Expert: Mel and Guyna Horne - 12/28/2007

Question
how can a person increase their passion for the things of God?

Answer
Hi Catonya,

When passion and Christ are used in the same sentence, it often refers to Christ’s suffering.  Today, suffering is considered an obsolete definition of passion, therefore, our first thought was that you are asking about increasing one’s enthusiasm for and dedication to God’s instructions and the teachings of Christ.

There are several definitions of passion.
We assume that you used it in the sense of:
“5a: ardent affection, a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept”. (http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/passion).  

[Passion comes from the Latin word “pati”, from which we also get “patient”, the definitions of which also are relevant to Christ’s suffering before and during his death, and to our trials today. It is also listed among the “fruits of the spirit” that we are to develop.]

In the context of increasing our love for God and Christ, we are given instructions and principles.

“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Lk. 6:45).

We usually talk about whatever interests us most.

We dream, most often, about the things that have most occupied our minds and activities.
“For a dream comes through the multitude of business; . . .” (Ecc. 5:3).

When we are first born, we cry if we are hungry, wet, dirty, too cold, too hot, frightened or lonesome.  As adults, we don’t change all that much.
Most people think first about satisfying their physical needs – food, clothing, shelter, and comfort from excessive heat or cold.  All these things are available for money and so, we think about money a lot.  We pursue a higher education or advanced training so that we can have more money to better provide the things we need. We pursue promotions and better job offers and an advancing career, firstly, for the increase in the money.

As soon as we feel that the physical needs are being met, we begin to think about other needs – job satisfaction, social interactions, and emotional needs.
We like to think that we are not money-oriented, that we are above that, and that all the other aspects of life, social and emotional, are more important to us, but when we lose our job and the money runs out, everything else takes a backseat to the money.
In areas ravaged by war, where the survivors are forced to scavenge, all day, every day, among the ruins for food or fuel to cook with, the social, emotional and cultural aspects of life become unimportant.  The harsh reality is that intellectualism, philosophy, morality, ethics, and culture don’t matter that much in the absence of food and water.

When God gave instructions to Israel through Moses about their life in the Promised Land, he told them about all the blessings they would enjoy for obedience to God’s law of love toward him and toward others. (Deu. 28:1-14).

He also warned them what would happen if they disobeyed his laws. (Deu. 28:15-68).
“Because you served not the Lord your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things;” (Deu. 28:47).
Among the vivid descriptions of wars, oppression, destruction of the cities, diseases, droughts and plagues, is a description of people starving to the point of cannibalizing their own children for food and refusing to even share that with their brother, wife, or other children.
Jewish history shows that these things happened when the Assyrians took the northern ten tribes captive in the 8th cent. BC (2Kings 17:22-23), and when the Babylonians took the tribes of Judah and Benjamin captive in the 5th cent. BC, (2Chrn. 36:5-21) and also when the Romans were provoked into destroying the Temple, and much of Jerusalem, in 70 AD.
These things have happened in other wars since then and are prophesied to happen again just before the return of Christ. (Mat. 24:1-51, esp. 21-22).

The point here is that because we live in physical bodies, we tend to be preoccupied with physical needs and desires.

This preoccupation leads us in the wrong direction.
“From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
You lust, and have not: you kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: you fight and war, yet you have not, because you ask not.
You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” (Jas. 4:1-3).

In other words, the world (all of us) brings its worst problems upon itself.  We fail to ask God, and to depend upon him, for the things we need.  If we do ask, we ask for the wrong things and/or for the wrong reasons.  This is God’s opinion, expressed through the apostle James.  The world’s opinion is that God is unfair or doesn’t care, or doesn’t exist.  The churches’ opinion is that “God works in mysterious ways” (a catch-all for the things they cannot explain such as why apparently innocent people suffer).

All this is necessary to understand the following difference:

We are physical.
God is spirit.

We cannot stop being physical, but we can stop being physically minded.

“For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.”
(Rom. 8:5-9).

We are created in God’s “image”.  This means that unlike all other living things, we have the intellect of God.  We can think in the abstract.  We can plan, design, build, and in some ways, “create”. We can imagine things that do not exist and, within the limits of the laws of physics, design, build or create them.

God’s law is to love others because God’s nature is love.

Our nature, living in a physical body, is physically oriented toward physical comfort and satisfying physical needs and wants.  Anything that keeps us alive is a need. Everything beyond that is a want.  The more we have, the more we want and we begin to confuse the two, thinking that because we want it, it is a need.

“And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?
And he said unto him, Why call you me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if you will enter into life, keep the commandments.
He said unto him, Which? Jesus said, You shall do no murder, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness,
Honor your father and your mother: and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
The young man said unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?
Jesus said unto him, If you will be perfect, go and sell that you have, and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven.
And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” (Mat.19:16-24).

The more we have, the more difficult it is to think about and be concerned about the things of God. Not that God wants us to be poor and have nothing.  If God is first in our lives, it does not matter how much we have.  Abraham had huge herds of livestock. Job had even larger herds.  Solomon was perhaps the richest man in the world in his time.  There is no sin in money, things or wealth.  There is sin, when the things, money or wealth come between us and God.  Anything that is more important to us than God or pleasing him, is an “idol”, a false god.

We all have 24 hours in a day.  We all have control over our thoughts.

The things into which we put our time and our thoughts are the things that we value most.
“. . . of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” (Lk. 6:45).

“God first” does not mean, “God only”.

In the context of explaining the Kingdom of God, Christ said, “If any man come to me, and hate [love less by comparison] not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
. . . So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsakes not all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.” (Lk. 14:26, 33).

It is a matter of priorities. Our priorities should be: 1) God, 2) family, 3) others, and 4) self.

If we have the desire to please God, we will repent and accept Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf (Mat. 4:17, Acts 2:38).

If we do that, we are promised the Holy Spirit (Lk. 11:13), which is a power that enables us to resist and to overcome sin in our daily lives (Jn. 14, 15, 16). Without it, we are largely helpless against our own human nature (Rom. 8:7, Jer. 17:9).

With it, we can continually examine ourselves (2Cor. 13:5), replacing the sins of “works” with the “fruits” of God’s Spirit. (fruits: Gal. 5:22-23, Col. 3:12-23, Eph. 5:9) (works: Gal. 5:19-21, 26, Col. 3:5-9, 2Cor. 12:20-21, Eph. 5:3-7, 11, 1Tim. 1:9-10, Rev. 21:8, Rom. 1:29-32).
One of the principles we are given is to understand the invisible things of God by the things that we can see: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:” (Rom. 1:20).

One of the things we can see is that living things are never organically “still” as in “at rest”.  Living things are either increasing or decreasing.  From birth we grow larger, stronger, more knowledgeable, and more skillful, until our bodies begin to grow weaker, our eyesight, hearing and memory begin to diminish, and our mental skills begin to malfunction.

This is true spiritually.  Either we are “growing” toward the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (1Pet. 2:2, 2Pet. 3:18, Eph. 4:13) or we are “falling away” from that goal (2Pet. 1:10, 3:17, 1Cor. 10:12).

Christ used parables to explain the Kingdom of God. In Luke 8:4-15, he used seeds in four different circumstances to illustrate the different states of spiritual understanding among those that hear the gospel.  In the first three states, there is no fruit produced.  Notice that in the third example (v 14), physical things cause a distraction from the things of God and there is no fruit produced. This parallels the story of the young man who valued his wealth above perfection of the spirit.

Life is not a choice between, on one hand, family, job, things, and interests, and on the other hand, God. [That would be a gross misunderstanding of Lk. 14:26.]

Life is about putting God first, ahead of all those things and ahead of self, and then enjoying all those things within the context of God’s law of loving others as you would love yourself.

How do we know if we love God?  “ . . . If we love one another, God dwells in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 Jn. 4:12, also Jn. 13:35).
“If a man say, I love God, and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?” (1Jn. 4:20).

How do we know if we love others?  “Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.” (Mat. 7:17).

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22-23).


4. We cannot be passionate about the things of God if we do not understand the things of God.

3. We cannot understand the things of God without the help of the Holy Spirit.

2. We do not fully receive that help without repentance and (usually) baptism.

1. We cannot come to full repentance as long as we are worshiping physical things, money, family, or any other self interests that we value above God.

If we have done 1, 2, 3 and 4, above, and we still feel “lukewarm” about God, what else can we do?

What we are instructed to do is to seek:
1)   knowledge (facts, truth),
2)   understanding (knowing the difference between right and wrong),
3)   wisdom (making the choice to do what is right).

“My son, if thou will receive my words, and hide my commandments with you;
So that you incline your ear unto wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;
Yes, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding;
If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures;
Then shall you understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
For the Lord gives wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.” (Pro. 2:1-6).

To accomplish this, we are instructed to study:
“Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2Tim. 2:15).

[For suggestions on what and how to study, see “A simple approach to discovering truth.”
http://www.geocities.com/changes1611/studyguides.html  ]


The more we study, the more we can understand.
The more we understand, the more we can make the right choices.
The more right choices we make, the more we can be blessed.
The more we are blessed, the more our faith is increased and along with it, our love for God.

We are also told to think about certain things: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (Phil. 4:8).

The world is full of human evil and ugliness, but the beauty of the “garden” that God has given us can still be seen in nature.
God’s love can be seen in those few who sacrifice themselves, their time, or their interests in order to unselfishly serve one another without reward or fame. They have a passion for the things of God.

Some say, “Life is hard, and then you die.” And that is true, but it is not encouraging.

We prefer, “Life is just a test, and if you are successful, then you can live forever.”

The world is just a child’s sandbox with toys and opportunities. If we can learn to play nice (love others) and respect our elders (love God and Christ) then when we grow up, everything that God and Christ own will also be ours.  That includes the universe, the ends of which we cannot even see from here. (Psa. 8:6, 1Cor. 15:27, Heb. 2:8).

Though most of human history, children have taken the same occupation as their fathers. God works (Gen. 2:2). Christ works (Jn. 5:17).  Our Father is a Creator.  He built the earth and populated it.  He is creating perfect character in those who respond positively to him.  
What work will we be doing? The first part of that answer is found in the prophets (Isa., Jer., Eze., Dan., others), and in the book of Revelation (the revealing).
The next part will involve all the undeveloped real estate that God is still building in space around us.
Our Father’s occupation is a Creator.  Look at the night-time sky and think about what you want to do when you “grow up”.  God has names for every object you can see out there (Psa. 147:4).  Why bother to name them, unless there is a plan that requires their individual identification.
That should inspire some passion about what God is offering us.


You asked a simple question and probably expected a simple answer.  We could have made it shorter, but being an artist, you can appreciate how important perspective and background are.

We hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Mel and Guyna