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"And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Gal. 5:24-25).

We cannot afford to let spiritual things get away from us. We hear the Word. We get determined. We get "on fire." We get dedicated. We must learn to maintain that zeal.

Praying in the Spirit and spending time with the Father will keep you dedicated. It will keep that fire burning on the inside of you. It will keep you focused and moving in the right direction - toward God.

I have learned something I want to share with you. Ken and I have been in this a long time. When we first heard the message of faith, we were so on fire for God that nothing else in the world was of interest to us. We knew that the revelation of the integrity of God's Word was what we had been looking for in our Christian life.

We became so hungry to find out what God's Word says that we totally sold out to the Word of God. We did not have time for anything else.

I had two small children. Kellie was three and John was about 9 months old. I took care of my children and my husband and studied the Word.

I was not doing a lot of other things, but that did not matter to me. I did not care. There was nothing else as exciting to me as the Word of the living God. I was dong what I wanted to do.

Ken had begun to go preach at meetings, and sometimes he would be gone for three weeks at a time. In the beginning, we didn't have enough money for me to go, so I stayed at home with the children. I read God's Word, I listened to tapes and I read books I had found about God's Word. I was dedicated. I hardly thought about anything else. My total interest was in the Word of God.

But after a few years, I began to lose the strong desire I'd had at first. I think that happens to many people. When you first find the reality of the Word, you are just naturally excited. It is such good news that you don't want to do anything else. Your desires go in God's direction without effort.

But after a time, it becomes easier to be drawn away. You can begin to allow yourself to grow cold. You can get interested in other things and lose your desire and hunger for the Word of God.

Revelation does not come as quickly anymore. You begin to think, "I already knew that." The Word does not seem as exciting. This happened to me. I lost the enthusiasm for the Word that I had once enjoyed.

I didn't realize it because I was a disciplined person and had continued to make myself spend time in the Word. But I was not hungry and excited about it as I had been at one time.

At one time in my life, I didn't care about anything else. I wanted to spend my time in the Word of God. I don't think I had realized I had begun to cool off until the Holy Spirit spoke to me one night.

I thought, "You know, I've let myself get lukewarm." I was not doing anything as far as recognized sin. I was just not where I should be spiritually. You can go through the motions, but that is not what God wants. He wants the affection of your heart! All of you - spirit, soul, and body!

If you quit praying and spending time in the Word of God, your desire for the things of God will get weaker and weaker. Whatever you are doing instead of spending time with God is what you will desire.

Whatever you give you attention to is the direction your desire will take. Desire follows attention, whether it is something good or something bad. It might just be a hobby that's perfectly all right for us to have. But it is not all right for us to desire that natural thing more than we desire the things of God.

You want to keep your heart and soul with fervent desire for the things of God. You must do that. I cannot do it for you. Remember that what you give your attention to determines your desire. Your motivation follows you attention.

I was working for God, but my heart, my affection, my soul, and my attention were somewhere else. God wants all of you.

I realized my condition, and I determined to do something about it. This word from the Lord said, "Rise up. March forward. Become on fire. Don't be lazy. Don't hold back, and don't draw back."

I had enough spiritual understanding to know that what I needed to do was to rise up spiritually, spend more time in the Word, and spend more time going after the things of God.

I began to do just that. I dropped things in my life that were stealing my time, and I put my attention on God, where it should have been all the time.

If you are in that condition today, it might help you to know that you are not the only one this has happened to. Everybody has opportunity to lose that fervent desire for God. If you don't keep yourself on fire, you will begin to cool off. If you let yourself go long enough in that condition, you will get in trouble.

It took awhile to get that fire back into my heart, but I did and you can too.

Excerpt permission granted by
Eagle Mountain International Church, Inc.
aka:  Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Author Biography

Gloria Copeland
Web site: Kenneth Copeland Ministries
 
For the last 50 years Kenneth and Gloria Copeland have been passionately teaching Christians all over the world how to apply the principles of faith found in God's WORD to their lives.
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