Nothing excels the glory of
burning with holy longing before a burning God who blazes with fiery
passions for weak but lovesick worshipers.
I
didn’t stumble or wander accidentally into this discovery; it was a
divine set-up. I was ambushed. In my case, a personal trial has been
used by God to totally rewrite my spiritual DNA, redirect the course of
my life, and bring me to the threshold of a relationship that I always
longed for but didn’t know how to find. The calamity made me absolutely
desperate for God. I began to scour God’s word like a starving man
trying to stay alive. It wasn’t the fiery trial that changed me; it was
the desperate pursuit of God in the trial that changed me.
There
are two Scriptures that define my place before God in my present
season. The first is Deuteronomy 10:8, “At that time the LORD separated
the tribe of Levi to bear the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand
before the LORD to minister to Him and to bless in His name, to this
day.” I now see my primary calling as being that of standing before God
and ministering to Him. No great agenda, no mighty ambitions, no rush
to move on to the next thing. I just stand before Him and love Him.
The
second Scripture is Revelation 4:5, “Seven lamps of fire were burning
before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” When I saw the
phrase, “burning before the throne,” my heart cried out, “Lord, I want
those same words to characterize my life. I too want to stand before You and burn before Your throne!”
I
have discovered who I am. I am a holy one (not because of who I am, but
because of where I am) who stands before the throne of The Holy One,
gazes upon His beauty and majesty, the fire that flows from His throne
(see Daniel 7:10) flowing into my heart, setting me ablaze with the
same fiery passions that kindle God’s heart, and now my love flows back
to Him like a volcanic eruption as my heart responds to the love He is
now igniting in my heart (see Romans 5:5).
I
will burn before Him for eternity. I will always stand here. By His
grace, I shall never be moved. May nothing of this world or of hell’s
assault ever deter me from this holy stand before His throne. I’ve
tasted of the ultimate privilege of burning before His throne, and I’m
ruined for anything less.
There
are seasons when God calls us to simply stand. We might prefer the
adrenalin of chasing down a great cause, but sometimes God calls us to
stop all activity and just stand. Sometimes He gives us no choice.
Occasionally, circumstances will constrain us beyond our ability to
steer a different course, and we become prisoners to the chains that
bind us to God’s will. Incapable of extricating ourselves and moving on
to the next thing, all we can do is stand and burn in holy love for our
King.
It is commonly said, “Don’t just stand there, do
something!” When circumstances in our lives are careening out of
control, the great temptation—when you don’t know what to do—is to do something. “God can’t steer a stationary vehicle,” they say, “So start moving out on something, and let God direct your course.”
That
may be the way to go in some situations, but the Lord has been leading
me in a different path. He inverted that common saying and gave it to
me this way, “Don’t just do something, stand there!” It came like this: “When you don’t know what to do, don’t just do something!
Wait on Me, stand before Me, minister to Me, until. Until I speak. When
I speak to you, then you can move out in response. But until I speak,
just stand there.”
I’ve
been gripped recently by the phrase, “the fire never says, ‘Enough!’”
(Proverbs 30:16). There is a fire in God that is never satisfied; and
there’s a fire in me, placed there by God, that is never satisfied. The
fire in me is constantly reaching out for more of God; and the fire in
Him responds by desiring more of me in return. Eternity will be the
unending adventure of ever giving more of our hearts in fiery love to
Him, as He eternally unfolds more of His glorious beauty to us.
Do
something dangerous. Get alone with God! His “consuming fire” will burn
away all from your life, until all that’s left is love itself. This is
our God, “‘Who makes…His ministers a flame of fire’” (Hebrews 1:7).
He’ll make you one, too, if you’ll let Him.
