Offering Ourselves to God for His Fire to Burn in us and Motivate us for His Service

All the service that we as believers in Christ offer to God should be based on the fire that comes from God; we need to be those who are offering ourselves to God for His fire to burn in us and energize us to serve Him.

In the Old Testament all the service of the priests was based on the fire of the altar of burnt offering, which is the fire that came from God. In everything that we serve in the church life, we need to serve not in ourselves but based on the fire that comes from God.

Our God is a consuming fire, Christ came to cast the fire of the divine life on earth, the Spirit is seven lamps of fire burning before the throne of God, the word of God is a divine fire burning us, and the Triune God who calls us to serve Him is the fire burning on the thornbush.

In ourselves we are sinners, cursed and dry thornbushes, but the Triune God of resurrection has come into us as the divine fire, and all our service to Him should be based on this fire.

There may be a great need to do a particular thing in the church life, and we may have the right skills to do it; however, what we should do is simply open to the Lord and be filled with Him, allowing His fire to burn us and burn in us; then, the fire in us will motivate and energize us to do or not to do things for Him.

We may be like Moses, losing confidence in ourselves that we can do anything for God, but God as a burning fire doesn’t need us as a “fuel” to burn with – He simply wants to come in us, burn us, and burn in us so that we may serve Him with Him as the energizing factor and ability.

Since fire is the source of energy, in order for our service to be full of energy, our service must pass through the fire on the altar. All we have to do is place ourselves on the altar, offering God our full consecration, and He as the fire will come, burn us, and burn in us to motivate us and energize us to serve Him.

May the Lord save us from serving Him with our natural energy. May we be filled with the divine fire and may this fire be the energy, the driving force, the impulse within us!

The Energy and Motivating Power for the New Testament Service began with Fire from Heaven

How did the service in the New Testament begin? When Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost with the eleven, he was full of the divine fire (see Acts 2:3).

Before that day, Peter was energetic naturally, but this brought in jealousy, condemnation, conflicts, and rivalry; but now, after praying for ten days with the 120, the Spirit was poured out upon them as tongues of fire. The result was that Peter spoke – and there was a fire burning in him, and every word he spoke was filled with the divine fire, thus convicting the people and causing them to repent.

Peter was no longer a common fisherman – he was a burning thornbush, and there was a motivating power within him causing him to do what natural men cannot do. The energy and motivating power for the New Testament service began with fire from heaven; the fire that descended upon the Galilean fishermen became the energy and the motivating power within them.

Because of the fire burning in them, the disciples could speak for God, preach the gospel, save sinners, and establish churches. This fire also burns in us today!

In the early 1900’s God raised Dora Liu, a sister from China who in her youth forsook her medical career and future for the sake of the gospel. She was sent by her parents to London to continue her medical studies, but she was burning with the divine fire and simply dropped everything to go and preach the gospel.

One day Watchman Nee heard her preaching of the gospel and was dynamically saved. Dora Liu was burning with the divine fire, and one day a sister called Peace Wang was impacted and received the Lord; later, this young sister preached the gospel and someone called Witness Lee heard and was dynamically saved.

This is our family history: the Lord’s recovery began with some who offered themselves willingly and unreservedly to the Lord to allow the divine fire to burn in them, and this fire continues to burn in us. The history of the Lord’s recovery is the history of the divine fire burning in those who love Him, those who absolutely and unreservedly offer what they have and are to their Beloved Master.

This is our history and our lineage; we need to be this kind of person. We should be those serving the Lord not because of the need, ability, knowledge, or skill, but because of the fire burning in us. The ones who have gone before us had the divine fire burning in them.

The way of the Lord’s recovery is a way of lives laid down and sacrificed, with fire burning upon them. We need to be fearful before the Lord concerning our service: it is not because we have received some spiritual training that we are qualified to serve; if we are to serve the Lord, we must have the divine fire, the fire that was in the ones who went before us.

It is not because of duty, condition, or commitment, but because of the fire burning from the throne which has issued forth and has reached us, and now this fire is burning in us! Oh, may this fire burn in us, continue in us, and never be put out!

Lord, we offer ourselves to You unreservedly for Your purpose, Your economy. We open to You and we lay ourselves on the altar so that You as the divine fire would come in and burn in us and burn us for Your purpose. Lord, may the divine fire be the basis of our work and service to God. May the divine fire be the motivating factor in our being, energizing us to serve God today.

Offering Ourselves to God for His Fire to Burn in us and Motivate us for His Service

The only thing that God wants from us as service is that we would allow his fire to burn in us and motivate us to serve him, energizing us to offer him the service he desires. He doesn’t want us to serve him with our own strength, power, zeal, ability, or knowledge.

He wants to come in as the divine fire into us and move in us. We are the human element and he is the divine fire burning and motivating. The service we should offer God is actually God Himself coming into us to move in us, burn in us, and serve in us.

All we have to do is offer ourselves on the altar, giving ourselves to the Lord unreservedly so that his fire would burn in us and motivate us for His service. Today God is calling those who love him and desire to satisfy his heart’s desire by offering themselves to him on the altar so that he as the divine fire would come in and burn in them and cause them to serve him with God as the fire (Luke 12:49; Rom. 12:11).

If we offer ourselves to God sincerely, fire will descend from the heavens and burn us ; this burning will become the energy that moves us, and the issue of this burning will be our service.

To serve the Lord is not an easy or light thing; the Triune God as a consuming fire is burning in us to cause us to do what we can’t normally humanly do. We need to have this divine fire, otherwise all our work for God is a common work, a common Christian work.

May the Lord save us from repeating the history in Christianity, which is filled with just doing something to gain a crowd and get a large number of people, yet without the divine fire within. If we do things from ourselves, using our own fuel, we will get burnt out.

But if we are burning with the divine fire, we will never be burnt out; rather, the divine flame in us keeps us burning, serving the Lord in spirit. Genuine Christian service doesn’t come from man, is not with man’s zeal, and is not carried out in man’s ability.

Genuine Christian service is God moving through man. It is God having man’s full cooperation so that God would deal with man, break man, and work through man.

We simply need to love the Lord, come forward to him, and be willing to be dealt with, broken, and placed on the altar so that he as the divine fire would come in, burn in us, burn us, and be the divine flame in us motivating us to serve God by himself as the fuel and energy.

The issue of the Triune God burning in us when we are willing to consecrate ourselves to him is that we serve God, and our service will be with the divine fire.

If we are willing to consecrate ourselves to the Lord and offer ourselves willingly to him on the altar, he as the divine fire will descend from heaven and burn us, and the issue of this burning will be our service to the Lord.

Lord Jesus, here we are – our only desire is to satisfy your need. We offer ourselves willingly to You so that You may deal with us and burn in us, motivating us and energizing us for our service to You. Lord, we reject ourselves and our opinions, ability, natural desires, and zeal, and we simply place ourselves on the altar for You as the fire to descend and burn us. Oh Lord, may our service be an issue of the Triune God burning in us. Gain the service that you are after, the service that is based on 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 The Service for Building Up the House of God, pp. 19-24 (by Witness Lee), 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.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Burning, burning, we are burning, / Ever to our spirits turning, / One for Thine eternal purpose, / in spirit one; / On the ground of locality, / We express our unity — / Many members, but one Body, / Christ as our Head. (Hymns #1266)
  # I offer now without reserve / All that I am and all I have / Thy purpose to fulfill. / Oh, may the Lord accept and keep, / That henceforth I may only seek / To do the Father’s will. (Hymns #471)
  # Consecrated is Thy temple, / Purged from every stain and sin; / May Thy flame of glory now be / Manifested from within. / Let the earth in solemn wonder / See my body willingly / Offered as Thy slave obedient, / Energized alone by Thee. (Hymns #403)