Aflame With Passion for God

“I am drenched in the fuel of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the match... and God is the flame.”

— Shawn Boreta

There are some quotes that you read and instantly they grab your attention. That’s how it was for the above quote. Immediately I was struck by the use of metaphor—fire, copious fuel, and a match that ignites the flame.

Of course, the quote above encapsulates all three persons of the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is really the end result of our faith in Jesus; a Spirit provided by the Father, in the Son’s name—the Advocate in place of the Son who has gone to be with the Father.

So let us take each of these persons of the Godhead in reverse order to what we would typically find:

God the Holy Spirit

If we are to be saturated in anything spiritual, that which has its basis in truth, we are to be soaked in the Holy Spirit, and if we were to imagine that immersion to be an immersion of volatile fuel, we would be seriously concerned that we might catch alight in the presence of a flame, like a match.

If the Holy Spirit possesses us in any cogent degree, because we have accepted the Son, and have therefore sought the Holy Spirit to dwell within, and have been won to this Majesty of Spiritual Grace, we will be easily lit. And our flame will burn brightly of the Son.

This metaphor of being drenched in fuel is pregnant with the possibility for ignition; for the transformation from one material into another; the burning off of the old in revealing the new, as well as the spiritual fire inspiring such a divine transformation.

Finally, with fuel is potential—all that’s required is a spark to make flame. We’re reminded of that potential that resides poised in us by the Holy Spirit. We seek that spark to take us from possibility into divine action.

God the Son

What part does Jesus play in all of this? We know it is a central part. Of course, the Saviour is pivotal. If not for Jesus there would be no reconciliation with God.

Not only is Jesus the hub, the pivot point of all history, he is the match that lights the flame of God so far as we’re concerned. If not for Jesus we could be drenched in the fuel of the Holy Spirit, but never experience the flaming Presence of God that burns in our core.

But, of course, without Jesus we would have no claim on the Holy Spirit.

God the Father

The sponsor of the whole arrangement is God the Father. He who spoke Creation into being, with the Son and the Holy Spirit present there in the Trinity also, was determined to bring physical and dimensional manifestation to his Love.

We can see Creation as something that has burned with the Father’s passion all along.

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Our opportunity as believers is to burn with passion; to be continually aflame for God. If God is anywhere involved in our lives he will be as a fire, burning off the residue of the old self, making way for new undergrowth through which Christ can thrive from within us, by the Holy Spirit.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.

Shawn Boreta is an edifier, teacher, writer, and student at the Ps139 group, which includes the Page, Giving Thanks Daily, and the Blog from which this quote came.