Maintaining The Fire

First of all, what does it mean to maintain something? Well, to maintain is to preserve or keep up. If one wants to maintain something, the person must keep on doing the same thing that he or she began doing. Consequently, to maintain the fire, it is important to continue doing what you started doing.

The fire of the Holy Ghost is not just there for one day. It can be an unending force in your life. It is important that you keep it up though. It does seem like it is something hard to do but you don't have to do it alone. The Holy Spirit is always there to help you.

The main reasons it is hard to maintain the fire are hindrances. One hindrance that keeps us from maintaining the fire is a carnal mind. First of all, in Isaiah 10, the Bible explains that anointing removes yokes and burdens and burdens.

However, the mind must be transformed to maintain the fire. It states in Romans 8:5 that, "Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires."

According to this verse, there are two types of minds, a carnal mind or a spiritual mind. A carnal mind is temporary, fleshly, enmity against God, and it cannot fulfill the law of God.

The spiritual mind, on the contrary, is ETERNAL. Once changed, people are more likely to go back to theirold nature unless they maintain a changed way of life. Instead of going back to our old ways, we need to have a transformed and renewed mind.

It says in Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of you minds. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will." How do you renew your mind? It is helpful to read Romans 6,7, and 8 to see what scripture has to say about it.

READ THE WORD OF GOD, STUDY IT, MEDITATE ON IT, and CONFESS IT. Like Isaiah 55 states, our souls should get fat by the word of God. We should eat, drink and let our souls delight in fatness; a fatness that changes your life, the places to which you go, clothes you wear, your entire identity.

The second hindrance that makes it hard to maintain the fire is old habits or old nature. We know that the old person inside of us is gone. We are new people and we are no longer obligated to sin.

Romans 6:6 tells us, "For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin."

Therefore, we should leave our old habits behind and continue living our lives with the fire and the anointing that God gave us. Ephesians 4:22-24 states "You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

The "old man" is more corrupt and has sinful lusts. Therefore, put it off, leave behind the "old man," and continue in God's ways. With His fire and anointing, God has broken all the shackles and chains. Now, it is our responsibility to just live in this newness of life.

"God has broken the power, now we must brake the pattern," Pastor Teddy says. That means that God has gotten rid of all our shackles and chains, but we must get rid of our old habits and our old way of living.

We must also control our mouth and language as it says in Proverbs 21:23, "He who guards his mouth and tongue keeps himself from calamity."

The Bible says in 1 Peter 1:13 and 15, "Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed... but just he who called you holy is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it written: ''Be holy, because I am holy."

According to this verse, you must renew the Spirit of your mind. That is done through you changing your thinking. Your thinking should be spiritual, not natural.

That can be done by meditating on the Holy Scriptures. In Peter 1:14 the Bible says, "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance."

Satan is the god of darkness. That means if you live in ignorance, Satan has power over you since ignorance is darkness. Instead of living under darkness, get under the light. God is the light. There is light in knowledge as opposed to the darkness in ignorance. 

The third hindrance that makes it impossible to maintain the fire is bad company or friends. It is important that the righteous person chooses his/her friends carefully.

Friends have the power to influence you, with a good influence or a bad influence. The righteous should be friends with the ones that would have the good influence.

There is a saying, "Tell me who your friends are and Ill tell you who you are," which is self explanatory. In addition, do not follow the world's standard. That will not get you anywhere.

Instead, make your own standard that others can follow. Then you will be like the tree described in Psalms 1:3 saying, "He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

It is necessary to choose your friends carefully and wisely. You should have a value system to choose your friends. For example, ask yourself, will this person be supportive of my relationship with Jesus? Or, is this person a follower of Christ?

In Proverbs 13:20 the Bible says, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm." Therefore a friend of wise people will be wise and a friend of fools will be destroyed.

The fourth hindrance that makes it extremely hard to maintain the fire is sin. There is a saying: "Sin takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and costs you more than you want to pay."

Sin is a very terrible force. It interrupts the fellowship you have with the Lord. 1 John 1:3-9 states, "...God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

We know that God is light so we should confess and turn from our iniquities, and turn to the LIGHT!

Another thing about sin is that it never satisfies. You keep on seeking more, once you start, even if you try to stop.

Finally, the last hindrance that keeps us from maintaining the fire is lack of knowledge, or ignorance. Like stated earlier, knowledge equals light and God is light Himself.

In contrast to that, ignorance equals darkness and Satan is the god of darkness. When you lack knowledge, Satan has power over you. Also, when you live in ignorance, it is much easier to sin because it is easier to be deceived in darkness.

The word of God states in the book of James that every good thing comes form above. 1 Corinthians 2:12 says, "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us."

We have to be in the light in order to be free. God has taken us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light!

When you have knowledge, you are in the light and you have something on which to stand.

For example, when Jesus was being tempted by the devil in Matthew 4, He used his knowledge of the word of God to answer and rebuke the devil. Every time Satan tempted Him, Jesus responded by saying, "It is written..." or referring to scripture.

Hence it is significant to have a knowledge of the word of God, the Bible, since it is the only way to defeat the devil.

 

Preached by: Pastor Teddy
Written by: Rebka  Tekeste