passion – Page 2 – Cross Culture Church

Meditation: February 28

“Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.” Mark 11:24

The condition of the heart qualifies one for answered prayers according to the will of God. He brings us into compliance with His will in order for us to see with Him what He sees, thus desire the same things that He desires. Only then is it possible for us to enter into the very prayer life of Jesus. When the Holy Spirit controls our passions and desires, the Father who always hears the voice of His Son will also hear Him speak through us. This should be our passion to reach that place of faith where there is nothing in us other than the will to fully please the Father. Then we can ask what we will and it will be granted to us.

16 Feb 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: February 16

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“From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. (14) Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.” John 14:13-14 (MSG)

Out of the personhood of Jesus, He does what only He alone is able to do. It is the character of Christ to love unconditionally. Every act was an act motivated by love and an expression of love. His objective is to free those who have sought the authentic but have settled for a substitute. Too many seekers have succumbed to merely settling for a level far beneath the level established by Christ. Therefore the requests are restricted to their limited understanding. The only prayer that the Father is obligated to answer is the prayer of His Son, as His passion burns deep within our hearts. He honors His Son through hearing His prayers through yielded vessels whose lives are fully engaged in the works of Jesus. They are His sons brought to glory. Through them, the works of God continue.

24 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: January 24

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“The blessing of the Lord makes one rich, and He adds no sorrow with it.” Proverb 10:22

There is the accumulation of wealth among the rich which brings sorrow and a wealth that endures to eternal life. When money becomes the god that replaces the true and living God, it then competes with what He wills to do in his life. That person, under the control of Mammon, will never know the richness that comes through full surrender to God’s will. The greatest blessing is the passion to love Him with one’s whole heart, soul, mind, and strength; then His joy becomes our own joy. When we are there, all that comes our way is managed and not owned. If we have an abundance of things, we find pleasure in having more options to use them in blessing the Lord. Money does not make the person; it merely gives him more options to express what he already has become. We should not allow anything to stand between us and the Lord, but at all times exercise diligence in pleasing Him. He gives us both the ability to accumulate wealth and the joy of the harvest.

11 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: January 11

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“Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free.” Galatians 5:1

The most secure place is the position of true freedom. Permission is granted to us by our Sovereign Authority to fully participate in a work that extends beyond the passions that once ruled over us. We once thought of freedom as being able to follow the dictates of our hearts. Our old selves willfully responded, as it had been conditioned, to the stimuli of influences surrounding us. Not having the ability to see beyond this, we did not understand that an offering was extended that we might be liberated from the confinement of a world that offered nothing beyond itself. The liberty in which we now stand is an inner freedom that makes us aware of things that exist beyond the confinements of a shrinking worldly existence. As our external life gives signs to decay and decline, the inner man is being renewed for its expression of eternal life. We are free to live forever the life that we now have come to experience in time.

09 Jan 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: January 9

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“And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.” Acts 2:2

The buildup was gradual. There was the work of getting those who were once divided and separated by their own preferences and passions to a certain place. There is a certain place for those who wish to receive the infusion of power for service unto God. He empowers the ones that He is able to position. It is the positioning power of God that will introduce the believer to a higher degree of power. If God is not able to move you from your current state of being or attitude, He will not be able to show you any more than you think that you already know. But when He moves us from our place to His place, He will then release His power in wondrous ways. This was His place! They were there allowing Him to connect them to each other. They could then appreciate the contributions to the whole that each had to offer. Then the power came upon them suddenly! It will not take God long to do what He has purposed to accomplish in and through you. He is waiting on the conditions to be as He has designed, that each would be in one place on one accord. Then there will be a sound from heaven as a rushing and mighty wind blowing in the direction of the unity of an expecting people.

08 Dec 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: December 8

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“We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

Our passions are borrowed. They are like second-handed clothing worn by another. Someone else took the time and put forth the effort to carefully select what we use, misuse, and had grown accustomed to having. We cannot love with such depths, nor release such passions as to choose to love when there is no reason. Maybe with our children to some degree God gives us a glimpse of loving them because they belong to us. But even in this, we merely see the shadow of love displayed upon a planet of people going their own way doing their own thing. It is His love that changes lives and provides guidance to a misguided people. Our love often is left with feelings of abandonment because we lack the power to achieve all that we have set out in our own hearts to accomplish. God’s love is life-giving. He loves us into life. It is because of His love that we are now alive. It is His life that really matters. He chose to share His life with us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This was a deliberate choice to love us without any reason. All we can do is accept His love by accepting His Word in keeping His commandments. This is the dearest and best expression of love made possible.

04 Dec 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: December 4

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“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.” 2 Corinthians 13:14

The benedictional blessing released from the lips of Paul over the brethren was that they receive the favor of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unlimited grace was invoked in order to fully participate with Christ on the earth. It would be a continuation of His earthly ministry through those who have received the Father’s love. They were to become the expression of His intentions. The Holy Spirit was working in them to produce both the will and the ability to fulfill their purpose for living. The grace was not to be frustrated through a misapplication of turning inward with some selfish aim. Rather it was to be strengthened by a passion to please God that would overrule any thoughts that would try to arise. The Holy Spirit will be the constant companion to those who would allow Him to lead. They will understand and know God and each other by the same Spirit. May this be with you all, Amen.

04 Nov 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: November 4

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“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

This was not the initial phase of Paul’s life after meeting Jesus. After having been introduced, he was left with an indelible impression upon his soul. His whole life was spent in an attempt to fully embrace what he both saw and experienced in meeting such a man. He was intrigued by the phenomena of God in the flesh; a glimpse of the glory state of his own soul trusting that the time would come when the Christ that he saw from a distance would totally possess him. It is Christ in us that give us the hope of glory. All other expressions of life would be so futile in their pursuits after such an encounter because they become mere shadows since the realness of Christ has become so real to us. This is the place the Lord intends to deliver each of us to. Once we are there, a passion to shed all that would compete with the life in the Spirit is willingly abandoned. No longer is it the pangs of death, but rather the pleasures of willful obedience that is anticipated. A new life springs forth in the place of where the old life once occupied. Only when the old has passed will the new be realized. It is faith in the Son of God, our having that quality of faith in Him and what He has done because He of loves us that keeps us connected. Then we can glorify the Lord in our flesh through the new life now lived.

03 Nov 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: November 3

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“He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.” Proverbs 28:26

It is too easy to feel that a particular thing is right and rely totally upon one’s feelings. Many place their confidence in the inclinations of the heart rather than the established truth of God’s word. Our hearts may guide us in the direction away from the things we despise, but will eventually crash against the jagged rocks of reality. The good is often despised if the heart remains unchanged. Nothing is within us to embrace the truth if all we have is an empty heart in search of significance. Nothing within fallen man is able to deliver him from perishing along with the weight of passions sinking him deeper into the quagmire of sin and rebellion. His feet are not established upon any solid substance enabling him to be upheld on shaky ground. He trusts in what is within him and around him. He foolishly stumbles along in life until he utterly falls. But the wise will walk wisely because he is steadied by the power that comes from on high. God is able to lift him above the traps set before him. He is raised up while others are falling down. God sustains him through all that he may face because his heart is fixed on Jesus.

02 Oct 0Comments 0Likes

Meditation: October 2

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“In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (5) And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” John 1:4-5

Our comprehension will become the measure of our apprehension. When there is a willingness to understand that part of Jesus Christ which has been given to the saving of the soul, one then is able to be saved. If there is no interest in eternal life, but merely a desire to catch a few of the trappings from the promises given to the believer, he may prosper to a degree in those things, but be eternally lost. The light that God sent to men was the light of eternal life. This light illumines and guides the person to understand how little he really understands about Christ. Yet it awakens his interest to pursue Him with a passion never realized until the light has come. Those who are hungry for more than worldly pleasures or survival have seen something more of Him. The blinding light of His glory fixes their attention on a different object of affection. They become dead to the world and alive unto Christ. Paul wanted nothing more than to apprehend that for which he was apprehended. He wanted to pursue the purpose for which God arrested him from self destruction. May we walk in the light that shines in the midst of darkness.