Leviticus 6:13 – The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar; it shall never go out.

Hello readers, hopefully this will be a life changing blog for you today. It is life changing for me from the word of God. I noticed this verse in Leviticus recently. I learnt that God started the fire, and God said the fire was never meant to go out. Yes, there are numerous applications of this amazing verse to our lives, but today I want to talk about “who and what put your fire out?” For many professing Christians the fire has gone out.

The Bible teaches us that there is a fire started when we get saved. If you are truly saved, you know it. And it is a fire that cannot be denied, and that should burn brightly. Jesus said of John the Baptist in John 5:35 “He was a burning and a shining light”… John had the fire, and there is a fire that is unquestionably lit that burns for the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father when we get saved. This fire, a holy, distinct and eternal fire, starts at the altar… it is lit at the cross, when we come in surrender and repentance and faith to God based on the sacrifice of his Son Jesus Christ.

But for many people, the fire never burnt, because whatever fire you had was never God’s fire, it was not fire from off the altar to begin with. It does matter where your faith and Christianity started, where it came from, just like it mattered where you took the fire from in serving God, just ask Nadab and Abihu! What am I saying? Well I am saying that based on the Bible, if your faith was not seeded by the word of God, and by repentance and faith, it doesn’t matter what kind of plant or tree has grown, it doesn’t matter how “fire” it looks, if you are not a tree planted by the incorruptible word of God, your fire is not from God, it is not of God and you do not have God’s fire.

I am not saying you never had fire, I’m saying whatever fire you had, whatever it was, was not God’s fire. Plenty of people have a fire. But just because you have fire doesn’t mean it is God’s fire. All fire is not God’s fire. You may think the flame looks pretty similar, as already mentioned, Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s two sons, religious men (Leviticus 10)… they did too. They made the mistake of thinking all fire was the same… that it didn’t matter where the fire came from… but they sure found out all fire is not the same, and it does matter where the fire comes from. So in this matter of who and what put your fire out, make sure first of all that whatever fire you have had, that it is not strange fire, which is rejected by God no matter how good it may have looked for a time. Fire not based on the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, confession of sin, and salvation of your soul from sin by God’s grace is not God’s fire. And be sure that will go out.

So not being saved at all is a prime reason there is no fire there or the fire, whatever fire you had goes out. If your fire has gone out, it’s probably because you are not saved at all. That’s why the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” Yes, it is possible to be at church, to be a “Christian” even… to do a lot of the “right” things… and yet be reprobate. That’s incredible. Reprobate is a strong word, it is not lightly used. So each of us better make darn sure the fire in us is fire from off the altar… that God started. (It is in Leviticus 9:24 that you find that God started the fire.)

How do we tell between God’s fire and man’s fire? Well where it comes from. And how it burns. Because the only fire that doesn’t go out is God’s fire. That is the forever flame. And the only fire accepted by God is the one on the altar. Doesn’t matter what flame you’ve got sparked up… God only accepts us based on Jesus Christ, because that is the only man he is well pleased in. And God must start your fire. God’s fire isn’t started by us. Salvation is of the Lord. You don’t start it, God starts it.  Your salvation must be from a divine encounter with God. The light must come on, and there must be a “Who art thou, Lord?” and a “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?”. If your fire is anything less than God’s fire, if it is anything less than something God started… it will not last. One day you will be snuffed out.

So we learn that God’s fire should not go out. Yet for many professing Christians, it is either not going as we have just discussed, or it has burnt very low. For many professing Christians, there is barely a flicker. This is bad. Why are Christians on life support when they should be the ministers of life to this world? I am reminded of those virgins of Jesus Christ’s parable who had no oil for their lamps… their lamp was not burning and they had nothing to start it when they needed light. They were virgins, yet they had no fire. This is scary because they were “virgins”. All virgins yet some with flame and some with no flame. You can do a lot right, you can do the right thing, be the right thing, be around the right thing, as these virgins were… yet have no fire. What use is the lamp without the oil, let’s get this thing trimmed and burning people.

We know that the Bible teaches that there is an eternal fire in the heart of a true believer, a born again child of God. It is a holy fire started by the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have been saved, you say, as those on the road to Emmaus said “Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” Their fire was started when they met the risen Christ, which is where your fire will start. And you will meet Jesus Christ in his word, and that will cause a burning within that cannot be denied. Jeremiah could not deny the fire, and you will not either. Which makes you wonder about so many of us professing Christians… where on earth has the fire gone? Was something wrong with God’s fire? Does it not burn anymore? It still burns… just maybe not in you. Why is the holy fire not burning bright? And when it’s burnt low, the darkness has closed in and taken rule… even though light was meant to rule, not darkness. Christians should not be in darkness, they should be light.

Is there any fire burning for Christ in you? Is there a fire that cannot be denied? Is there a fire that burns holy and an acceptable sacrifice to God? That fire on the altar burnt to God. Maybe we don’t burn because we are not interested in burning for God. Is there a fire in your heart for the Lord Jesus Christ? Is there a fire to obey him? Is there a fire to honour him? Is there a fire for righteousness in an unrighteous world? Is there a fire for the word of God over the lies of this world? Do you have a fire for Christ? The Song of songs says “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it”. If love of God is our burning flame, how are we living so quenched and drowned out? What quenched your fire? What drowned your fire? What put out your passion? If Jesus Christ had passion for obeying his Father and our salvation, should not we? Where is the fire?

But so many Christians have been put out or burnt out. Is your fire out? Or is it burning very low? The candle should not be burning low. If you are the light of the world, if you are a candle in the darkness that should be set on a candlestick to light the whole house and people are relying on you for light… then you should not be at wick’s end. Keeping the light burning is not just recommended or optional or optimal… it is our mandate from Jesus Christ. And we are commanded to stoke the fire, not smother it, we are commanded to put wood on it not water it. Don’t let Satan put it out, I’m going to let it shine. Where is the shining? Where is the fire?

There are many reasons our fire goes out. There are many reasons it is flickering or smouldering or only faintly burning. Disobedience to God causes the light to burn low. Simple as that. Bad friends will put out your fire. Bad relationships will put out your fire. Alcohol will put out your fire. Drugs will put out your fire. Sex outside of marriage will put out your fire. Greed will douse the fire. Envy will quench the fire. Bitterness will fill you with the poison of darkness rather than the light of life. I don’t know what it is for you, but there are many things which douse the flame in our lives.

Are you happy with the fire being out? Or have you accepted it. You’re happy with the coldness and the darkness. Are you happy with your fire burning low? This world needs bright lights… not flickering, feeble flames. I said it was a command, and here it is, for Jesus said in Luke 12:35 “Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning”. So we are commanded to keep the fire burning. Yes it’s God’s fire, but we do gotta stoke it. How do we stoke the fire? We stoke it by reading our Bible, getting rid of sin out of our life as the Holy Spirit deals with us, earnestly praying to God, and actually walking the talk of this thing. Tell someone the gospel, stand for truth, throw the salt in the spring, put meal in the pot. Jesus Christ is not dead, he is risen. Why do we live like the Christian life is a funeral? They went to his tomb to mourn the dead and make death smell better and what they found was an empty tomb and men clothed in shining garments. This thing should be burning, not buried. This thing should be shouted out not shut up.

Maybe you used to burn. But now you don’t burn no more. Has your fire burnt out? There should be no burn out as a Christian. Moses burnt out quickly trying to do it himself, but forty years later Moses discovered the secret to no burn out and the forever flame at the burning bush. His flame didn’t burn out if you read about his life all the way to his last moment. One day he saw the bush was aflame with fire, a sight to behold which he turned himself to see, yet the bush was not consumed. The only way there is no burn out is if God is in the midst of our lives as he was in that burning bush. I believe that bush put off a bit of warmth, a bit of heat, a bit of light. It wasn’t cold and dark to God there when Moses surrendered to God’s call on his life. So often our lives are cold and dark rather than burning fervently and shining bright.

If you want fire, if you are after the fire of God in your life… there is one place, and one place only that you will get it. God’s fire comes from off his altar. The fire comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ, offered once for our sins, who rose from the dead and lives forevermore. His word is  “as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times” and you see that everything on God’s altar is holy, holy, holy. The Holy God who’s Holy Son has given us his Holy Word and his Holy Spirit. Get to God’s altar and loose your shoe… your journey has ended. Don’t bother going elsewhere, there is no place else in this world for you, just like there was no more journey for Moses. Long journey’s end is at the cross, I don’t travel for truth and light and life no more.

But if you got fire from anywhere else, no matter how impressive or similar it looks… it is not God’s fire. You can’t get God’s fire from emotions and feelings and fake prophets and false teachers and perverted Bibles and putrid doctrine and religious lies and all the garbage of this world. There is no fire out there. The eternal flame is found in God’s pure, preserved word and the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don’t be a Nadab and Abihu… all fire is not the same, all fire is not God’s fire. It does matter where your fire came from. I got mine from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe you’re yet to learn to take God’s fire rather than kindling your own. See, because we commit this mortal mistake. We try kindling our own fire to make up for the fire that is not there. We don’t have the Holy Spirit, so we get a spirit of divination that is kinda like the Holy Spirit, remember the woman with the spirit of divination in Acts 16, all sounded kinda right… but boy she had different fire. Her fire went out pretty quick. But we kindle away trying to start the fire. We start sparking the fire of do better, be better. We get religious. We reform ourselves. We give to charity. We resolve to love more. We try kindling the fire with emotions and senses and soul worship. But none of it is God’s fire, and none of it is forever. God’s fire is not kindled by man, and God’s fire is not kindled in disobedience but complete obedience. And God’s fire, kindled by God at the cross goes forever. The sacrifice of Christ will never burn out, and a life based on that sacrifice will never burn out either. Yeah, take fire from that old, proven, tried, tested, and true altar!

Get saved, and God will start the fire, a fire that will never go out. If you are saved, maybe you’ve gone cold, maybe there’s been a lot of quenching and dousing and drowning while you’ve messed around in sin, rebellion, disobedience, presumption and all the religious garbage and alluring lust and pride of this world. Go to the altar. Go to God’s altar, the holy flame still burns there. The fire is still there for you to take. The Holy Spirit starts a holy flame. Maybe you just need to stoke that fire up a bit. Get some good wood on that fire. Stop living a life at an expense to the fire God started in you. The fire should not be burning low. Right now we have never been closer to the day of Christ, now is the time to get this thing burning, to stoke it right up and gird up our loins, stop feeling sorry for ourselves, stop making excuses why we can’t and get the fire burning. It will never go out. Get saved, get  committed, serve God, and be ready to meet your bridegroom with your lights burning and no shame in sight in the light of truth.

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