THE PROBLEM FOR MANY OF US IS THAT THE THINGS THAT WE SEE MANY DOING THAT ARE TAKING THEM TO HELL DOES NOT DISTURB US. WE JUST BECOME COMFORTABLE AND BLIND TO IT.
WHEN THE LOVE OF GOD IS SHED ABROAD IN OUR HEARTS BY THE HOLY GHOST, YOU CANNOT BE COMFORTABLE WITH WHAT GOD IS NOT COMFORTABLE WITH.
WE ARE BORN BY GOD BUT WE ARE SENT AS SERVANTS. EVERY CHILD OF GOD IS GIVEN THE RESPONSIBILITY OF STEWARDSHIP
GENUINE PASSION IS NOT ENVIRONMENTAL, WHEREVER YOU FIND YOURSELF YOU ARE ON FIRE FOR GOD BECAUSE IT IS FROM YOUR INSIDE.
– Pastor David Oyedepo Jnr. on ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION IN STEWARDSHIP 2 at June 2023 Week of Spiritual Emphasis Day 2 Canaanland Part A
Our Father tonight we have come to you with gratitude for the privilege of being in your presence today on this first day of the sixth month of this glorious year. You have spoken clearly for us that this is our season of glory.
Therefore send your word tonight. Your word that will usher us into what it takes to experience the glory of this season. Thank you Father for it because we know it is done already in Jesus’ precious name we have prayed.
Yesterday we began looking at God’s word in this series of teachings captioned;
ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION IN STEWARDSHIP.
God’s servant, our father began for us this adventure which we are going to be looking at all through this month in our Midweek Services. It shall be for each one of us an encounter of a lifetime.
ENGAGING THE POWER OF PASSION IN STEWARDSHIP 2.
There is no doubt about the fact that according to scriptures, every child of God is called to serve. We are given by God the responsibility of stewardship. We are born by God but we are sent as servants. Every child of God is given the responsibility of stewardship. This responsibility of stewardship requires the virtue of passion. Passion is a non-negotiable factor for any effective steward. We were told yesterday that every passionate believer will always be an ever motivated individual in stewardship. You don’t beg the passionate to serve. You don’t chase the passionate to serve.
You don’t even monitor the passionate to serve because the passionate are motivated to serve.
FgosThe passionate are excited to serve. The passionate are driven to serve. 1 Corinthians 9:20-23. I am driven to go to any extent for the sake of the gospel. That is the picture of passion. Going all lengths at all costs in order to ensure that some are saved. That is a drive that doesn’t need to be monitored or instigated.
It is something internal that is valid in every environment. If you look at that scripture you will discover that Paul was a man whose drive was never low no matter the environment. That is what happens when a man is baptized with passion. There is a drive that keeps such an individual ever self-motivated in season and out of season. My prayer for each one of us is that as an outcome of this Week of Emphasis for June, our passion shall be ignited afresh. That no matter our environment, our passion will never go down. Genuine passion is not environmental.
It doesn’t matter where you find a man that is genuinely enfired with passion, at work he is on fire. On the road, he is on fire; on the bus, he is on fire; on the train he is on fire; if he is on the plane he is on fire. At every point in time, you find a man of passion, he does not need to be monitored, he is driven to engage.
My prayer again for each one of us is that as a result of this Week of Emphasis for June, our passion will be fired up to a new level.
What is passion? We began to look at the definitions of passion yesterday and we are going to be looking further this evening. What is passion? Passion is a product of the love of God shared abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. What that means is that when we are talking about passion here we are talking about something that emanates from the inner man. Where the Holy Ghost begins to infuse our spirit man with the love of God.
When the love of God is injected into a man’s spirit it fuels that man to a dimension of uncontrollable zeal for the things of God. It is not something you manufacture.
The decision may be man’s but the ignition is from the spirit. It is the Holy Spirit that ignites us with the love of God within us. Philippians 2:13. It tells us very clearly that it is God that worketh in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. There is an infusion of the Spirit. When a person begins to experience this infusion of the love of God in his spirit, he is driven with an unusual dimension of passion.
That is why you discover that passion is not environmental because it is something from the inside. When the Holy Ghost begins to spread the love of God inside the heart of a man that individual begins to experience passion and uncontrollable zeal. Jeremiah 20:9. Fire shut up in my bones. So it was something from inside.
That is the power of passion but it is the product of the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. When you look through scriptures at the life of a man like Paul, the Apostle, you will find it continuously exhibited. You find the Bible says that they told Paul that trouble has happened everywhere and that he should wait in Athens and he began to move around and see all manner of things.
Seeing all manner of places of sacrifice and the Bible says he was stirred in his spirit, he was disturbed by the situation, he couldn’t keep quiet and before you know it the mission began. That is what happens when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. You cannot be comfortable with what God is not comfortable with. When you go around your environment and you see drinking bars, you are not comfortable. When you see area boys hanging around, you are not comfortable. When you see people messing on the road, you are not comfortable. That is the love of God shed abroad in the heart of a man. Whatever God is not comfortable with, you are not comfortable with it. You want to effect the change that God wants to effect. How do you feel when you are going on the road and you see somebody who is inside a keke and you see him open one of those sachets of hot drinks and he is sipping it right there on the road. He finishes sipping it, opens the next sachet and is sipping. When the love of God is shed forth in your heart you are not comfortable with that. You know this is a life headed for destruction. Every time when God’s love is shed abroad in the heart of a man you are driven from within to act against whatever God will not accept.
That is what makes us drive after souls. That is what makes us pursue after the lost, that is what makes us run after those that are on their way to hell.
The problem for many is that when that love is not there, the things that we see many doing carrying them to hell does not disturb us. We just become comfortable and blind to it.
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