How a Greater Hope in Christ Leads to a Greater Passion for Christ
[Editor’s Note: Passion has been defined as a “strong and barely controllable emotion.” If there’s anyone to be passionate about, it’s Christ! However, how many Christians would say they possess a strong and barely controllable passion toward Jesus? In this blog post, David Bryant suggests what is missing when our passion is flagging.[
At age 73, Lorin Maazel, music director and conductor of several world-renown orchestras, reflected with keen insight on his years of conducting:
Great leaders elicit passion, not perfection. That’s my main job—to energize people. If they grind it out and couldn’t care less, then they wind up hating the conductor. Music without emotion is nothing. I’m never looking for a perfect performance. I’m looking for an impassioned performance. [emphasis added]
Hope and Passion
If creating passion is a sign of an effective conductor, then surely in the same way passion should mark the impact of the world’s greatest leader—the Conductor of the galaxies, the Commander of heaven’s armies, the Ruler of the kings of the earth, the Shepherd of our souls, the Hope of the nations.
Waking up to all we have in Jesus should ignite in every believer an intensified pursuit of more of Jesus. By virtue of the great expectations his kingship offers us, starting today, the very person of the Christ should impassion every facet of our living for Christ.
The better we know him and what his eternal purposes are all about, the more unquenchable should be our desire to show him and what his eternal purposes are all about.
That’s why when Christians display a tangible fervency for Jesus’ supremacy—when they are enthralled by the prospects of who he is, where he is headed, what he is doing, and how he gets exalted—this alone causes the watching world to take far more seriously his claims to be Lord of all.
Appeals for Passion
In the past thirty-five years I have moved five times, from coast to coast, and in between. In each new office I’ve prominently displayed a diploma-sized plaque. It frames one of my favorite prayers, spoken by Augustine, the fourth-century African theologian and bishop.
In it he exposes his own heart of passion for Jesus, a passion fueled by destiny in Jesus. It captures the dominant longing of my own heart. Maybe it represents a yearning emerging from deep inside of you as well:
You called, you cried,
You shattered my deafness.
You sparkled, you burned,
You scattered my darkness.
You shed forth your fragrance,
And I drew in my breath.
And now I pant for you alone.
Psychologist Dr. Larry Crabb challenges Christians to respond with a similarly decisive devotion as he exhorts believers with words I’ve reformatted as blank verse:
To every cry from your passion-filled hearts,
God replies, “Christ.”
Let your passion to explain
become a passion to know Christ.
Let your passion to be right
become a passion to honor Christ.
Let your passion to heal
become a passion to give hope.
Let your passion to connect
become a passion to trust a sovereign Christ,
who will do for you exactly what needs to be done.
Appeals for passion, both ancient and modern, call out to all of us.
The Measure of Effective Discipleship
And both appeals illustrate the primary principle by which all efforts at Christian discipleship should be measured. Here’s how I put it:
The more comprehensive our vision of the supremacy of Christ,
the more exhilarating will be our hope in the promises of Christ,
and therefore the more consuming will be our passion for the person of Christ.
Think about it:
Because of who he is and all he is, active and reigning this very moment at God’s right hand, our Lord Jesus Christ embodies in himself the summation as well as the consummation of every promise God has ever made to his people. “All the promises of God are yes to us in Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 1).
Therefore, with such an unconditional, unrelenting hope in Jesus how could my commitment to Jesus culminate in anything less than a consuming passion for Jesus?
That is precisely the outcome Paul looks for as he disciples the Colossians (from Colossians chapter 3, in the Amplified Bible; emphasis added):
If then you have been raised with Christ [to a new life, thus sharing His resurrection from the dead], aim at and seek the [rich, eternal treasures] that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God . . .When Christ, who is our life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in [the splendor of His] glory . . . Christ is all and in all . . . Let the [spoken] word of Christ have its home within you [dwelling in your heart and mind—permeating every aspect of your being] as you teach [spiritual things] and admonish and train one another with all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do [no matter what it is] in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus [and in dependence on Him], giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Coming Alive inside the Flame
Very unlike the predictable yet deadly fate of a moth helplessly drawn to the warmth and beauty of a candle flame, the closer we get to our Radiant Redeemer—whose majesty is irresistibly magnetic, whose sovereignty is incomparably stunning—
the more alive we will feel,
the more energized will be our praises of him,
the more intense will be our rejoicing in him,
the more zealous will be our labors for him,
the more compelling will be our pilgrimage with him.
It all comes down to this one principle, and so I say once again:
The more comprehensive our vision of the supremacy of Christ
the more exhilarating will be our hope in the promises of Christ,
and therefore the more consuming will be our passion for the person of Christ.
Anyone ready to join me inside the Flame?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Bryant
Known as a proclaimer of Christ and Messenger of Hope, David Bryant is the founder and president of Proclaim Hope!, a ministry whose goal is to serve a nationwide Christ Awakening. David is the author of five books, including Christ Is ALL! Join in the Joyful Awakening to the Supremacy of God’s Son.
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My heat sang as I read this, my eyes teared up and my heart cried out for more passion.
Susan…This testimony make MY heart sing. Thanks for writing.
The Call of Our Priesthood
If the Body of Christ really, really wants an explosion of a pure and enduring Jesus movement revival, we need to understand and respond to the OBVIOUS call of our Priesthood. This nameless faceless grassroots revival will be firmly rooted in the potency of our Priesthood revelation.
There was no greater privilege God would grant to people under the Old Covenant than to allow them to minister to Him in the inner court. What was granted to a very select group of individuals in the Old Covenant has been granted freely to every single New Covenant believer in our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. We were made priests unto God, new creations in Jesus’ name at the very same moment we became born again Christians.
There is profound transforming power in ministering unto the Lord. The potential for true worldwide revival is completely dependent on the church responding to and understanding the present day calling out of the Priesthood.
Ministering unto the Lord is our first ministry and our ultimate destiny. It’s the best-kept secret of the Christian life. We must teach and practice ministering unto the Lord if we really want a true and pure revival. While ministering unto the Lord we experience God’s presence and have firm faith in the hope of our calling as a Kingdom of Priests!
As regenerated believers our ministry to God personally in worship, in time spent in stillness before Him, in quality time with and for our Savior comes first. There’s a clear line of demarcation between that which ministers to man and that, which ministers to God (inner court vs. outer court). And there is something that happens to us when we regularly, purely minister unto God. It’s part of the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer.
Our highest, purest, most crystallized form of being a believer is our Priesthood to the Lord. We submit to God’s will and heart’s desire when we set aside time to regularly minister to Him. This ties directly into our honestly beholding Him, into our being able to perceive into what He’s doing in our lives; into our hearing His voice; ministering purely unto God, solely unto God, is the richest thing God can bless His children with, and the richest thing we, as His children can bless God with.
Ministering unto the Lord is our eternal identity, our testimony to the world and our authentic call to service. God is presently granting the revelation to the Body of Christ the pre-eminent value and awesome privilege of our Priesthood onto Him.
If we respond to and begin to understand our calling and adopt or “put on” our identity as a Priest unto God the Body organically becomes a spiritual house which naturally declares the excellencies of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.
Adopting a Priesthood mentality is more a matter of being. We have been made somebody special (i.e. Royal). There’s an anointing. There’s an office. There’s a mantle. There is a robe. There is a vision. When one walks in the calling of their Priesthood there’s intimacy with God, a stronger Christ centered identity, along with a new vision and a prophetic power to be a living witness of the Resurrection Power of Christ. We naturally reflect the presence of God as we spend time near the shewbread of God’s presence and the almond budded lampstand of the Light of Christ!
As we minister unto the Lord as His Holy Priesthood, worshipping and pouring out our hearts and love to God, purely for Who He is and what He has done, we continually see the excellencies of Him. The more we behold God’s excellencies, the more we are transformed by God’s excellencies and the more we proclaim God’s excellencies to this World.
What purpose and activity could be better for a believer than to spend quality time in heartfelt magnification and adoration of Christ, and then going forth under prophetic anointing to declare His excellencies. Our Priesthood unto the Lord is our eternal identity, part and parcel of our salvation. We need to be “lit up” with God to be the salt of the earth, the light of the world. Ministering unto the Lord is how this happens.
Ministering unto the Lord is authentic Christianity. The growing awareness of the Revelation of our Priesthood comes to us while ministering to Him in the inner court or “inner room.” Nothing will draw us closer to our true identity in Christ than ministering unto the Lord. Nothing brings the Light of Christ truer and purer into the Church and our testimony to the world than ministering unto the Lord. And there is nothing that could be a higher and holier way to be called into ministry than through ministering unto the Lord (Barnabas and Saul).
The main message of the bible is the Prophesied, Blood Bought and Glorious New Covenant of Grace, which continuously puts the spotlight on Jesus Christ and who we are In Him; which is a Redeemed and Beloved Child of God and Kingdom of Priests AT NEW BIRTH; whose primary purpose is to minister unto the Lord in the inner court as a Priest, to be nearest His presence; thus being empowered as a conduit to present Jesus Himself to others and bring the Kingdom of God to earth. AMEN.
John…Thanks for writing. Very interesting perspectives. I can see how much you want to grow in your passion for, ministry to and witness about God’s Son. May ALL of us live for Him and serve Him and adore Him with all of our hearts. And become more like Him as we focus on Him in His supremacy.
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
–Luke 6:45
“We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;”
–II Corinthians 4:13, quoting Psalm 116:10