Dear reader, we are glad you found this blog post because we will share our quick note on cultivating your walk with the Holy Spirit based on the sermon titled “The Key to Staying on Fire for God” by Vlad Savchuk. This is not a transcript of the sermon but how the Holy Spirit interpreted this powerful sermon to us. We encourage you to listen to the sermon and use our notes as an additional resource that serves as a refresher to help empower you and your walk with God.
Once everyone was accounted for and we realized we had all made it, we learned that we were on the island of Malta. The natives went out of their way to be friendly to us. The day was rainy and cold and we were already soaked to the bone, but they built a huge bonfire and gathered us around it. Paul pitched in and helped. He has gathered up a bundle of sticks, but when he put it on the fire, a venomous snake (a viper), roused from its sleepiness by the heat, struck his hand and held on. Seeing the snake hanging from Paul’s hand like that, the natives jumped to the conclusion that he was a murderer getting what he deserved. Paul shook the snake off into the fire like it was nothing. They kept expecting him to drop dead, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to, they jumped to the conclusion that he was a god! The head man in that part of the Island was Publius. He took us into his home as his guests, drying us out and putting us up in fine style for the next three days. Publius’s father was sick at the time, down with a high fever and dysentery. Paul went to the old man’s room, and when he laid hands on him and prayed, the man was healed. Word of the healing got around fast, and soon everyone on the island who was sick came and got healed.
Acts 28:1-10 (MSG)
The sermon’s goal is not to share new information that you may or may not be familiar with but to help you grow your love for Christ and encourage you so Jesus can become more precious to you. God has called you to be the salt, not the sugar, of the earth (Matthew 5:13). Think about this illustration: when you taste sugar, you want more sugar; but when you taste salt, you want to drink water. The goal is not to become more like sugar but more like salt. This means that when people come in contact with you, they should want more of Jesus, not more of you. Acts 27:27-44 gives the full story about the shipwreck that happened before Paul found himself on Malta’s island.
The fire of God is an awareness of who God is, His presence in your life, and a walk with Him. Cultivating the fire of God is more than just a prayer life. To cultivate the fire of God in your life, you must develop an ability to overcome excuses. Every person who is passionate about pursuing Jesus is not better than you. They are humans like you. The only difference between you and those individuals you know are on fire for God is their immunity to excuses. They are only better at overcoming excuses. In kingdom culture, your number one priority is to build a fire, which is a relationship with God. The question is not, do you know these things? Rather the real question is, are you on fire for God? Is your fire for God real? When I say real, I mean is your fire for God burning. This has nothing to do with the height or intensity of your fire for God. This has everything to do with how consistently you keep the fire burning. Have you built a habit that will help you keep the fire of God burning within you? Your fire for God should be more than just a passion for God. It should be a commitment, a continuous awareness of God’s love for you in your private life. Do you have a living, personal devotion to God?
Now let’s reference a story from the old testament to explain why it is important to have a real fire for God. The book of Esther starts by telling us how Queen Vashti was permanently banned from King Xerxes’ presence and how he appointed Queen Esther to take her place. In Esther chapter 1, Queen Vashti did not lose her crown because she cheated on King Xerxes by having a boyfriend on the side. She lost her title as the Queen because she devoted more time to her women’s ministry than the king. Ministry is a good thing, but it can become a distraction to loving the Lord if you are not careful. Unlike Queen Vashti, who held a banquet for women, Queen Esther held a banquet for the King himself (Esther 7:1). Queen Vashti lost her crown, but Queen Esther saved the nation. Every human living on earth will have a challenge, but just like everyone else, you need to overcome your excuses and spend more time with God to cultivate a lifestyle of an awareness of God’s presence. When you overcome your excuses, you will see that your personality will begin to change for the better. The natives of the island of Malta built a fire, but Paul gathered the sticks to keep the fire burning. Conferences, men of God sermons, and divine encounters will initiate the fire, but it is your bundle of logs that will keep the fire of your intimacy with God burning.
You can have an encounter with somebody and it can get you fired up, but that is not going to last if you don’t get out of your ‘blessed assurance Jesus is mine’ and go gather sticks.
Vlad Savchuk
The Four (4) Logs You need to Cultivate Your Walk with God
1. The Bible
The first log you need is the Bible. Do you have a Bible? The YouVersion Bible App is a great Christian resource that contains several versions of the Bible and numerous Bible plans to help you build a consistent personal devotion to God. Check it out if you haven’t already or if you have it and you don’t use it daily. You need to open your Bible and read it. The Bible might be an ancient boring book, but it is still very hot. Every log that creates fire is boring because they are not designed for super hyper-hyped emotionalism. Wet logs kill the fire. If you want to keep the fire of God burning in your heart, you need dry logs. Jesus did not spend his time on earth coming up with some super fancy way to teach scriptures. He just focused on what was written, explaining that to His disciples day in and day out.
The focus should be on what is written; not how it was written.
Rola Express
2. A Prayer Life
The second log is prayer. The goal of a prayer life is not in the prayer itself, although that is important. The main focus of prayer should be to carry the consciousness of God when you leave a prayer. God built prayer primarily for His benefit. God loves you so much that he is inviting you into His presence so He can spend time with you because your presence is His pleasure (Psalm 149:4; Zephaniah 3:17). John 3:16 tells us about how God gave up Jesus to save the world, including you, because of his unfailing endless love for humanity. This is all to say that God truly loves you, and not only is He willing to sacrifice for you, but He has also created a channel for you to approach him unrestricted. This medium is called prayer. This is why prayer should not just be seen as a religious duty because it is way more than that. If you are still in doubt, think about when Adam and Eve sinned against God for the first time. God still showed up to meet with them. Despite knowing everything they had done wrong, God’s first question to them was not, “what have you done? or “why did you do what you did?” Genesis 3 verse 9 records that God asked, “where are you?” When you sin against God, He does not want you to hide from Him. He wants you to trust Him with your shortcomings. Since God singlehandedly gave you your salvation, He is fully capable of helping you through everything and anything that wants to come between you and Him. Trust God.
Come now,
Isaiah 1:18 (ESV)
let us reason[a] together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
3. A Fasting Ritual
The third log is fasting. God created you to practice fasting. This is why every night, you fast while you sleep, and your first meal when you wake up is called breakfast (breaking the fast). While fasting, your physical hunger quickens your spiritual hunger, and you become more aware of the dealings of the Holy Spirit. Your fasting enrolls your flesh in a training program where it learns how to behave when confronted with a temptation. You need to fast if you want to last. During spiritual fasting, you will lose some physical weight but gain some spiritual weight. Losing physical weight is not the reason for spiritual fasting; it is only a byproduct. If losing physical weight is the goal, it is not spiritual fasting. Spiritual fasting cannot improve your worth before God. That became a done deal through Jesus’s death, burial, and resurrection. Spiritual fasting can only change your spiritual weight based on what you choose not to feed on physically and what you choose to feed on spiritually. The previous statement is very important; read it again till you understand it. Engaging in a spiritual fast is replacing the time spent eating with the study of God’s word and dwelling in the place of prayer.
4. The Act of Sacrifice
The fourth log is sacrifice. Specifically, this is a financial sacrifice. This type of sacrifice is not tithes, offerings, or monetary gifts to the church as a tip from your leftover. This is when the Holy Spirit prompts you to make a painful sacrifice, and you obey the Holy Spirit. This sacrifice comes from a direct connection to fire, your awareness, and your walk with the Holy Ghost. When you give this sacrifice, God always pours His fire on it. You cannot go far with God until you learn that the battle for your heart is not between God and the devil. It is between God and your money (your bank account and your possessions). Fasting and prayer can move mountains but cannot move your heart (Matthew 17:20-21). Money moves your heart (Matthew 6:21). If what you are giving up is not something that will hurt you, it is not a sacrifice. Sacrifice is not giving up everything all the time. You do not do this when someone like a pastor tells you to do it. It is something that the Holy Spirit puts His finger on, and you feel a pressing need to exercise a heart of obedience. God does not want your money. He wants your heart. In other for Him to get it, He needs to free your heart from everything and anything that is holding you back, including your financial possessions if need be.
You want to burn on fire for God, then you have to learn to put some logs in: fasting, prayer, the Bible, and sacrifice.
Vlad Savchuk
You cannot blame the fire for the snake. The fire did not bring the snake; it exposed the viper already in your life. Your spiritual complacency created the warm environment conducive to the viper sleeping, living, and reproducing. Now that you are flaming hot, the viper is awakened from its slumber and forced out of its hiding place. You have three options: allow the viper to poison you, put out the fire, or toss it back into the fire. You probably have found yourself doing the first two in the past, and that’s why you don’t see the result you want. The wise thing to do is the third option. You need to throw the snake back into the fire. The same fire that exposed the viper is capable of consuming it. The lazy thing to do is to carry your vipers everywhere, hoping to toss them into someone else’s fire. To walk in victory, you must have your fire and keep it burning. Someone else’s flame can help you get deliverance, but only your fire can secure your victory and empower you to walk in dominion. Deliverance services are good, but God did not create you in his
image to be subject to that. He created you to have dominion (Genesis 1:26-29). Attacks from your vipers, demons, and the devil should not be mistaken as a punishment for wrongdoings, especially when you are confident that they resulted from your devotion to God. On the contrary, they should be seen as the result of you doing what is right. The goal is to keep the flame burning till you turn the devil into his worst nightmare. There is a difference between someone removing the viper for you and you confronting it by shaking it off like it’s nothing. You won’t be able to do the latter if you don’t cultivate your fire. Deliverance is necessary but to walk in dominion, you need to have your fire. Never forget this: the devil will only attack the person God has set aside for his use. You are a threat to the kingdom of darkness that is why the devil is bent on threatening you.
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Joshua 1:9 (NIV)
Closing Prayer
Salvation Prayer (say this prayer of confession if you desire to dedicate your life to God and trust Him to be Lord over your life): Lord Jesus, I admit that I am a sinner in need of a savior. I am sorry for living my life following the will of my flesh and my sinful nature. I renounce my covenant and longing for a glorified sinful lifestyle. I proclaim that all my heart desires are the things of God. My Lord and my God, I want to do your will. Forgive me for every time I have tried to initiate or impose my will as your will for my life. Come into my life afresh and make me whole again. I believe you, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, died on the cross, bore my sins, and rose again that I might become the righteousness of God. I accept this invitation to become a child of God. Precious Holy Spirit come into my life and guide me in all truth. Teach me the ways of the Father as I study scripture. My good God and Heavenly Father, show me where you are already at work in my life and give me a willing and obedient heart to join you in fulfilling your will at your timing, walking in your way at your command, and abiding in a continual fellowship with you. So help me, God. Amen
“May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.”
2 Corinthians 13:14 (NIV)
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Till next time, Shalom!
