Fire

Jeremiah 20:9 (NIV)

His word is within my heart like a fire.

To preach the gospel, a saint's heart must first be burning with the holy fire of God's word. The Lord Jesus Christ is the word of God (John 1:1). If our spirits are not on fire with the holy Presence of Christ and if our faces don't reflect His radiance (2 Cor 3:18), we can not preach His gospel. Jeremiah could not hold the word of God in. It was in his heart, soul, and bones (Jeremiah 20:9). When a man tries to contain the word of God without speaking it, the power and wrath of that fire consumes his very being. He can't sleep, eat, rest, or do anything else until He preaches that God has put in his heart. There is a sense of urgency, desperation, and utter panic to speak what God commands the preacher to say. God keeps calling us (1 Samuel 3:4) in our dreams, visions, and sleep. When we close our eyes to rest, we can't rest because we are lifted into His holy Presence or because He gives us visions of hellfire where many are headed. A man will not have peace until he obeys God and lets out the fire of His word, consuming his soul. Not everyone should presume to be a preacher (James 3:1). A servant of God must first be baptized in the Holy Spirit and be cleansed by the purifying fire of God's holiness. A man of God standing naked in the Presence of God's holiness will realize what his specific sin is. Isaiah had a dirty mouth (Isaiah 6:5). God then purifies that impure soul with His holy fire (Isaiah 6:6-7). That soul perfected in the cleansing fire of the Holy Spirit is then ready to preach. This does not mean that the soul will never sin again. But it does mean that that soul has the power of the Holy Spirit to conquer sin (Acts 1:8, Zechariah 4:6).

Unless the Hand of the Lord is heavy upon that soul (Jeremiah 15:7, 1 Cor 9:16), that man can not preach. Today, many have been schooled in theology at the best seminaries yet lack the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in their preaching. Their sermons are scholarly and straightforward, but yet there isn't the fire and the power of the Holy Spirit in those words that would cut men to their hearts (Acts 2:37). If a man preaches because that is what he has been hired to do, such as pastors, then the word and the fire of God's word is not in his soul. Such men may be shepherds and even ecumenical teachers, but they are not preachers in the evangelical sense. The first and the only thing a servant of God being consumed by the fire of God's word would do is to preach Christ, and Him crucified (1 Cor 1:23). The rest are mere details.