Stirring Up the Embers

29 January 2024

While praying last night, the Lord spoke a word to me: “Stirring.” Hmmm, I thought. Stirring? Like stirring the pot, beginning to stir, stirring up trouble?

I’m stirring up my people, He said.

I’m stirring the embers.

Complacency is not the right word for the spiritual condition of too many believers, he continued. Neither is apathy. Static is more like it. Static, as in status quo. Spiritually stuck, not truly moving forward or backward, not growing or shrinking. Not changing very much. No spiritual excitement, no enthusiasm, no fascination. No obsession.

They have grown accustomed to their spiritual status quo. Luke-warm. Caught up in work, family and all the attendant chores, even church, they are more-or-less “okay” with their level of achievement, the resulting fatigue, and stress. For relief they turn to entertainment, sports, hobbies, or travel.

But over time the fire of their spirit has dwindled to embers. And so I’m stirring the embers.

Think about the small fires you saw a few years ago. Here and there, small fires of revival. Your prayer was that they would multiply, and they have been. But I don’t want occasional excitement, occasional enthusiasm, occasional revival fire. I want them more hungry for me than they have ever been. I want a conflagration! I want obsession! Obsession with my Word. With my Son!

When I woke up this morning that word, obsession, was still in my thoughts. Described as “constantly thinking about something,” it usually carries a negative connotation. But it certainly didn’t sound negative the way the Lord spoke it! Here’s some of what I’ve found so far in his Word this morning:

• Think

Greek word logízomai: to reckon, count, compute, calculate, take into account, count up or weigh the reasons, deliberate.

“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8 KJV)

• Meditate

Hebrew word hâgâh: murmur; by implication to ponder, imagine, mutter, speak; Greek word meletáō: revolve in the mind, imagine; attend to carefully, practice. English word from the Collins Dictionary: think, ponder, muse, ruminate, cogitate, study, contemplate. (In other words, “Give it some thought.”)

“This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.” (Joshua 1:8)

“But his delight [is] in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” (Psalm 1:2)

“I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways.” (Psalm 119:15)

“Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.” (I Tim. 4:15)

• Mind

Hebrew word yêtser: conception, thing framed, imagination, mind; Greek word diánoia: deep thought, properly the faculty of thought, imagination, understanding.

“Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt. 23:37)

“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You.” (Isaiah 26:3)

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Hebrews 8:10)

“And be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” (Ephesians 4:23)

“And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

• Mindful

Hebrew word zakar: to remember, recall, call to mind; Greek word mnaomai: to bear in mind, bring to remembrance.

“Be ye mindful always of his covenant; the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.” (I Chron. 16:15)

“That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:” (2 Peter 3:2)

• Love

Greek agapao: persons – to have a preference for, wish well to, regard the welfare of; things – to take pleasure in the thing, prize it above other things, be unwilling to abandon it or do without it.

Jesus said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)

“If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.” (John 15:10)

Jesus’s commandments – his orders, charges and precepts – are all recorded in the New Testament. In his Word.

According to Jesus, the first commandment is “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” (Matt. 23:37).

Sounds like a description of obsession, doesn’t it?

But how can we possibly do that? All my heart? All my soul? All my mind? Here’s how:

“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, so that He may be with you forever.” (John 14:16 NASB20)

” The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Romans 5:5)

God’s love in our hearts is not a feeling. It is a decision, a choice of behavior that may well result in feelings. Deep affection. True devotion. Firm commitment. Our Helper, the Holy Spirit, can and will give us the ability to love him, really love him, His way.

• Final note:

Father God is not relying on evangelists, prophets, preachers, teachers, or revivalists only, to do this stirring, he said. Person to person to person, he is stirring the spiritual embers in individual believers. He doesn’t want just another revival, he wants a conflagration and he intends to have one!

The ember-stirring has already started. It’s going to be noticeable, and interesting, and perhaps disturbing in the coming weeks and months, I believe.