A Fire Already Kindled (Luke 12:49)

 


Monday, March 17, 2025


Psalm 40

Genesis 43:1-15

Luke 12:49-59


Observance: Patrick, bishop, missionary to Ireland (d. 461)


A Fire Already Kindled (Luke 12:49)


I sometimes wonder if, in our age of magically heating stove tops and freely-running hot water, that we don’t really have a good grasp of what Jesus means when he speaks of sending fire upon the earth. How he wishes the fire were already kindled – would we even know what that looks like?


It seems as if an interpretation of these words that would lead us to thinking of revival is a smooth ride. Revival – that wonderful word, that concept just slightly beyond reach of our wildest imagination – the fire that Jesus would send upon the earth. A supernatural movement of God, whereby not only neighbours and friends turn towards Christ in passionate devotion, but even we ourselves are brought out of our current spiritual stupor. Jesus came to send fire upon the earth – and how we wish it were already kindled!


The greatest miracle of all is the miracle of spiritual new birth by the Holy Spirit. The miracle of God where the dead sinner is raised to new life, where the dry bones become alive, and the heart of stone is replaced with a beating heart, inclined to the love of God in Jesus Christ. Conversion is a work of God, beginning to end, and what is revival but widespread public conversion.


If the miracle is a work of God, he doesn’t leave us out of the responsibility. God now commands all people to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus – he alone went to the cross, he alone is worthy to take away our sins. And yet we are called to respond in faith, even if that faith itself is a miraculous gift from God. We are responsible for our participation, and at the same time, God gets all the glory.


And how can people believe if they have not heard? And how can they hear if no-one preaches to them? These are the words of the apostle Saint Paul, who brilliantly held together the sovereignty of God and the responsibility of the human individual, while maintaining the dignity of both.


We need not be disheartened or discouraged. We may be like the churches to whom Jesus wrote letters in the book of Revelation; neither hot nor cold, forgetting our first love, being swept and battered by heresies. Yet Jesus is sending fire upon the earth, of whom it was said “a burning wick he will not quench”. (Isaiah 42:3) Dear Christian, if you sense your fire as nothing more than embers in the bottom of your soul, Jesus promises to fan it into a blazing flame. He is the God of encouragement, and he desires you, and is fanning the flames of your love. He is sovereign; and he is giving us a great responsibility; and he is giving us the grace to fulfil the demands of our responsibility.


What do you think revival looks like? What role do you think God plays in revival? What role do you think God wants us to play in bringing about revival?


God of blazing love and justice: breathe your Holy Spirit upon the embers of our hearts, so that we may be ablaze with love for you and for your word, and that the world may be set on fire for you.

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