This morning, before sunrise, I got up to prepare for a dinner we would have later in the day. We have some good friends staying with us for a few days, so after being on the road for most of last week, I was hungry for some home cooked barbeque. I had our smoker ready to go the night before, so the first thing I did when I got up was to ignite the charcoal in preparation to put a tri-tip, beef ribs and a few bacon blossoms in the smoker.

I placed chunks of hickory and pecan wood on top to the charcoal that rings the edge of the smoking platform. I have the charcoal set out for a six-hour burn. As the charcoal progressively ignites and begins to smolder, it will burn through the chunks of smoking wood, giving the meat a continuous application of smoke, creating a nice bark.

When I went out to adjust the airflow on the smoker, I was reminded of how life in the Spirit resembles smoking meat. Our job is to prepare our life like the charcoal positioned in my smoker with chunks of smoking wood sitting on top. Our obedience aligns our lives to receive the approaching fire of God. If we align our life-purpose and passion with His fire, a burn can take place that will release a unique testimony. Our acts of obedience are like the chunks of smoking wood I placed on the charcoal. They become investments in our future when the fire of God arrives. A fire might not yet be burning under your acts of obedience, but a time will come when the fire will arrive, and something powerful will take place. 

If you give God’s fire something to ignite the aroma of your life will become as appealing as the wafting hickory and pecan smoke currently working its way through our neighborhood. It is making our neighbors wish they were having dinner with us.