With Every Breath

The most extraordinary thing you will ever accomplish is becoming intimate with the reality that you are everything God has ever wanted! Accomplish probably isn’t really the right word because obtaining the love of God comes from surrendering to what is true; it is not something we try hard to achieve. Many people talk about the love of God and even say, “God loves me,” but don’t live as if it’s true. Do you live as if you are the love of God’s life? Do you live your life knowing that he declares you perfect in His sight? Do you know you are completely forgiven?

One of the telltale signs of genuinely knowing God loves you is a lifestyle of passion towards Him. The more you recognize the love of God– the more you will love Him back. The more person experiences the love of God, the more passionate they are towards him. Passion is an amazing thing because it causes people to do crazy things, even things that are very wrong.  Take a look at this.

Acts 9:1-2  Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord’s followers. So he went to the high priest. He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them-both men and women-back to Jerusalem in chains. 

Without a doubt, this is a picture of a passionate person. With every breath, he passionately pursued his perceived call – persecuting and even killing Christians. Saul (later called apostle Paul) was passionate – just for the wrong thing. Later on, however, Saul had an encounter with Jesus Christ and immediately became crazy passionate about helping the very ones he was trying to kill. In his passion for Jesus, he was not only willing to be imprisoned but also to lose his life for the sake of Jesus Christ and the gospel. 

While Paul was in Caesarea, a prophet named Agabus prophesied that if Paul went to Jerusalem, he would be bound and handed over to the Romans to be imprisoned. The people, weeping and pleading, begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Acts 21:13 

Wow! The passion that apostle Paul had does not come from trying hard; it comes from an encounter with the living God! Therefore, a true passion for God comes from a real revelation of His love and grace! Because of his encounter with Jesus, apostle Paul became a radical, passionate ambassador of the love of God!

His own words say it all.

2 Corinthians 5:13-15  If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised again.

In a sense, apostle Paul was saying, “if I act like I’m crazy, it’s because I’m passionately moved by the love of God, but if I am acting normal, it is because I am mellowing out for you.” I am fully convinced that those who have a genuine encounter with the love of God will, like apostle Paul, passionately love God and become ambassadors of his love to this hurting world!

Oh, my dearest friend, I am looking forward to the day when we, as the body of Christ, are so overwhelmed with God’s love that our love and service to God will be…

With Every Breath