Complimentary Story
May 2026If you have discovered a top-notch vacation spot, you tell your best friends about it.
If you have found a great car repair shop, you tell every car owner you know.
If you have listened to a great orchestra, you buy tickets for other music lovers the next time that orchestra is in town.
That is the nature of the gospel and the Christian who is urgent about seeing Jesus’ message of love, forgiveness and abundant life move on to sinners, families, congregations, and entire cities in need of salvation.
I once sat in a preaching class where the seminary professor called a student’s sermon to an abrupt halt. He then gathered 25 future preachers in a circle and asked, “Why are we here in seminary? Is it because we are better Christians than others sitting in church pews? No. We are here in seminary simply because we are a bit more urgent about preaching the Gospel than other Christians. In other words, we are on-fire Christians.”
Now that lives with me! Nothing wrong with training in Bible and Theology. Nothing wrong with seminars in preaching either. But on-fire believers are urgent about preaching the Gospel to lost sinners, and they are equally urgent about raising up more preachers and evangelists who will cultivate a deeper and hotter urgency for lost souls to be saved.
All of us have sat in services and Bible classes where we have come away with a deeper love for Jesus, a greater commitment to prayer, and a bigger desire to see churches grow to include unreached people for Jesus. But these movements all pale in comparison to the revival that takes someone’s “head faith” and fans it into a roaring fire that devours human desires leaving only the urgency to see boys and girls, men, and women, all bow to the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
How does such a hot, fervent faith commitment start and then keep burning?
Thousands of Christians are satisfied to say, “Some people just run hotter than others!” They feel passions more strongly, they speak in extraordinary ways, and they have keen insight into the power of sin and even greater power to defeat Satan’s hold on people’s lives. We may honor bold testimonies that seem to belong on the Broadway stage. But to be honest, we also stand a bit aloof from the on-fire Christian lest the church should expect all of us to seek to be on-fire ourselves. Let us begin today to change that thinking entirely!
In Luke 12, v. 49, Jesus says, “I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” Jesus loves, forgives, and comforts His people through the immense difficulties of living the Christian life. But He also comes to us, His people, with strong demands that will cause fire-like division among people and their families. Not all will be peace when God’s people are living and operating on-fire and with the Spirit’s power.
Roy Seekins was one of the most on-fire believers I had ever met during my twenties. In the slang of that day, Roy was a smoker! He would roar through the highways of DuPage County on his Harley. On the gridiron, he would destroy opposing ball carriers. And from makeshift pulpits, he would call down healing miracles. Roy would not hold back. While I tried my best to enjoy a mild-mannered conversation with him, he would sense that I had not been living full-out for Jesus and he told me so! Roy was a prophet and truth-teller, and an evangelist of the first order.
New York evangelist Jack Wyrtzen came to Chicago’s Moody Church for what was to be a two-week youth rally in the fall of 1966. But Wyrtzen was on-fire with the Gospel and 5,000 teenagers showed up for six-weeks of meetings, with hundreds saved each week. I sat crammed into a balcony seat amazed that a 53-year-old preacher could capture the spiritual attention of so many kids my own age. But I learned that when an evangelist allows the Spirit to ignite a fire among young people, there is nothing that can stop that flame from growing.
I have also watched my friend from Chicago days, Mark Jobe, demonstrate what on-fire living for Jesus is all about. At age 17, Mark entered Moody Bible Institute, graduated, and began pastoring a small church in Chicago’s McKinley Park neighborhood. Mark preached, witnessed on south side streets and sidewalks, bringing Jesus to hundreds of people each year. His New Life Community Church brought “new life” to Chicagoans through a network of more than 20 New Life Communities throughout Chicago and suburbs. When asked to serve as Moody’s president in 2019, he followed God’s call yet still maintained his commitment to lost sinners throughout Chicago-land.
Mark Jobe is fond of saying, “When you’re boiling hot spiritually, it means you’re on fire. You’re passionate and you love God. You’re into the things of God and you pray. His purposes are your purposes. It is the opposite of being lukewarm.”
Let Pastor Jobe’s words sink in for a moment: When you’re boiling hot, you’re on fire … You love God … You’re into the things of God … His purposes (reaching lost sinners with salvation) are your purposes… the opposite of lukewarm.
So, how would you, as a “faithful and okay” Christian, become an on-fire believer from today forward?
First, desire to be hot and on fire for Jesus. Desire to be like Peter in Acts 2 where he risked his life and reputation to call 3,000 sinners to repentance and new life as followers of the crucified and risen Savior Jesus Christ. Desire to be like Stephen who preached boldly to the Jewish Sanhedrin in Acts 7. Desire to be like Paul who proclaimed in Acts 26 to King Agrippa, “I was not disobedient to the vision from heaven. … I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds.”
Second, follow the example of God’s faithful on-fire servants. Turn from other desires and speak of God’s power to change human lives. Tell people (family, friends, neighbors, and work associates) how Jesus offers a better way to think and a better way to live, in addition to fellowship, friendship and eternal life in heaven. Read the lives of on-fire followers of Jesus (John Bunyan, Peter Waldo, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, John Winthrop) and imitate what in their lives fanned gospel flames in their day.
Third, surround yourself with present-day believers who desire to run hot for Jesus. Do not run away from preachers and teachers who sound a bit different from big-church and big-name TV personalities. If a witness is sold-out for Christ and His causes despite the criticism of established churches and foundations, pay closer attention to his call and character. Get closer to people whose desire is to get closer to God themselves. It works!
Fourth, remain close to the Bible, God’s Word for us today. Work to know the Bible’s books, stories, and authors. Become familiar with the entire Word of God and commit entire sections of Scripture to memory.
Fifth, become urgent about the Gospel: what the message contains, whose Gospel it is (Jesus), and to whom it is directed (everyone!). Urgency may lead to critique and even severed friendships. Do not become discouraged. Stay the course of urgency and feel free to set tasks and achieve stated goals. It is all part of re-evangelizing the world by 2050 – a goal that you will hear more about in the next five years. Get urgent and prepared right now.
Roger Johnson is an evangelist, writer and teacher from Kenosha. He served for nearly 40 years as an urban evangelist in Chicago. A graduate of Wheaton College and North Park Seminary, he completed the M.A. in Evangelism & Leadership at Wheaton Grad School in 2012.
