Igniting Fresh Fire! Receive This Impartation of Holy Spirit Power

Have you brushed off the cobwebs of mediocre Charisma?

It’s normal at times to feel an odd mixture of dread and excitement! Your flesh is fearful because it knows it’s about to be driven back into proper subjection. Your spirit, however, is soaring in anticipation of increased power.

Relief will bathe your soul once you have firmly decided not to accept a half answer to your spiritual condition.

What you crave is a full measure of fire, a deeper baptism. You want a permanent break from nominal living. You don’t want to be sidelined during the next wave of God that is about to crash onto America.

Above all, you are convinced that God has more for you than what you have ever imagined.

So now doubts are gone, excuses are buried, and you will accept nothing less than fresh fire.

This is the first step. Renounce even the hint of com- promise! Accept no substitute. Do not pursue merely a safe dose of God.

In your proclamation of the need for fresh f ire, you have concluded that this is not a case of routine maintenance or of turning over a new leaf or of breaking habits by willpower.

A Light Swoon Won’t Do

 You have discerned the issue is at the heart. You have resolutely decided that a light swoon will not do. You want a launching of Holy Spirit power! As at the first, you want dunamis at the core of your being that will radiate out of every member.

Now you become a seeker of God. He rewards all who diligently seek Him. James 1:8 warns us against being double-minded. We are not to be guilty of hid- den agendas or escape valves. We are asking in order to receive, not to go through a ritual to look spiritual.

You are here to stay because you want the treasure of fresh fire. You don’t want the old nature to reassert itself. You don’t want your forward progress hindered any longer. Above all, you don’t want to go down on the deck of this Titanic of Charismatic fluff.

Waiting Worshipfully

Not only are you determined to seek; you want to seek correctly. To do so means to hark back to when you first received the baptism in the Holy Spirit. You came as a child, trusting the Lord’s mercy and believing in His desire to baptize you. Then you waited worshipfully in His presence. Do it again; come in that attitude again.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened (Luke 11:9-10 NKJV).

You may need to tarry—and focused tarrying is a lost art! Some early Pentecostals reduced tarrying to legalistic torture. They believed you had to suffer to earn Holy Spirit power. On the other hand, many Charismatics have cheapened the act of waiting and the results are equally disastrous.

One extreme frustrates the seeker and adds unwarranted pain to waiting on God. The Spirit is hindered because He is ready to give us the gift, but we are too preoccupied with self-abasement to receive it.

The other extreme is “instantism.” The seeker is instructed to babble a few syllables and is excitedly told that they’ve “got it.” This has aborted many from truly getting the Holy Spirit baptism. The convert is sent home with a synthetic experience without truly encountering the power of God.

True tarrying is a marriage of expecting and persevering. You must see the vision of Christ as the willing Baptizer and yourself as qualified to receive, not because of your worthiness, but because He has imparted His righteousness to you.

You are set for the long run, because you know your waiting is a process of love, not punishment. Gratitude fuels your patience. Here is a divine gift you don’t deserve that promises to enrich your life, and you are overcome by the goodness of God.

So you wait, expecting at any moment that fire may fall; but if it doesn’t, you have nowhere else you’d rather be. And nothing else you could do would be more important, anyway.

God signals the end of your quest by baptizing you. And again, as before, you are not seeking tongues. Do you remember your first Pentecost? It wasn’t tongues that impressed you most about the baptism in the Holy Spirit! It was the encounter with the heart of Almighty God Himself! The same sense of Jesus as you had the first time, will pervade you again.

We must navigate the crucial act of waiting on God with care! Again, determine to balance your pursuit with an equal measure of faith to receive at any moment and with an attitude of being willing to wait.

Fresh Fire Falling

Fresh fire can be sought privately or corporately. God honors both. You may be driven by the Lord to the secret closet of prayer, or He may summon a church to a solemn assembly.

What could be more loving for a pastor to do than to organize a fresh fire prayer night patterned after Peter in Acts 4? Let the pastor be bold! Announce it as a night when the Holy Spirit Himself will run the service!

Let the church body come before the Lord saying, “We have come for fresh fire.” He who is God will answer by fire! Hallelujah!

What a mighty moment when we cry out as humble children to Him who will not fail to answer! Boldness will be increased and wicked influences will die.

Our great enemy is our schedule. Yes, our lives are complicated. Time is very scarce; routine is a bully who intimidates us into accepting an inferior life.

But remember, this is God calling. He considers our obligation; He knows the daily burden, yet He calls. If He calls, He will create the way of escape from our rat race to His Upper Room.

The next enemy will be revealed as you contend in prayer. The flesh and its toxic residue have built up over time, unbeknownst to us, and will rear up and agitate you. Suddenly you’ll feel like bolting from the place of prayer. Keep your eyes on the prize. Weather this attack, and you’ll reach rich fulfillment.

God deals with us for our good. When He surfaces a secret sin, it is to free us. The Spirit of God may even parade a band of unfinished matters. Unforgiveness may be anchoring your soul to second-rate living.

Face Your Need

Some of these issues are resolved alone, between you and God, while others will require going and making it right.

But what is your greatest enemy in your quest for fresh fire? The arrogant, smug presumption that your need is not urgent, because you are already Spirit-filled. This blind assumption is the lethal swill of flaky

Charismatics. These superficial believers are the Hemlock Society of our movement. They’ll gladly assist you in committing spiritual suicide!

These are the groupies who chase self-conceited teachers, who spout fantasy-laden promises and hollow victories. Their high-sounding words will lead us on field trips through futility. Remember that their teachings build no character, attack no meaningful demonic targets, and do not carry the gospel to the lost. Separate yourself from any and all foolish teaching. Face your own need for power, real power, holy power, power that is the deepest dread of Satan.

Do you vividly recall your first baptism? Now, as then, you will be transformed, and feeble prayers will become torrents of intercession. Old habits, like the bowstrings that bound Samson, will break like yarn touching fire.

The cry of the warrior within will erupt like a volcano. Climb above the stupor of this generation. Go now and find the place to seek this next infusion. Wait there in expectant obedience.

Fresh fire is about to fall on you!