Finding Your Fire
He was a burning and shining lamp and you enjoyed his light for a little while. John 5:35
“Millions don’t defy God consciously; they default to cake and television. Except for the periodic rush of sex and sport and cinema, life yawns. There is no passion for significance. For many, no passion at all.” -John Piper
Jesus described John the Baptist as a bright and shining lamp. What a description by the Son of God Himself of this man so filled with passion.
Where did John get his passion? It began with a prophecy given to Isaiah, “A Voice crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of Lord.” That word was passed on to John as a young boy. Can you imagine while reading Isaiah 40 one day, John would find his name written in the book? What a fire must have been lit inside of him. You may not have a roar like John had, or an archangel prophecy, but the little whisper spoken to you, if followed after, can light a fire beyond what you can dream or imagine.
John knew he would be the voice of Isaiah 40, but he had to follow its pathway into the wilderness of fasting. It was in the years of fasting and separating himself from the Pharisees and their foods, their fame and their fraternizing with power that the passion would increasingly burn within him until revival fire broke out in Israel. Passion is forged in the deserts of fasting, not the desserts of feasting. Over the years people have come to me and asked me to pray for them that they would have my passion. In kindness I always pray for them but at times I have said, “Passion is not imparted, it is forged through tests, separations, hiddenness, and prayer and fasting.”
We have only so much room for Passion. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength.” That doesn’t leave a whole lot of room for the desire of other things.
Jim Elliot the great Martyr to the Auca Indians made this his prayer. “He makes His ministers a flame of fire. Am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dread asbestos of ‘other things.’ Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame.”
Prayer – Father, out of this fast I pray that men and women would hear their name being called. I pray they would receive a whisper of destiny that would set them on a course where everything else following in their lives would be an echo of this original whisper. In this fast burn away all competing voices and desires until their little candle becomes a fire that cannot be quenched and the conflagration of revival from their lives breaks out everywhere! Amen –
