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Are you “on fire” for God?  That is an interesting question.  What does it mean to be ablaze for God?  And how does it happen in our daily life?  Wesley L. Duewel wrote that God’s “holy flame, is for all of us believers…It is to make us beautiful in goldy personality, radiant in disposition, and fruitful in life.”  However, there are many ways in which Satan attempts to extinguish our passion to follow God.  Duewel reminds us that “a flickering flame that is almost gone can be fanned into brilliant fire again….God has created our spirits flammable.  We are spiritually combustible.  Our nature is created to be set ablaze by the Spirit.”  (Ablaze For God, 19,25,26)

In this series we are going to explore what it means to allow God to ignite our hearts through deeper and more meaningful engagement with Him.  In Acts 2, the early church received the indwelling Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  He was seen as “tongues of fire”.  Our sermons will explore several biblical characters to see how they encountered God as they walked and talked with Him.  As Richard Foster writes, “‘Prayer changes things,’ people say.  It also changes us.  The latter goal is the more imperative.  The primary purpose of prayer is to bring us into such a life of communion with the Father that, by the power of the Spirit, we are increasingly conformed to the image of the Son.”  (Prayer:  Finding the Hearts True Home, 57)

We are so bound by our world of space and time that we have difficulty comprehending that we are welcomed into the very presence of God!  Because of Jesus, we are invited to come confidently into God’s presence (Hebrews 4:14-16).  What is more, the Holy Spirit dwells within believers!  Yes, God desires to ignite our hearts with a passion to know Him more and serve Him in greater ways than we ever thought possible.