

Build a flame. Even if it will expose problems in your life, continue to burn, fight, press in, stand in your faith and you will see a great victory.

Prayer

Thank You, Lord that You are breaking excuses today. You are bringing people closer to a life of prayer, fasting and giving. I thank You that you are raising up our warriors. Help us Lord Jesus to learn to deny ourselves and pick up our cross and follow the Lamb of God wherever He goes, in the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.

Sermon by Vladimir Savchuk; Blog by Edward Gardiner

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