Come on. Give it up for Jesus. Come on. Come on. Jesus. Jesus. Oh, Jesus, we are so grateful. We are so thankful. You are so worthy. You are so good. You are so glorious and radiant and beautiful and powerful and almighty and majestic. And today we have come to host You. We've come to welcome You because we want You. And You have graciously come near. And so we lift up Your name and we look at Your face. We just behold You, Jesus. Because when we just look at You, everything changes. When we turn our attention and our affection to the one, freedom and healing and breakthrough and joy and peace and goodness is released into our lives. Jesus, we thank You that as we've been hosting You over these past few weeks and months in a new way that You're capturing our hearts. And You're captivating our attention. And You're lifting up our head. And You're showing us Your goodness and Your grace. So today, Jesus, we receive You. And we welcome You and we want You. With whatever measure of faith we have, we welcome You and we cry out to You and we call to You and we seek You. We knock on the door because we want You here.

There is something about when the people of God want God amongst them that everything changes. There is something in this season when we just engage with faith and humility that God moves in a profound and powerful way. In fact, He even tells us that, “If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” In other words, when the people of God starts praying, the fire of God starts burning.

So, here's what we want to do for the next few minutes in faith and humility. We want to pray that the fire of God will burn in this place. And so, if you've been with us this year, we talked about how we don't want to be a great organization. We want to be a kingdom movement. So, for the next few minutes, I want to lead you through these things. And I want to invite you by faith. Whatever campus you're at, speak out your own words. Jesus is here. We've invited Him in. We're hosting His presence. He doesn't want us to go silent on Him. He wants us to talk to Him like He's actually here and speak forth that which we long for. And so I'm going to invite you to by faith to send it like, like it really matters and like God's really here. And we're just going to pray through these together.

So can you just start wherever you are for a divine stirring? Can you just raise your voice and pray a divine stirring over this church, over your life, over your family? That there would be a divine stirring in the name of Jesus. That there would be a divine discontent. That the grace of God would provoke us to long for more. That we would become discontent with the status quo and the daily rhythms and routines of our lives because we have this stirring inside of us for the kingdom of heaven.

Come on, let's now pray for an insatiable hunger. That we would hunger and thirst for righteousness. That we would be a people that taste and see that God is good. That the things of this world that we've fed and consumed ourselves with would become bitter and we would, we would no longer have a taste for the things of this world because we are hungry and thirsty for Jesus and we're content in him. But we long for so much more.

Would you now pray for passionate pursuit? Passion – that which you're willing to suffer for. Pursuit – that which you intentionally go after. That we would be a people that passionately pursue God. That we would seek Him like a treasure in a field and would joy sell everything we've got cuz He's the only thing that matters. That we would be a church known by our passion for Jesus and His presence.

Come on, pray for extravagant worship. That we would be a people that worship with joy and freedom. That we dance and we sing and we move because God is in this place and we don't care who sees us and we don't care what the world thinks about us because He is worthy of my heart, my soul, my mind, my strength. I want to offer my life as a living sacrifice unto the Lord. Come on. Even as a prophetic act of faith, will you just bounce right where you are? Come on. Whatever campus you're at, will you just be extravagant in your worship? Jesus, I just we worship You. We worship You. We're willing to look foolish for Jesus. Don't just pray it. Do it. You don't just have to pray it. You can do it.

Come on. Loving obedience. Pray that we would be a people that obey God. Not out of duty or fear or religion, but because He's captured our heart and we love Him. We love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

Come on, radical holiness. That this would be a church, that you would be a person, that your family would be a family marked by radical holiness. That you'd be set apart, pure, righteous, no taint of the world in your life, no yeast of the world or religion in your life.

And then, come on, pray for a supernatural outpouring. That the Holy Spirit would be poured out in this place. That there would be an open heaven. That we'd be filled to overflowing with the Spirit of the living God in Jesus' name. God, this is what we long for. This is who we are as a church. This is what we're seeking. So Jesus, may the kingdom move among us. May the kingdom move among us.

One more thing, here's what I want you to do. I want you to find one or two people around you and I want you to pray this into their lives. We've been prophesying this since January. Radiant faces, burning hearts, holy and powerful lives. So maybe find somebody around you and just say, "Hey, can I just pray this into your life?” And pray it, send it, pray it for them like Jesus is here and He's going to answer them to have a radiant face, a burning heart, a holy and powerful life. Come on, find somebody around you. Pray this into their life. Come on, pray the fire of God into their life. Pray that the fire would be hot, that it would burn bright, that they would long for God's presence.

Holy Spirit, we just ask that You would come and fill this place. That You would come and fill every open, willing, and available heart and life. That You would fill those who have submitted and surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus filled to overflowing with Your presence. We pray that the fire of God would burn bright in this place, would burn bright in our marriages, would burn bright in our families, would burn bright in our homes, would burn bright as hope carriers in this city. I just declare that this would be a church of radiant faces, burning hearts, and holy and powerful lives in Jesus' name. That our face, that our face would literally glow with the glory of the Lord. That our heart would be consumed by the fire of God and burned so bright that nothing could put it out. And that there would be holy and powerful lives, pure and powerful lives wherever we go because Your fire burns within us. Jesus, we welcome You. Holy Spirit, we welcome You. Father, we honor You and we say may Your fire burn bright in this place and may this be a marker season moment for us as individuals and families and as a church. May the fire burn bright in the people called Valley Creek. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

Come on, why don't you go ahead and find your way back to your seats, whatever campus you're at. Once again, let me welcome you to Valley Creek. I am so glad that you are here with us. This is a really great season in our church. I am officially out of breath from jumping up and down, but I refuse to pray for things that I'm not willing to act on. I don't want to just say it. I actually want to do it. So, when the Lord gave me that idea there quick, I was like, I'm going to do it. I'm just, but I'm going to ask you to do it. Some of you are like, I ain't ready for that, bro. That's all right. This is a really significant season in the life of our church and there is so much to just, here's what I'd say be grateful for. Just to be grateful for – that God is here, that He's moving, that He loves you, that He's drawn you unto himself. That there is some measure of a divine stirring in your soul and something that's hungry even if you can't put your finger on it. And that somehow in His goodness, in His grace, He is moving in the midst of that.

And we started all this in January with the sense from the Lord. You know what we were supposed to talk about all spring? We were supposed to do a really long series on the Sermon on the Mount and it was going to be awesome and I'm actually really excited about it. We may do that in the fall. But then but then going into January, I just knew from the Lord like this is what we were supposed to do and I'm so glad. I'm so glad He spoke that to us. And that we were willing to as a pivot as a team pivot. You don't even know that but the whole team had to pivot to kind of get there. But it's what the Lord was doing.

And, and we just said fuel the fire. What is that? It's the presence, the power, the purity of God among us. That God is a consuming fire. And He is looking for people to consume who are willing to be submitted and surrendered to Him. And He wants to create within us radiant faces and burning hearts and holy and powerful lives. And we said that this is a really important season to get everything really, really hot because we're creating the future. And you cannot create the future without the fire of God. Make no mistake about it. You can't start a prayer center without the fire of God. And you can't start a college without the fire of God. And you can't go do an Argyle and University Campuses without the fire of God. And you certainly can't go to the seven continents without the fire of God. And so we said, "We've got to get it hot. We've got to fuel it. We've got to tend it. We've got to steward it."

And as we've been doing that, amazing things have been happening. I don't know if you've paid attention to this or not. I don't know if you've seen it or experienced it in your own life, but let me give you like a a a meta narrative over our church over these last bunch of months. There have been tons of spontaneous confession and repentance. It's like in every environment, nobody's asking people to do it, but people are just literally like, I need to confess and repent, and I need to, I need to release these things unto the Lord. There's been spontaneous people hearing from God for the first time and in new ways. There's been spontaneous dreams and visions that God's been pouring out on people's lives. There's been spontaneous healing happening in ways that that people weren't even seeking. There's been spontaneous deliverance where things that have oppressed people and held people down have been set free in Jesus' name.

And as I was reflecting on that this week, I started thinking about, do you know how much of those things we talked about and taught towards? None of them. You're like, well, what did we do? We talked about Jesus for the last five months. And the Lord reminded me that when we invite the king, His kingdom comes with him. So if you will just talk about Jesus the king that when He comes He brings His kingdom with him. You don't have to chase all those things and you don't have to figure out how to do all those things. Just ask Jesus to come and look to Jesus' face and when He shows up He brings all of that stuff with Him. That's what's been happening.

In fact, do you remember when Paul gets shipwrecked? And they make it to the island and they're cold and it's rainy and so they build this fire. It's this fascinating little story. It says, "They built a fire and welcomed all of us,” cuz they were in a shipwreck and they got to shore, “because it was raining and cold, cold. Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself to his hand, but Paul shook off the snake into the fire and suffered no ill effects.” Can you see it? They built a fire because it was rainy and cold. And Paul picked up this big pile of wood. And while he was carrying it, nothing happened. No one, including Paul, knew that there was a snake inside that pile of wood. It wasn't until it was put to fire that the thing jumped out. And it tried to take him down, but he shook it off into the fire and he was fine.

Okay, for the last six months we've been building a fire because in the world it is raining and cold. And as we've got that fire really, really hot, the things that you and I have been carrying around in our lives, some of us for years, some of us for decades that have become normal, acceptable, we think there's nothing wrong with it. We're not even aware that there's anything dark within it. As we have put it to the fire, things have come out and they've tried to harm us, scare us, hurt us, but we've shaken them off into the fire and found ourselves free and set free and healed in Jesus’ name. There are things that some of you have been carrying around for years and you don't even know that there has been darkness in there. But as we've gotten the fire hot and you've put it to the fire, things come out – confession and repentance, deliverance, ungodly beliefs, brokenness, breakthrough, sickness. It's all coming out. Not because we're teaching you how the viper hides exactly in this part of the log and make sure you look and hear like this. No, it's just build a really hot fire and then put what you got on it.

And what happens? It tries to make you afraid. And if you were standing there and you watched Paul put that pile of brushwood on it and that thing jump out, you’d be like, “I ain't, I ain't fueling that fire. I ain't picking anything else up.” Or you say, "Oh my gosh, that thing was in there and we didn't know that could hurt somebody. Let's go get every piece of wood we can find and get it to the fire because the fire will take care of it." Just build a hot fire. Just build a really hot fire and the things of this world and the things of darkness cannot stay in your life. You don't have to talk about the viper or teach about the viper or look at the viper. No, look at Jesus. Build a fire, put your life on it, and there will be no place for the viper to hide. Are you with me on this? That's what's been happening. That's why spontaneous healings and, and confession and repentance, all these things have been happening because the fire is finally hot enough to draw that stuff out. Things you've been carrying around for years and don't even know is there.

The fire will set you free. Which is why our theme verse for the whole year has just been, “The fire on the altar must be kept burning; it must not go out. Every morning the priest,” you, “is to add firewood and arrange,” your life on the fire. “The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously. It must not go out.” Keep the fire burning. Keep the fire burning. Keep the fire burning. Come on, say with me. Keep the fire burning. Right? Remember that. When it's raining, when it's sunny, when it's windy, when it's calm, when you're bored, when you're, when you're excited, when it's when you don't feel like it, when you want to do it, keep the fire burning. Arrange your life in such a way that you can keep putting wood on the fire of God so that it burns brightly within you. If the fire is sacred to God, it must become sacred to us. And somehow over these bunch of months, a bunch of us are awakening to the reality of the fire of God.

You remember the story of Elisha and his servant? They're in this city and an enemy army comes and surrounds the city to get them. And the servant is panicking like we're going to die. And Elisha's like, "Bro, chill out. There are more for us than are against us." And the servant's like, "Are you kid?" Like, Elisha, look, all I see is enemy as far as I can see. And look what happens. Then Elisha prayed, "O Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around.

As we've been praying, I believe the Lord has been opening your eyes to the fire of God. I believe the Lord has been opening your eyes to the fire of God, to the presence of God, to the power of God, to the spiritual life of God, to the supernatural life of God that is here and available and all around you. He's been opening your eyes. That's what He has been doing. He's been drawing your attention to help you see that which is good and true and right. And this is why Isaiah tells us, "Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his ways and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him.” Seek the Lord while He may be found. There are some seasons where God is more findable than others. There are some seasons where God is just really near and really available and He has revealed Himself in profound and powerful ways. This is one of those seasons.

Don't misunderstand me. God is always findable and He's always near and He is always available. But there are just some seasons where God is like so obvious. And He is, He's so at hand and He is so findable that you actually have to intentionally look away from Him to avoid Him. This is one of those seasons. I would say you have to look away from God right now to not find Him because He's, He's here and He's near. And what do you have to do? Just simply forsake like turn away to turn towards. And so the question is, is – ready? Do you want it? See, I I think we've officially crossed into the wanter phase. You say what's the wanter phase? The wanter phase is now the phase of this part of the journey that we're on together. Remember, we don't just do church and come and go. We believe that we're on a journey as a people of God with God together. We are officially on the part of the journey called the wanter phase, which means you have to decide now whether or not you want it.

We've taught about the fire of God. We've taught you how to build a fire. We've taught you what puts out a fire. We've taught you how to fuel the fire. The question is now, do you want the fire? Like, I don't have anything left to say. You're like, well, you said a lot. I, I know. I know. And I literally am at this point where I'm like almost like to the Lord like, what do you? And I feel like the Lord's saying it's like we're in the wanter phase. I can't make you want it, but there's nothing else to say. You, you've been shown through Scripture what the fire is, how to build it, how to fuel it, and what extinguishes it and puts it out. The question is, is do you want it?

And want is determined by action, not by words. Want is always demonstrated by action, not by words. Do you know the difference between a want and a wish is one word? Action. Want is something I'm willing to take action on. I go after it. I'm intentional. I pursue it. I will, I will seek it. Wish – I kind of passively, idly sit by hoping someday somehow someone makes it happen for me. Like if you say you want to get healthy, if you really want to get healthy, the next day you will wake up early. You will work out. You will rearrange your schedule and you will eat differently. If you don't do those things, you don't want to get healthy. You wish you could get healthy.

If I say I want to be debt-free, if I want to do it, then I'll wake up the next day and I will start cutting up my credit cards and I'll stop buying frivolous things and I'll start doing money God's way and I'll tithe. I'll put Him first and I'll and I'll kind of downsize some things. But if I don't take any of those actions, I didn't want to get debt-free. I wished someone would pay off my bills and give me an inheritance.

If I say I I I I don't want to be so busy anymore and live this chaotic life. If you really want that, then the next day you'll wake up, rearrange your life, cancel some activities, restructure some things, maybe shift your job, whatever that might look like. If you don't do any of those things, though, you didn't really want to get unbusy. You wished someone would give you more time. Okay. So if we say we want the fire of God then tomorrow you need to wake up and not not like, no, but I, no, tomorrow you need to wake up in the morning and rearrange your life in such a way that you can add fuel to the fire because if you don't take any action, you didn't want it. You wished it. You wished someone else could do it for you, but, but no one else can do it for you.

One of my great learnings and journeys of doing this role now for so long is learning that I can't want it for you. I can want it for me and I can share with you my burning coals and a pile of prepared wood, but I can't want it for you. Do, do you want it? And it's not what you say, it's what you do. Which is why it was as so silly as it was to literally if you did anything by faith when I said this. I, I'm about to step on a bunch of your toes for a lot of reasons there because you're like that. I don't want to do that or I have bad knees or I I don't know. I wasn't into it. I know. But did you in any way even just did you even just do this? If not, why? Just ask yourself why? Do I want to be the kind of person that lives an extravagant worship life? If I want that, then I'll act on it, in in in some way. Not I mean, I'm not there, but I can go here. Fair. If not, I just wished it.

And irony, sometimes is, we don't want or wish the very things we talk about in here. Sometimes I don't think we, we certainly don't want it. And I don't even think we wish the life of the kingdom that we talk about in here. And that's called repentance. This is the journey of repentance. Repent and turn to God and do works and live lives consistent with and worthy of their repentance. Isn't that interesting that repentance is proven by action? How do I know if someone's repentant? You just know. Why do I just know? Because they act differently. They've they've turned. Repentance is not just saying, "Oh, sorry. I shouldn't done that." No. Repentance is a change of thinking that leads to a change of living. And it's very demonstrable in the reality of the life I live. And everyone else around me can see it. They don't hear it. They see it because I've actually turned. I've turned away. I've turned away from what? Not just sin, but flesh and the world and ungodly beliefs and the works of the flesh. Low-level thinking. You realize you need to repent from thinking like a man. You're like, well, all the women are like, yeah, from a human because God says His ways and His thoughts are higher than ours. So sometimes I need to repent from just having human thinking to say that's not how God thinks. This is how God thinks and so this is how I'm going to live. So it's, if I want it, I act on it. And if I've repented, turned from and towards. It's not just words, it's action. And no one can make you do that.

In fact, even look what Jesus says, “So I say to you: Ask,” action, “and it will be given to you. Seek,” action, “and you will find. Knock,” action, “and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” The greatest gift God will ever give you is not your life, your family, or your salvation. It's His presence. And He generously gives to those who ask, those who take action, those who ask, those who seek, those who knock, those who say, "I want that." Not, "I wish that." He doesn't give His Holy Spirit to wishers. He gives His Holy Spirit to wanters.

And the difference between a want and a wish is action. Asking, seeking, knocking. Jesus, I want Your Spirit. Jesus, I want Your fire. Jesus, I want Your presence. Jesus, I want You and only You in my life. I mean, you remember the story of blind Bartimaeus? Blind guy on the side of the road. Jesus and the disciples are walking by. He hears that it's Jesus. He starts calling out, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me." And Jesus stops. I love this. He stops. He hears what the man is saying. But Jesus is trying to figure out, is this a want or a wish? And He says to His disciples, "Call him to me." Isn't that fascinating? Jesus didn't stop and go over to the man. He stopped and said, "Let's see if he wants it.” Stand up on your feet. Got to decide. Do I want it or do I wish it? I'm a blind man. I can't see anything. And it says, he throws his beggar clothes to the side, steps up, stands up, and moves towards Jesus. Why? Because he wanted it, not wished it. So he moved with a little bit of action. And what did Jesus say? “What do you want me to do for you?” Ain't it so obvious? I mean, he's blind. Jesus, why are You asking him? Jesus will always ask you what you really want because He will never force that which He offers to an unreceptive heart. What do you want? He says, "I want to see." Jesus heals him. And then it says he then followed Jesus on the road as a disciple would.

So here's the question is: what do you really want? And do you know? Have you thought about what your life what what what actions would your life say that you want? Because your actions are telling a story to everyone around you about what you really want, while your words may be telling a story of what you wish. And I think sometimes, sometimes we want what God can do for us more than we want God Himself. We want His hands more than we want His heart. Sometimes I think we want the fire and what it offers us more than we just want the fire. Does that make sense to you?

Like do you want your sight or do you want your sight so you can see him? Do you want your hearing or do you want your hearing so you can hear Him? Do you want your healing or do you want your healing so you can serve Him? Do you want your breakthrough or do you want your breakthrough so you can go on mission with Him? Sometimes I think we want the comfort, the protection, the power, the authority, the the life of the fire more than we want the fire. And I think this is a season where the Lord is bringing us to what do you really want? Like do you want me because that's what I offer. And when I come, all those other things come. That's the irony. Look at all the stuff that I'm trying to tell you has been happening spontaneously in our body in circles and teams and gatherings and people's homes and their secret – all because we've wanted him. And when the king comes, so does His kingdom. Do you want it? Do you want it?

The Lord gave me a great picture for you last week as I was praying for you. And, and it's this picture of – do you ever see those Olympic runners that are before the Olympic ceremony starts and they have the torch and they carry this flaming torch and they go on these long distance runs through these, through these difficult courses and these very significant uh monuments and milestone kind of places? And as they're running the whole point is keeping the fire burning. They're running and they're going on this thing. And the whole point is like to keep the fire burning. And when they get to the end and they pass the fire on, there's all these people sitting there cheering and clapping and, and celebrating them. Okay. But if they ran their course and got to the end and the fire went out, ain't nobody cheering for them cuz the point wasn't to get here. The point was to get here with fire.

I think a lot of us run these very elaborate, very significant, very perceivably monumental races. The only problem is is we forget about the fire of God and we get to the end of the race and we wonder why nobody's cheering for us. Nobody's cheering for us because nobody cares how much money you make. Nobody cares how successful you are. Nobody cares how much achievement you have been able to accomplish. Nobody cares how beautiful you are. Nobody cares what what adventures you have lived or or or what kind of what cool life you have had if you have no fire. The point is not running a race without fire. The point is carrying the fire of God from whenever it was handed to you to whenever you breathe your last breath on this earth.

And you know what's going to be there? The great cloud of witnesses cheering you on at the end. You say, "Who are they?" Those are the people of faith who have gone before us – the people of faith who are running with us and the generation of faith that has yet to come that we'll all be cheering you as you hand on that fire. This is why he says, "Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith." He says, "Get rid of anything and everything that will extinguish, that will challenge, that will put out the fire of God and run. Run with the fire of God, with everything that you've got, and fix your eyes on Jesus.” It's the only way to keep the fire burning because you become what you behold. And if He is the consuming fire and His eyes are ablaze with fire and the words He speaks are words of fire, then if I will just look at Him, this fire will never go out. Don't look at the fire. Look at the fire. Don't look at the fire. Look at the fire. And the reason so many of us have these ashy, sooty, charcoal, flaky, cold lives is because that's what we look at all day long. Ash, soot, charcoal, flaky, cold, crumbly, pointless, hopeless, despair, darkness. And so we become that. That's putting the fire out. Put that thing down and look and look and run. And run where? Wherever He tells you. And run how? However He tells you. And what pace should I run? Whatever pace He's going at, just just run. Just run. But nobody cares. Nobody cares. You cross the finish line and nobody's. So some of you, you will cross the finish line of your life and you're and you have no one there to cheer you on because you had no fire. You got all this stuff and all these awards and all these things. No one cares. You've actually wasted your life because all along the way, no. Do you ever know? No one comes outside to watch somebody just run by on the street. Do you ever do you ever notice that? Wherever you live, do you ever see just like a runner and like do you ever see people all come out and like watch it? Oh. No. But when somebody's running with a torch, everybody comes out to watch. “Hey, quick. Go outside. There's this guy running with a big burning fire thing. I don't know. It's pretty cool, though. But we're we're going to get in the car and chase him. This is going to be awesome.” Fair?

Look at what Paul says, “I have fought the good fight, I finished the race, I have kept the faith.” He says, I fought to run with fire. I fought to run with fire. Fought what? Oh, I don't know. Being shipwrecked, being stoned, being persecuted, being rejected, being harmed, against critters and snakes and scorpions and giants and darkness and all kinds of things. I fought to run with fire. Whether you're 16, 36, 56, 86, fight to run with fire. You actually have to fight for it. It will not just happen to you. It has to become something that is important to you. And you arrange your entire life around keeping the fire burning in Jesus’ name.

And I get it. Some of you are like, "Bro, everything you say, like, I didn't feel it. I didn't experience it. I've been here for most of the spring and I I just I didn't feel it." Well, “Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” It doesn't say faith is feelings and experiences. It says faith is hope and trust. Faith is hope – confident expectation in the goodness of God. And trust – submission, surrender, reliance and dependence upon him. And if you think your faith is based on feelings and experiences, your faith is very weak and small. Why? Because my faith is built on hope and trust, even when I don't have feelings and experiences. And if I will make it about hope and trust, at some point in time the feelings and experiences will come. And when my faith is hope and trust, then it will turn into action because by faith by itself if it is not accompanied by action is dead. Faith without action is not acting as if it were so. It was wishing it would be. And a lot of us just wish it would be. We don't ever act as if it were so. And then he says that faith is dead. And it's not a criticism or a rebuke. It's it's truth. It's helping you understand reality like like that is flaky and ashy and charcoaly and there's no life in it.

So just one step. You're always one step. You are one step away from the fire of God. Always one one step. That's repentance. You are always one step away from the kingdom of heaven that is at hand. I'm not like oh 50 miles, you know. Nope. I am one step away from the kingdom of heaven that is at hand. Which means I am one step away from the fire of God burning brightly in my life. In fact, look look at how The Message says it, “Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” Clearly, it's not obvious in good American Christianity because good American Christianity is talk without action and it is outrageous nonsense. Free yourself from that. Free yourself. We try to free you like but like don't don't do like who? Why? Like it's not even fun for you. Like if you want to just run without fire then my gosh run without fire. Don't talk about fire. Just go run without fire. But if you actually want fire, then don't talk about it. Tend it, steward it, fuel it. No one even needs to know about it. Just ah because otherwise it's outrageous nonsense for you. It's exhausting. And you're better off running in the dark till you trip and fall enough times to realize I need fire than to convince yourself you have some fire when you don't. And then when you trip and you fall, you blame God. Well, I don't know. Was it God that made me trip and fall or just the fact that I'm running full speed in the dark? Convinced I have fire. So, it's His fault and then it's this. It's our fault. I don't think it's either of those people's faults. I don't even think it's your fault. I just think it's you're destroyed for a lack of knowledge. It's just a lack of humility and repentance to acknowledge to be like, I run my life in the dark, but I tell everyone else I have fire. That is, man, maybe that would be the whole win of the spring for you. That honest confession and repentance, that's a game changer because the light just turned on when you said it and you can see, you can not way, but you could see the next step. Your Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path. Huh? Okay. All right. This is a word from the Lord for me. Can I Can I Can I receive it?

And I get it. Some of you are here and you're like, "You have no idea though where my life is and how hard it is." I don't. But I know this about Jesus. “A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering (dimly burning) wick He will not quench.” You might be here and you might be going through the hardest season of your life and you feel like you have no fire and it's all but going out. Jesus is not rebuking you or coming against you. He is coming and He is putting His hands around that dimly burning smoldering wick and He will blow His breath and His Spirit on it until you become ablaze again. He has so much kindness and compassion for you.

In fact, do you remember when Peter denies Jesus three times to the servant girl? Jesus says, "You're all going to deny me." Peter's like, "Nope, not me." Peter's like, "I can run in the dark. I, I got this one." And Jesus says, "Pete," like, "It's going to happen." Jesus is arrested. Peter denies Jesus three times to a servant girl. And the moment the rooster crows, he's cut to the heart. He's devastated. Jesus goes to the cross. He's dead. He's gone. They, they think it's over. And so Peter goes back to fishing. And he's sitting in his fishing boat and he is full of shame and sorrow and condemnation and brokenness. Peter's life in that moment in that boat in John 21 is ashy, crumbly, flaky, cold charcoal. And the resurrected Jesus comes walking down the shore and says, "Have you caught any fish?" They don't know it's Him. He said, they say, "No." He says, "Throw the net over the.” So full of fish the net begins to break, boat begins to sink, and one of the disciples says to Peter, "It's the Lord." Peter jumps in the boat, swims to shore, gets all the way to shore, and look what it says. "When they landed, they saw a fire of burning coals there with fish on it, and some bread. And Jesus said, ‘Come and have breakfast.’"

Whose fire was it? Who started that fire? Who fueled that fire? Who tended that fire? Who invited someone to that fire? Jesus. In other words, Jesus always has a burning fire that no matter where you've been or what you've done or what your life looks like or what has been done to you, He is always trying to get your attention through kindness to lead to repentance to invite you to His fire – the fire that you don't have to tend and you don't have to fuel and you don't have to steward. You can just come and sit at it and be warmed and be healed and be fed and be loved and be transformed in Jesus’ name. Come and let me feed you breakfast. Come and let me give you one of my burning coals. Come and let me warm you from that long hard season. I can rekindle your soul. Jesus always has a fire burning for you.

So what do we do as we kind of come to the end to this conversation on fueling the fire? I think we just do what the disciples did when Jesus promised them the Holy Spirit. “He gave them this command: ‘Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about…’ When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room... They all joined together constantly in prayer… Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Can you see it? They do four things. He says, “'Do not leave Jerusalem.” Obedience. Obedience. They obeyed him. And fire falls on sacrifice when we're willing to obey. You want to fuel the fire from this point on? Obey. Whatever God asks you to do, do it. Whatever He has already asked you to do, do it. If He's asked you to forgive that person, forgive them. If He's asked you to tithe, tithe. If He's asked you to let that thing go, let that thing go. If He's asked you to confess and repent publicly, confess and repent. It doesn't matter. Whatever it is, obey whatever He has asked you to do because fire falls on sacrifice.

Second thing, they went upstairs to the room, the secret place. They went to the secret place. The place that was just them and God, not in the public, not for everyone to see. If you want to fuel the fire, go to the secret place. A place that's just you and God. Where you worship and pray and read His Word and talk to Him, where you get alone with Him to just be with him. The fire of God is waiting for you in the secret place. If you will go in there, you will be consumed with fire.

“They all joined together.” Godly relationships. Where two or three are gathered, there I am also. It's like scraping hot coals together for the fire of God to burn. That means build meaningful relationships with other people in this church that are godly and are moving towards Him.

And prayer. In the Word and prayer, the words He speaks are Spirit and life. And were our hearts not burning as He opened up the scriptures and spoke towards us? So if we want to have this be more than a wish and we want this whole thing to be a want, then it's obedience, the secret place, godly relationships, and prioritizing the Word and prayer in our life. And if we will do that, the fire of God will burn bright. Keep the fire burning. Keep the fire burning. Keep the fire burning. And arrange your life in such a way that it can. Because He is a consuming fire and He is looking for a people to consume. And when He consumes us, we will have radiant faces, burning hearts, and holy and powerful lives in Jesus' name.

So I prophesy that over your life today that you would be consumed by the fire of God. That you would step out in obedience. That you would find and create a secret place where you meet with God. That you would work on having godly relationships in this church. So, so the coals of God would be scraped together and that through the Word and prayer, the breath of God will make ablaze the fire in your soul and that you would be one with a radiant face, a burning heart, and a holy and powerful life in Jesus’ name. Jesus, thank You for what You're doing. May You continue to move among us as we host You and honor You. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.