This is the testimony the Lord Jesus bore concerning John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. John was a mortal man like you and me, who was born 6 months before Jesus was born. He lived about 2000 years ago in Israel under the Roman empire. He lived for 30 years (mostly in the deserts of discipleship) and then was introduced by the LORD to the people and entered ministry. In 6 short months he had changed the entire nation of Israel and prepared the people for the then coming of the Messiah. The last prophet before John, Malachi, left the scene 400 years before. So, without the Word of God for 400 years you can imagine the degree of darkness that existed around John the Baptist in his days. In 6 months of his ministry at the Jordan all that had changed and light was coming. As Jesus was answering some people who were opposing Him He pointed to John as a burning and shining light.
John came and lit up the whole space and the entire land. He was very effective, irresistible and could not be ignored. He affected men from all walks of life, fathers, mothers, children, politicians, soldiers, customs officers, religious people, sports people, etc. His sole secret, his sole strategy was that his life was burning and shining. Now note that he was both burning and shining. Also note that he was burning before he could shine. It is the fire of burning that shines. When you come into a room you enjoy the light from the electric bulb because it is shining and giving light and expelling darkness. If you reach out and touch the bulb you will see that is hot – burning. The bulb first burns if it will ever shine. You are not shining because you are not burning. No matter how gifted, how brilliant and how endowed you are, all will amount to nothing except you are burning. For your life and all God has put inside you to affect others around you (shine) you must burn. If you ever want your life to affect and bless your generation, then you must first catch fire and be burning and then you can shine.
We will now look at a few issues that made men to burn and then shine for the LORD in their own generation.
1. DISCIPLESHIP
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and his brother Philip tetrarch of Ituraea and of the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias the tetrarch of Abilene,
Annas and Caiaphas being the high priests, the word of God came unto John the son of Zacharias in the wilderness.
And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins; (Luke 3:1-3)
Let us begin by saying that no matter your station or endeavour in life every man needs to burn and shine if he/she will be approved of God and bring help and good to his/her generation. Burning and shinning is not for preachers only.
Now in verse 1, you will find the political leaders in the days of John. Naturally, natural men (unbelievers) will not shine with the shine that gives glory to God and helps fellow men genuinely because they do not have the life that will catch fire and burn. More then that all the men you see there starting from Tiberius Caesar, the emperor of the Roman empire were all politicians, diplomats, schemers, supplanters, etc. These men lived for personal aggrandizement, opulently, etc. Look at Herod there who took his brother Philip’s wife. They are usually callous men who do not fear God. Look at his excellency Mr. Pilate, the governor of Judea. A man who cared less to trade in a just man for position and popularity. Such men are all burning but with a strange fire different from the one we are looking at. They were all men of lusts – lust for position, lust for possessions, lust for pleasure, lust for fame, etc. It is this lust (fire) that drives them to scheme, supplant others, give bribes, buy votes, go to shrines and do some things that they themselves will not like to be spoken of in the light. So those men in verse 1, even if they are believers are already burning with another fire (lust) and cannot catch Divine fire. This kind of fire (lusts) will quench every fire from above. When Jesus was eulogizing John after he was imprisoned by Herod for shinning towards him and telling him that it was wrong to take his brother’s wife and therefore was cast into prison, Jesus spoke thus in Matt. 11:7 and 8 – …What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. John was not a reed shaken by the wind (double – minded) nor was he clothed in soft clothing and living delicately with delicacies and wine and enjoying the trappings of office in mansions and palacial houses. No! John was a Prophet, burning and shining. So men who are double minded and are fickle and who indulge self cannot catch fire from above. So if you want Divine fire check the fire (lusts) in you and repudiate them if ever you want the fire from heaven. Self indulgent people, people, living at ease, men of appetite and wrong tastes, ambitious men for power, wealth and luxury are already burning with another fire and cannot catch the fire from heaven.
Next, in verse 2, you will find Annas and Caiaphas the high priests at that time. They were the custodians of the written Word of God at that time, priviledged men that could have caught fire. They represent the religious leaders and the religious establishment. They are men who put the ephod before the life and the sword. They love seats of honour in gathering and public acclamation and honour. They pray flowery prayers and love ceremony. They hold on to a form of religion and deny the power thereof. Such men as these cannot contact fire because they are glued to the externals and their main emphasis is to impress men and not to please the LORD. Such men, mere religious men, are not even interested in the fire that will cause men to shine because they are already satisfied with their state. No man who is not thirsty for the reality and for fire will pursue it and get it. So those men remain cold and official despite carrying about the Scriptures everywhere.
In the second part of verse 2 you see John the Son of Zacharias. He left his priestly priviledges behind and was located in the wilderness of discipleship. It was there in seclusion, where there is scarcity of everything, etc, that he learnt to look up to God for everything and nuture his inner life. It was here that the Word of God ‘jumped’ all those in verses 1 and 2a to get to him.
You will need to note that all the men that burnt and shone had some years in which they were ‘locked’ away in discipleship, hidden years. These were years of learning God and passing through divine dealings. It was at that time that they formed practices and lifestyles that distinguished them in their latter years. Genuine discipleship is indispensable for shining for God later. Firstly, it deals with Mr. Self that can never catch divine fire. The condition that Jesus laid down for all who will follow Him and learn Him and become His disciples is this: And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23). So ever before anyone can follow Jesus such must deny (repudiate, forsake, leave behind, etc) whatever answers to himself – his ambitions, rights, preferences, conveniences, plans, etc – and carry his/her cross and follow Him. Nobody could follow Him and learn Him so as to become like Him without meeting the condition. It is as you quietly learn Him in obscurity that the Word of God begins to come to you. God knows where you are located and will begin to send His Word to you. Now note that the Word of God is fire, among many other things:
The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream; and he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the LORD.
Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? (Jer 23:28 and 29)
You can quickly see that one key instrument of Discipleship is the Word of God. Some of what goes today as the Word of God is chaff and dreams of men’s head. When a man submits and yields himself to God, He begins to release His Word to such. His Word comes to do work in that person’s life, works of diverse kinds and straightens out that life. One of the great works the Word does is to burn as fire and burn out every chaff in such a life; every base desire, all that is vain and flimsy and all such like. It is thereafter that the fire of heaven comes so that such can burn and shine for His cause.
Friend, the Word prepares the life (sacrifice) for the fire. The Word that works in a man’s life comes in discipleship. If you are not yet deliberately following the Lord Jesus Christ you must do so without any further waste of time. If you are already following Him then you must stop joking and being a truant with this because no genuine fire will come upon your life except the Word has burnt off every ‘chaff’ and been used by God to cleanse you and transform you into His very image. May the Lord find you located where He sends His word to meet a man and work in Him and get him ready to affect his generation as he burns and shines for Him. The omission of discipleship is what has ever made gifted men to be consumed by other fires and therefore not to receive the fire that makes men burn and shine for His course.
2. THE ALTAR AND THE BURNT OFFERING
Now, a man that has no personal altar has no chance of contacting fire except he wants a strange fire. The altar is the place where a man meets with God. God is the Source of the fire but without an altar there is nowhere to kindle the fire. In the New Testament the altar is not something physical but represents communion with God; a closet life and an inner chambering life. Some will simply call it quiet time. The private altar is private and personal between the LORD and you. It is done in the secret where one shuts in with God at regular times of oblation.
Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
An altar of earth thou shalt make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings, and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen: in all places where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee. (Exo 20:23-24)
You can see that what God wants from you is not difficult. It is not gods of silver and gold but simply to build Him an altar of earth or natural stones (this simply means building a relationship with Him by having fellowship and communion with Him regularly. It is of the earth so that everyone can afford it).
Now if you have built an altar there must be a life on it if fire must fall because it is on the life that fire must fall and consume so that it produces a pleasing aroma. So you see that the two mandatory offerings are the burnt offering and the peace offering (or fellowship offering).
The law of the burnt offering is found in Leviticus Chapter 1. Once the Altar was erected in the wilderness the first thing the LORD instructed Moses about for the people was the burnt offering. The burnt offering is a chapter 1 matter in relationship with the Lord. Nothing precedes it and if there is no burnt offering then there cannot be any other offering. This means without this there is no relationship with God and no burning and of course no shinning. We will not be able to study the burnt offering in any detail here but just to look briefly at it to learn some few lessons to help us. Even before we do that we need to go to Romans chapter 12 verse 1 and look at it briefly because it equates the Burnt offering.
I APPEAL to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties] as a living sacrifice, holy (devoted, consecrated) and well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable (rational, intelligent) service and spiritual worship.
Note that this is an appeal to brethren in the Lord and it is on account of God’s mercies. God has first loved us and that is why we must love Him. He has shown each of us His children so much mercies and that is the basis for offering ourselves. If you do not respond to His mercies by offering Him yourself you are likely to squander His mercies and waste a lifetime. So the appeal is to offer – present, give, make a decisive dedication of your bodies as a living sacrifice to God. The Word – offer, present, etc, means that God reserves the right to accept or reject what is offered. God will not accept what you do not need (left-overs), and therefore a costless and painless offering but your all. It must be all your members and faculties and all you are and have. it must be sacrificial – as a living sacrifice. It must be holy (clean and sanctified), without any blemish. It must be acceptable to God and well pleasing to Him. The burnt offering is a sweet savor offering and is essential to God and well pleasing to Him. This is your first and reasonable service and without it no other offering can be brought to God. Ever before you want to preach, teach, serve, give, etc, you must first bring your life to Him as a burnt sacrifice, though living. Once He accepts this and it is set ablaze then it becomes the basis of every other offering you will ever bring. The reason why for many people’s much activities – evangelism, Bible teaching, giving etc – is a drudgery, routine, cold and formal and unreasonable and unacceptable to God is because they have not first offered the reasonable service which is to offer themselves to God as a burnt offering, a living sacrifice and a pleasing aroma.
Now if you study chapter 1 of Leviticus you will gain more insight into God’s instruction about the burnt offering. The size of the offering, whether it is a cow or sheep or goat or a bird, is not the first matter, but that it is done properly. We will encourage you to study this if you want to lay down your life properly and become a man that will burn and shine for his cause. What we can only do here is to point out a few issues that we can and we feel you should particularly take not of:
It needs to be voluntary:
…he shall offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the LORD. (Lev 1:3b)
The offerer must bring it to God himself and out of his own volition. He must not be induced, nor compelled nor cajoled nor provoked into doing it. He must not do it because he is competing with someone else as happens when launching is done. It must be something he/she decided to do himself/herself. This is important because God will not force you or threaten you or cajole you, etc, to give Him an offering. He will not accept what is not given voluntarily and an exercise of your will.
It must be killed:
And he shall kill the bullock before the LORD: and the priests… (Lev. 1:5a).
Once an offering is accepted from a man it must be killed. If it is not killed and it runs away that will be very serious and has serious consequences. God is using this to teach us that when we offer ourselves to Him and He accepts us then we must kill it (execute it). This means that if you have promised God something then you must do it immediately. If you do not do it immediately you will likely forget and your sacrifice will be roaming and ranging in the bush. To replace it you will have to pay more than before. Some people heard God years back when they were single about throwing down their lives for His holy use. They agreed but kept postponing it and forgot and by the time they remembered years had passed and conditions have changed. This is one reason why many who could have affected their generation became ordinary and some even fell away from the faith.
Friend, are you hearing God as we are studying? You must not put away your decisions but execute them immediately. It is such prompt response and obedience that will cause your sacrifice to count and be meaningful and cause God to release the fire that will release the aroma, etc. If you have delayed some offering you made to God in time past then repent immediately and rededicate it and ‘kill’ it.
It must be flayed:
And he shall flay the burnt offering, and cut it into his pieces. (Lev 1:6)
To flay it means to skin it. This has two implications. One, the skin is tough and will not allow the meat to burn quickly and if the meat does not receive fire quickly decay may start inside and produce a putrefying odor. The skin could represent hardness or the flesh or anything that will not allow the life to burn quickly. That must be skinned off.
Then to flay it also implies to undress it so that everything is exposed and nothing covered. So every cover up needs to be opened up and dealt with if a life is going to burn well and bring a pleasing odor. To cover reality and give a good impression to others is a serious problem that will not let a man prosper and burn.
Do not attempt to put the life on the altar without flaying (skinning) it for it will cause more trouble than good and make God to turn away His face from you.
It must be cut in pieces:
You do not place the life on the altar as a whole. You must cut it into its pieces and count the members and ensure that they are complete.
And the priests, Aaron’s sons, shall lay the parts, the head, and the fat, in order upon the wood… (Lev. 1:8)
You must cut it up into its natural parts and pieces – hands, legs, trunk, neck, etc. The emphasis you can see here is on the head and the fat. The head contains the brain, the tongue and mouth, the ears, the nose etc. So the head is of primary importance, it is from the head that every other part of the body receives instructions. The fat is never to be missing and must be contributed and placed on the burnt offering from every other sacrifice. It is fuel among other things, first, so that the burning will be sustained. So when you offer yourself you must flay it and cut it up into its pieces and lay them in order upon the altar, starting with the head. It is to be a decisive dedication of your body – presenting all your members and faculties. None must be found missing because they all now belong to the LORD and must all burn for Him.
Even the Inwards:
But his inwards and his legs shall he wash in water: and the priest shall burn all on the altar, to be a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the LORD. (Lev. 1:9)
One would have thought that the inwards, the intestines, etc; would be thrown away and that is why that verse starts with a but. No, even the inward are part of the life and now owned by the LORD. The LORD desirest truth in the inward parts and it is in the hidden part that He deposits wisdom. So if the inwards can be made clean it can be very useful and it therefore should be on the altar among the other members. So the inwards must be washed in the water (of the Word of God). Usually the intestine contain excreta and other filth that if not cleansed and fire come on it will produce a terrible odor. So every sin, every filth within your heart must be confessed and cleansed out before your inwards can be laid on the altar. Then that green thing in the inside of every animal called bile which makes the meat bitter when it is cooked with it must be sliced away. Every bitterness needed to be dealt with if God will accept the offering. This is crucial and must not be taken for granted.
Also the legs must be washed in water. Yes, the legs are the part of the animal that touches the ground. The ground or earth will represent for us the world. The world system needed also to be dealt with before the legs are laid on the altar. Rom 12:2 says – And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind,… Every worldliness must be washed away otherwise it will contaminate the offering and it will no longer be holy and acceptable.
If the burnt offering is properly done then God will send fire to consume it and the fire will cause a sweet aroma, pleasing to God, to come out and that life will burn and shine and affect Him and the environment.
And there came a fire out from before the LORD, and consumed upon the altar the burnt offering and the fat: which when all the people saw, they shouted, and fell on their faces. (Lev. 9:24)
This is usually the case when a correct burnt offering is correctly laid out, according to the Word of God, upon the altar. If God refuses to answer by fire then something went wrong and there will be trouble because the life on the altar will soon start to decay and affect both heaven and the environment very badly. This can attract a curse from Heaven rather than a blessing. This is why you must ensure that you offer yourself to God properly. The offering must not only be acceptable but needs to also be executed in an acceptable manner.
The peace offering is the one you share with the LORD and depicts eating with Him (fellowship) in His presence. Once your life is burning and you are in constant fellowship with the Lord then you will be growing and changing into His likeness and producing aroma that will affect both God and your fellow man. You will be a burning and shining light. (We cannot speak particularly about this here but you need to study further for yourself and practice a disciplined altar and continuous relationship with the LORD).
Now this is the crux of the matter because there cannot be fire without altar and a life on it. So if your altar has broken down because of too much busyness and activities or become overgrown with weeds because of disuse you must attend to it immediately and repair it. Make this a task to be done immediately and a priority all your life if you want your life to burn and shine and affect anything.
3. RELATIONSHIPS
Then take note that your relationships are important if you are going to attract and maintain fire. Fire can be easily extinguished and some people are fire extinguishers. So you must find men and women of a kindred spirit and relate closely with them if you want to burn and shine and bring a change to your environment. The society in which you live is godless and already a difficult place to maintain a godly life and fire. If in addition to this, you company closely with people who do not have the same mind as you, then there is no chance of maintaining a fire even if you get one. When Mary was told that she would conceive and give birth to a son and that Elizabeth had also conceived and was carrying a 6-months old pregnancy she immediately went to find and stay with Elizabeth who was carrying a similar ‘fire’ like her. That is the way to consolidate and grow a fire. If she had remained at Nazareth it would have been very difficult to nurture and grow what God had deposited in her. Likewise you must find your own ‘cousins’ and ‘kindred’ who will prophesy to you and fan the fire rather than pour cold water on it and extinguish it.
Even if you can manage the relationships outside, and some are unavoidable like in the work place, it is very hard to manage the one at home if one’s partner is a fire extinguisher.
Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? (Eccl. 4:11)
Relationships are needed to have heat but the question is, how can one be warm alone? This is the question most times in a marriage. We all need to lie together – affirm and encourage each other in this cold world. The trouble is when two, especially husband and wife, cannot lie together and therefore are alone and loners. This means that we need cordial relationships where everyone in the ship, is pursuing the same vision and carrying the same burden. We must pray about this and pursue it in communications and other ways, especially at home, if we hope to achieve much in our life time. If both husband and wife are burning for the Lord and moving in the same direction, affirming and stoking each other’s fire then it will be difficult to extinguish their fires outside. If we must keep burning then the home is the first place to lie together.
CONCLUSION
Friend, remember that you used to be ablaze before and that if you had continued, your testimony, would have become awesome by now. What happened and where did the axe-head (your cutting edge) fall? Was it your trying to be like the Joneses around you, or your business or your marriage, etc? What quenched the fire? You were becoming a burning and shining light, how does Heaven describe you now? A smoking, cold and formal Christian, with a dim light? You used to affect souls but now you affect nothing. You need to sincerely agree with your present state and earnestly seek God to change it. Time is very crucial in this matter and you need to be urgent so that you can burn and shine with the time you have left so that you do not end a disappointment to Heaven who expects so much from you having invested much more in your life than many. God bless you as you respond adequately to the Lord.