Consumed: The Fire from Within

When God first called me into the ministry, I was already established in a successful medical career in Egypt and very actively serving God in every aspect of my life. But one day, the Lord came to me and simply said, “David, I have called others to be doctors but not you. I am jealous over your heart. And I want you to be one to prepare My Bride for the Second Coming”.

Now today that might not seem like such a strange call. But in 1984 in Egypt, few people were talking about the preparation of the Bride for the Second Coming. So when I decided to obey God and leave medicine, I encountered some major opposition. My parents thought I was in a cult and my fiancée could not understand it and broke off our engagement. I remember she said to me, “David, why are you doing this? What’s the urgency? Jesus told us He was coming back soon and that was 2000 years ago. What if you are wrong? David you putting all your eggs in one basket. If it is not true, you will lose everything”.

And I said to her, “Ruth, what choice do I have? How can I sit in church every Sunday, singing, “I will follow you wherever you will lead me” knowing that He asked me to do this and I disobeyed?”

As I was praying the other day, the Lord brought this memory back to me and He asked me, “David, what was it that caused you to persist in spite of all the opposition? Why were you willing to disappoint your parents, give up your fiancée, lose all that you had worked for?”

And I realized the answer was simple: it wasn’t that I got a hold of God, it was that GOD had gotten a hold of me.

Let God Take Possession
A friend of mine said to me one day, “‘David, we know the whole world has changed since 9-11 – air travel, security, nothing will ever be the same again. So if a few terrorists possessed by the enemy and bent on destruction could change the whole world, why is it so hard to believe that a few Christians possessed by God could change the whole world?”

When I left medicine, all I felt from the Lord was to wait on Him for further instructions. So I waited… and waited.. and waited. One week passed, two weeks, three weeks… nothing. By this time I started getting scared, wondering if maybe I was losing it. I said to the Lord, “If you aren’t going to talk to me, I’m going back to medicine”. But I knew it was the empty threat of a desperate man. Because something deeper was compelling me. And I was stuck.

As the weeks rolled on, I began to think about the patients I used to see when I did my psychiatry rotation in medical school One lady was convinced she was the bride of Christ. Every day she would put on this beautiful dress and go up on the roof of the hospital to “wait for Jesus”. Another man was convinced Jesus was coming to get him on a train – in the middle of the hospital. Every day he would pack his suitcase and wait in the hallway for the train to take him out.

And I thought, “You know, one day, years before, these people were normal. They were like everyone else. So how do I know this isn’t what’s happening to me? And I wept and wept and cried out to the Lord until there was nothing left to say.

After three months of this, the Lord spoke to me. And He said, “David, do you want me to own your life or do you want me to rent it?

And I said, “Lord, what do you mean?”

And He said, “David, suppose I am the best architect in town and I am renting a house. Will my skill as an architect ever be displayed in that house?”

And I said, “No Lord”.

And the Lord said, ‘But why not David, if I live there?”

And I answered Him, ‘Because you are renting; so it’s not your house to change”.

And the Lord said, “That’s right David. But if I own the house, then I can do whatever I want. I can take out this wall, I can change this flooring, I can add a sun light. I can change the whole design of the house. And then everyone will see My talent in the beauty of what I have created”.

“You see David,” He continued, “most Christians let me live in their ‘house’ but I’m not the owner. And that’s why no one, including them, really gets to see My talent as the best architect of their lives. Because I don’t have permission to change whatever I want.

So tell me David, do you want Me to own your life, or just rent?”

And it was that day and in that moment that I decided I wanted to give God full possession of my life.

Living Life in the Absolute
Most of us can relate to this story, in fact most of us probably remember a time when we did ask God to be the full owner of our lives. Maybe it was when we were first born again; or maybe when we had a significant experience with God.

But as life went on, the “renovations’ were a little harder than we thought they would be. One of the toughest spiritual laws of the kingdom is found in Romans 5:3 “for we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character, hope” . Letting God mould our houses into the masterpieces He wants them to be, means there will be hurts and wounds, disappointments and pain along the way. And sometimes when the pain gets to be too great, unconsciously we decide it’s time to stop letting God be the architect and we start putting up a few walls of our own.

A friend of mine once made a very astute observation: true love always speaks in absolutes. Have you ever noticed that? When we are first saved or first dating or first married, all our expressions of love are absolute: “I will love you with my WHOLE heart, God. “Sweetheart, I will follow you WHEREVER you go.” But after time, with hurts, suddenly we replace declarations of absolutes with bargains with conditions. “If you protect me, God, then I will do what you ask”. “If you don’t hurt me, Joe, then I will stay”.

But I really believe that now we are in a season of preparation for a great transition and repositioning that is coming in the body of Christ as the Lord begins to mould us corporately into that house of living stones that Peter talked about. It’s time now for us to put away all our conditions in our relationship with Him and our relationships with one another. Now is the time to return to the absolutes and love like you’ve never been hurt before.

Burning From Within
Paul was a man consumed by this kind of love for God who lived a life defined by absolutes:

I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. (Phil 3:8)

I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me. (Acts 20:24)

Jeremiah spoke of the same passion, the same fire that overwhelmed his life.

O LORD, you deceived me, and I was deceived; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me. Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long. But if I say, "I will not mention him or speak any more in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot. Jeremiah 20:9

There is a fire with which God longs to consume us. It’s a fire that can compel us beyond any opposition and beyond the pain of past hurts or wounds.

Yield your heart afresh to God again today. He wants to rekindle the passion and stir the fire that is shut up in your bones until it becomes a raging inferno that cannot be contained.

If a few terrorists can change the whole world, imagine what a company, from every colour and tribe, language and generation, consumed by the fire of God can do?