Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” Mark 1:35-37 (NIV)

Jesus was very busy. He travelled from town to town, taught his disciples and others about God, healed the sick and ministered to the needs of others. Yet he knew that his relationship with God was top priority. Jesus rose early and found a solitary place to spend time in prayer and fellowship with
God.

I feel like most mornings I wake up to find that “everyone is looking for me.” If I busy myself with the responsibilities of the day then the entire day can pass without spending that precious time with God. Those days are usually hurried, chaotic and not very well focused on God–the One who empowers me to handle the day effectively. On my own effort, I easily run out of patience, joy, peace, and self-control. I am not as sensitive to hear God’s voice speaking to me.

I have to be very intentional in scheduling my time with God. Creating a ‘quiet’ place where my bible, pen and journal await me and a time when I can focus on God’s Word are a vital part of growing in my relationship with Him. It is in these times of quiet that I learn about the God who fills me with peace when I am anxious (Philippians 4:6-7). I learn about the God who will direct my path if I acknowledge Him in all my ways (Proverbs 3:5-6). I learn about the God who loves me so much that He would sacrifice the life of His only Son so that I can spend eternity with Him (John 3:16). As I learn about God and trust His Word with all my heart, He fills me with the fruit of the Spirit and gives me wisdom and strength to endure the challenges of the day.

Just like Christ, I want to make my relationship with God my top priority.

Questions to ponder:
What time will I designate to spend praying and reading God’s Word today?
Where can I create a solitary place to seek God?
Where can I set out my bible and journal so they are ready for my time with God?

Luke 3:15-17 (The Message)

15The interest of the people by now was building. They were all beginning to wonder, “Could this John be the Messiah?”

16-17But John intervened: “I’m baptizing you here in the river. The main character in this drama, to whom I’m a mere stagehand, will ignite the kingdom life, a fire, the Holy Spirit within you, changing you from the inside out. He’s going to clean house—make a clean sweep of your lives. He’ll place everything true in its proper place before God; everything false he’ll put out with the trash to be burned.”

One aspect of raising our spiritual temperature is to allow God to sort the valuable from the rubble in our lives. In this passage, John explains that Christ will do that.

There are so many things that compete for our attention and energy each day. How do we sort them and know that we are focusing our energy, time and resources on things that will matter?

How I struggle some days to do that on my own. For so many reasons I cling to the things in life that have no eternal value. I need to go into each day asking Christ to help me to look at my life, sort through and get rid of the things that are just taking up space so that I can focus on what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy as we are challenged in Philippians 4:8.

The challenge we have before us with Ignite will call for very clear, focused attention on things of Kingdom-building value. My prayer is that we each can go into each day asking Christ to make clear to us what is of most value and help us to tackle those tasks with unmatched determination.

~ Deana Kistner

At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” — 1 Kings 18:36-39

(NIV)
It’s one thing to know about God.  It’s a completely different thing to really know God.  To truly know God you must experience His power firsthand.

In the book Experiencing God, author Henry Blackaby lays out the steps to experiencing God firsthand.

1. Pray.  Ask God what He wants you to do for Him.
2. God speaks.  Scripture tells us God is eager to give us guidance.  God speaks to us in many ways including through scripture, through the counsel of wise Christ-followers, and through thoughts the Holy Spirit places in our minds.  We could do a whole series on how to listen to God but three key elements are to be quiet, be patient, and then to test what you sense God is saying to you by making sure it is consistent with the Bible.
3. Crisis of belief.  Once God speaks to you, you have to decide whether you really believe God is who He says He is.  God will ask you to do something you cannot do on your own.  If God does not help you, you will fail.  Do you believe He is willing and able to come through?
4. Adjust your life.  If you decide you believe God is willing and able to help you do what He’s asking you to do, then you have to choose whether or not you will do what He’s asked you to do.  God almost never does His part until after you take action.
5. Experiencing God through obedience. Once you obey God’s calling, He will accomplish His work through you and you will come to know Him firsthand through experience.

In 1 Kings 18 God told Elijah to challenge the prophets of Baal to a duel.  Whoever’s god sends down fire from heaven lives, whoever’s doesn’t get their throats cut.  Talk about a step of faith!  He asked Elijah to do something he obviously could not do on his own.  Elijah had to choose whether He believed God would come through or not.  Then he had to choose to whether he would act on that belief – would he challenge the 450 prophets of Baal?  Would he show up for the duel?  If he hadn’t done so, Elijah never would never have seen God come through firsthand.

Chances are God won’t ask you to challenge 450 prophets of Baal to a fiery duel, but maybe He wants you to walk across the room and have a spiritual conversation with a neighbor or co-worker.  Maybe He wants you to go downtown to feed the homeless.  Maybe He is calling you to lead a small group, a ministry team, a missions trip, or something bigger.

Questions to Ponder

• Am I listening closely for God to speak by making myself quiet and reading scripture?
• Is there anything I already know God is asking me to do, but I’m not doing because it’s too big for me?  (Remember, that’s the point.  God wants you to do things that are too big for you so you can see Him do what only He can do.)
• Am I ready to experience God for myself by taking my faith beyond “head knowledge” and following His leading?

I’m definitely not a boy scout. And I have to admit I have never tried to start a physical fire anyway other than with the aid of a grill lighter.

But I have noticed a few things about starting a fire and I think that they apply to how to start a fire in our lives.

First, you have to have a spark, a catalyst. Sunday or New Community church services are often a catalyst for this kind of fire. But that’s not all… things people say to us, something we read in the Bible, truth in music and other forms of art books you read… anything that gets you thinking about God’s truth and how to apply it to your life can be that spark.

Second, you have to have fuel - something to grow the spark and keep it going. You can’t stop at your first thought, question or conviction from the spark, you have to feed it. You can do that through relationships, through further study, through worship but you have to feed it.

Finally, a fire needs a good environment. At my son’s first birthday party I tried time and again to light the candle on his cake. However, we were at a park that was very windy and no matter how hard I tried, the fire wouldn’t hold. We were not in an environment that would support the fire.

So, what are those for you?

What is it that creates a spark in your life to long to pursue God further?

How do you feed that and not let it die out?

What environments (places you can go or groups of people you can be with) do you need to be in to keep the fire burning?

And, once you answer those questions… Do those things. It’s not enough to just know what they are, you have to put the plan into action.

~ Deana Kistner

At the recent Leadership Summit, pastor Bill Hybels gave a message in which he asked and answered three important questions:

1) How much does it matter that a person is inspired and motivated?

It’s huge!  Workplace studies have shown that there is a 40% increase in productivity when a person is inspired and motivated compared to a person who is not.

2) Whose job is it to keep me inspired and motivated?

Is it the job of your pastor?  Your small group leader?  Your boss?  Your spouse?  No, it’s your responsibility to keep yourself inspired and motivated.

Train yourself to be godly.  For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.  – 1 Timothy 4:7-8

3) What can I do to keep myself inspired and motivated?

1. Remind yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing.  Whether we’re making widgets, cooking dinner for the family, or serving at church, sometimes what we do can become boring, burdensome, and seem even pointless because lose focus.  So it’s important to remind ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing.
2. Use your God-given gifts and talents. 
3. As much as it is within your power, make sure the players on your teams are inspiring people and not negative.
4. Read inspiring books.
5. Rub shoulders with exceptionally inspiring people.
6. Take part in exceptionally inspiring events.
7. Pay attention to physical disciplines – diet, exercise, and sleep.
8. Pay attention to your work environment.  Decorate with a scheme that’s uplifting with pictures, plaques, and banners that inspire you.
9. Have an inspiring recreation outside of work.  What is it outside of work that creates energy in you?
10. Daily spiritual disciplines that keep your faith fresh such as read scripture, meditate on it, pray, and journal.

[Blessed is the person whose] delight is in the Word of the Lord, and on scripture he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.  – Psalm 1:2-3

Questions to Ponder 

• Do I rely on other people to inspired and motivate me?  Am I ready to take responsibility for my own motivation and inspiration?
• What do I need to do to keep myself inspired?

When I think about the idea of starting a fire ususally my mind wanders to the reality show “Survivor”. Every season someone is put in charge of the fire (this is usually before they win some type of immunity and are just given matches). I always think the same thing each time they collect their pile of wood, some brush, some line or string and they start twirling away - I think “not gonna happen”. And up to this point I don’t think it has. These are just ordinary people put out on an island and asked to hunt, fish, gather and make fire like they grew up there. Most, if not all, are not very good at any of the above.

I’ve always thought I would like to be on that show - I could show them how to do that - I would be the first one ever to start that fire without matches or catch a fish with my bare hands!!! Again - “not gonna happen”!!

Through the wonder of editing, directing and producing we don’t see all of what goes on behind the scenes on these types of shows. We see what they want us to see, what makes for good TV. We see this person trying for all they are worth just to get a little ember or spark of a flame going and then the very next week it’s like they have become professional fire builders - cooking over an open flame all their lives.

I think many of us in this world today are just like the people on these shows - yeah we are not thrust out into nature to fend for ourselves, but the world each of us lives in from day to day can feel very much the same. We are just ordinary people, but the difference is is that we have an extraordinary mission. Our job is to help to light or spark that small ember within others so that their lives one day will have the potential to burn white hot for God.

Everyday we have to hunt, fish, gather and make fire but when we do this with a purpose (like $1,000,000 on the show) it becomes very worthwhile.

How much is another soul worth? How long would you twirl away at that fire if you knew you were helping another person have the opportunity to live white hot forever?

~Christi Mahar

Do you want to live a white-hot life of fulfillment, freedom, and power?  If you missed the Sunday service, visit the sermon blog/podcast to listen to the teaching online, review and reflect on the sermon notes, and consider the next step in your spiritual journey, including “7 Fire Starters” – ways to light a fire in your spiritual life.