I Heard the Words: “Ignite Your Passion For God”

I woke up this morning and heard these words in my spirit: "Ignite your passion for God." (That's what He wanted me to write about on Facebook this morning.)

That sounds very spiritual and holy and all, but how does one *ignite* their passion for God? What does is mean to *ignite* and what does it mean to be *passionate*?

Ignite-verb: catch fire or cause to catch fire; arouse or inflame (an emotion or situation)

Passion-noun: strong and barely controllable emotion; the suffering and death of Jesus

Whenever I am in a season of feeling like my flame has died down, I get around other believers who are passionate...and are on fire. Faith comes by hearing the word of God, therefore I turn on a podcast of a sermon from someone who has a message from God. I listen to worship music...not just ANY worship music, but the songs and instrumentals that lead me into His presence.

If my fire ever dies down, I need to have someone poke and prod and stir up the flames again.

Can you picture a fireplace where it looks like only ashes? Yet, when you start stirring, you see some red embers. Then something is added to it to get the flame aroused and roaring again.

Have YOU ever been on fire for God and now you feel dry, cold, with nothing stirring at all? Do you know that the flame can be stirred up and you could be on fire once again for Jesus?

Oh...maybe you think the sins that you are caught up in is too much and there is no way a holy fire could possibly reach the depths of your soul. Sweet child, that's just not true. God reaches down and loves us even in the pit of our sin and despair. His love pulls us out of the deepest and darkest pits. Then His consuming fire comes upon us and we grow a passion for Him. He ignites us from the inside and changes us. He does do a One on one work with us, but usually He uses other believers who are wise and discerning and are passionately in love with Jesus to help us find our passion.

Let me be real....

I had always loved Jesus. I have respected Him, and looked at Him as a Hero in my younger childhood. All the Bible stories and coloring books just drew my heart closer to Him and I loved Him.

As I got older, sin crept in and covered me....but there was still a glowing ember of love for Jesus even in my darkest days of sin. The weight of sin was upon my back and the ugliness of disaster was evident in my life, but yet that beautiful ember that was always in my heart remained. I loved Him, even though my life was a train wreck at times.

But you know what happened....Jesus did not LEAVE me in my heap of despair. From that deeeeep burning place inside of me, I called out to Him. I was disgusted with my outside sins, and questioned my salvation almost daily, but Jesus looked at the ember that was burning in my heart for Him. That was what He had His gaze fixed upon....not my sin, but that ember of love and devotion to Him.

Jesus placed me in a church in Colorado Springs, New Life Church, around other believers and teachers and spirit filled worship leaders who poured into my soul and stirred up that ember and gave fuel to ignite a fire. I continued to go to that church every chance I could. There was a prayer center on the church property where I went almost daily. There were hour long worship services every day at noon. There were spirit filled church services where we got strong Biblical teaching and the small embers inside of me became a passionate roaring FIRE for my Savior and King. In spite of my sin, Jesus came in and set my heart ablaze with PASSION....DEVOTION.....and sincere EXUBERANCE for a King Who was able to rescue me.

Not every day is a ripping and roaring feel good hallelujah kind of day. But I will say this: In every day, there is a part of my day that IS devoted to Him and I DO experience His presence and hear His words spoken over me. I DO see Him in my life every single day. I DO hear His voice speaking love and acceptance over me. I KNOW that He loves me and I DO have those embers stirred inside my heart every time I come into His presence and look for Him, and gaze upon His beauty. It doesn't "just happen"....I have to stir it up every single day. Just like the fireplace that dies down and needs attention and more fuel, so it is with my heart that needs attention and scriptures and a time set aside to be set ablaze for Him.

God is love and is a consuming fire. He will not leave us in the state we are in if we call out from our heart and ask Him to set us ablaze for Him. That prayer will be answered with a resounding "yes and amen"!