A Person of Passion

A person who knows God’s vision for their life and thus their ministry will be a person of tremendous passion. God’s vision for your life is who He wants you to be and become. God’s vision for your ministry arises out of who you are to be and become and it is what you will do for Him because of who you are.

So, first you need to discover who you really are – who God created you to be. Then you need to let Him mould you and change you until you become the best you that you know how to be. And, at the same time, still stay open to further change and adjustment. Then you are ready, out of who you are, to begin to touch other lives with His love and power and do what He has designed you to do – your ministry!

So, when you know His vision for you and your ministry – you then need to become passionate about it. He is! And, He really does need you to become passionate about who you are and what He has called you to do. Indifference or apathy will not do. Enthusiasm about His will for your life and daily anticipating His using you is what He is looking for from you.

Listen to what Paul the apostle wrote….”Five times my own people gave me thirty-nine lashes with a whip. Three times the Romans beat me with a big stick, and once my enemies stoned me. I have been shipwrecked three times, and I even had to spend a night and a day in the sea. During my many travels, I have been in danger from rivers, robbers, my own people, and foreigners. My life has been in danger in cities, in deserts, at sea, and with people who only pretended to be the Lord’s followers. I have worked and struggled and spent many sleepless nights. I have gone hungry and thirsty and often had nothing to eat. I have been cold from not having enough clothes to keep me warm.” (2 Corinthians 11:24-27 CEV)

This is the true life story of a man who was a disciple of the Lord Jesus. This is not the tale of a man who had nothing better to do with his life or who had no other options. Paul was well educated, articulate, a leader. By virtue of his background, he was a man with many options. Yet, he determined to serve Jesus Christ, a spiritual leader he had sought to persecute, and to endure outrageous suffering and personal sacrifice as a result of this turnabout. It was a conscious, startling, incredible decision. For what reason?

Paul was an individual driven to fulfill a vision for ministry that God has entrusted to him. Throughout the latter half of the Book of Acts, we see Paul preaching, teaching, admonishing and planting churches with the kind of fervor not found in a person who is simply earning a wage. Paul, convinced of God’s design for his life, worked tirelessly to do God’s calling. Paul was compelled by God’s vision to commit his life to working out that vision in his daily life. He was a man with a passion and a man of passion.

This is true of all those who know who they are “in Christ” and who it is that Christ designed and wants them to be – and are willing to begin and pursue “becoming” for the rest of their lives. And, who are willing to put their hand to their specific and unique ministry given to them in the call of God upon their life – and never look back regardless of the cost or the hardship.

Once this is in place – then they can find out how who they are and what they are called to do fits in with those with whom they fellowship (the members of their local assembly) and thus become passionate about the vision of the local church and enable the vision of the assembly to come to pass. Their personal vision will always fit within the church’s vision because God places each member within the body and God always puts us in the right place to bring our vision and the assembly’s vision to fulfillment.