Every growth of spiritual life, from the first tender shoot until now, has been the work of the Holy Spirit…. The only way to more life is the Holy Spirit. You will not even know that you want more unless He works in you to desire it…. The Spirit of God must come and make the letter alive, transfer it to your heart, set it on fire, and make it burn within you, or else its divine force and majesty will be hid from your eyes…. Prayer is the creation of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do without prayer, and we cannot pray without the Holy Spirit.
Fire
Phillips Brooks
Nothing but fire kindles fire. To know in one’s whole nature what it is to live by Christ; to be His, not our own; to be so occupied with gratitude for what He did for us and for what He continually is to us that His will and His glory shall be the sole desires of our life…that is the first necessity of the preacher.
Thomas Cranmer
I would marvel much that any man should be so mad, as to refuse in darkness, light: in hunger, food: in cold, fire: for the word of God is light, food, fire.
Teresa of Lisieux
To live of love, it is to know no fear; No memory of past faults can I recall; No imprint of my sins remaineth here; The fire of Love divine effaces all. O sacred flames! O furnace of delight! I sing my safe sweet happiness to prove. In these mild fires I dwell by day, by night. I live of love!
Sadhu Sundar Singh
Those who know nothing of the spiritual life declare that it is impossible to experience real peace and heavenly joy in this grief-stricken world. But those who have experience of the spiritual life know that just as one finds here and there in the midst of the ice fields of the polar regions flowing streams of hot water, so in the midst of this cold and sorrow-laden world there are to be found flowing in the hearts of believers restful streams of heavenly peace, for the hidden fire of the Holy Spirit glows within them.
John Scott
The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us.
Warren W. Wiersbe
When you are in the furnace, your Father keeps His eye on the clock and His hand on the thermostat. He knows just how much we can take.
Tim Hansel
Our hearts beat excitedly over stories of people like Abraham and Moses, yet we fail to recognize that they were as frail and nervous as we are. We stand in awe of Moses at the burning bush: Now there is a bush that burns, we say. I would like to be a bush like that, but I’m just a heap of ashes. And that’s as far as we get. We discuss the phenomenon of what God can do in a life, tell amazing stories about it, praise it – but then resign ourselves to being nothing more than what we think we are, a mere bystander, resigned to sitting in the balcony among the spectators. But it is not the bush that sustains the flame. It is God in the bush, and so, any old bush will do!
Samuel Chadwick
The church is the creation of the Spirit. It is a community of believers who owe their religious life from first to last to the Spirit….Religious services and organized institutions do not constitute a Christian Church, and these may flourish without the gift of Pentecostal fire.
Barbara Richmond
The last days are upon us. You didn’t ask to be born when you were. God chose you to be alive now. With that choosing comes all the grace you need to stand and be a hero of faith in these awesome days. Embrace His grace, embrace the tremendous privilege that is yours. Like the three young men in the fiery furnace, say boldly and courageously, “Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow.”