Let God’s Word Ignite a Fire

Dannah Gresh: Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth says when the Spirit causes God’s Word to burn within you, you can’t help but share it.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We are to be teachers of what is good. Teachers of good things. What is more good, more beautiful, more wholesome, more helpful, more necessary than the word of Christ?

Dannah: This is the Revive Our Hearts podcast with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, author of  Surrender: The Heart God Controls, for November 19, 2025. I’m Dannah Gresh.

When we read Scripture, it should be more than words on a page to us. It should do something in us, stirring our affections for God. Fueling a hunger for more of Jesus. Igniting a fire in our hearts. That’s what the second half of Nancy’s closing message from True Woman '25 was all about. We’re picking up where we left off yesterday. If you missed that program, you can find it in our archives at ReviveOurHearts.com or search for the series title on your favorite podcast platform. Now, here’s Nancy. 

Nancy: When the disciples were confused and discouraged, it was the living Word that pointed them to the written Word. Jesus came alongside of them. He's the living Word. They don't recognize Him yet, but He pointed them to the written Word, and it's the written Word that pointed them to the living Word. That's the way the Word works in our lives. Look at verse 28. 

They came near the village where they were going, and he gave the impression that he was going farther. But they urged him, “Stay with us, because it's almost evening and now the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. It was as he reclined at the table with them that he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them.” (vv. 28–30) 

We've seen Jesus do that at least a couple other times in the gospels: the feeding of the five thousand, at the Last Supper there with his closest disciples. He took it. He blessed it. He broke it, and He gave it to them. Verse 31: 

Then their eyes were opened. 

“I've recognized Him. It's Jesus. That's who we've been reading about. That's who we've studied. That's who we've walked with, who we've known, but now we behold Him." This is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God. He must open our eyes to see who Jesus is and to believe Him. 

And by the way, it's the same that is true of your friends and your family members and your neighbors and those people at work who don't know Jesus. You can read the Scripture to them. You can tell them about Christ and do that. But know that you can't open their eyes. You can't give them faith to behold and recognize and believe in Jesus. So you pray, “Lord, open the eyes of their heart as you have opened the eyes of my heart to see You in Your Word. 

We pray this for our children from the time they're little. You can't convert your children. You can't convert your teenager or your husband or your boss or anyone. Jesus has to open their eyes. That's the work of the Holy Spirit. You wonder how can they hear the gospel again and again and again, but they don't get it. Pray that their eyes would be open to see and to savor Him. 

Well, that verse goes on to say: 

Then Jesus disappeared from their sight. They said to each other, “Weren't our hearts burning within us while he was talking with us on the road and explaining the Scriptures to us?” (vv. 31–32)

So after Jesus left, these two disciples compared notes because your heart is burning in you. You can sense that, but the person walking with you can't sense that they realize that they had both been having the exact same experience as the living Word explained the written Word to them. They had both realized that the written Word was about the living Word who was right there with them and their hearts burned in them. 

Jeremiah 29, the prophet had a similar experience. He said, “His word was in my heart like a burning fire.” 

Even before they recognized Jesus, even before they knew who He was, the Spirit was quickening their hearts. The same Spirit was working in both of them, and what resulted was the sweet fellowship of burning hearts. Hearts being set aflame and quickened by the Holy Spirit of Christ. 

Do you know what it is to have your heart burn within you as the Spirit of Jesus opens His Word to you and as He opened your eyes to behold Him in His Word? My prayer is that that has been your experience this weekend. As the Word has been opened, your heart has been quickened. It's burning within you. It's a fire within you. “Yes, I see. I love it. I worship You. Thank You, Jesus.” Your heart is burning in you. 

Now that's not always our experience as we read the Word of God. So we don't live on those moments. But thank God for the sweetness of those times when we can sense the burning work of God in our hearts, opening our eyes to behold Jesus. 

Something else I see here is the beauty and the power of the Word experienced in community with other believers. The two disciples were walking together when Jesus joined them. Their eyes were opened and their hearts were warmed, not in a classroom lecture, not listening to a podcast on their ear pods, but as they walked together, as they listened, as they listened to Jesus speak, as they sat with Him together, as they ate together, as they talked together with Jesus. 

Of course we meet with Him in the Word. When we're alone, those are sweet times. We need those times. We also need times when we're walking and talking together with others in your local church, with your mate, with your children. I want to encourage you as your heart has been warmed this weekend, talk with each other about it. 

Don't just get back. “The Cubs are playing this afternoon, and I'm going to be thinking about that in a while.” I don't know why I just popped in my mind right now, but I'm a fan. I hope they do well. I had to discipline myself during the service last night not to be looking at my phone whatever two nights ago to see who had won. A friend who knows we love them, she slipped down the aisle, and she leaned in and she said, "The Cubs won." That's great. Enjoy the Cubs or whoever you're cheering for. 

But, let's talk to each other about the things that really matter, the things that matter most. On the way home, at church tomorrow, when you get back to your mate. Now, be careful, those of you who've got a husband at home who has been taking care of your munchkins. Don't just dump everything on him that you heard all weekend long. Maybe take a chance to say, “Thank you, Honey, for what you did this weekend. How did it go? I love you. Thank you for serving.” Bless him, bless your kids, before you just start. 

But then as you have opportunity, talk with each other. How was God speaking in your heart this weekend? Do this when you have opportunity. And when a whole fellowship of believers is stirred by the Word of Christ and our hearts are set on fire, you know what we'll have? We'll have revival—revive our hearts. Not just us, but those who didn't come this weekend as they see the Word of God burning in our hearts. Well, verse 33:

That very hour [now we already know it's at the end of a long day, that very hour] they got up and returned to Jerusalem.

They couldn't call it a night. They had to go back and find their friends who were still discouraged and doubting, as far as they knew. They had to tell their friends what they had learned from the living Word about the written Word and from the written Word about the living Word, how the Word had changed everything, how their doubts had turned to faith, how their discouraged exhausted hearts had been set on fire, how the Word had changed their perspective, had changed their present circumstances, had changed their future, had changed everything! So verse 33: 

They found the Eleven and those with them gathered together . . .

There we have community again. You see a lot of that in this passage, the women who walked together, the disciples who stood together at the cross. The Christian life is not a solo journey. We need each other. 

Have you been blessed by these women who've been here teaching and sharing and in that panel and reciting Scripture? We do this together. Now, while these two disciples had been gone on this trip to Emmaus and back, the believers in Jerusalem, unbeknownst to those two disciples, had had their own encounter with the living Word. Verse 34: 

They said, “The Lord has truly been raised and has appeared to Simon!” [Peter. Christ had been making Himself known there in Jerusalem as well as to the Emmaus disciples. So now they're joining together and they're realizing they've all encountered the living Christ.] Then [the two Emmaus disciples] began to describe what had happened on the road and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. As they were saying these things, Jesus himself stood in their midst. He said to them, “Peace to you!” [He knew that their emotions were still all over the place.] They were startled and terrified . . . they were amazed and in disbelief because of their joy.” (vv. 34–37, 41) 

Do you ever feel like it's just all jumbled up together? You're startled, you're terrified, you're amazed, you're in disbelief, and it's all because of your joy. Your husband says, “You're crying because you're happy?” 

“Yes.” 

“I don't get it.”

And once again, Jesus, the living Word, points them back to the written Word. Verse 44: 

He told them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures [they knew so well]. (vv. 44–45) 

And once again, the living Word, pointed them to the written Word, and the written Word pointed them back to Jesus, the living Word. Verse 46: 

He said to them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead the third day, and repentance for forgiveness of sins will be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And look, I am sending you what my Father promised [the Word of God].” (vv. 46–49)

What was Jesus sending to them? What had the Father promised? Well, actually, it was a Who—the Holy Spirit that Jesus would send to live in His disciples, to live in us who followed Jesus, to remind them of everything Jesus had said to them, to give them courage and power to go out and proclaim the gospel to the world and even to lay down their lives for Jesus. And that's how the Word, the living Word, and the written Word came to us. That's how we got here. The Holy Spirit is still doing that today through what is written. The God-breathed Word of God that points us to Jesus, the living Word. 

Let me just summarize. God's Word changes everything. In times of crisis and confusion, it brings clarity. We just heard in Psalm 119, the revelation of Your Words brings light. When we're discouraged, the Word of God brings comfort. It changes everything. 

 

Another summary observation, we are dependent on the Spirit of Jesus. Jesus, the living Word, to make the written Word understandable to us. That's why before you open this Book and begin to read and as you read and after you read, pray, “Holy Spirit, give me understanding. Help it make sense.” Otherwise, it's just another book. It's just ink on pages and a long one at that. 

The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to understand, opens our ears, opens our hearts to say, “Yes, Lord,” and shows us Jesus through this Word. Then as we walk with Christ and other believers, He comes among us by His Spirit, not just in our formal gatherings. You don't have to go to a convention or a conference like True Woman to meet with Jesus, to have his Word come to life in your heart. As we walk with Him, as we walk with each other, as you're riding back home with others from your church, as we walk, as we talk, as we eat, as we do life together, He is in our midst. 

As we receive His Word together, sometimes spoken through other believers to us, our hearts are set on fire and we become the fellowship of the burning hearts. And then having received and believed and been changed by His Word with hearts aflame, we're not going to be able to help ourselves. We're going to have to go out, as those Emmaus disciples said. “We have to go back to the friends and the disciples in Jerusalem. We have to tell them what we've experienced, what we've seen, what we've heard, what we see now with our eyes.” 

You're not going to be able to help yourself. You're going to have to go out and share with others what we have experienced, to share with them the written Word, to share with them the living Word that He has made known to us through His written Word. 

Coming to know God, being changed by Him through His Word, living and written, is a lifelong pursuit. . . not just this weekend You can wave your little surrender flags anytime in here and that's great. I love that. But that's got to be the posture of our hearts all the time to know God's Word, to believe it, to obey it, to love it, to live it, and be changed by it, and to share it with others. 

Again, if I could just give a little parenthetical exhortation here as we come to the close. There are women in this room, maybe I'm talking about you. There are many of them who know a ton about God's Word. You've been walking with Jesus for many years. Your Bible's all marked up. It's in your heart. You've been living it out. You've been loving it. But, who are you sharing it with? Are you just a stagnant pond, or are you letting those life-giving waters flow through you to others who need this?

Listen women, Titus 2 tells us older women . . . (You can decide if you're an older woman. And if you're a younger woman, remember, you want to aspire to become an older woman like this. So this is for all of us.) What are older women to do? We are to be teachers of what is good. Teachers of good things. What is more good, more beautiful, more wholesome, more helpful, more necessary, then the Word of Christ? Teachers, younger women need you older women to come alongside of them to show them, to teach them the Word, to show them how to live out the Word in their homes? 

Don't you find yourself when you listen to these women in their sixties, like, they know. You listen. You can say these things when you're younger and they're true. But I'll tell you, when you've lived it a long time, people will hear you a little differently. 

These younger women need older women to come alongside of them when they're hurting, when they're confused, when they're addicted, when they're bored, to walk with them and minister the word of grace, the word of peace, the word of Christ to their hearts. 

My precious sisters in Christ . . . By the way, if you're not yet a sister in Christ, maybe you've been here all weekend, there could be many like this. You’ve known about Jesus, about the Bible, maybe you grew up in the church, maybe you're still in the church, but you're saying, “I don't have Jesus.” When we stand to pray in a few moments, can I just encourage you, if your heart is burning and Jesus is drawing you, would you find someone that you know knows Jesus, and say, “Would you pray for me? I want to have Jesus as my Messiah, my Lord, my Savior.” If you don't know somebody like that here, slip out to the prayer room. Maybe somebody there will pray with you. 

But as you go from this place, my prayer is that the living Word, Jesus Christ, will walk with you. May the written Word burn in your hearts. And may the Spirit of God compel you, as He did the Emmaus disciples, to share the wonder of the Word in your homes, your communities, your churches, your workplaces.

Now, I'm going to invite us to stand together. Let me read to you what we are going to pray over each other.

"May Christ walk with you. May His Word burn in your heart, and may His Spirit send you from this place to share the wonder of His Word." Look at each other and say, "May Christ walk with you. May His Word burn in your heart. May His Spirit send you from this place to share the wonder of His Word."

Now, as we continue to stand together in the presence of Jesus, I've asked these four sisters, one at a time, to pray a brief prayer over all of us, so let's bow before the Lord and say amen to their prayers.

Dannah: Lord Jesus, we thank You. Thank You that You came. And just like You came to the men on the road to Emmaus, you revealed Yourself to us this weekend. You opened our eyes to the Scriptures. Keep them open, Lord, we beg You. Keep our eyes open.

And Lord, just as we are in trouble if the sun doesn't rise tomorrow, but we know that it will, we're in trouble if Your Word doesn't rise in our hearts and our lives. And so will You help us by Your power, by Your might, by Your drawing to hope in Your Word.

Mary Kassian: Heavenly Father, I thank You for Your word. I pray that we may move it from the corner to the center of our lives, that it may become the living, breathing Word that breathes life into us every day. Lord, I pray that it may form our conviction. May we have truth that resides in our hearts. Lord, I pray that it will ignite our courage. May it put steel into our spines. And Lord, I pray that it will ignite a fire of revival. I pray that it may result in contagion that others may see and know that God is good and put their faith in Jesus.

Kelly Needham: Father, we thank You that Your Word on its own is powerful, that it is the very power of God, with no help from human wisdom. It by itself is powerful. God, would You renew our wonder at that? And would You help us out of unbelief. Father, I pray that You would bless my sisters in the room with fresh courage and confidence in Your Word, with open eyes to the opportunities around them that the harvest is plentiful in all the spaces and places that we dwell and live. So God, would You give us hope and strength that You love to use our average, ordinary selves with the wonderful, powerful Word on our lips to bring about new life and others around us

Dr. Karen Ellis: And heavenly Father, we just come before you right now, giving you the praise and the glory and all the honor. We thank You so much that we have been able to behold You this weekend. We just pray, Lord, as we prepare to head back home, we pray that You would help us to recognize who we have, which is a Savior that is alive. And help us Lord as your resurrected body, those who live new lives, to be the hands and feet of Jesus as we go back to our homes, back to our communities, back to our local churches.

Help us not to forsake the gathering of ourselves. Help us to know we cannot do this alone, but we are called to take Your Word together as a unit, as the Church—this capital "C" global Church. We pray that You would receive all the glory as we are Your light in this world by Your power. We pray in Jesus' mighty name and by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray, Amen.

Nancy: Let's conclude this time of blessing, and then we'll be followed by just a few minutes of closing blessing that you don't want to miss. But I'm going to read a sentence, and you'll see on the screens another sentence for all of us to say together.

The Living Word has walked with us in these days.
Our hearts burn within us.
He has opened the written Word to us.
Our eyes are open to see him.
Now go with Christ in you and His Word in your hearts.
We will share the wonder of His Word.

Dannah: What a sweet moment together that was. I left that conference center refreshed and eager to live out God’s Word with courage. I’m so grateful for Nancy’s faithful message—and her faithfulness to the True Woman movement that began many a conference ago, in 2008.

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