Set Me on Fire

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Act 1:8).

_It was a bright cold day in December, and the clock was about to strike ten. We had come into the house of worship a little late, and the saints were already engrossed in praise and worship. We stepped in and made our way toward a vacant row of seats. I began to laugh within myself as I pondered the literal meaning of the words the worshippers were singing. I considered what some of my sense-knowledge colleagues would think if they had heard. I imagined how baffled they would be and how it would confirm what they had always thought about us and our beliefs. So, with the fervor of a fanatic, I laid my Bible on the seat and joined.

The song we were singing goes like this:

Fire, fall down

Fire, fall down on me, I pray.

I know that most people reading this book are conversant with this metaphor as much as I am, but I was laughing on the inside because I know a few people who are not familiar with things relating to the Holy Ghost and would see this differently. I also laughed because of a flashback to a similar time of Holy-Ghost-filled prayer and worship thirty years prior.

The specific incident that flashed across my mind took place in a university chapel. One of our Christian Fellowship leaders, a close friend of mine and, in fact, my Prayer Band leader and the Fellowship Prayer Minister, was praying in his usual way in the chapel. But on this particular day, the head of the Department of Religious Studies, a professor of professors and the reigning chairman of the chapel committee, happened to come by the chapel during this hour of prayer. He heard a loud voice coming out of the chapel, but couldn’t see any crowd. So he went near to see what was going on.

He entered through the main wing of the chapel we called the “Chapel of Resurrection,” couldn’t see anyone, and continued walking until he turned towards the right wing of the cross-shaped chapel, where my minister friend was praying, or should we say, on fire. The professor was surprised—not just because of the fervor, the sweating, the laboring, and the Epaphras-like prayers my friend was offering to God, but also because he couldn’t understand a word my friend was saying.

So he rushed back toward the main wing and turned toward the chaplain’s office. As I wasn’t there, he grabbed one of our other leaders who happened to be around with the chaplain and dragged him toward where my friend was still praying, or as we used to say, “blowing in tongues.”

Holding one of my brethren and dragging him closer in the presence of the chaplain, he pointed at him and asked, “Can any of you tell me that this fellow is not crazy?”

Later, when I came around, I was arraigned before him, since I was culpable for this offense as the leader of the fellowship. He relayed all he’d seen that day to me and demanded an explanation. He could not understand why we would stay in the chapel for so long, sometimes all night, shouting and praying, or babbling, as he called it, in a language that sounded nonsensical to him.

“Do you know,” he continued, “when I went close to your friend praying in the chapel, do you know none of his words were discernable?”

“Tell me, I want to know,” he said, staring me down and speaking authoritatively. “What is the theology behind your fellowship? What is the theology behind your IUVC?” (IVCU stood for Ibadan Varsity Christian Union, to which we belonged at the time. The professor of professors inadvertently mixed up the acronym, calling it IUVC instead. This has become a refreshing saying and a nostalgic reminiscence among my fellow ministers from this group to this day.)

I don’t remember what answer I gave him that day, or the answer I gave the chapel committee when I was again queried concerning “the way we serve our God.” But we took solace in what the Apostle Paul confessed concerning his belief, that after “the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets” (Acts 24:14).

The committee chairman then proceeded to give me an assignment: I was to write up for him the theology behind our fellowship, our jumping and shouting, our praying, and our spending endless hours in the university chapel. This was in 1978, and the assignment has yet to be completed.

They were going to shut us out of the chapel, keep us quiet, and if possible, quench the Spirit and stop the “tongues of fire.” Little did they know that it was their opposition that made us fight harder in faith and grow stronger, or that it was the “blowing in tongues” that let us overcome every attack they mounted, exposing every collusion and prevailing over every obstacle, even when we were cornered and surrounded on every side. It was those Holy-Ghost-filled, tongue-talking warriors who prayed us through to victory when we stood alone against the rioting student union and broke the unholy solidarity of militant youths in our nation. It was those hours of “blowing in tongues” that produced many ministers who are shining bright in many corners of the world today.

As you can tell, this remains a sweet memory for me that is both nostalgic and challenging. It challenges me to do everything within my power to be full of the Holy Ghost continually. It urges me to constantly and sincerely seek to remain hot in the Spirit, building myself in this most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. It admonishes me to continue “blowing in tongues,” for therein lies the secret of my power and edification. It reminds me to pray and keep seeking His face to fill me with the Anointing Oil, and to be on fire, burning for Him.

Understand that I am not saying we should seek to return to the experience of the past; we must move on. We must press forward towards the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. However, we must forsake the ancient path and follow that faith once delivered to the saints.

I am not saying that we should return to where we were when we first believed, but that we must retain or return to our first love. And since this “first love” is often misunderstood, let’s clarify what it really means.

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love” (Rev 2:1-4). In the letter to the Church of Ephesus, the Lord stated that the members of that church had left their first love. He commended them for their labor, patience, and dedication to truth, for their discernment and refusal to fellowship with evil, and for how they had tried the false apostles and found them liars. He commended them for their steadfastness, for toiling on and on for His name’s sake without fainting. This was not a bad record. In fact, it was good.

But He said, “I have something against you, because you have left your first love.” What, then, is this first love that outweighs these wonderful works?

We have interpreted this as meaning that we possessed a quality of love at the beginning of our walk with the Lord that we have since departed from. Of course, this is true in many cases, but it is not what the Lord is talking about here. What the Lord of the Church is saying is that we have departed from that which should have first place in our lives. Our first love is that which we love and esteem preeminently.

The precise meaning of the word translated as “your first love” in the original is “foremost.” Your first love is your most important love, your preeminent love, your supreme love. He is saying here that we should return to making our love relationship with God our preeminent and supreme love. His love should have the first place in our lives.

He is admonishing us, together with the Church of Ephesus, that if trusting and worshipping God in all things,  walking in faith, presenting our bodies as living sacrifices, and doing the Father’s will in every situation are not our first priorities in life, then we have left our first love.

Salvation is a free gift. It is given by grace through faith. But there is a vast kingdom of spiritual wealth and glory reserved for those who would grow up into the fullness of Christ. In the family of God, you and I can choose for ourselves to remain thumb-sucking children, or to mature unto the stature of Christ and reign as kings and priests with Him on His throne. Once we perceive by the Holy Ghost the high calling of our heavenly Father, there is no more desire to return to a stage of spiritual infancy; we will keep pushing forward and upward, stretching and reaching for the marks of the high calling of God in Christ. The will of the Father God then becomes our first love, the high calling of God becomes our priority, and attaining the fullness of Christ becomes our passion, our first love, our chief love, our preeminent love.

Our priority is no longer doing religious works or trying to get all kinds of worldly goods or blessings, but the will of God and the fullness of His righteousness. To be found in the image and likeness of Christ becomes our supreme quest, our first and highest love.

Yes, our heavenly Father expects us to grow in grace, to grow in knowledge, and also to grow and abound in love for our Lord Jesus Christ. And this love must have the preeminent place. This is what the Spirit is saying to you and me in this verse. And He concludes it by saying, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches” (Rev 2:7).

While we are considering the letter to the seven churches, let us consider a similar message sent by the Lord through the beloved Apostle.

Everything in our physical universe wears out. Our human bodies wear out. Vehicle tires wear out. The clothes we cover ourselves with wear out. Even rocks and metallic objects wear out. Nothing in this physical universe remains the same.

We may not always admit it, but in the same manner, our once fervent love for God does not always stay the same—especially when we are occupied working for Him on the outside and do not spend enough time looking into His face to get re-energized. Our love for Him is not always as fervent as we would desire it to be. We go through seasons of revival when we are set on fire for God, followed by a cooling down.

During the blessed seasons of revival, we are hot and fervid in our worship and fellowship with the Father, and we wonder how we ever lived without this experience. But as time goes on, we find that the fervency seems to dissipate and the zeal is overtaken by apathy. Rationalization takes the place of inspiration, and we are dragging our feet where we were once contending with horsemen.

As we run the race set before us on this side of eternity, we will experience seasons like this when we are weary: “For this cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (2 Cor 4:16). The outward man grows weary and faints. His ability and fervor abate and decline in strength with age, and sometimes he can even get to a stage where he is downright exhausted and out of it altogether. Remember Elijah?

After the tremendous feat discussed in the preceding chapter, Elijah, the mighty prophet of God, did something totally unexpected.

He received a letter from Jezebel in which she swore by her gods that she would kill Elijah within twenty-four hours. When Elijah read the message, he was gripped with fear and began to run for his life. This mighty man of God, who had just publicly defeated 450 prophets of Baal and had them all killed, was so afraid that he left his servant, fled into the wilderness, sat under a juniper tree, and prayed to die.

Even strong men get weary, and fervent souls sometimes cool down. This is why it is important to continually draw near unto Him and constantly, face to face, look unto Him whose eyes are as a flame of fire.

As we gaze into the face of the Son of man, we are transformed by those eyes that are flames of heavenly fire. The luminous and intensely hot flame from His eyes will penetrate, illuminate, and energize our being. While revealing, exposing, and destroying every selfish and secret motive in us, it will flood our being with purity and power.

Many things in our lives are deeply hidden, but the eyes of the Lord, the luminous flame, will expose everything and bring to light every work of darkness. The fire of those eyes is such that all the dross is made to emerge. The light of the Sun will shine on us and invade us through and through. He will shine forth the glorious light of His illuminating eyes until we are refined and brought forth as pure gold! The radiation energy from His face, which is as the Sun shining in full strength, will pump power into us and renew our strength. The flame of fire from His eyes will melt our cold formalism and make us boiling hot and energized by the Holy Ghost.

God desires that we be fervent and on fire for Him at all times. Our love for Him must be fresh and fervid, and it must be first and foremost. The Lord expressed this in the letter to the churches sent through the hand of John the beloved; there are crucial admonitions for us concerning this.

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” (Rev 3:14-18).

The opening of the letter to the Church of Laodicea is different from that sent to Ephesus. In the letter to the Church at Ephesus, the Lord started with several things that were highly commendable in that church. But to the Church of Laodicea, He opened with, “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot.” He also revealed what this church thought of herself, for the Church of Laodicea had an elevated view of her spirituality. In her self-delusion, she saw herself as rich and lacking nothing.

Of course, that is probably true in a way. She is probably the richest church of all the church ages. With her beautiful cathedrals, her jet planes, her rich and smooth-talking ministers, and her political power, she is without doubt rich and increased with goods. But are these the riches her Master is looking for?

So the Master says, “You say, ‘I am rich. I have become wealthy. I don’t need anything.’ Yet you don’t realize that you are miserable, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked” (Rev 3:17 ISV).

There is little doubt which generation of the church fits the description of the Church of Laodicea or the period of Laodicea. But are we going to listen and take heed? Are we going to hearken to the Spirit urging and admonishing us in this lukewarm era to buy gold tried in the fire and white raiment, that we may be clothed? Are we going to repent and let the Spirit work His wonders in us, or we going to continue our Bible school theology, declaring ourselves the Church of Philadelphia?

Yes, we pride ourselves in goods and outward opulence and high-sounding religious activities and achievements while the Lord is calling us to buy of Him gold tried in the fire. He is calling us to draw near to Him, and like Him, be clothed in white raiment, which is His righteousness.

It is time for prayer and fasting. It is time to cast off all outward appearance of religion and let the Holy Ghost perform His work in our hearts. It is time to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. It is time to let the fire of the Holy Ghost burn within us and set us ablaze for Christ. It is time to have Anointing Oil of the Spirit poured upon us to flow up the lampstand into the candlestick and let the light shine.

It is time to let our little lights shine in the corners of the universe where we are planted. And as we each shine, contributing our little lights, the collective effect will be amplified by the Holy Ghost into an inferno that will cover the whole earth as the waters cover the sea.

Set me on fire Lord,

And watch me burn for You.

And as I burn for You,

Let the incense from this life be acceptable in Your Presence.

As a Burnt-Offering, let this incense, O’ LORD give up a sweet-smelling savor unto Thee

And if I burnout, it’s OK; for I will be satisfied when I awake, that I’ve given it all up, as a sweet oblation unto Thee (Olarewaju June 2009).