If we love God, offer ourselves to God, and are willing to forsake everything for God, placing ourselves in His hand in order to be broken, He as the divine fire will be burning in us to motivate us and energize us to serve Him by fanning our spirit into flame.
The history of the Lord’s recovery is the history of the divine fire burning in those who love Him, who absolutely and unreservedly offer what they have and are to their beloved Master. We need to be such persons, those who love the Lord, offer ourselves to God, and are willing to let God work in us and burn in us so that we may serve Him with the fire that comes from God.
If we allow the Lord to burn in us and energize us for His service, we will experience the divine fire and our work was to build the church with gold, silver, and precious stones. When we experience the divine fire burning in us and thus we serve God, our work will be full of the element of God (gold), with the power of the cross (silver), and expressing God (precious stones).
But if we serve God simply because there’s a need and we have the ability to meet the need, or if we serve God because of our zeal and habit, yet without the divine fire, we are trying to build the church with the wood of our natural man, the grass of our flesh, and the stubble of the earthly things, thus marring the temple of God, suffering God’s judgement, and having our work consumed before God in that day. Oh Lord Jesus!
We really need to be before the Lord concerning our service to God so that it would be Him who burns in us and motivates us for the work, and not us who initiate things or do things for Him, burning with our own fire.
We need to live and work for God in the light of His judgement seat, not being presumptuous but letting His fire burn in us to motivate and energize us for our service to God.
Serving God with the Fire from the Altar and not with Strange Fire
It is not enough to serve God with fire: the fire has to be from the right source, it has to be from the altar, the fire coming from God. God’s service was initiated in the tabernacle by the fire coming from God, but at one point Nadab and Abihu brought in strange fire and were killed instantly (see Lev. 10:1-2; 9:24; 6:13).
You could say that they just started to serve, they were young, and God didn’t specifically say that they shouldn’t bring any other fire into His service; but they were presumptuous before God to serve God according to their mind and desire, and this brought in the divine judgement.
Our God is a consuming fire, and He wants us to serve Him with Himself as the divine fire; we should always have the light of the judgement seat before ourselves, fear God as the fire burning, and allow Him to burn in us and energize us for His work.
Strange fire is any fire other than that which burns on the altar; it is fire of the self, fire that issues from the soulish life, the fleshly life, and the natural life (see Matt. 16:14-26; 1 Cor. 2:14). Many serve God with fire, but the fire they serve God with is the fire from the self, their soulish life, and their flesh; our soul life can be quite energetic.
We should not think that if someone is absolute for the Lord and knows the word of God he is qualified to serve for God; we should not be confident in ourselves and think that since we have some zeal, we should just do something for God.
We need to surrender our skill, our preference, and our soul life, and what remains will be the genuine fire and motivation from the Lord. The strange fire brought in by the self interferes with the work of God: although the works are God’s, the self-life wants to dictate the way the works are carried out.
Anything that is not from the altar of the cross of self-denial is strange fire. Strange fire is fire of the self; it is fire that issues from the soulish life, the fleshly life, and the natural life. Strange fire means that the self-life interferes with the works of God. Although the works are God’s, the self-life wants to dictate the way the works are carried out. Offering up strange fire is employing the self’s methods and wisdom and insisting on the self’s proposals in the works of God. Strange fire will not win us God’s acceptance in the incense of our service but will cause us to die before the Lord. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 358-359)
Nadab and Abihu were judged not because they did something evil, wrong, or not for God, but because they acted according to the natural life and did something for God in a natural way (Lev. 10:1-2). This is very sobering.
They didn’t act according to God’s command. God may not specifically tell us to do something, but if we do it without checking with Him and having Him as fire burning in us, we may suffer God’s judgement. God will punish the sin of presumptuousness.
We cannot presume that God will approve our work just because our motive is good; the motive may be good, but God will still punish the sin of being presumptuous. All the work done with strange fire will be judged by God at His judgement seat.
In the Old Testament there are other examples of people who acted presumptuously for God and lost God’s blessing: Saul didn’t wait for Samuel to come and brought the offering, and this costed him his kingdom (1 Sam. 13:8-14); Uza tried to help the ark when the cart was about to fall as the oxen were pulling it, and he was instantly killed by God (2 Sam. 6:1-7); and Uziah the king burned the incense, even though it was not his portion, and leprosy broke out in his being, and he remained leprous to his death (2 Sam. 6:1-7).
God pays attention not only to whether or not there’s fire in our service but also to the source and nature of the fire; our zeal and fire must come from the altar, it must be the fire coming from God.
Lord Jesus, save us from serving You with strange fire, with the fire coming from the self and issuing from the soulish life and fleshly life. Lord, strengthen us into our inner man so that we may no longer be confident in ourselves but surrender our skills, preference, and soul life, so that the divine fire would be burning in us in our service to God. May we live our life in the light of the judgement seat of God, doing nothing out of our own zeal, excitement, or desire! Oh Lord, may the source and nature of the fire in our service to You be the fire from the altar, the divine fire!
Not Quenching the Spirit but Fanning our Spirit into Flame to Serve God with Divine Fire
Today we are in the New Testament age, and as believers in Christ we have a fire lit in our spirit: the Triune God in Christ as the Spirit has come into our spirit as the divine fire! Hallelujah!
All we have to do is NOT quench the Spirit but fan into flame the gift of God, which is in our spirit, and be burning in spirit (1 Thes. 5:19; 2 Tim. 1:6-7; Rom. 12:11). We don’t need to wait for the divine fire to come down from the heavens: the divine fire is already lit in us, and our responsibility is not to quench it but to fan our spirit into flame!
In our spirit as the lamp we have the divine Spirit as the divine fire burning; however, even such things as looseness, gossip, carelessness, and a little disobedience can quench this fire. The Spirit is burning in us, and because the Spirit causes our spirit to be burning and our gift to be flaming, we should not quench Him!
Hallelujah, God has not given us a spirit of cowardice but a spirit of love, power, and sobermindedness, and we need to fan our spirit into flame. Our human spirit which is indwelt and regenerated by the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, and the fanning of our gift into flame is the fanning of our spirit into flame (2 Tm. 1:6-7; John 3:6; Rom. 8:16).
How do we “fan our spirit into flame”?
If you want to fan your spirit into flame, you need to open up your mouth, open up your heart, and open up your spirit. You need to open these three layers of your being. You have to use your mouth to say, “O Lord Jesus.” But then you have to go deeper by using your mouth with your heart to say, “O Lord Jesus.” Then you need to go even deeper by using your mouth with your heart and with your spirit to say, “O Lord Jesus.” This is to open up your spirit from deep within. Then the fire burns. If you are down, you should call “O Lord Jesus” again and again from deep within with the exercise of your spirit. Then you will be up. (Witness Lee, The Spirit with Our Spirit, pp. 80-82)
We should not let our spirit be cold but fan our spirit into flame by opening our mouth, turning our heart to the Lord, and opening our spirit to call on the name of the Lord! Oh Lord Jesus! We need to open our mouth, our heart, and our spirit, and let the fresh spiritual air come in.
Fire needs air in order to burn: we need to exercise our spirit, open to the Lord, and call on His name, and He as the fresh spiritual air will come in, ignite the fire, and cause us to be burning with God as the fire!
When Saul and Barnabas were sent by the Spirit to go and preach the gospel, they opened to the Spirit, and the divine fire went with them and burned everywhere to bring in the kingdom fo God. As we open our being to the Spirit indwelling us, we are motivated to go forth.
We shouldn’t close up but open up: the fire is in us, we just need to make sure we don’t quench it but fan it into flame! If we don’t quench the Spirit but fan our spirit into flame, we will be burning in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11).
We shouldn’t be slothful in zeal but burning in spirit! Our body has to be offered as a living sacrifice, our soul needs to be transformed, and our spirit has to be burning with the divine fire, serving the Lord.
Our Christian life and service should be a life inspired and stirred up by the Spirit as the divine fire burning in us; we need to not quench the Spirit but fan our spirit into flame!
Oh Lord Jesus! Lord Jesus, we open to You: we open our mouth, we open our heart, and we open our spirit to call on Your name! Oh Lord Jesus! We want to NOT quench the Spirit but fan our spirit into flame! Amen! Keep us calling on Your name again and again throughout the day so that the fresh divine air would come in and the fire within us would be burning! Lord, we offer our body as a living sacrifice to You, we want to be renewed in our mind and transformed in our soul, and we want to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord with the divine fire!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by brother James Lee for this week, and portions from the ministry, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Service for the Building up of the Church (2016 Spring ITERO), week 6 / msg. 6, The Basis of Service — the Fire from the Altar.
- Recommended further reading: Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 38, pp. 358-364, and, The Spirit with Our Spirit, pp. 80-82 (by Witness Lee).
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Exercise the spirit! / Natural sense renounce; / Serve with one another, / Christ the Lord announce. / Exercise the spirit! / Soulish life deny; / Helping one another, / On the Lord rely. (Hymns #866)
# For which cause, I remind you / To fan into flame the gift of God / Which is in you / Through the laying on of my hands, / You fan into flame the gift of God, / Which is in you. / For God has not given us / A spirit of cowardice, / But of power and of love / And of sobermindedness. (Scripture Song)
# We will all stir up this gift that’s deep within / As the wonderful Spirit in us. / When we call “Lord Jesus” how our spirits spring / With this life-giving Spirit in us! (Hymns #1113)
About aGodMan
We should be burning for the Lord and hot; however, our hotness should not be natural but spiritual. We progress from being natural to being spiritual by taking the way of the cross. Whatever we are in the natural life should be crossed out. The natural man has already been crucified with Christ. Now in our Christian life and walk we need to hold the attitude that our natural man has been crucified and must be set aside. Since the natural life has already been condemned, we should condemn it today. We need to realize that our natural man has been judged by God on the cross, and for this reason it should not be regarded or honored. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Leviticus, pp. 289-290)
Amen … Do not quench … Lord Jesus, be the burning fire from the alter within us, for our life and service to and for You. We do not want to serve You with strange fire, but be burning in spirit, fanning our spirit into flame with the divine fire of God, which come from the alter, through our consecration of ourselves to You. O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! O Lord Jesus! We love You Lord! Hallelujah! Thank You for the divine life, the gold. Thank You for the cross, the silver, Thank You for the Spirit, that we are being made into precious stone for Your building, by fanning our spirit into flame, so as to be burning in spirit, to build Your temple, a dwelling place of God in spirit! Thank You Lord Jesus! Keep us calling upon Your precious name Lord Jesus! Thank You for the gift of God, the Spirit, burning within our spirit, heart and soul, preparing us to serve You Lord! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Amen!