ShArings

Joseph Prince, a prominent Singaporean speaker, once warned all the girls and women who are still single: “Before you choose a man to be your life partner and decide to marry him, never mistake his zealousness for his faithfulness… A man can be a great leader of various ministries and yet fails to be faithful to God or to his wife.”

Zeal or passion is an outward expression of a person’s inward faith, the genuine source of which is Jesus – “… the pioneer and perfecter of the faith…” [Hebrew 12:2]. First and foremost, I must beware of having mere-passion; I agree with Wigglesworth, “I find you can have zeal without faith.”  I must remember how Peter had sunk not long after walking on the water.

Peter answered him, “Lord, if it’s you, order me to come to you on the water.” Jesus said, “Come on!” So Peter got down out of the boat, started walking on the water, and came to Jesus.

How passionate Peter was… for a while…

But when he noticed the strong wind, he was frightened. As he began to sink, he shouted, “Lord, save me!”At once Jesus reached out his hand, caught him, and asked him, “You who have so little faith, why did you doubt?” As they got into the boat, the wind stopped blowing. Then the men in the boat began to worship Jesus, saying, “You certainly are the Son of God!”

[Gospel of Matthew 14:28-33]

Secondly, acknowledging that passion and faith must come together, I must also know in what manner of passion I am expressing my faith. The faith that comes from any source(s) other than the genuine Source always results in a short-lived if not counterfeit passion, which can be attractive to or repulsive against the people around. Such kind of faith either awaits a rebuke or will be proved fruitless eventually. For instance, remember how James and John were so filled with zeal that they wanted call fire down from heaven!

When his disciples James and John observed this rejection, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But he turned and rebuked them, saying, “You don’t know what kind of spirit you are! For the Son of Man did not come to destroy the souls of men, but to save them.”

[Gospel of Luke 9:54-56]

All of us go through moments of trials and temptations. During those moments, in one sense I grieve because of sins – my sins or others’, but in another sense I learn to rejoice because I will, being led by the Spirit of the Messiah, know more about myself – (1) whether my passion is a mere-passion or it is accompanied by faith and (2) if I say I’m moving by faith, whether my faith is drawn from the genuine Source or not – and I will then be able to change myself as I (continually) listen to and obey God’s clear instructions; I will then learn the difference between ‘holding to an outward form of godliness but denying its power’ [2Tim 3:5] and ‘having been rooted in Christ and are being built-up and strengthened in the faith’ [Col 2:7], pursuing the latter with joy and thankfulness, in the moments which are meant to test my faith.