July 5th, 2022

Follow the Fire

Haggai 1:13-14 NIV

"Then Haggai, the Lord's messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: "I am with you," declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God..."

      In the book of Ephesians (1:13-14), we are told that we receive the Holy Spirit upon hearing the Gospel and believing. I'm sure that many believers can remember the time and place when they turned their lives over to Christ, in exchange for His spirit. I was born and baptized into the Methodist faith, but when I was just ten or eleven years old, I stood up and professed my faith for the first time in my grandparent's church during a week of VBS. To this day I will never be able to explain the feeling I felt that day, but friends, I was moved by the Spirit, and I will never be the same again. I like to refer to the Spirit as that still small voice that helps guide us through life. It gives us those, "hunches," and moves us in the right direction according to God's will. However, following the Spirit is a choice. Just because the Spirit speaks, doesn't mean we have to listen. But how do we know if it's the Spirit speaking to us?

      Reflect on your past for a moment, if you will. Have you ever done something, and while doing it, it just felt right? You can't explain the feeling, but it was by no means sinful, you felt joy doing it, maybe you impacted others by doing it, it came easy to you, the right things happened at the perfect time, and everything fell into place. These are just some examples, but what I'm saying is that it came easy to you and happened in a positive, God-glorifying manner. After spending countless years in exile, the word of the Lord spoke through the Prophet Haggai, encouraging Zerubbabel and Joshua to begin rebuilding the temple of the Lord. Now, I'm sure these two men (along with the remnant of the people) had questions, but when God commands something, He's going to make that fire inside of you burn brighter and brighter until you can't run from it. That's what He did to His people. The scripture tells us He stirred up the Spirit within them (so we see that these people are believers for sure) and began work right away, rebuilding the house of the Lord. I truly believe that if we listen and pray before making decisions in our lives, trusting that the Spirit will not lead us astray, we will do better at making good decisions out of faith. All we must do is follow that fire.

I want to encourage you to listen carefully to the spirit within you. Pray that the Spirit may lead you before making decisions, so that you may easily live an obedient life through Christ. If you are leaning one way or the other, see which side has the fire burning on it. If that fire is nagging you to come in that direction, pray and follow. Odds are, it's the Spirit calling you.