10/20/23 NEITHER WILD FIRE NOR COLD EMBERS

10/20/23 NEITHER WILD FIRE NOR COLD EMBERS

While "Name It, Claim It" is a false doctrine, so also is the notion that God is not as active in daily Christian lives presently as He was in the Old and New Testament times. Some Christians embrace a sensuous, hysterical salvation without scriptural foundation, while some Christians embrace a stodgy, historical salvation without spiritual power and life.

There are some acts of God which were peculiar to the times and people of the Old Testament and New Testament, including the giving of The Ten Commandments and other Biblical inspiration or verbal revelation through God's Old Testament Prophets, as well as the physical manifestations on the Day of Pentecost and the ministry of the New Testament Apostles. Those who embrace "wild fire" and those who extinguish "holy fire" are equally un-Christian.

There is a combination of heart and head reality in salvation. Heart without head is unbridled emotionalism and head without heart is misguided and false intellectualism. Biblical salvation is not facts without feelings or feelings without facts. Biblical salvation is faith in the God of the Bible, including His power and His revelation.
God's presence and power in our daily, outward, social lives is dependent on our daily, inward, spiritual relationship with God. Our relationship and our experience with God in our outward life springs from our private time with God. Don't expect the miraculous, delivering, leading, empowering presence of God if you are not living in faithful submission to God's will.

A right relationship with God is based on trusting the atonement of Christ's death and resurrection and on the regenerating, purifying, empowering and guiding work of the Holy Spirit. Without the intimate, personal, private, daily encounter with God, we are left with only a form of godliness.
A "salvation" that does not change your life is a "salvation" that will not change your destiny. If your relationship with God is not evident in your outward life, you do not have a right relationship with God in your inward life. God's salvation cleanses our actions and purifies our hearts.