The Fellowship of the Burning Heart – Part 1

By Ryan Shaw

Ryan is the international lead facilitator for Global Mission Mobilization Inititative (GMMI) and currently lives among the unreached.

Throughout the generations, pockets of believers have committed to becoming a people clothed with the Word of God and seeking Jesus Himself, through the Person of the Holy Spirit, to teach them all truth. Together these pockets have comprised what some have called, “The Fellowship of the Burning Heart.” This has been an informal community of like-minded believers in pursuit of a real and alive experiential knowledge of Jesus Christ through His Word.

It is these “burning” ones who have impacted society with the Kingdom of God and been at the point of every advancing mission thrust among least reached people groups. As a result we want to grow to be like them and emulate their discipleship.

Walking with Jesus

The concept comes from the account in Luke 24:13-36. Two disciples are walking together from Jerusalem to a village called Emmaus. Jesus has been crucified and has already risen, but they are unaware of the second fact.

They started their walk to Emmaus the same day the other disciples learned about Jesus’ resurrection. Along the way the resurrected Jesus meets them on their walk and continues their journey with them. He veiled His glory from them so that they did not know it was Him.

Together they speak of all that had transpired with Jesus in Jerusalem over the previous week. They confided of their own disappointments in Jesus’ untimely death and their misunderstanding of it. Then, still in His veiled form, Jesus rebukes them for their misunderstanding and proceeds to teach them using all the Scripture, about the truth of Christ and the place and purpose of His suffering.

These three then came upon Emmaus. Jesus wants to keep walking and teaching, yet they tell Him of their need to rest. Jesus stays with them for the evening, continually surprising them with His knowledge of the Old Testament and how it thoroughly points to Christ.

Over dinner, Jesus reveals to them that it is He. Then He disappears from their company and the two disciples make the profound statement, “did not our hearts burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened up the Scriptures to us.”

He Shines Great Light

We find the Lord’s will for every believer in this wonderful process. He is seeking to walk with us and shine light and spiritual revelation to us all along the way, providing deep understanding related to His person, His attributes, His ways, His purposes, His perspective and so much more.

This is not meant to be a mere intellectual and academic exercise, to which it is often limited. Instead, we are to feel the truth and apply it to our lives, making it experientially our own. We are meant to have truth touch our emotions and move us on the inside. The burning sensation was real and profound.

This drew the disciples into Jesus in order to learn more. Jesus taught them with an anointing that pulled back the previous darkness of their understanding and shone great light that caused their hearts to grasp what had taken place and hunger for more.