Wesley Walk Part 4

Burn

"Catch on fire with enthusiasm and people will come for miles to watch you burn."  John Wesley

 

“I baptize with water those who repent of their sins and turn to God. But someone is coming soon who is greater than I am—so much greater that I'm not worthy even to be His slave and carry His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” (Matthew 3:11)

 

The symbol for the Holy Spirit is most often a flame.  It obviously finds its origin with Matthew 3:11 and also Acts 2:3.  A personal Pentecost experience is requisite in the Pentecostal churches.  For me, it is less about needing signs or any outward manifestation.  For me, it is simply a desire for the incendiary presence of the Holy Spirit- convicting, purifying, forgiving, illuminating and sanctifying.  I figure that if God is alive in me and consuming me then there will be outcomes that are wonderful whether they fit in a category of demonstrations or not.  It may or may not look Pentecostal or Charismatic.  But, the burning presence of the Holy Spirit will consume the bland, banal and socially predictable behaviors.  

 

There is another kind of fire.  But, it is not a genuinely “world consuming one.”  It is one that seeks to be illuminated, noticed and attractive.  It is a “strange fire” (Leviticus 10:1) that is easily started and controlled by the one burning in it.  It is predictable and cliché.  It often borders on carnival.  That is not what I want, nor of what Wesley was speaking.  The incendiary presence of the Spirit that will not let us live carnal lives and allows us to see with His eyes and feel with His heart is what the world needs.  It is what we need and it is what people will come miles to watch. 

 

Comments

[Jaymes]

Wesley writes in "A Plain Account of Christian Perfection" something to your effect, "In the beginning of the year 1738, as I was returning from thence, the cry of my heart was,

O grant that nothing in my soul May dwell, but thy pure love alone!

O may thy love possess me whole,
My joy, my treasure, and my crown!

Strange fires far from my heart remove;
My every act, word, thought, be love!

I never heard that any one objected to this. And indeed who can object? Is not this the language, not only of every believer, but of every one that is truly awakened? But what have I wrote, to this day, which is either stronger or plainer?"