How to set your heart on Fire

God is reviving and renewing His church and this affects the whole man - spirit, soul and body. However, it will also affect everything we touch (what we are involved in)! But what part do we play in this?

“Any Christian who desires to, may experience a radical spiritual revival, and this can be altogether independent of the attitude of his fellow Christians” - A. W. Tozer

The important question now is how? Well, this wonderful man of God made some suggestions which anyone can follow and which, I am convinced, will result in a greatly improved spiritual life.

1. Get thoroughly dissatisfied with yourself

Complacency is the deadly enemy of spiritual progress. The contented soul is the stagnant soul. When speaking of earthly goods, Paul could say, “I have learned… to be content” (Philippians 4:11); but when referring to his spiritual life, he testified, “I press toward the mark…” (Philippians 3:14). Stir up the gift of God that is in you.

2. Set your face like a flint toward a sweeping transformation of your life

Timid experimenters are tagged for failure before they start. You must throw your whole soul into your desire for God. “The Kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force” (Matthew 11:12).

3. Put yourself in the way of the blessing

When God is on the move, you must be on the move also. It is a mistake to look for grace to visit you as a kind of benign magic, or to expect God’s help to come as a windfall apart from conditions known and met. There are plainly marked paths which lead straight to the green pastures and prosperity; so seek them out and learn to walk in them. To desire revival, for instance, and at the same time to neglect prayer, devotion and worship is to wish one way and walk another.

4. Do a thorough job of repenting

Do not hurry to get it over with. Hasty repentance means shallow spiritual experience and lack of certainty in the whole life. Let godly sorrow do her healing work. Until you allow the consciousness of sin to wound you, you will never develop a fear of evil. It is your disgraceful habit of tolerating sin that keeps you in your half-dead condition.

5. Make restitution wherever possible

This is about integrity. If you owe a debt, pay it, or at least have a candid understanding with your creditor about your intentions to pay, so that your honesty will be above question. If you have quarrelled with anyone, go as far as you can in an effort to achieve reconciliation. As fully as possible make the crooked things straight remembering that God is merciful to those who have shown mercy.

6. Bring your life into accord with God’s word

The Sermon on the Mount and such other New Testament Scriptures are designed to instruct you in the way of righteousness. An honest man with an open Bible and a pad and pencil is sure to find out what is wrong with him very quickly. I recommend that the self-examination be made on your knees, rising to obey God’s commandments as they are revealed to you from the Word. There is nothing romantic or colourful about this plain downright way of dealing with yourself, but it gets the job done. Isaac’s workmen did not look like heroic figures as they dug in the valley, but they got the wells open, and that was exactly what they had set out to do.

7. Be serious – minded

You can probably well afford to see fewer shows on TV. Unless you can break away from this habit, every spiritual impression will continue to be lost to your heart, and that happens right in your own living room. Many of you used to go to the movies to escape serious thinking about life, God and religion. Now you can participate in this mindless form of escape in your own home.

The devils ideals, moral standards, and mental attitudes are being accepted by you without you knowing it. And then you wonder why you can make no progress in your spiritual life. Your interior climate is not favourable to the growth of spiritual graces. There must be a radical change in your habits or there will not be any permanent improvement in your interior life.

8. Deliberately narrow your interests

The Jack-of-all-trades is the master of none. Being a follower of Christ requires that you be specialist. Too many aimless or misdirected projects use up time and energy without bringing you nearer to God. If you will narrow your interests, God will enlarge your heart.

To the unbeliever, “Jesus only” seems to be the motto of death. But a great company of happy men and women can testify that it became to them a way into a life infinitely wider and richer than anything they had ever known before. Christ is the essence of all wisdom, beauty and virtue. To know Him in growing intimacy is to increase in appreciation of all things good and beautiful. The mansions of the heart will become larger when their doors are thrown open to Christ and closed against the world system. Try it!

9. Begin to serve

Find something to do for God and your fellow men. Make yourself available to your church leadership and do anything you are asked to do. Do not insist upon a place of leadership. Learn to obey. Take the low place until such time as God sees fit to set you in a higher one. Back your new intentions with your money and your gifts, such as they are.

10. Have faith in God

Begin to expect. Look up toward the throne where your Advocate sits at the right hand of God. All heaven is on your side. God will not disappoint you.

Chris Demetriou, 23/10/2011