Series – “NOT” – “The Fire Must Not Go Out.” June 6, 2021
by Pastor Bobby Sullivan
Quote of the week: Watchman Nee “By the time the average Christian gets his temperature up to normal everyone else will think he has a fever.”
Picture of the “Fire Fall,” It began inadvertently in 1872 James McCailey pushed remnants of campfire over the hill … 3200 feet … waterfall of fire. People began to ask for it nightly.
Developed a whole program for people to engage: Camp Curry would bellow out the following exchange with a firemaster at Glacier Point… “Hello, Glacier Point!” “Hello, Camp Curry!” “Is the fire ready?” “The fire is ready!” “Let the Fire Fall!” “The Fire Falls!”
stopped the practice Jan 28, 1968 … it was a manmade spectacle in a Natural park.
Guy went back to visit Yosemite Park. Went as a child and he remembered the “Fire Fall”.
He asked park Ranger: “When does the Fire Fall.” The Ranger responded: “The fire doesn’t fall here anymore.”
Very sad when people visit the house of God to see the fire fall, only to find out, “the fire doesn’t fall here anymore.”
Is Pentecost Pente-lost?
The only thing that distinguishes the people of God is the FIRE !!!
D.L. Moody said: “You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.”
“Put fire in the sermon or put the sermon in the fire!!” Charles Spurgeon
Acts 1:4 “And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, ‘which,’ He said, ‘you have heard from Me;’”
He taught them for 40 days but he said wait for the Holy Spirit! Why are we always in such a hurry to do, when the hardest thing is to wait for it?
The living word himself, the author of truth, the greatest revelator was unfolding wisdom but they needed the revelation of that wisdom from Holy Spirit!
Don’t eat the spaghetti without the sauce! Christianity without the Baptism of the fire is like a kiss without lips!
1 Thessalonians 5:19 “DO NOT put out the Spirit’s fire;” (GW) “Do not quench the Spirit.” (NKJV)
quench (sbennymi) :— to extinguish, of fire or things on fire, to stifle Divine influence. It most often means to extinguish a fire by dousing it with water. In some places, it means to evaporate or to dry up
There’s no doubt about what Paul is trying to tell us. If we ignore the Holy Spirit’s voice long enough and often enough, eventually we will become spiritually hardened and will no longer be able to hear Him when He does try to speak to us. It will be like His voice evaporates or dries up, and we will hear it no more.
“You need to know that your own actions, fears, insecurities, and disobedience to the voice of the Holy Spirit can thwart the plan of God for your life! The Holy Spirit is willing and ready to give you a divine assignment, but you hinder His wonderful plans by ignoring and denying His right to use you time and time again.” Rick Renner
THE FIRE MUST NOT GO OUT!!! Isaiah 60: 1-3 “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.2 See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. 3 Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
2 Timothy 1:6 “This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you.”
I want to be a slave to righteousness and an armour bearer for the Holy Spirit. I crave and lust after the Holy Spirit to speak and work through me to touch this city to the point of frustration and anxiety at times.
Sometimes the burden is way too hard to carry alone. It is at that point Holy Spirit says, “give me that”
I long for the day when Christianity is not a label but a lifestyle. When my life has such a significant impact that it cancels the culture that carnality has created and gives birth to a revolutionary movement that changes the landscape in size and scope. FIRE WILL DO THAT TO A FOREST.
Do not leave your Jerusalem with Performance religion. Don’t move out without the fire of the Holy Spirit burning with in you. Stop functioning in your own humanity.
How do you know when the Holy Spirit is on it? When you can’t sleep and all you think about is souls! THEN GO!!! You get to the point when you’re like a human volcano!
EXAMPLE: I was so full I had to pray for something just to release the pressure. I was so full . I was like a tea kettle ready to boil. ITS TIME TO WHISTLE!!!!
“Purity in the spirit is not contingent on you disciplining your humanity” PK
Your performance does not position you in a better place
Point: You don’t work for the Holy Spirit to use you but it is work to maintain that anointing. If you rely on yourself, you can only go so far. You must find a way to keep your tank full otherwise you are running on fumes.
How many of you are puttering along when you used to run like an INDY CAR?
Some of you have puttered so long you think you’re an INDY CAR! LOL
Some have operated in the natural for so long, you think that’s normal when Holy Spirit created you to function under the unction of the SUPER natural!!
Why have we settled for the smoke when we can run in the fire?
Let everything we do manifest his glory! Do it as unto the Lord. Pray for favor on everything!
Zechariah 4:6 “So he answered and said to me: This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the Lord of hosts.”
Leviticus 6:13 “The fire must be kept burning on the altar continuously; it must not go out.”
Moses gave the blueprints and the builders carried out the plans as the Lord commanded. They may not have had a personal experience with Holy Spirit like many of us today, but they obeyed without question, without hesitation, without reservation what the Lord commanded. There was a holy awe and fear/respect/honor for the word of the Lord.
They paid attention to every detail down to the design of the altars.
Leviticus 9:10, 21 “Then Moses said, ‘This is the thing which the Lord commanded you to do, and the glory of the Lord will appear to you.’ … Aaron waved as a wave offering before the Lord, as Moses had commanded.”
Leviticus 9:23-24 “Then the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people, and fire came out from before the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When all the people saw it, they shouted and fell on their faces.”
The hope for humanity is for the believers to be consumed with the glory. When unbelievers see that in you, you will witness first hand the glory of the Lord in the land of the living.
The people were not consumed but the sacrifice was. All they did was prepare the way. But the fire came from Heaven! They carried the coals of that fire everywhere they went! They wrapped them up and all they needed was wood. The wood is a representation of humanity in participation with the fire.
I WANT TO BE BOB THE BURNING BUSH!
SHOUT “BE THE OUTPOURING! BE THE BUSH!”
John Kilpatrick “ This is not your time to retreat: it is your time to rise and shine. How will this arising take place? Simple-When Christians decide that revival should not be limited to a special church service, meeting, or certain flavor of spirituality. Revival as an event will not suffice anymore. Events come and go, but a people who keep the fire of God burning on the altar of their hearts actually carry this fire within them …wherever they go. At this point the fire becomes transferrable.! Release the burning ones.”
His book-The fire that never sleeps-Keys to sustaining personal revival
The fire falling represents “my dwelling place on earth” whether it’s a body or a building. BURN ME in the chat!
Leviticus 10:1-2 “Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the Lord, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the Lord and devoured them, and they died before the Lord.”
IT wasn’t a fire authorized by God. It was their own representation masquerading as the real thing. Don’t play with the anointing for personal gain.
“Using carnal means to kindle devotion and praise.” C.I. Schofield
“All not done in worship and service, in dependence upon the Holy Spirit of God and under His guidance, in obedience to the Word of God.” Arno Gabelein
Kilpatrick says, “Are we drawing from the endless supernatural well of the Holy Spirit or are we trying to manufacture an experience using our own methods? At the days end, nothing man creates can compare to or substitute for the Spirit’s presence in our midst.”
We must align our actions with his authorization!! Otherwise our antique antics of the flesh are useless.
It is way better working with God than working for God.
Just a glimpse of the authentic will stir a desire to abandon mediocrity
Sadly, sometimes we can be using our gift without the blessing. Will it function? Absolutely! But it ends up being wood, hay and stubble because you didn’t have permission. SORRY!!
Listen, when you enter the unforced rhythms of grace you won’t be burnt out trying to make things happen. How will I know? There will be ease without effort!!
LISTEN!! A.W Tozer said, “Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on lately and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have substituted praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.”
Galatians 3:3
“Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (NKJV)
How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? (NLT) One translation says, “who bewitched you?”
The moment you try to perfect in the flesh what began in the spirit, you are bewitched and operating under a different spirit.
We can’t try to manufacture or even recreate a move that was initiated by the Holy Spirit by our own charismatic calisthenics. Some have made a movement out of the manifestations.
Strange Fire:– It is fire that you try to produce yourself rather than taking fire off the alter. People have a sad tendency of trying to convince others that it’s all about them. The gift can use you, but you are not the gift.
Watch out for the performers and pretenders dressing up the gift to produce results that pad their pockets. You can tell when humility and authenticity are at the core of those being used by Holy Spirit because they always give the credit back to the Lord.
2 Timothy 3:5 (NLT) “They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!”
John 17:4, 22 Jesus said, “I have glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work (everything the Lord has commanded) which You have given Me to do. … And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:”
The fire is a symbol of acceptance and approval.
Fire fell on the tabernacle. Fire fell on the temple. Fire fell on the church.
The fire prepares and identifies God’s dwelling place on earth.
Matthew 3:11 “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
John Wesley said, “When you catch on fire, people will come to see you burn.”
Counties, Cities and Nations will come to a church on fire. Such was the case on June 18,1995 in Pensacola, Florida. A revival that lasted 5 years every night.
How? John 12:32 “If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw everyone to myself”
Roughly 4.5 million people came and this was right at or before social media was popular. The word spread fast and furious.
I want the eternal flame to be internal. I want to be a human fireplace! A place where the fire of God burns. I want the embers to never go out. We need to get out of the smoke and into the fire. Fire falls on those who submit not to earthly home-grown characters but to the heavenly Father. HE finished the work that no man could!!! You walk and live in the Spirit by faith not formulas! Drink of the fountain that never runs dry.
People need to see Jesus!!!
The mission of Jesus is to get you filled with the Holy Spirit so that we can realize the eternal purpose of the Father … “Earth filled with my Glory.”
People, like at Yosemite, are still waiting for the fire to fall! Sadly, they have seen more people fall than fire. That trend must stop! We must live up to our name (IMPACT CHURCH) We must make an impression, a footprint, a mark by what’s burning in us.
Bridgewater is not the final frontier. It is a breeding ground for the Holy Spirit to flood, and forever fill the faithful in the unquenchable fire of God!!! Light my tail on fire and let me loose! Samsons foxes
The glory makes us one under the headship of Jesus!!!
2 Thessalonians 2:13-14 “God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, to which He called you by our gospel, for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
IT was the grace gospel not the works gospel.
You get baptized and smeared with the Divine person of the Holy Ghost!
“They thought they got an experience. They kept trying to get another experience like that one … it was Someone – a Divine Personality – who came to live in them. He is a Heavenly Being: The Holy Spirit” Kenneth Hagin
You can’t be more or less anointed, but you can have more revelation on the benefits of the anointing. MORE BUTTER ON MY BAGLE PLEASE!!
You can also position yourself to be more effective in the flow and operation of the anointing … be more intentional. What will be a key to growth in BW? Not doing church by accident but by being intentional! My intentions are initiated by an inward calling! We are a purpose driven church being positioned for propulsion! T-Minus!!!!!
I am poised to present a living Jesus not a dead one.
Intentional Spirit Filled Life:
- Be Rich In The Word John 3:34 (AMP)
“For since He Whom God has sent speaks the words of God [proclaims God’s own message], God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly or by measure, but boundless is the gift God makes of His Spirit!”
Be rich in the revelation of the word, but not so much that you neglect the author! It was much better having my kids with me than just having pictures of them. I want to live in the moment, not look at videos of what once was.
The revelation of the word reveals his righteousness.
- Commit To Learning Proverbs 1:23 (NLT)
“Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you (pour my Sprit on you NKJV) and make you wise.”
Midweek, courses, possible schools of ministry. Mel Rolls, “Take time for Jesus, he took time for you”
- Manifest the Obedience Of Faith Acts 5:32 (TPT)
“We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God freely gives to all who believe in him.”
I don’t need to manifest to measure up to man! I just need to come to alignment of who and what I was created to be.
Quit trying and start receiving. Quit complaining and start attaining
- Practice Divine Confidence Acts 4:13
“Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, … they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus.”
Acts 4:31 “… were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” Let the Holy Spirit animate every area of my life. I am active, alive, in eager anticipation of locking arms with Jesus.
Show me the bold and I will show you those who have been with Jesus! Boldness sadly will not come by just a Sunday service or even if you add a zoom meeting once a week. It is hard to be in love with someone if you only meet once a week or once a month.
- Fix Yourself In His Joy Acts 13:52 (TPT)
“They left the new converts in Antioch overflowing with the joy of the Holy Spirit.”
Romans 15:13 “…fill you with all joy… through the power of the Holy Ghost.”
Love peace and Joy!!!
