“For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power, love, and self-control.”
2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV)
Many of us have experienced a spiritual awakening at some point in our lives. We could have encountered God through a Life in the Spirit seminar, a retreat, or some other way. That was when we felt we wanted to live for God, relinquish all our worldly attachments, and serve our King, come hell or high water. That was our conversion point, our initial spiritual high, where we could say we loved God completely and were willing to do anything for God’s Kingdom. We can even say we have fallen in love with God for the first time.
How can we fan into flame the gift of God?
Unfortunately, that initial encounter and those feelings cannot be naturally sustained. After a while, the world, the flesh and the devil challenge us with the reality of our conversion. Like an ember that lacks a new fuel source, our spiritual experience slowly fades away until it becomes just a memory, leaving us with doubt about our spiritual high and prompting us to question whether it happened. After some time, we revert to our old ways of thinking, speaking, and behaving, as if nothing had happened deep within ourselves. Why does this happen? Why can’t God’s fire within effortlessly last for a lifetime?
“And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no roots, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
Matthew 13:3-8 (ESV)
Like our experience of finding a spouse, we encounter a lot of emotions at the start. We undergo many new things when we fall in love. Our attraction to our spouse is high, but after getting married, challenges arise – including relationship misunderstandings, financial difficulties, work-related issues, and so on. The initial feelings of euphoria subside. However, what the couple needs now to sustain their love for one another is a commitment to each other until the end, working on their priorities and differences, and seeking support from other mature Christians with whom they can work on their marital issues. In other words, they need to fan the flame of love they had at the beginning. This situation is similar to our relationship with God. We need to live our faith on fire.
Maintain a life-span view of your relationship with God
God has provided and equipped us with everything we need to fan the flame of our love for Him. He has given us His Word, the Scripture, as our guide. He has provided us with an environment where we can thrive as His followers through our fellowship groups and the broader Christian community. However, we must commit our whole lives to God, whether times are easy or hard, for the entirety of our lives. We need to have a lifespan view of our relationship with God – one in which we have found the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Infinite Value. We need to have the inner conviction that no matter what life throws at us, we will follow the Lord wholeheartedly until the end. We are humans and will fail, but we must stand up, repent, and follow Him again with greater love and fervour.
We also need to make that commitment real in our daily lives. We need to pray and read God’s Word faithfully every day. We must review our most significant relationships to see whether they bring us closer to God. We need to choose to serve the Lord in one way or the other. We need to regularly interact with God-loving people who share our values and ways of behaving and speaking, as we desire. We must repent when we fall and ask for help from other mature followers who can support us in our walk with the Lord. We need to yield to God’s Spirit and discern how God wants us to live our lives for Him. We need to refresh our relationship with God through regular personal retreats.
Nurture with perseverance the flame of God’s fire with you
Fanning the flame of God’s fire within us is not quick or easy. It is a lifetime of arduous work. It means persevering through dry times in prayer, continuing to trust God in times of uncertainty, forgiving others from the heart, and making big and small decisions with God’s Kingdom in mind. We need the perseverance to nurture God’s flame within us daily for a lifetime. Ideally, we live our faith on fire, zealously praying, serving God and sharing the Gospel with all our friends.
Our initial conversion should have an end-view of heaven. We are not wasting our lives living for God here on earth for nothing; we are investing all of our earthly lives so that we can meet God face-to-face and spend eternity with Him and His people. We aim to be in heaven, which is entirely free of sin, death, sorrow, pain, mourning, and suffering. One day, we can all say, “It is worth all the pains of discipleship to be with God forever.”
Top image credit: Photo of burning candles in the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem, from Bigstock.com, © by kirill4mula, stock photo ID: 198156457. Used with permission.
Tom Caballes is a National Coordinator of the Lamb of God, a community of the Sword of the Spirit with seven branches located throughout New Zealand. Tom and his wife Mhel and their two daughters [with his son-in-law and grand-daughter] live in Wellington, New Zealand.