Serving God by Burning in Spirit with the Fire of God’s Life, not with Strange Fire

As believers in Christ, we should live according to the principle of the tree of life, that is, we should depend on the Lord. In God’s eyes the greatest sin is independence; doing things for God or in God’s name yet without God’s living presence is declaring independence from God, and God does not appreciate this.

We need to abide in the Lord, depend on Him, and live constantly in a direct contact with God. This is the principle of the tree of life, which is also the principle of life: dependence. Mere spiritual knowledge without the living contact with the Lord is the principle of the tree of knowledge, but depending on the Lord continually and living in a constant contact with Him is the principle of the tree of life.

The eternal life, the life of God, is not merely something we receive at regeneration but something we depend on, we need, and we constantly need to exercise in order to live by. Just as physically we eat and drink every day, so spiritually we need to eat and drink the Lord every day and breathe Him in constantly so that we may live because of Him.

Furthermore, in our work and service to the Lord, we must reject our natural enthusiasm and strength, and we must simply allow His divine life in us to flow out.

God doesn’t need us to do many things for Him; He simply wants us to allow His life to flow out through us in an unhindered way as a ministry of life to others, and for this we need to stop ourselves, reject our natural strength, deny our natural ability, and allow the cross to operate to put to death our natural enthusiasm so that His life may flow in us.

May the Lord shine on us, expose how much we still do and say for Him out of our natural zeal for Him, and may we exercise our spirit to be burning in spirit (and not in any natural enthusiasm) serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11). May our natural ability pass through death and enter into resurrection to become useful to the Lord for the ministering of life to God’s people.

Serving God by Burning in Spirit with the Fire of God’s Life, not with Strange Fire

In Lev. 10 we see how Aaron’s sons, Nadab and Abihu, brought strange fire before God, and they died; maybe what they did was “with a good heart” or with a good intention, but they brought strange fire, and they were burned to death.

When we serve the Lord we need to be careful not to serve in a natural way, with our natural “fire” – our natural hotness, enthusiasm, ability, or zeal. We need to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord (Rom. 12:11), and the Lord wants us to be burning (and not lukewarm or cold), but we need to be burning in spirit and not in our natural man.

Later in Lev. 10:8-9, after this incident, God commanded that the priests would not drink wine and come into the tabernacle so that they won’t die; this may indicate that Nadab and Abihu might have drank wine and got drunk, then came into the tabernacle and burned fire before God.

Drinking wine signifies the over-enjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical material things. Enjoying these things of the world causes us to be drunk with them, and we get excited and out of control, doing things without any regulation. When we are drunk with the things of the world, we may be prone to offer strange fire before God in a presumptuous way; this is a real danger, and can bring in spiritual death.

When people get drunk with wine, they do presumptuous things without any discernment or regulation.

In spiritual things, when we serve the Lord we need to beware of offering strange fire to God, which can bring in spiritual death. We should be burning, but this fire we are burning with should be the fire of the life of God. Christ came to cast fire on earth: He cast the fire of His divine life on earth, we have caught this fire, and now we need to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord (Exo. 3:2; Luke 12:49-50; Lev. 10:1).

Never serve with strange fire, fire which is not from the heavens or from the altar. Our natural enthusiasm needs to go through death and resurrection and be dealt by the cross, otherwise it is something that is rejected by God.

We must not get ourselves into the overly enjoyment of the natural, worldly, and physical material things, which will cause us to be lose the discernment of holiness and be unable to teach God’s people. If we lose our discernment because we are drunk with the enjoyment of the worldly, natural, or physical things, we will not be regulated and we cannot teach others the word of God.

As priests to God having His divine life in us, we need to exercise our spirit and be burning in spirit, and we need to reject ourselves and any enthusiasm from our natural man so that we may not be presumptuous before the Lord in offering strange fire to Him; the only fire that should be burning in us in serving the Lord should be the fire of the divine life!

Lord Jesus, we want to be burning in spirit, serving the Lord, and not be burning with any natural enthusiasm from the natural man, which is a strange fire before You. Oh Lord, save us from being drunk by the over-enjoyment of the physical material things in the world. Keep us in our spirit, exercising our spirit, and allowing Your cross to operate in us to put to death any natural enthusiasm or aspect of the natural man. Lord, bring us through death and resurrection so that we may serve You in spirit, burning with the fire of the divine life!

Our Natural Strength and Ability need to be Dealt with by the Cross to be Useful in Resurrection

If our natural ability and strength don’t go through death and enter into resurrection, they cannot be useful in our service to the Lord (Phil. 3:3). Only what passes through the cross is useful to the Lord in resurrection for the ministry of life to His people.

We may think that it is good to be “burning for the Lord”, but it is easy to be burning for the Lord in our natural man with our natural enthusiasm, which will cause us to be presumptuous before Him and offer strange fire (which is rejected by Him and will bring in spiritual death).

The natural strength and ability are useful if they are dealt with by the cross. After being dealt with by the cross, they are in resurrection. In resurrection something divine has been wrought into our strength and ability. Even some divine element has been wrought into our eloquence. When we speak, we need to have our eloquence dealt with by the cross. The cross always works the divine element into the person it deals with, bringing God into him. If you have never been dealt with by the cross in your eloquence, that is the natural eloquence with nothing divine. But if your eloquence has been dealt with, that kind of eloquence is in resurrection and is full of the divine element. In the natural eloquence there is no God. But the “dealt with” eloquence in resurrection is full of God. After being dealt with, our strength and ability become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord. (Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1979, vol. 2, “Basic Lessons on Service,” pp. 142-143)

We can see this in the patterns of Moses and Peter. After being put aside by God for forty years, Moses learned to serve God according to His leading and to trust in Him (Exo. 2:14-15; Acts 7:22-36; Heb. 11:28).

Moses was full of natural strength and ability, he was educated in Egypt, he was a strong man, full of enthusiasm for his people, and the result was that he killed and Egyptian and had to flee in the wilderness and stay there doing nothing for 40 years. In this time, God dealt with him until all his natural strength and ability were put to death; when he became “as good as dead”, God came in to call him, and He did many things through him.

God doesn’t need men who are capable naturally but He needs many who go through death and enter into resurrection so that they can serve God according to His intention, by His life, trusting in Him.

Peter promised that he will follow the Lord even unto death, but he failed miserably; after becoming a complete failure, Peter learned to serve the brothers by faith and with humility (see Luke 22:32-33; John 18:15-18, 25-27; Matt. 26:69-75; 1 Pet. 5:5-6). Knowing the divine life means rejecting our natural life and enthusiasm so that Christ may live in us.

We need to know the eternal life and not live or serve by our natural life; when we exercise our spirit and reject our natural life or enthusiasm, we will serve not by our natural man or ability but in resurrection, burning in spirit. Our natural strength and ability need to be dealt with by the cross so that they may become useful in resurrection for our service to the Lord.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us and save us from serving You in our natural enthusiasm or with our natural ability. Lord, give us the experiences that we need in order for our natural strength and ability would be dealt with by the cross in order that they may be useful to You in resurrection. Lord, work Yourself into us and saturate our being with Yourself. We want to be useful to You in resurrection in serving You. Lord, gain many who reject their natural strength and ability, who allow the cross to operate and deal with them, and who live in resurrection by the divine life burning in spirit serving You!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, brother Minoru Chen’s sharing in the message for this week, and Basic Lessons on Service, lsns. 14, 20 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 5 / msg 5, The Eternal Life.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # Here, Lord, we give ourselves to Thee; / Receive us into Thy wise hands; / Bend, break, and build together in Thee / To be the house to meet Thy demands. / Break all the natural life for us, / Deal Thou with each peculiar way, / That we no more independent be / But with all saints are one for aye. (Hymns #837)
  # 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 will give myself to be an overcomer, / To see a heav’nly vision, / Keep my flaming spirit burning! / I give myself to You, to turn this age. (Song on Burning in Spirit)