Set Yourself On Holy Fire!

Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda:

Get on Fire! Supernatural Fire is Falling!

John answered them all, saying, "I baptize you with water, but He who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."—Luke 3:16

As we've enter into 2010, the Lord is emphasizing the fire of His Spirit upon us. We often focus on the Holy Spirit as the Oil of anointing, the refreshing River we drink to quench our spiritual thirst, but we are sensing the Lord wants us to come into a greater revelation of His fire.

Acts 2:2-3 describes the fire that fell at Pentecost, "And suddenly there came from Heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them." Those 120 that were baptized in fire became blazing torches for the Gospel, turning the world upside down. Wherever they went the fire of Pentecost spread, and they were in revival.

God uses the natural to give us a connection point to the supernatural. Just as water is essential for life, the Living water of the Holy Spirit is essential for our spiritual well-being. Fire in the natural, brings light, warmth and power. Where there is the fire of the Holy Spirit, there is empowering, understanding, illumination and revelation. When God gave Moses that amazing, redeeming commission to deliver a nation from bondage, He came through fire: "And the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed" (Exodus 3:2). God's fire is a supernatural fire—it purifies, heals, blesses, redeems, empowers, restores and creates.

Everyone who has experienced personal salvation and the infilling of the Holy Spirit has been ignited with the Fire of the Spirit. The Lord wants us to steward His fire so He can give us more. Abraham was a man who knew God. He walked in revelation and was a man on fire. But he teaches us something important. When God said, "Come worship Me on Mount Moriah," Abraham arose early and prepared to worship. He took the knife, the wood and his son. But he also took the fire with him. The whole action is called worship: "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you" (Genesis 22:5). Abraham went to Moriah to offer his son, knowing that God who had promised the Son was faithful to provide. But he carried the fire for the sacrifice with him. The Lord revealed Himself to Abraham as Jehovah Jireh. And the Lord will reveal Himself as our Provider again. But we need to bring the fire. Part of our worship is to kindle and fan the flame in our hearts. Catch the fire, and become carriers of His glory.

"I set myself on fire and people come to watch me burn."—John Wesley

How Do We Stay Ablaze?

I (Mahesh) remember the Charismatic outpouring of the '60s and '70s. A fire came in California that set ablaze hundreds of thousands of people. It didn't just rest on one group or one denomination. It consumed and burned everywhere it went—Catholics, Lutherans, Episcopalians and Hippies were awakened to the Holy Spirit and filled with the fire and power of Pentecost. It was an amazing time. We were touched and transformed by the fire of God.

I had a friend who ministered with me during those years. He was a worship leader and was passionate about God. His heart burned to see the lost come into the Kingdom. I had not seen him for over thirty years, but on my recent trip to Dallas he was there. He is now 71 years old and is as passionate and on fire as he was back then! No one has put that fire out; it has only increased in his life.

We all need to be like this man. God sets us on fire, but we need to stay ablaze! How do we do this? There are three elements that are essential for fire:

1. Fuel

2. Kindling

3. Oxygen

If any one of these are missing, you don't have fire. What was the fuel of Pentecost? People—the substance that could burn. What was the kindling? It was a company of people in one place hungry for God, harmonizing with each other and Heaven in corporate prayer. What is the oxygen? The sound of the mighty rushing wind! The breath of God. We stay ablaze as we make room for the breath of God in our lives, living in daily communion with the Holy Spirit. When there is not enough oxygen, the fire dies down, but when you fan the flames, it blazes. We fan the flames by gathering with other Believers. Staying plugged into our local church, fellowship, prayer, communing with the Lord in our prayer language and immersing ourselves daily in His Word.

When we are on fire:

• Oppression and depression have to flee.

• We are consumed with love for Jesus that grows greater and greater and will never cease.

• We desire to be transformed and conformed into His image.

• We have evidence of the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

• It is easy to cooperate with the Lord in prayer, fasting and worship.

• We want more!

• We ignite others!

Revelation 3:15-16 says, "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." God is clear—He is looking for burning men and women. If you are spiritually asleep or lukewarm, let the fire come. Are you hot? Fan the flames more. The more you welcome His fire, the more it drives you to burn brighter and hotter with prayer, thanksgiving and praise. Let us position ourselves in 2010—"Here we are. Set us on fire!" Let the breath of His Spirit blow on us so that we burn brightly.

...Our God is a consuming fire.—Hebrews 12:29

In the realm of the Spirit we see God putting a match to light a revival fire that is going to bring in a harvest of souls. We are not going to see isolated campfires, but a raging wildfire sweep across this nation and the nations. At Pentecost it did not matter their background, their education, their circumstances—it was the fire that made the difference, igniting and empowering a company of Believers to turn the world upside down. We see this pattern repeated again and again, more recently in the Welsh and Azusa revivals.

When God's fire comes, barriers come down, bigotry and racism are burned out, and liberty, joy, holiness and the revelation of Jesus Christ flourish. God pours out His Spirit on everyone who is hungry and thirsty for more. God is telling His Church—Get on fire!

Let us become living torches of revival in this hour!

Mahesh and Bonnie Chavda

Mahesh Chavda Ministries

Email: info@maheshchavda.com

Website: www.maheshchavda.com

You and I are Commanded to Love

Victoria Boyson:

Our Mission: To Love

You are My friend if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends...—John 15:14-15

Jesus wants to call us His friends.

I love being His friend; it's the greatest privilege and joy I'll ever have in this life. He is my joy and I love Him more than any words could say. I love Him and I want others to know Him as I do—to feel His love for them and not just wonder, but truly feel it. The Lord spoke to me and said this would be the year that would begin a time of incredible intimacy with the Him; it would be a honeymoon with His people.

It gives me great pleasure when God's children start to realize His love for them and find the joy of intimacy with Him. He has such love to give us and He wants only to love us and make us a part of His family.

Our Need of Him

One night, I needed Him desperately. I felt lonely in my spirit for Him. Soon I felt His presence near me and in my spirit I knew He was just as lonely for me as I was for Him. I then experienced the most intense spiritual experience I've ever had; it completely overwhelmed me. All I could do was cry. I love Him so much and my relationship with Him is truer than any relationship I have on this earth.

The love I feel for Him is what compels me to help others to truly know His love. There's so much in this life that is unbearably hard. Without God, it's even harder to deal with—almost impossible for some. But His love sets captives free, comforts the lonely and heals the sick. Life is hard, but without Him it's even harder.

It's easy to harden our hearts when we've been hurt—to shut it up with anger and pain or fear—even against God. But running from God isn't the answer. God understands our pain and loves us even when we are angry with Him. Sometimes, we can focus on forgiving all the people in life who have hurt us and yet, without realizing it, though God has done us no harm, we can harbor unforgiveness against Him too.

He wants you to let go of your pain, loneliness and despair and give it to Him. When we refuse to let go of offense, it can drive us even farther from Him. Living separated from God opens our hearts to deep darkness exploited by the enemy. It's a terrible place to be. In the darkness, we can end up doing things we'd never do in the light. And it's easy to strike out at what we can't really see because the darkness has blinded and deceived us.

Yet, if we are able to see even a tiny flicker of light through God's love, our conscience is able to feel again. The darkness is soon exposed, freeing us from our fear of God's light through the safety of His love.

God has always loved us, even if we've hated or rejected Him. Through His love, we can know that even when we refuse to believe in Him, He still believes in us. There have been so many wrongs committed against Him by those He loves, yet He hopes for us, because He can't stop loving His creation.

He knows your heart and what has caused you pain, blinded you and driven you to the darkness. He wants you to know that no matter how long you push Him away and hate Him, no matter how much you blame Him, no matter how much you try to forget about Him, He will never stop loving you. He can't stop.

God's Love for the Lost

I discovered there were two movies released in January 2010 depicting God as a harsh, unloving and even violent god. One is called Legion and the other is Creation (which is the story of Charles Darwin). Legion is the story of a group of people who fight against God and win when He gets fed up with mankind and wants to destroy it.

When I first heard about these movies, I was shocked and stunned. Then my shock turned to grief. I thought, "Have we failed to show the world the true nature of God?"

The synopsis of the movie Legion depicts God as someone who's angry and tired of our sin and has decided we are no longer worthy of Him. Thus, He's seeking our destruction. It's as if they are role playing Revelation 19:19, "Then I saw the beast and the kings of the world and their armies gathering together to fight against the One (Jesus) sitting on the horse and His army," with a twisted outcome. In essence, the message of the movie is: God doesn't love us anymore and He doesn't care about us so we're forced to join forces with a fallen angel and rebel against Him.

So, we see that this unseen war we've been fighting is not about the existence of God (you have to believe in Him in order to make a movie against Him), but is really about the nature of God. Is God love, or is He a harsh and hateful Creator who just wants to dominate us?

So we find our mission made much clearer: to show the world how much God loves them.

I asked the Lord to show me something that would prove His love for mankind. Immediately, I was shown the ark built by Noah. Yes, He did flood the earth because of its intense wickedness, but He made provision to save mankind. He flooded the earth to rescue mankind from the wickedness it had succumbed to.

If the lost could sense His love for them even for a moment, they would know there is more to life than what they've experienced. They feel the empty void in their soul—that's why they try so hard to rage against God. Sin has grabbed them and has tried to devour them. They feel the guilt of sin whether they admit it or not, and the enemy has exploited the darkness they're in to foster rebellion against God. They don't really need more condemnation. What they need is liberty through Christ.

Indeed, the lost may not always realize what they do is sin, but they sense the darkness in their separation from God. Jesus Christ came to the earth NOT to condemn it, but to save it (see John 3:17). He came to set men free from what enslaves them.

God is not full of anger and disgust for His creation. No! He hasn't given up on us. Even in the darkness of our sin, He hasn't stopped loving us. That's why our sin causes Him such pain, because He cannot stop loving us even in the midst of our sin.

He hates sin because of the affect it has on His creation. It causes Him great pain to watch the ones He created fall into sin that will damage and blacken their lives causing them to turn away from Him. No, as much as it hurts Him, God will not stop loving the world. He will not stop trying to save it.

For God so loved the world so much that He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life—John 3:16

God so loved. He loved. He loved. God loved even the vilest sinner so much that He gave His Son to save them. Yes, there is redemption for every sinner who repents.

In Germany after the Holocaust of the Jewish people in WW2, how did He react toward those who tried to annihilate them? He did rescue the Jewish people and He did restore their nation to them, but His love went beyond thinking of the victims of this great evil. God's love continues to seek out those through whom this great evil came to be. He sent and is still sending His love into Germany to minister and save those who had perpetrated such atrocities against His people. His heart ached for those lost in darkness who, blinded by sin, tried to blacken out the apple of His eye (see Zechariah 2:8).

God sought out His children who had been wounded by the war—those who'd been victimized by the ruthlessness of their enemies, but also those who'd been held in the grip of an evil so terrifyingly dark they saw no light at all. His love saw what few are able to see. He saw an incredible evil was gripping their hearts and He fought to redeem them from it. Again, there's redemption for everyone who repents.

Hold on to God's Love

God sent His Son to seek and to save those who have lost their way, and through us this world will know His love. They will realize it's real as we cry out for God's mercy for them. Can our love go beyond judgment and plead for His mercy?

In John 8:1-11, the Pharisees brought a woman caught in adultery to Jesus. But He refused to judge her. Instead, He judged her accusers. Everyone has a story of why they made the choices they made—what has pushed them to the point they are at now—what incident started them on the path they are on. God knows all that they have endured and what's made them who they are. But He has made a commitment to love them through it for He alone can see them rightly. He sees us all as we truly are and He sees us through eyes of love.

We are called to love as God loved us. And He said "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone" (Mark 16:15); the news that He's purchased freedom for us, and redemption from the curse and bondage of sin. Satan has conspired to twist the world's view of God, making them believe God is cold and heartless. He's desperate to keep us from experiencing God's love. The enemy fights against true freedom found only in Christ. He tries to twist the minds of people making them feel as though it is God who is really their enemy.

For those of us who love God, our mission is clear: we must show the world by every means possible that God truly does love them. They will know His love by our love for them. They will know His love through forgiveness and mercy.

It's often so easy for Christians to fall in to the "Pharisaical" mindset of "destroy the sinner." Truly, that's what satan wants us to do. In fact, his plan quite often is to cause the lost to come against us, wound us and persecute us, trying to get us to hate them. He knows if we hammer them with anger and condemnation, they will run away from us as fast as they can, thereby losing the opportunity to show them God's love and mercy.

So, the enemy works at both ends causing us to hate those we are called to reach out to. And when we do, he uses their mistrust toward us to make them misunderstand God.

That is our war: to hold on to our love—to hold on to God's unconditional love. And truly, we can only be victorious if we know God's love for ourselves. Indeed, when we've experienced the captivating power of His unconditional love, we are compelled to forgive and release those who've wounded us and love them.

Our battle is to remember that God SO LOVED the world that He sacrificed His own Son to save them. Every offense is an opportunity for a miracle of His grace.

The abundance of sin in this age should not shock us, for "Where sin does abound, His grace does much more abound" (Romans 5:20). In the midst of great darkness, the light of Christ shines brighter through us to a very desperate world.

Victoria Boyson

Speaking Life Ministries

Email: victoria@boyson.org

Website: www.boyson.org

Living for the dream

The Day of the Dreamers! God Wants to Empower the Dreamers in 2010

God-given dreams carry the seed of Heaven's glory within them. We should pursue God in such a way that He is able to deposit the dreams hand-tailored for our lives within us. These dreams are key to our lives playing a part, being weaved into the beautiful tapestry of His Kingdom glory being revealed in the earth today.

Empowering Dreamers

God wants to empower the dreamers in 2010. Dreamers are those who many times have been shut down by having been too sensitive to the opinions of others. Sometimes they can pick the wrong friends, who cause the hindrance to the plans that the Lord has for their lives. But God loves dreamers and looks for opportunities to empower them.

Just as Joseph was a dreamer, God took him through a series of events to form character, stability and faith in his life. After several seasons of testing God found a priceless jewel of a heart in the life of Joseph. He found a person who was able to forgive, move on, trust in God and never give up. These are the qualities that God looks for in all of us. God also calls all of us to be dreamers. If we don't dream our lives are dead. There is no purpose to life without a dream. If you don't have a dream pursue God until you get one!

Holding On To Your Dreams

Whether big or small any dream has the potential to bring forth a life of faith, for it takes God to fulfill a dream. We should dream beyond the borders of what we can do so that God can be the one to get the glory when it comes to pass. We must hold on to our dreams, never cast them aside. I've had many ideas, good ones. But there are those that come from God that never leave. The voice of God calls into our spirit to awaken these dreams so that He may bring us into the promise land of His purposes.

We can never underestimate the potential of a dream and never overestimate the power of our God to fulfill them. We don't need faith for what is possible, but for what is impossible. If it is impossible then you know you will need someone beyond yourself to fulfill it. This is where our dependency upon God becomes reality. God wants to establish dreamers with confidence in His ability to fulfill the dream. He desires to cause them to come out of their shell to see His greatness and shun the doubt and unbelief of miserable people who are blinded to the truth. Misery loves company and miserable people desire to shut down a dreamer because it makes them feel inferior.

Dreamers have a superior quality because the seed and life of God is in the Heaven birthed dream. God will always provide the tests for the dreamer. But a dream gives hope and hopeless people have a hard time with dreams. Jesus is our hope. He is our dream come true. He is also the beginning of our dreams because all things are made new in Christ. In Him we are new creations where all things have become new. That means that everything is possible with God—all things! There is no dream that is too big for God to fulfill.

"Pie In The Sky"

The blessing is in the heavens with God. We must see it to take hold of it. God gave Joseph a "pie in the sky" dream where everyone was to bow down to him. It was a dream of prosperity where he would be the head and not the tail. He would be the steward and distributor of resources. But God also knew the price Joseph would pay to believe the dream. He knew what he would have to suffer, the rejection he would face from his own family and the prison time he would serve. His own family rejected his dreams telling him he was in pride. Maybe he did have a little pride but so did they. But he had a dream because he had been in touch with God.

God had visited him, giving him an invitation to believe in something that was beyond his own ability to perform. He chose to believe and the tests followed. Then the day of fulfillment came overnight. God is wanting to empower dreamers after His heart that have been through the process of His dealings. Those with dreams should align themselves with the heart of the Lord in such a way that He may bring them into their promised land this year. God is good. As Joseph said, "What you meant for evil, God meant for good."

Genesis 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

All things are possible for them that believe and nothing is possible for those who don't.

His peace be yours,

John Belt

Live In His Presence Ministries

Email: admin@liveinhispresence.com

Website: www.liveinhispresence.com