Matthew 15:8 says, ‘These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.
We are in a time of great apostasy, a time when hearts that should be true to him have turned or never knew him. Tonight’s class does not dwell on this thought, but rather centers on those who will say, God, build a fire in my heart. I ask a question: Will your heart burn? Will it burn for Jesus?
Exodus 3: Nkjv
Moses at the Burning Bush
Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.”
4 So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!”
And he said, “Here I am.”
5 Then he said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.”
God set a bush on fire, and the bush wasn’t consumed. Is there something wrong with this fire? It puts forth light; you can feel the heat, but it doesn’t destroy. God wanted to use this man, Moses. God wanted to set a fire in the heart of Moses.
I ask you a question. Will your heart burn for Jesus? What is your heart burning for right now? Is it burning for yourself, you, me, and I? Will your heart burn for Jesus? Is your heart flammable? Will it burn?
God set a wildfire on Mariah Woodworth Etter. At age thirteen, Maria was converted. This happened not at a meeting but the next day at her water baptism, where she asked the Lord to save her fully.
At that point, she experienced a light that came over her, and some people said she fainted.
Soon after conversion, Maria’s new joy in salvation consumed her. She went to as many as seven or eight church meetings a week but had no interest in amusement. She’d heard the voice of Jesus calling her to go out in the highways and hedges and gather in the lost sheep.
God had started a fire in his heart that would burn for him.
A woman preacher was unheard of, they said, but God set a fire in her heart, and it was burning.
Maria was a Pentecostal before there were Pentecostals. That is, she was already preaching and experiencing the message of Pentecost in her services as early as 1883, with all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit being manifested. And this was long before historians began to write about the Pentecostals.
► 13 years before the 1896 Shearer Schoolhouse Revival
► 18 years before the 1901 Topeka Outpouring
, 23 years before the 1906 Azusa Street Revival
The 120 in the upper room had hearts that would burn for him. Will your heart burn for him?