Where's The Fire?

A few years ago I was involved in leading worship for our church's mid-week service. The church was located in Macon, GA. A typical mid-week service would consist of some praise and worship (3 or 4 songs), a short teaching, and prayer. The service was shorter than our weekend services.

This particular Wednesday night there was an unusually strong anointing on the worship. As as matter of fact, the Holy Spirit led us into a sweet time of spontaneous worship for a longer-than-usual time. It was some of the most anointed worship I've ever experienced. You could feel the warmth of the Holy Spirit's manifested presence in the room. You could see His presence on the faces of almost everyone in the room. There were only 3 musicians involved in our worship for that particular mid-week service: A drummer, a bass player, and myself on the keyboard. Connie (my beautiful wife) was on the platform with me, along with a couple of other singers. Heaven came down in our sanctuary that night! It was so sweet.

Things got a little quieter during the spontaneous worship. It was as if we were suspended between earth and the throne of God. Suddenly two firemen, decked out in full fire-fighting gear, and each wielding an ax, burst through the swinging doors at the rear of the sanctuary. One of them said, "Where's the fire?" I said, "What fire?" He said, "Your fire sensors are sending signals to our control center that there is a raging fire here in your church!" At that point the two firemen searched the building (including the attic) for a fire. They came back into the sanctuary and said, "We found NO fire." So the two firemen, a little embarrassed and a bit confused sort of backed out the two swinging doors and left. As soon as they left, the place erupted in praise, worship, and applause to God! We knew what was really going on. There was in fact a fire in the house! It was the fire of God! Those fire sensors knew something was going on, and simply notified the fire department!

God made it evident that night that the Holy Spirit wants to manifest His fire in our midst. John the Baptist said, "As for me, I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, and I am not fit to remove His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." (Underline added.) (Matthew 3:11) And even when the worship is so incredible, He wants us to know that it effects people and things (like smoke and fire sensors). He also illustrated to us that when the worship goes up, His glory and fire come down. O how that can change lives! So my first question is...where is the fire?

Many have become so engrossed in efforts to be professional, polished, and perfectly timed that our gatherings are missing the fire of God. More money and energy is invested in production and presentation than preparing for God's presence in our midst. What would you do worship leader, pastor, if Holy Spirit fire broke out and interrupted your service this Sunday? Would you fan the flames, or would you seek to extinguish the fire? Questions we should all ask ourselves.

It's very evident that revival is needed in the body of Christ. Because as the church goes, so goes the condition of our nation. But there will be no revival unless the fire falls! It's not in organization and planning. It's not in creating the perfect presentation. It's not in being relevant to the culture. It's simply in the anointing. The anointing is God's supernatural enabling poured out on folks who are hungry and thirsty for the realm beyond mediocrity.

Just a couple of questions more. Are you willing to rearrange EVERYTHING for the sake of the fire of the Holy Spirit? And most important, are you willing to become the fuel for His fire? Because that's where the fire is!