Keep the Fire Burning - Candice Smithyman

 

Keep the Fire Burning

On May 20, 2019, I awakened to a startling dream of people being in a cafeteria in what
appeared to be a contemporary hotel. They were getting their food on trays and seating
themselves. I was also in line to get some food when I looked out the window of the cafeteria
and saw a horrific sight. The windows were halfway covered with sea water and there were
people laying on rafts that appeared to be like large dead sea animals resembling whales. The
people could not keep their grip on the rafts and kept falling off them and each time they fell off
or their arms or legs got in the water they were being eaten by sharks. I was sick to my stomach
and tried to find a way to rescue them but as I looked around no one seemed to care as they ate
their food and continued to talk and just watch this massacre outside in the water.
I woke from the dream at this point feeling rather helpless yet with a burden of responsibility to
do something. I began to pray on this for about 24 hours and the Lord spoke to me clearly and
said, “The cafeteria represents the many churches that watch out the windows of my houses of
worship, eating spiritual food, yet doing nothing about those who are mine dying in the waters of
life. The brokenness of my people is like blood for sharks and the forces are coming to ravage
them but I need my people to stop being comfortable and get out there and I will save them.”
I was convicted in heart and soul assessing what I can do personally and how I can share with the
church, that not only does the Lord want to save the lost souls, He also wants to heal the
brokenness of His very own people. Our brokenness is like blood for the demonic forces. These
forces prey on the wounded and hurting. Yet the church is to find them within its own body, and
go out and find them in the streets and retrieve them from the depths of this mass sorrow. I asked
God, “How can we do this when our churches are so comfortable.” He said it is in
uncomfortableness that the spiritual gifts are activated. In other words, in the comfort and power
of His Spirit, we are commissioned to go into uncomfortable places and our gifts will be
activated. Since I pastor a church alongside my husband, I had to look at my own church and
assess whether we were doing this and if not how could we better.
God told me that at this time His people must learn to burn with fire and passion for Him and
that will overflow His Spirit into a need to save the lost sheep but also heal His sheep who are
broken and in need of repair. We must learn to light our own fire by fanning into flame that
which Christ has given us by the laying on of hands, the activation of our spiritual gifts.
The Apostle Paul had to remind Pastor Timothy to do this very thing.
In 2 Timothy 1:5-8 (NIV), the Apostle Paul says to Timothy, “I am reminded of your sincere
faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded,
now lives in you also. For this reason, I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in
you through the laying on of my hands.    For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but
gives us power, love and self-discipline. So, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord
or of me his prisoner. Rather, join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God. “
We have a job to fan into flame the gifts of God. We must learn to start our own fires. So many
times, the church wants someone to start their fire, well that is great and necessary at times and
God is good and sends those with evangelistic gifts into churches to do this. As a revivalist myself,

who goes into churches and ignites fires, I understand this gifting, but the greater
blessing is when the people of God know how to light their own fire without help. They know
how to begin to ignite their personal flame. When the fire burns low in their lives and the
embers are all they see, they can begin to blow on the embers and stir them so that a flame can
begin again.
Evangelists in our churches are necessary but it takes more than a mere visitation by a revivalist
who lights fires and brings the motivating power of God to the people of God. We as the body of
Christ, must tap into His fire as personal individuals within His global church body and know
how to keep our own fire burning.
The word says in Revelation 1:14-16 (NIV), “The hair on his head was white like wool, as white
as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire.    His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and
his voice was like the sound of rushing waters.   In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming
out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its
brilliance.”
His eyes are a blazing fire. He has fire in Him. This is a characteristic of God. His feet are like
bronze glowing in a furnace. His face is like the sun shining in all its brilliance. He is an on-fire
God, and we His children who are a part of Him should be too.
In the Song of Solomon 8:6 (NASB), the word says, “Put me like a seal over your heart, Like
a seal on your arm. For love is as strong as death, Jealousy is as severe as Sheol; Its flashes are
flashes of fire, The very flame of the Lord.
He is the flame and we must tap into His flame daily. As Pentecost is quickly approaching on
Sunday June 9, 2019, we must remember that the church was ignited by flames of fire.
Acts 2:2-4 (NIV) in the word says, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in
one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the
whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated
and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.”
To receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is amazing but we must learn to continue to fan
into flame the fire of God. We must speak in tongues and stir up the gifts and power so that we
can go out and rescue the lost. It takes more than motivation and hype to keep the church going,
we must activate the Holy Ghost power the church already has within them. This is a
supernatural thing. Man cannot do this, but man can submit to a God who wants to do it in and
through us as His kingdom church. This is where discipline comes in. We seek Him daily and
pray in tongues and intercede, not because we feel like it, but because if we don’t someone may
die because our fire is burned out.
In Zechariah 4:1-8 (NIV), the word says, “Then the angel who talked with me returned and
woke me up, like someone awakened from sleep.    He asked me, ‘What do you see?’
I answered, ‘I see a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lamps on it, with seven
channels to the lamps.    Also there are two olive trees by it, one on the right of the bowl and the
other on its left.’ I asked the angel who talked with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’   He answered,

‘Do you not know what these are?’ ‘No, my lord,’ I replied. So he said to me, ‘This is the word
of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says
the Lord Almighty.   ‘What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level
ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ Then the
word of the Lord came to me:   ‘The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple;
his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you.’”

God will take care of His church the light of the world, and be the provision necessary for it
through His mighty Spirit. Therefore, the move to rescue the lost and the saved who are stuck
and being torn to pieces by the enemy is through His Spirit power alone. So, we must learn to
activate His Spirit with us. As the people of God, we must get in a place of praying daily in
tongues and interceding for the lost, and also those who are saved, but are living like devastated
and defeated Christians. If this country wants to see a reformation, then revival must come to the
house of God first, who living in His flames of fire, will ignite the lost to know a Savior.
The Apostle Peter shared in 1 Peter 4:16-19 (NKJV), “Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let
him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.   For the time has come for judgment
to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do
not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly
and the sinner appear?’ Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their
souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”
Keeping the fire burning is our responsibility and it is not done by motivation only coming from
the five-fold ministry leaders of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. Although our
job is to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up
(Ephesians 4:12, NIV) The people of God must also learn to do it themselves because they have
been taught well and equipped to do this on their own. The church as a whole needs this type of
disciplined focus in its membership.
Therefore, through personal discipline of the body seeking God individually and corporately,
regardless of whether we feel like or not, and fanning into flame His gifts continually by
speaking in tongues and walking in the boldness of the kingdom, we will be able to accomplish
this task of retrieving the lost and healing the broken. We must take a risk and move to
uncomfortable places where God will begin to activate our gifts and we will see Him use US
ALL to do miracles, signs and wonders. Only then will our personal revival fire bring
reformation to the church and salvation to the unsaved!

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