Who knows how much of our zeal is strange fire!

Zeal yes, but not of God.

It indeed is fire, but it is foreign fire.

Whatever does not come from the Cross, that is to say, from the Self-Denying Altar, is merely strange fire.

Such fire is nothing but self-fire.

It is the fire and power of the natural life.

And hence it is the self-life intervening in God’s Affairs.

The Affairs may unquestionably Belong to God, nonetheless self-life decides how it is to be done.

If we depend on our wisdom, use our method, or insist on our opinion in the Lord’s Affairs, we are offering strange fire – fire which is not only unacceptable to God but even causes our death in His Presence.