OVEN: There is an oven in every home. When the power in the home is switch off, the oven cannot work, there will be no heat inside the oven and it will be a cold oven. But when the knob of the oven is turned on from position 1 to 6, the oven gets warmer and warmer and are ready to use. An odor or aroma will come out of the oven when the oven is warm and the meal is cooking, and the smell will be all over.

Revelation 3:15-16. I know your works, that you are neither cold or hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.

LAMP: A lamp is of no use when there is no oil in it and not burning. Then it is just an ornament. But when a match is strike and the flax is lit, the lamp will burn, shine, gives light and warmth.

Luke 12:35. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning.
John 5:35. John was the burning and shining lamp, and you were willing for a time to rejoice in his light.

Jesus used these verses and took an oven and lamp as an example to show us and gives expression how He wants our spiritual lives to be. We must be hot, burning and shining.
Our hearts are God’s oven or lamp, and the flame or heat inside our hearts is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will be ignited through many things, which prayer is the most important one.

John the Baptist is a example to us. He was an instrument in the hand of God, and mightily used by God. In his time he was the burning and shining lamp of God. What was the reason? He brought many people back to God by preaching the word and many repent and were baptized by him. He preached because the Holy Spirit was in him, which he received in his mothers womb, and that was the ignition to convict his listeners to repent and came back to God.
James 5:16. The effective and fervent prayer of a person, who is in right standing with God, has got much power.
When we became a child of God, we have the Holy Spirit in our hearts, and we have to be a burning and shining lamp for the world all around us.
Galatians 4:6. Because we are sons of God, He has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

The Holy Spirit of Jesus in our hearts is like oil that is in a lamp but not yet put aflame, or oven which knob is not turned on. Prayer is the ignition of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 4:31. When they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is through fervent prayers that the flame of the Holy Spirit can burn higher and brighter in our hearts. Prayer early in the morning and during the day is the strike of God’s match to activate our oven or lamp. Prayer makes our relationship and friendship with Jesus closer and closer, and the higher our spiritual flame will burn. While we are praying, praising and worshipping, the Holy Spirit creates in us a clean and pure heart and way of living.
Psalm 51:10. Create in me a clean heart.

This Holy Spirit flame in our hearts will also send out an aroma and fragrance from our lives to other around us, and it will impact everybody we get in touch with. 2 Corinthians 2:14-15. Through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ.

Fire will test fire:

There is coming a Day that God Himself will sit and test and revealed by fire the works that we have done on earth.    2 Corinthians 5:10. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Above the normal life that we are living, we also live a spiritual life and Jesus wants our whole way of living, spirit, soul and body to be clean and on fire for Him. God’s children will be tested in the Day of Judgment according to the works of our flesh, soul and spirit, the way that we lived.
1 Corinthians 3:13. Each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is. The fire in our hearts will in that Day be tested by God’s fire. It is the fire of the Holy Spirit in us that makes us alive and building  our own spiritual lives and deposit spiritual things in other persons lives. This is all part of serving the Lord.
Romans 12:10-11. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

1 Corinthians 3:14-15. If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward. If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss.

Conditions of the Spirit:

After accepting Jesus as Lord and Saviour, we received the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. This Holy Spirit flame burn in our hearts till death. Because of life’s pressure, obstacles and sin, it can happen that our spirit grows lukewarm and cold like an oven heat that is turned down, or like a lamp’s flame that burns lower and lower and gets quenched, because the oil level is not refilled.

Matthew 25:8. The foolish said to the wise, give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. Warning in 1 Thessalonians 5:19. Do not quench the Spirit, and Luke 12:35. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning.
Revelation 3:16: Because you are lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. Jesus said it is better to be spiritually cold than to be lukewarm. He wants us to be on fire for him.

The wonderful news is: Matthew 12:20b. A smoking flax He will not quench.
This Bible verses shows us that there can be conditions of the Spirit in our hearts. Jesus still gives time for any believer to get his or her lamp burning because we are still living in the time of His grace. Because we are priests of God, we are responsible to serve our own lamp. Be wise and serve your spiritual lamp daily.

Prayer keeps our spirit/heart on fire:

Just like there is an oven in every home, is there also a person in every home. That person heart is his oven or lamp. If the person does not pray, his oven will be cold and his lamp not burning. Only real relationship with the One who baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire can keep our lamps burning or our oven hot. Matthew 3:11. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Communication in prayer, praise and worship and reading God’s word will keep our relationship with Jesus steady and growing. Revelation 3:15-18. Because you are lukewarm, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich. An on-going prayer life based on a relationship with Jesus, and refined in the fire of the Holy Spirit, is like buying gold from God. It makes us spiritually rich. To buy something is to pay a price for it. Prayer is exactly that. Ephesians 5:15-16. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. We must set enough time aside for prayer, to dig deeper for God’s gold and all His pleasant riches, and that will cost us a price, but will make us spiritually rich.

Luke 24:32. Did not our heart burn within us while Jesus talked with us on the road? Communication and relationship with God make every praying heart and life a burning vessel.
Acts 4:31. And when they had prayed, they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.

Prayer stirs up the Holy Spirit and feeds our spiritual flame. James 5:16. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man (in right standing with God), is powerful.

Matthew 5:14. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.

Our life must be like a lamp that burns and shine for Jesus to all the world. The oil in our lamp is the Holy Spirit and the flame will only keep on burning if we feed our lamp with prayer and reading God’s word to have continuously relationship with Jesus.

The heart:

When the Word of God refers to the heart of man in the scriptures, it meant the spirit, soul and body. When God wants the heart of man to be clean, holy and sanctified, it always meant the total man. When the emphasis is on more parts, then the word wants to deal specially with that part of the human being.
Flesh heart: Our flesh heart which is beating in our body, serves our whole body. If we eat and drink unhealthy stuff, it will influence our health badly and our body will grow faster older and will deteriorate quicker and bring death sooner.

Spiritual heart: It is called in Ephesians 3:16 the inner-man and in 1 Peter 3:4, the hidden person of the heart. This spiritual heart can be double-minded. James 4:8. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. This inner-man or hidden person can be double-minded, focused and living on spiritual things or on earthly and sinful things.

Sinful nature: If this inner-man or hidden person is fed with sinful stuff, lust of the flesh and the entertainment of the world, then our spiritual heart will get sick, we will have a sinful nature and when we die, we will be lost forever. This sinful nature will get the upper hand in our lifestyle and it will influence our thinking, handling and walking, and the results will that we will struggle with sin. Out of your heart will proceed evil things and the result will be evil deeds.

Isaiah 1:5. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores; they have not been closed or bound up, or soothed with ointment.
Mark 7:21-23. Out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.

Spiritual nature: When we feed our spirit with prayer, God’s word and promises, good thoughts, good deeds and put our sinful members to death, our spiritual man will grow stronger and stronger and we will bear the fruit of the Spirit and will walk in the Spirit. The Spirit of God will get the upper hand in our daily lifestyle, we will spread the real pure and true love and aroma of God to all people around us and we will be strengthened to be a victorious child of God and live in the abundance of God.

Isaiah 55:2. Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and let your soul delight itself in abundance.
Ephesians 3:16-17. That you may be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man (spirit) that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you being rooted and grounded in love.
 2 Corinthians 4:16. Though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day.

The Heart – Body, Soul, spirit:

Within the body of man is his soul and spirit. Our body, soul and spirit is our heart.

Hebrews 4:12. The word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. All three is included in the heart.
Isaiah 1:5. The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faints. From the sole of the foot even to the head.
1 Thessalonians 5:23. May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Body, soul and spirit can do evil or good things. In the beginning God created man like Him – perfect. But his heart was defiled by sin and now we all have the sin nature. But through the blood of Jesus, the Holy Spirit, prayer and the word, we can be healed, renewed and restored to the image of His perfect Son Jesus Christ. God want our hearts, body, soul and spirit to be completely yielded to Him and on fire. Our body soul and spirit must be in synchronization and influenced by each other to live a perfect life before God.

Body:

This is the part which hosts the soul and spirit:
1 Corinthians 6:19. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God. Romans 12:1. We must present our body to Jesus as a living, holy and acceptable offer unto God.

It is not possible to keep our soul and spirit clean, but live a sinful lifestyle with our bodies. If our body is doing sinful deeds, it will affect our soul and spirit negatively in due course.

Soul: (Greek – Psyche, Hebrew – Nephesh)

This is the part which feels: This is the mental abilities of a living being. It is our reason, character, feelings, consciousness, perception, thinking, emotions, passions, desires and appetites.

Colossians 3:5-9. Put to death your members which are on earth; fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, idolatry, anger, malice, blasphemy, filthy language and lying.

The soul is actually the feet of the spirit and body. If we continuously feed our feelings, emotions, passions and thinking on evil, bad and worldly things, it will negatively work through to our body and will activate our feet, hands and decisions to walk and handle things according to that.

But when we accept Jesus Christ as our Saviour, God not only place His Spirit in our hearts, but He will also transform our soul completely, so that His Spirit that now lives in our spirit will influences all the parts of the soul and will work through to our way of thinking, walking and doing.

Spirit: (Greek – Ruach, Hebrew – Pneuma)

This is the part which knows: Intellect, will, mind & mental faculties.

Ecclesiastes 12:7. The dust (body) will return to the earth, just as it was, and the spirit returns to the true God who gave it.
James 2:26. Body without spirit is dead.
Galatians 4:6. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts.
Romans 12:11. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honour giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord.

This is the part where the Spirit of God dwells and the part that we must cover most seriously and kept only for the presence of the Holy Spirit and not give any space for the devil and his demons.

Ephesians 4:27. Nor give place to the devil. But we must be pure of heart, because the Holy Spirit that lives within us, are a pure and precious Person. Matthew 5:8. Blessed are the pure in heart.

The Presence of God:

As long as the flame in our lamps or hearts is burning, it shows the presence of God in our life. In the Old Testament days, there was a temple and the presence of God was only in the third part of the temple, the Holiest place. The menorah lamp that was standing in front of the curtain of the Holiest place, was kept burning day and night to show that God was still present with His people. Leviticus 24:2. Because of Israel non-stopping sin, Isaiah 63:10, God left the temple and went back to His place, Hosea 5:15.

But now in the church dispensation we are the temple of God, and our hearts are the holiest place. 1 Corinthians 3:16-17. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy you. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. It is clear – our whole human being must be kept clean, pure and holy before God. We must service our spiritual lamp daily, because we are the priests of God. 1 Peter 2:9. As long as the flame of the Holy Spirit is burning in our hearts, God’s presence will always be there.

SEVEN STEPS with JESUS  to a BURNING HEART

It is only Jesus and our communication and partnership with Him, that can keep our spirit and hearts burning, because He is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. The encounter that the two Emmaus walkers had with Jesus, will shows us the seven steps or tests to have a burning heart for Jesus.

Luke 24:32. And they said to one another, Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?

Let’s follow the seven steps with Jesus so to see if we have a burning heart for Him.

Jesus Partner

Luke 24:15. So it was, while they conversed and reasoned that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.
John 1:12. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. When Jesus partner in our life, we became His child and received the Spirit of God in our hearts.
John 3:5. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. First step is to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior. Romans 10:9.

Communication with Jesus

Luke 24:17. Jesus said to them, “What kind of conversation is that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” Luke 18:7. Shall God not avenge His own elect who cry out day and night to Him? Prayer is communication with Jesus and to have every hour relationship with Him. We must speak to God about all our sadness, longings, worries and desires. Prayer brings communication and relationship with Jesus.

Scriptures about Jesus

Luke 24.25-26. O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?

Colossians 3:16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.
Psalm 1:2. Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law, he meditates day and night.
Ephesians 6:17. Take the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit.

 

The word of God, His promises must be in our mind and heart, to use it to overcome all troubles, and understand and take our authority in Christ. The gospel is: Jesus was crucified, died and rose up from the dead, for His children to live a victorious and abundantly life. John 10:10.

The word of God must be in our system to use it effectively. Jesus used the Scriptures that the prophets prophesied about His coming, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven to explain the gospel to the Emmaus walkers. It is very important that we must stay focused on the gospel of Jesus when we read and study the Scriptures. Jesus is the main factor. 

Relationship with Jesus

Luke 24:29. But they constrained Him, saying, “Abide with us,” for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And He went in to stay with them. Revelation 3:20. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

John 14:23. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come and make Our home with him. Jesus lives within us. Colossians 1:27. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Relationship with Jesus is abiding, staying and making home with Him, and He with us. To have a burning heart for Jesus, the Holy Spirit must be our permanent guest and friend. It is like a marriage. We are the bride and Jesus are the Bridegroom. It is an everlasting relationship with no separation.

Revelation of Jesus

Luke 24:30. Now it came to pass, as He sat at the table with them, that He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they knew Him. Jesus said in Revelation 3:18 that our eyes must be anointed to see, and Paul pray in Ephesians 1:18 that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened. We can only get a revelation from Jesus if we pray and look with our spiritual eyes in His eyes and see the harvest of the Lord, the need of the people and to go out to be His hands and feet. Jesus must be a real person and friend for us. The Holy Spirit will give us His Spiritual gifts to work effective in the kingdom of God, 1 Corinthians 12. 

Speak out for Jesus

Luke 24:33. They rose up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven and those who were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to us.”
Acts 1:8. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me.

Isaiah 6:6. One of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it. Then Isaiah said, here am I, send me. And the angel said, go and tell this people. A child of Jesus cannot keep quiet. Speak and tell others that the Lord is risen. Speak with other tongues, and be witnesses. Go and tell and speak out of the abundance of your hearts and not be silent. It is time for the children of God to stand up for Jesus and be courage’s for His name.

Power from on high

Luke 24:45. Stay in the city until you have been clothed with power from on high.  The Emmaus walkers were now part of Jesus disciples and they went with them to the upper room where they wait and prepared themselves for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The last step or test of a burning heart is that we must be filled and baptize with the Holy Spirit and on fire for God.

Matthew 3:11. Jesus will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Stay and wait till you have received the power from on high.

Acts 4:31. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.