The Fire of God - Charles Carter

Greetings out there all my brothers and sisters. My name is Coach Carter. I come to you today to encourage you and to let you know how much God loves you and how much he wants to release his spirit upon you that you may burn for him. And today I'm going to talk to you about the fire of God. He comes to release his fire, especially in this hour. In this hour, it's the last hour. Jesus is soon to return and you have to be burning for God so you'll be able to stand and fight the good fight of faith because it's warfare all around us and you have to be prepared and know that you walk in dominion, authority, and in victory. And I come just to encourage you today. And so one thing to get the fire of God is when you have an encounter with God. And when you have that encounter with God, things change. Things change. God is a consuming fire. It's like fire that is shut up in your bones. Jesus baptized us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. And the Holy Spirit came upon the apostles in the upper room with flames of fire that fell upon their heads. And so God is really wanting us to understand that we have to get the fire burning inside of us. We need to be set on fire. When someone is on fire for God, that means he's committed to God. That means that he is sold out. That means he's totally releasing himself to God to do whatever God wants to do with him. Now, it's one thing that once you have an encounter, there's a spark, there's the fire. But you have to keep the fire burning. You have to keep the fire burning. So if you go with me to the book of Levitica, chapter 6, verse 12-13, we're all called to

be priests. So this is talking about the priests. And it says, meanwhile, the fire on the altar must be kept burning. It must not go out. The priest shall put on fresh wood each morning and lay the daily burnt offerings on it and burn the fat of the daily peace offering. So the priest had to put the wood on it to keep the fire of God burning. You have to put the wood on your fire to keep it burning. You have to. You have to put the offering on there to keep it burning. God is asking for that offering. He's asking for you to come closer. Come to him. To seek him while he may be found so that he can continue to set you ablaze. He can continue to set you ablaze. Now, if you go with me to Acts 28, verse 2-3, it says, And the barbarian people showed us no little kindness, for they kindled a fire and received us, every one, because of the present rain and because of the cold. And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and fastened itself to his hand. And when the barbarians saw that the venomous beast hung on his hand, they said amongst themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer whom thou hast escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire and felt no harm. And they said, howbeit they looked when he should have swollen or fallen down dead suddenly. But after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds and said that he was a God. The priest had to put the fire on the wood, I mean the wood on the fire, sorry. And Paul went and gathered some wood to put on the fire. Now let me help you to understand something about Paul.

Paul was a sinner before he was Paul. Just like you and I, Paul was a great sinner. He persecuted the Christians. He killed them. That's how bad Paul was. They even said he was a murderer, and he was. But like I said in the beginning, when you have an encounter with God, you change. You change. You change. All things pass away. Behold, all things become brand new. Everything become brand new. And even in that brand newness, when you have an encounter with God, he even changed your name. He changed your name. He changed Saul to Paul. He changed Simon to Peter. He changed your name. He's not going to call you anything that you're not. The world's going to call you everything. They're going to call you a dope addict. They're going to call you a rapist. They're going to call you a prostitute. They're going to call you a drug dealer, whatever. The world is going to call you all these things, but God didn't call you that. He's not going to call you something that you're not. God calls you an overcomer. He calls you victorious. He calls you more than a conqueror. He calls you his child.

That's the name that God gives you now. So he changed Paul's name. Now, at this particular point, Paul was in prison, just like some of you, some of us have been. Paul was in prison, and now he wanted to appeal his case. So he was going to Rome to make an appeal to Caesar on his case. Now, they put him on a ship. A storm came. It was raining, and the ship wrecked on an island. A ship wrecked on an island. Now, these things that I'm talking to you about today are some things that's in your life. Some things that are in your life. And I'll go over that with you right now. Now, the thing about it you need to understand, you can't burn for God unless you become an overcomer of excuses. If you got excuses in your life, why you can't go to God, why you can't come to God, you cannot be an overcomer. But you can be an overcomer through Christ, who strengthens you. So we need to follow this. Paul had all kinds of reasons to give up on God. Now, he was sold out committed after he had the encounter with God. Now all these things happened. He got beaten. He got put in the prison. Now he's on a ship. The ship become wrecked. He's in a storm. Once he lands on the island, it's raining, it's cold. He had all kinds of excuses that he could have taken, but he chose not to.

He chose to keep the fire burning for God. See, once you surrender to God, God commits to you. You commit to him, he commits to you, because he loves you. He loves you. And nothing is too hard for God. Now, you will burn for God to the degree that you overcome these excuses. Excuses are from the devil. I want you to understand that. Now the first thing that he encountered was the storm. And that's where you can ask God something for you and he doesn't seem to answer your prayers. You're going through something and you're praying to God and asking him, God help me, God do this. If he doesn't seem to answer your prayers. Do you turn away from God? Do you use that as an excuse to let your fire dwindle out? How could I burn for God, who I felt like burned me, didn't answer my prayer? He didn't help me. He didn't deliver me. Your passion for God is quenched by unanswered prayers. Why did he leave me here in this situation? There are some battles God will deliver you from and some battles that he will deliver you through. So you got to understand, if God don't deliver you out of that situation, he's with you. He's going to deliver you through that situation. He's going to get the glory no matter what it looks like. No matter what it looks like. You may not understand it, but God got a plan and his plan will prevail. Some fires he keeps you from and some fires he walks you through. A Christian's faith is not a bridge over troubled waters, but it's a path you walk right through.

Our Savior walks on water. I hope you understand that. He'll walk on water for you. So he'll deliver you through it. If you listen to the lies of the devil, he will kill your fire with a fire extinguisher causing you to have an offense against God. If you listen to that devil, but the devil is a liar. Now the second thing that he had to go through was the shipwreck. He's been through the storm, now he's in the shipwreck. If you're not burning for God and your ship become wrecked, it's not to take you all the way. That ship wasn't to take him all the way to Rome. It took him from point A to point B and God didn't deliver him on that. He didn't take him all the way. Ship was wrecked because God had a purpose and he had a plan for that. Everything that happens in your life, God has a plan and it's all part of his plan. Like I said, we don't understand everything about God's plan and you're not supposed to. If your faith is not up to the level of where you trust God, that's when you'll give up. You'll have an excuse to quit on God, but God wants to raise you up and take you from faith to faith and glory to glory. That's his plan, to raise your level of faith. As he delivers you through the things that you're going through, you can trust and have faith in God in that area. So you go to another thing. Each level that you go through is bigger and greater. So you got to understand that God has a plan to take you to the next level of faith, the next level of glory, that he may be glorified. And that's why your fire has to keep burning for God, regardless of what it looks like. Don't give up. Know that you're coming out. The dry brook that you've been sustained with, when it dries up, it served its purpose.

So you got to understand it's time to move on. He's taking you somewhere else. God removed the manna from Israel not to punish them, but because he never promised them manna. He promised them milk and honey. So he moved the manna, it was just a provision, a temporary provision. So when God takes something away from you, it's just a temporary position, provision to prepare you for what he has for you. Your faith got to be there. Now the third thing is the rain. The rain is the flesh issues. Those are the rains in your life, the flesh issues. Rain quenches your flame of the flame for God, the fire of God. Flame kills fire, but what did Paul do? He went and got some sticks, some wood, some sticks to keep the fire going. Now I'm gonna help you understand something about the sticks. The sticks, if they're wet, that's like you're going through something so you're praying. You're praying cause you gotta have God right now. When you got dry sticks, you don't wanna pray. You don't wanna pray. So God is getting you to the point to where you need to pray regardless of what's going on, whether you're going through something or you're not. That's when you gotta keep praying. Pray all the time. Prayer, when you don't feel it, when you don't feel like praying, it's not about you.

See, God want to have an encounter with you. He inviting you in to meet with him. So it's not about how you feel. God said, saying, did you die for me? Do you have these nail scars in your hands for me? No, I've got it for you. So I'm inviting you in. It's not about how you feel. It's about how I feel when you meet with me. That's what God is saying. How do I feel when you meet with me? I'm excited cause I love you. I wanna spend that time with you, whether you feel it or not. I wanna spend that time with you. That should change your whole thought plan about praying. Spending time with God because God is waiting to visit you, to spend with you. Go into that secret place of God. Allow him to set you even more afire. See, once you start going into that secret place and you land before God, you don't even have to say a word. Just go meet him and lay there with him and allow him to do what he wants to do with you. Just meet in that place and say, God, here I am. And you don't have to say a word. And I guarantee you, God will light you up to where you just can't be still. You can't be still.

You love him that much. He loves you that much. You feel the love. You feel the presence. You feel the desire that God wants to have with you. Paul built fire when it was raining. He built the fire when it was raining. Rain's supposed to put out the fire, but Paul had so much desire to please God. He built the fire up when it was raining. Is your fire built today? Is your fire a consuming fire today? See, God, when he released a consuming fire, it consumes everything that's not like him. It burns up everything that you have going on in your life that's not like him. See, the devil wants you to find all these excuses not to pray, not to see God. He wants you to act like you're busy. You're too busy to pray. You're not too busy to pray. That's called pride. That's called pride. You're so prideful you think, well, I don't need to pray, I got this. But that's not what God is saying. You need God in this hour. If you that listen to me right now, you need God right where you are. In that jail cell, you need God.

If you're in the courtroom, you need God. See, you need him. You need to seek him like never before while he may be found. This is the hour that God is calling us. He's summoning us. He's inviting us into his secret place. He want to reveal some things to you. He want to show you that he is God. He's in control. He's in control in this hour over every situation. No situation, circumstance is bigger than God. So you need to remember that and seek him with your whole heart. The devil will lie to you and tell you that you need to clean yourself up before you come to God. Uh-uh. You can't clean yourself up and come to God. What you need to do is come to God and allow the man and woman of God to pray for you. Come to the altar. No matter what you look like, just come. Come just as you are. If you're an addict, if you're a murderer, you're a rapist, whatever the situation is that the world said you are, come to the altar. God can renew you. He can restore you. He can transform you. An encounter with God will change your whole life. Change your whole life. If you're not praying, you're gonna be straying. You're gonna be going back to the old you, the old way. Whatever God is calling you out of, you're gonna return back to it if you don't seek Him. This is the hour where you need to be seeking God like never before. The old you is in the tomb. And when you don't pray, He'll rise up. The old habits, the old ways, the old thoughts, the whole situation that you just came out of, it will rise up if

you're not seeking the Lord and allow the fire of God to rest upon you. Consume all that stuff. This is the time where you need to be seeking God. Now the three sticks that I think you need to have. First of all is prayer. And the three main temptations is the lust, the pride, and the greed. And prayer will kill all that. Prayer defeats pride. The reason you don't pray, like I said, you're too proud. You think you can do it by yourself, but you can't. We can do nothing without Christ. The second thing is fasting. You have to fast. You have to kill the flesh. You have to kill that flesh. You need to fast. Now let me ask you this. Why do they call it breakfast? If you think about the word breakfast, all through the night when you're sleeping, you're not eating. First thing you get up, you eat breakfast. It breaks that fast. You just slept through it. You just slept through it. So breakfast breaks that fast. So you need to fast past that. You need to fast past that. The third thing is make a sacrifice. Give God a sacrifice. And it's got to be a true sacrifice. There's a chicken and there's a pig. They're going to make breakfast for the farmer. The chicken told the pig, I'll give him eggs. The pig, and she said, you give him bacon. Well, the pig looked at the chicken and said, you giving eggs? That's not a real sacrifice because you can produce more eggs. If I'm giving bacon, that's a real sacrifice because I'm giving myself. So we need to understand we need to give God ourselves in the sacrifice that we do. No matter what it looks like, we need to give him ourselves. God is calling us today in this hour. Each and every one of you that's listening to me, he's calling you to make that sacrifice. Giving yourself, giving your time, seeking him, coming to him while you can. Non-stop. Whether you feel like it or you don't. Because he wants you to keep the fire burning. The fire of God, you do not want to let it go out. Because it's already dark all around you. And if the fire go out, you're in utter darkness. This is the day where you didn't make up your mind that you're gonna give God your heart, your mind, your body, and your soul. And allow God to take control over you. He gave his life for you that you may have life and life more abundantly. This is the season to surrender it all and receive what Christ has done for each

and every one of us. This is the day. This is the hour. for you to allow God to be God in your life. He said, if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus died for you, you shall be saved. All he asked you to do is believe. If you only believe, that's it. Are you a believer? Then my question to you today is, what do you believe? What do you believe? That's gonna make the difference in your life, what you believe. So the time is at hand, the hour's getting late. Our God is so soon to come. Don't allow him to come and you're still in the same old situation that you've been in of non-belief. Receive the fire of God, the consuming fire that will consume any excuse that you may have and allow you to be set free in this hour. I love you, I encourage you today, I ask that you come forth, come to the kingdom, be my brother and sister. We're praying, we're praying for you today. In Jesus' name, amen.