The pathway to spiritual revival is the same as it was for the Church at Laodicea, remembering our First Love, Jesus, who died for us, rose for us, and lives to intercede for us. Buying the "gold" (the message of the cross), white clothes to wear (the righteousness Jesus died to give you, which covers up your nakedness in sin) and salve for your blind eyes (so you can finally see the message of the cross again!).
You must make your main priority every day to be the intake of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is necessary to abide in the Vine (John 15) and live in the secret place of the cross (Psalm 91). Your main priority is to receive from Jesus, to relate with Him by taking in His Word and praying it back to Him. This way, you will be able to minister from the “overflow” of what Jesus is putting into your heart. In this way, your ministry is not a burden but a blessing.
When you read your Bible, learn to run to the cross with it and look up! Learn to read the Bible as Jesus taught the disciples on the road to Emmaus, seeing “the suffering and glories of the Messiah” (the death and resurrection of Jesus -- Luke 24:26) everywhere you read.
Only when you have seen Jesus, and had your heart set on fire as those disciples did (Luke 24:32), are you ready to then go and warm someone else, telling them you’ve seen Jesus, that He died for their sin but is now alive! When your heart is set on fire at the cross, then you will have a message to tell, and your heart will be burning with cross-like fire when you do so! “They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).
One of the wonderful pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Scriptures is a Man on Fire! Ezekiel saw "visions of God" (Ezekiel 1:1) and in his first vision he saw a Man, and described Him like this:
Ezekiel 1:27 (NIV) I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him.
Jesus Christ is the Man, this God-Man who is "full of fire", who burns not just with holiness and righteousness, but with love and compassion. He is on fire from the waist up, from His bowels to His heart to His head. He yearns with longing and burns with a passion that took Him from heaven clear to earth, there to be despised and rejected and suffer unjustly, and die as our substitute.
When Jesus is in us, we are on fire! He communicates His passion for people who are enslaved, people who are lost, people who are embittered, people whose hearts are broken, people of all nations and tribes and tongues. As we sit long at the cross and take it in, we feel a fire from the waist up burning within us, and we minister from the overflow of this heat wave within us.
John the Baptist foretold this ministry of fire that Jesus would impart to all who believe: "I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Matthew 3:11).
You are designed to be taking in the gospel daily, washing at the cross daily, receiving fresh grace, like the Israelites received new Manna every morning. You can do this by listening to songs focused on the cross, by interacting on the Setting Captives Free forum, or by starting a discussion on the email list, making sure the subject is the cross, and by believing, once again, the message you hear. Be purposeful and persistent in getting to the cross and hearing its message for your own heart, to ignite your own inner being by faith.
Friends, we only want to minister out of overflow! The Thessalonians “welcomed the message with joy” (1 Thessalonians 1:6) and then “the message rang out from them” (1 Thessalonians 1:8). This is taking in and giving out. The apostle Paul said, “for what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance…” (1 Corinthians 15:3). We must welcome the message if we want it to ring out from us to our students. We must first receive the gospel before we can pass on the message. And this must be done repeatedly every day.
John 7:38-39 (NIV) Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” 39 By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive.
Question 4. What is the Holy Spirit called in John 7:38-39?