At the end of September last year, as I was moving from Lafayette, Indiana to our retirement home in Owasso, Oklahoma, not wanting to be retired, I was driving and praying, “Lord, what do You want for me now?” During those hours, over and over again came to my mind and heart two themes, “Rekindle” and A.W. Tozer’s words “Fellowship of the Burning Heart.”
Yes, that was and is my desire, to be rekindled, to be an instrument of the Spirit to rekindle others, and to rekindle a fellowship of the burning heart.
What is the fellowship of the burning heart? Tozer explained. “I am looking for the fellowship of the burning heart. Men and women of all generations and everywhere that love the savior until ‘adoration’ has become the new word and they do not have to be entertained or amused. This Christ was everything. He was their all in all…. I am looking for men and women who are lost in worship, those who love God until He is the sweetheart of the soul.”
Tozer was recalling Resurrection Day, when two disciples were walking on the road to Emmaus. Jesus, newly resurrected from the dead, joined them, engaging in lengthy conversation about Himself—yet they did not recognize Him. They invited Him into their home to eat with them, and as He broke the bread their eyes were opened, they recognized Him, and He disappeared. In awe they responded, “Were our hearts not burning within us when He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
How often is Jesus walking with us and talking with us? Our hearts are burning within us, but we do not recognize Him. This is what John Wesley was talking about when he spoke of his transforming encounter with Jesus, saying, “My heart was strangely warmed and I knew that I did trust Christ.”
Tozer again writes, “In this hour of all-but-universal darkness one cheering gleam appears: within the fold of conservative Christianity there are to be found increasing numbers of persons whose religious lives are marked by a growing hunger after God Himself. They are eager for spiritual realities and will not be put off with words, nor will they be content with correct ‘interpretations’ of truth. They are athirst for God, and they will not be satisfied till they have drunk deep at the Fountain of Living Water.”
I am praying for the Holy Spirit to rekindle afresh in me that burning heart of deep intimate communion with Jesus. Is that your prayer as well? I have sensed the Lord stirring in my heart to begin a fellowship of the burning heart—perhaps a Zoom fellowship group for deep Bible teaching, kinship together in the Spirit, ministering to one another, praying for that burning heart to be rekindled in each of us.
If you would like to be part of such a Zoom “Fellowship of the Burning Heart,” let me know, and what times might be good for you. If there is interest and we can find a good time for several people, I will set up a Zoom meeting in the near future. You can reply on this blog, or on Facebook Messenger, or my email address: paulkingministries@gmail.com.
Make this prayer of Tozer your own:
O God, I have tasted Your goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want You; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still. Show me Your glory, I pray, that so I may know You indeed. Begin in mercy a new work of love within me. Say to my soul, ‘Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away.’ Then give me grace to rise and follow You up from this misty lowland where I have wandered so long. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Leave a Reply