The Passion Well: Chapter 14

Note: If you've not had the opportunity to read the foreword or previous chapters and would like to, please look for the title of this writing under the "Blog Pages" tab above and click on it. You'll find what's available to date under that tab. jbh

The Passion Well

Chapter 14

Tasting The Waters Of Holy Passion


Psalm 58:8-13
8 "I listen carefully to what God the LORD is saying, for he speaks peace to his faithful people. But let them not return to their foolish ways. 9 Surely his salvation is near to those who fear him, so our land will be filled with his glory. 10 Unfailing love and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed! 11 Truth springs up from the earth, and righteousness smiles down from heaven. 12 Yes, the LORD pours down his blessings. Our land will yield its bountiful harvest. 13 Righteousness goes as a herald before him, preparing the way for his steps."


As I mentioned early on in this seemingly ever expanding writing, I'm not a seminary scholar or formally educated biblical authority. I'm not a pastor or a counselor. I'm just a simple, common guy (very simple) and I'm not writing this to you in any hope of gaining notoriety or receiving compensation.

So then, why am I writing to you at all? What's in it for me?

I'm glad you asked.

First off, I'm writing this because whoever you are, wherever you are and regardless of whatever you may have done, you are the passion of my passion ... and therefore mine also.

Now I admit that might sound like a mouthful of verbal peanut butter to some, so let's take a second to sort that out. In plain and simple definition, I love my Father God passionately and He loves you passionately - so because I love Him, I love you also. And because I love you, I'm writing this to you in the desperate hope that if you haven't already, you'll begin to understand something deeper about our awesome Father God - how He deals with us, raises us up as His children and how we find passion with Him. I'm doing it full well knowing that if you really get it, true passion will surely begin to operate, not only inside you, but throughout your life as well.

Secondly, I've experienced our Lord's close presence intimately and first hand ... and it's not something that you can keep to yourself. It's overwhelming, completing, healing and infinitely awesome. There's no other experience like it and it changes you in positive ways like nothing else can. There's no place on earth that I'd rather be or any experience that I could  enjoy that could be greater than being in His presence on His terms - But the last part of that sentence is the key. We have to meet Him on His terms or we're not going to find ourselves having the close audience with the mighty and holy King of Kings that we're looking for.

We're not in control of the terms when we approach our God - especially when we're seeking closeness and intimacy with Him - He is. If you remember the story of Esther approaching King Xerxes, you'll remember that although she was his queen, she knew that she was taking an extreme chance with her own life by approaching the king without following the proper protocol (If you haven't read it, you should. It's an awesome story). In that situation she had reverent fear and respect for his authority, knowing full well that if he didn't choose to extend the royal scepter signifying that he accepted her approach, her life would be forfeited. I think there's something similar to be taken away from that story and situation when we're approaching our Lord...

We might not be in the exact same position - taking the same chance with our mortal lives when approaching our God, but Xerxes was a human king and our God is infinitely higher and mightier than king Xerxes ever was. Our Father God is The King that rules over all of the kings and He knows everything about us - more than we even recognize in ourselves. Any approach that we might make to Him needs to be made in true humility, submission and reverent respect - remembering who He is, all that He is and all that He's said. And I think based on my own experience with Him, that if we're seeking intimacy with Him, this is all the more important.

Given who He is, His position and all that He knows, why would He choose to hear us, even though we're His children, let alone draw close if we approach Him with disrespect, a wrong attitude, a prideful heart or irreverence? Who are we as we enter His presence? And who is He? - He knows. How close do we as humans readily draw to people we find repugnant or offensive toward us? He extends grace to us, especially as His children, but He is still God. Something to consider.

A past mentor gave me a precious gift in his instruction. It's a word of direction that I will cherish and make a conscious effort to observe always. He said that any time we intend to approach our Lord in prayer, the first thing that we shoud do is to "enthrone Him". In other words, putting everything else in our lives completely aside (even what we intend to talk to Him about) and begin to think about our God. I've experienced that as I begin to think about who He is, His majesty, His power, His Holiness and righteousness - I begin to shrink, everything else fades away and He is elevated to His proper place in my heart and my mind. I then begin to praise Him in prayer ... and my precious Lord draws near to me. 

What is passion?

Passion is generally defined as a strong feeling, emotion or desire and I think most people would generally agree with that. But as I've observed, there seem to be many levels of passion. Some are faint and fickle, seemingly changing with the direction of the wind. Some may be incredibly strong, but short lived. Others have the power to change the direction of a life or even multiple lives. But most have a common denominator - they're fueled by an outside source. In other words, they're fed or ignited by something outside of the person inflamed by the particular passion.

A possible problem with those kinds of passion might be that they're subject to interruption in an ever changing and sinful world. Deceit, theft, disloyalty, infidelity, selfishness and a thousand other possible negative influences have the ability to impact or even kill a passion. You may have experienced this on some level or levels. But there's a different source of passion - one that's not susceptible to the impacts of sinful influence, one that's constant and one that never changes. It grows and grows and is never returned unkindly or outside of a faithful and abiding love. It's the passion that we can share with our Heavenly Father.

If as a child of God you haven't truly found that deep, constant and abiding passion, let me offer some hope. You've already made the commitment to accept Christ as your savior and invited Him into your heart, so He's living inside of you. If a true and burning passion for the Christ in you becomes the overarching passion of your life, the fruit of that passion will not only fill you with the contentment that your heart desires, but it will begin to flow out from you to touch every part of your life. It'll grow to become unaffected by negative outside influence and will be fed continuously by the person of God in you, who in His perfection, will never be unfaithful to His Fatherly effort to lovingly raise you up or to His patient, loving intentions for your good.

It's hard to be truly passionate toward something or someone that you're unfamiliar with. I think some people may have what I would call a Sunday passion that they pull out of their purse or pocket for a couple of hours one day a week as some obligatory submission to obedience. I personally spent years wavering in and out of the narrow path, at times taking meandering detours that led to places I really didn't want to be and that sometimes had some painful consequences. I was half-heartedly attempting follow Jesus without making a concerted effort to know Him intimately. The change for me began with an earnest desire to once and for all get to the basic core of my own salvation and to examine who God really is and why I believe Him. I dared to ask God to make Himself real to me - as if He's isn't already more real than I've ever been or will be. But instead of being offended, He obliged me and began to open my eyes to see His heart and to open my own heart to understanding Him. As I earnestly searched and studied everything I could discover about Him in His word (not just passages here and there, but cover to cover and back again) and began to understand the truth, a real and living passion ignited in me for the perfectly awesome and supremely attractive person of my Father God, reflected by His Son Christ Jesus and revealed to me by the Holy Spirit.

Real, living passion toward our God is born of an appreciative and intimate knowledge Him and He knows the difference in us. In all that He's created, done, said, instructed, suffered, sacrificed and has shown nothing less than perfect, pure love for, there's always been one object of His passionate desire - it's definitely you and me. When the full, true weight of the reality of all of that truly hits you, passion for Him will well up in you like a fountain. You'll know it when it happens and until it happens, my advice is that you keep earnestly searching and submitting yourself to Him. You will not be disappointed.

Maybe you've experienced this before but somehow lost it. It might mean that the true and divine reality that supersedes all of frail humanity has somehow gotten lost or drifted away in the daily clutter and distraction of human life. Reconnecting with Him is as easy as reconnecting with the truth of all that He is, said and done and approaching Him in honesty. You'll always find Him waiting patiently for an honest heart to reach out to Him. I know, I've been there and He was right where I left Him, ever patient, waiting for me to realize that I'd let the craziness and distraction of this temporary reality take my eyes off of the true, eternal one. As I've come to know Him ever better by His grace, my passion for Him has grown also, making any distraction far less possible.

In either case, whether seeking that passion for the first time or wanting to rekindle the fire of your first love, intently seeking to truly know and to begin to understand Him and His heart is the key to opening the ... passion well.


John 4:10 (NLT) Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.”