Fan The Flame (Day 147)

Isaiah 66v21 “and I will also take some of them for priests and Levites.”

The Lord promised that Israel would be to Him a kingdom of priests {Ex 19v6} This promise is repeated in Isaiah 61v6. Only some were priests and Levites but through their ministry, Israel became God’s priestly people. At the beginning of the church age, the Word of God was spoken through the Jews – like Paul, Peter, and Apollos. Paul writes “that I maybe a minister of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, ministering the grace of God, that the offering of the Gentiles might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit” – Rom 15v16. Eventually, the leadership moved to non-Jews as well, {Gal 2v3}. So, the church is made up of fellow heirs {Eph 3v6} and Kings and priests {Rev 1v6} All members of the church of Jesus Christ are priests.

There is a great practical lesson to learn here on you and I being witnesses and the priesthood of all believers.  When the burnt offering had been consumed by fire on the altar, the priest was commanded to “carry the ashes outside the camp to a clean place and the fire on the altar shall be kept burning on it…it shall not be put out. …and the priest shall burn wood on it every morning and lay the burnt offering in order on it” – Lev 6v10-12. Every day fresh wood must be brought to the fire for the burnt offering. The embers of yesterday’s ashes were not to be used.

We too are presenting a sacrifice and it’s the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to a lost world. If we are to be affective, we need to keep the evangelistic heart burning within us. Q. How? By putting on fresh wood every day and not living off the embers of yesterday’s ashes.

When we feed the fire within us with scriptures, some people go straight to their favorite passages, ones they always go to, i.e. – John’s gospel, Ephesians or the Psalms. This is ok but we don’t hear them quoting any other passages, nothing fresh, it’s always the same sections of scripture with the same old, same old, yesterday’s embers. It’s then that the fire within begins to burn low.

I hope that this study in Isaiah has helped you put some of the fire back within you and not to live from yesterday’s ashes, but are now hungry for fresh insights and revelations.

“Were not our hearts burning within us while He talked to us on the road and opened the scriptures to us.”