We cannot talk about receiving the fire of God without mentioning the role of the Word of God.
The word that ignites and creates hunger
First of all, the revelation of God's Word illuminates and ignites. Something powerful happens when a person's eyes are opened to see God and His Word. It's as if the worries and veils of this world are removed and only one thing matters: knowing God, living in and for Him. When you dive into the Word and ask for fire, it will overwhelm you.
This has also been our experience in God's work. One of my spiritual daughters, at a certain point in her life, was exhausted and emotionally broken. She was unstable, both spiritually and emotionally. No one could count on her. But she joined our ministry and immersed herself in God's Word. She absorbed and drank in the teachings. In a short time, she was on fire. A pastor friend of mine came in my absence to preach for us. He told me afterward that she was unrecognizable, so transformed and on fire was she by God's Word. Over the years, despite the challenges, she has become a person very committed to God's work.
Second, God's Word creates a hunger and thirst in us for more of God. This hunger, and the prayer that flows from it, are major factors in the igniting of fire. This is what we saw earlier about Smith Wigglesworth. Reading the Acts of the Apostles created a hunger in him that grew and grew until he received God's fire.
Fire descends in Ilorin
Third, the Word itself is a fire, and communicating the Word releases the power of God, which sets us ablaze. A remarkable story of communicating God's fire through the Word occurred in 1968 in the city of Ilorin, Nigeria. Austen Ukachi relates the story of Ademu Udama, a young man passionate about God's work and evangelism, and fervent in prayer. He had received an invitation to speak to a group of students on the subject of the Holy Spirit. For him, this was a first.
But God, in His grace, allowed him to teach on the subject. At the end of his message, he asked the students to bow their heads in prayer, and things took an unexpected turn. A cloud descended on the room, and suddenly, one of the students began to pray in tongues aloud. Others joined in, also praying in tongues. Some shouted, others wept and confessed their sins, and others clapped their hands. Udama, speechless, wondered what was happening. In his religious tradition, shouting and speaking in tongues were not done. He had never seen such a spontaneous outpouring of the Spirit. He tried everything he could to calm things down. Ironically, he himself was not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit, and he hadn't even prayed for it.
The news spread around town. It was said that something strange had happened at the youth meeting. Abraham Adenigba, a secondary school student, went to ask Udama for the Bible passages he had used in his teaching. Later, he testified that, upon returning home, he meditated on these passages and, when he began to pray, the Holy Spirit came upon him and he began to pray in tongues. He thus received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the fire of God. Thereafter, he was an instrument of revival on his university campus in Ibadan. Indeed, it is by the fruits that we recognize those who have received the fire and those who have not. We will discuss the impact of this fiery experience on his life later in this book.
Our role is to prepare ourselves. Hence the lengthy explanations in this chapter. The pouring out of fire is a sovereign action of God; there is no magic formula. Simplicity of heart, longing for God and submitting completely to Him, is what His heart desires. Let us take our cue from DL Moody: recognize our need and humble ourselves before God. Let us respond to the promptings of the Spirit and not imagine that our current experience represents the totality of God's action.
This article is an excerpt from the book 'The Fire of God'. Discover it here.
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