The Need for Passion

As breakthrough believers we must press past "wish" to "desire" ultimately arriving at "passion". A "wish" is a passive, mental thought pattern with the expectation of seeing fulfillment of it sometime in the future. A "desire" is an active, strong-willed effort to bring into fulfillment the expected event or answer. A "passion" is a driving force of spiritual energy that shapes a person's lifestyle, thinking and action until he sees a total fulfillment of what he is passionately pursuing. Every ounce of energy and thought is propelled into that single course of pursuit, aggressively removing all barriers and self-limitations that prevent its ultimate fulfillment. The entire thought pattern revolves around their passion. Their dreams, conversations, and priorities often reveal that which is within their passion. They derive their drive, their motivation and their inspiration by stirring their passion within their hearts and minds. They become renewed and reenergized to seek wholesome ways of bringing their passion to satisfied fulfillment.

The only thing that matches in strength and in its driving force to passion is lust. Lust is a passion that has gone wrong in its motivation, its principles of operation and its desired result. It is founded on self-gratification, impatience, selfishness and ungodly principles. Lust never brings wholesome satisfaction because the flesh (the ego) has no ability to please God (Romans 8:6-7) or find life and peace.

God is looking for more than just a wishing people. He is drawn by those who are in hot passionate pursuit of Him.

Passion is created or stirred into our hearts when we know a sense of the urgency of time. Passion is also created or stirred in our hearts when we sense a conducive atmosphere for intimate relationship to be formed. The conducive atmosphere provides the necessary encouragement to freely express our hearts. Passion also comes out of developing a sense of intensity of pursuit in seeking for the things or person loved. When we think and plan to reach out in the directions our heart is leaning towards, passion grows. There can never be a proper development to passion without first planning and thinking a workable strategy towards fulfillment. Our thought patterns must revolve around the pursued things and we must set our focus and priority in wanting to achieve our desired goal. Passion also comes out of maintaining a sense of grateful communication towards the other person. The more we know the person (in this case, God) the more we enjoy being with them, and the greater their impact and influence will be on our lives. Passion is also stirred in our hearts as we sense the deep satisfaction it brings when we have accomplished what we set out to do.

Our passion provides the driving force of inner motivation, inspiration and strength to launch what our hearts have set out to do. With passion the believers become high achievers. They will possess the initiatives and discipline to launch ahead for greater exploits.

There are five areas of passion that are important to develop within breakthrough believers. They are as follows:

1. A passion for Jesus which is grown and maintained through the atmosphere of worship and praise.
2. A passion for one another which is grown and maintained through the bonds of covenant relationships and fellowship.
3. A passion for souls which is grown and maintained through the stirrings of Christ's compassion for the lost sinner.
4. A passion for ministry excellence which is grown and maintained through our desire to honor and fully represent and serve Him.
5. A passion for purpose and the fulfillment of destiny is grown and maintained through our prophetic stirrings to reach our maximum potential so that we can give our "utmost for His highest".

Breakthrough believers are in passionate pursuit of God and His purposes. There is an intensity about them that matches the "zeal that consumed the Lord Jesus" (St. John 2:17). Believers like these are a special breed who will live up to their highest potential. This new breed of believers is our only hope for the advancement of God's Kingdom and the reformation of our societies and communities.

Fear of Failure or Success

I am not afraid of being a failure. I am afraid of being successful at something God is not interested in.

-- Dr. Charles Keene

Reverend

I was having a discussion with a gentleman today that I found quite interesting. This man was almost violently annoyed by the usage of the title “Reverend” by some ministers. I was quite familiar with the particulars of his argument as I have heard it before and have even once shared the same viewpoint. I did not seek to disagree with him nor did I share with him my own views...for one I’ve learned to choose my battles and this was not important enough to me to debate; and I’ve also learned to allow people the freedom of their own convictions. After this exchange I felt compelled to share my conviction concerning this issue (or non-issue, as such) on my blog. I am not stuck on or controlled by titles, but I certainly don’t have anything against them so long as they are not abused.

Part and parcel to the argument against a preacher using the title “Reverend” is that no human should use Reverend with their name because the King James Version of the Bible says in Psalm 111:9, “...holy and reverend is his name.” While I cannot argue (nor would I attempt to) that Scripture does say that His name is reverend, an attentive perusal of this passage would immediately indicate that his passage does not preclude anyone from using this as a title, particularly since this is not referred to as His title. The Hebrew/Chaldee word for reverend here is “yare” and it takes on the form of an adjective giving us to know that this refers to an attribute and not a title or name (which incidentally would have to take the form of a noun). Therefore, this Scripture is saying that His name has the attribute of being “holy” and “reverend” bringing to man the responsibility of holding His name in high regard, respect, and fear. To deduce from this Scripture that no one should be called reverend totally removes this passage from it’s scriptural context and thereby eradicates its original purpose and meaning. So, to properly divide the word of truth and to put precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little (Isaiah 28:10) we cannot ignore the word “holy” in this passage. On many occasions Scripture has indicated that God’s people would be CALLED holy (Isaiah 4:3; 62:12; St. Luke 2:23; 1 Peter 1:15-16), so now it stands to reason that since both “holy” and “reverend” are grouped together in Psalm 111:9 that if we can be referred to as holy, we can also be referred to as reverend. We are called “holy” because of Who we represent (along with a representative lifestyle) therefore I, as a man of God, think it not robbery to be called “reverend” because of Who I represent.