A Tempered Passion

As a young man, I trained in several forms of martial arts.  My last sensei (teacher) was a man we respectfully called, “Sensei Montero”. He was a humble man who carried advanced black belt degrees in several different fighting styles.  He was what some would call a senior citizen.  He carried a lethality few would dare to challenge.  I never forgot a conversation I had with Sensei Montero.  I asked him about people who stopped training, “Will they lose it?” Sensei Montero said, “No, they never completely lose it. It is like a pot of tea.  The tea may grow cold, but it will still pour.”

While this wise man shared a natural truth with me He unknowingly shared a spiritual truth.  Some of us can spiritually cool over time.  We begin to settle for a life of tempered passion.  One way this cooling takes place is in the expression of God’s power through our lives. The Spirit’s presence still remains within us, but the release of its potential and power cools over time through a lack of belief and use. 

God wants to make you hot with His presence.  He wants to pour His power on culture through your life with signs, wonders and miracles.  2,000 years ago on the Day of Pentecost Peter said it was these three elements that endorsed the life of Jesus. That same endorsement of signs wonders and miracles awaits the Church today that bears His name.

If you have grown cool and predictable in your life of faith ask God for a fresh anointing of His power.  Ask Him to endorse your presence on earth with things that can only happen if God shows up in power. Don’t settle for a tepid response to the needs of a broken world when only the hot power of God’s Spirit is capable of burning through the lies that hold people captive.  What God is about to do on the earth will require a Church on fire with His presence. You can still pour, but God wants to give you more.