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What does it look like to be fervent in spirit? The word fervency is one of my favorite words and has a special place in my heart. When I hear it, I think of conviction, assurance, and steadfastness. I love the term “fervency” because for me it doesn’t mean passion for passion’s sake, but implies a solid grounding in God’s Truth or calling, on which a passionate conviction is based. Two people in Scripture come to mind when I think about people who were fervent in spirit.

In Acts, a Jew named Apollos knew the truth of Scripture. Based on his actions, I would bet that Apollos wholeheartedly believed God’s character was faithful and loving to provide the Christ to save His people from careful study of God’s Word. When God empowered Apollos with fervency in spirit, Apollos spoke truth and became instrumental in spreading the gospel in the apostle Paul’s time of ministry. “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures.He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John” (Acts 18:25). In reading about Apollos this week, I am struck by the fact that though he knew the truth, he waited until the right time from the Lord to speak about it. It led to his message being clarified by Pricilla and Aquila, and helping the new believers in Ephesus (Acts 18:27). I need to be reminded every day to wait for the Lord’s timing and for His empowerment to accomplish what He has given me to do.

Paul too knew the value and necessity of being fervent in spirit. In fact, he lists it among other marks of Christianity in his letter to the Romans, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer” (Romans 12:11-12). Fervency for the Lord and His Truth is so important, but yet can be so easy to drift away from. I’ve felt a drifting of heart as this season of spring has brought many things to do and opportunities opening up. All good things, but if I’m not intentional every day to be fervent in spirit for the Lord and His will, I can lose sight of Truth. I can depend on myself instead of God. I can drift in my relationship with Him.

I used to become discouraged about this fact, but now I am able to see how it can actually be helpful to deeply understand this human weakness. It highlights our deep, great need for God in every way; our flesh that aches to be replaced with His Spirit. Our need for God is always constant. We never reach a point in life when we need Him more or less; we need Him in every way, all the time. There is nothing we can do and no point in our lives that makes us need God less desperately or completely. It is humbling, but in it there is great freedom! We are perfectly held, carried, and sustained by God, and we never are expected to do anything on our own apart from Him. We have Him to guide us, as our Good Shepherd, through every moment of our lives (Psalm 23).

What freedom can come with accepting our need for God! It is only when I rely on God that I can truly enjoy the journey of life. In Christ Jesus, we can live free of trying to do and make things happen on our own. It seems harder for me as the year starts becoming busier and as the calendar gets full, but yet He makes the Way to rely on Him through each day. In the moments I feel overwhelmed, I can trust that God has all the details, and can ask Him to guide my next step. In the moments I am overbooked, I can stop blaming and shaming myself for the mistake and instead ask God to lead me in what He would have me do; even when that means disappointing someone else—or everyone else. What He would have us do is always best. We can live free when we rely on God.

I’ve noticed that when fervency in my own heart starts to falter, it stems from thinking in ways that aren’t true. When I second guess whether God really is reliable for this one thing and believing I need to rely on myself. Fervency runs dry when I forget that God is true to His character and can be fully trusted, even when doing His will can feel scary. And the amazing, good news of Jesus is that even in the moments I feel far from God and fervency feels like a distant memory, I can rely on the Truth of Scripture, that nothing will be able to separate me from God (Romans 8:38-29), even my own sin. I can trust, whether I second guess it or not, that He will never leave or forsake me (Hebrews 13:5).

Friends, keep fervent for the Lord! Be fervently after his own heart, like the Psalmist David (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). Be fervently seeking Him in Scripture. Be fervent in bringing everything to Him, instead of holding onto it or hoarding it away to try to deal with on your own. Fervently bring everything before God, and watch how beautiful a free life in and through Him can be. May we have fervency of spirit used for His glory. Amen.

“Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day” (1 Kings 8:61).

“Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways! You have commanded your precepts to be kept diligently. Oh that my ways may be steadfast in keeping your statutes!” (Psalm 119:2-5).

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I always thought it was a little harsh for Jesus to call Peter “Satan,” after he didn’t want to accept the news that Jesus would be killed. I mean, can I blame Peter for at least trying to lighten the mood after Jesus made such a dark pronouncement? Maybe Peter’s motives weren’t really “evil” and he just wanted to bring a little hope to Jesus, right?

This week, my perspective has been completely changed, and I wanted to share it with you. What finally became clear to me about this oft-quoted scene was that Jesus was seeing past both Peter’s actual words and perhaps motives too. Instead, Jesus was discerning the true meaning and belief Peter had, a basic assumption that allowed him to even utter these words.

“From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. ‘Never, Lord!’ he said. ‘This shall never happen to you!’

Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns’” (Matthew 16:21-23).

Jesus saw that Peter, perhaps unknowingly, was actually questioning what God said in the Old Testament. Though it clearly foretells through the psalms and prophets that the Messiah must suffer (eg: Isaiah 53), Peter revealed that he could not believe these prophecies.

Peter’s question had the same meaning as the serpent’s question to Eve in Genesis 3:1, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Did God actually… was the seed of doubt planted in Eve’s mind, a question of her belief. After a bit more of the serpent’s reasoning in verses 4-5, Eve’s belief in God’s trustworthiness was swayed, all because of the serpent’s question.

Asking herself a serpent’s question,“Is that REALLY what God said?,” had disastrous consequences.

Sure, for Peter, it might have been comforting in the moment to question whether his friend and teacher Jesus’ death was inevitable, but it wouldn’t have been in line with what God said in His Word. If Jesus believed a lie about God, even just one, it would have been disastrous.

Okay, you may be thinking, I get it. But what exactly moved Jesus so much as to call Peter “Satan?” Peter’s words “Never, Lord! This shall never happen to you!” in Matthew 16 are not the same words the serpent used with Eve.

However, if we look at the belief behind Peter’s words, it is in direct opposition with God’s Word. Peter’s meaning essentially comes down to, “I do not believe God!” Jesus saw Peter’s words to be a clear rejection of God’s truth. He saw it as a complete lack of faith in the Word of God. To deny the foretold suffering was to deny that God was actually telling the truth–there it is plainly, Satan’s trademark. In light of this, Jesus was perhaps not so much harshly overacting toward Peter as simply calling it what it was.

Listening for the meaning behind any question will help us see as sharply as Jesus did.

Friends, I invite you to join with me in asking the Holy Spirit for discernment to know the belief behind the words we take in and tell ourselves.

Luckily, the serpent’s questions are unoriginal. Their underlying meaning and belief are always the same. But they are crafty. They can sneak into our thoughts just as easily as they did with Peter’s if we don’t watch for them. The essence of Peter’s rebuke and all serpent’s questions are, “God couldn’t possibly have meant that!” Other variations include, Is God really like that? Is that actually what God said?

Learn to recognize the serpent’s question.

Coming to terms with our own serpent’s questions is no small feat. When we recognize we are trying to do something on our own strength, realize we haven’t prayed about something we’ve been worrying about for weeks, or simply don’t understand why our putting in more time and effort for something we want is getting us nowhere, we have a moment of opportunity. It is there we can stop and see the truth of our position, which is humility. One of my new favorite verses speaks perfectly to this, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Romans 11:32). When we go our own way in disobedience, even there we find God’s grace.

How to break this cycle? Living in honest dependence on God involves recognizing that we are desperate without Him. Complete dependence is terrifyingly vulnerable. Yet, that’s how intensely and intimately God invites us to trust in Him. “...unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). As His children, God invites us to depend on Him for every need and every desire; He is and never stopped being our Good Father.

Being aware of our desperation for God can lead us to two extremes: total surrender or complete resentment.

In surrender, we are humbled, in awe, broken and owning up to that brokenness. We are aware in that place of surrender that we have nothing to give without God. On the opposite end, recognizing how dependent we really are on God can also feel frustrating, even demoralizing. If we’re honest, we can resent that we will never truly be able to fulfill that natural human desire for power and control. Knowing the truth that God is the one in control can be a struggle to come to terms with. But take heart, God takes this into account too, “For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:14).

Maybe you’re like me, and struggling with overcoming pride might be a huge part of your spiritual journey too. That’s okay. When and as we are ready, God is faithful to show us the beauty of that other side, the side of our willing surrender to His capable hands. He is constantly showing us His goodness, and how good it is that He is in control, and not us. We need only to look for it and be open to seeing it. There is always more to learn, more to understand, more to discover about God. That is what makes our Life with the King so exciting!

We cannot glorify God if we are too busy glorifying ourselves.

I’m telling myself this too! So, how do we deny self daily (Luke 9:23)? How do we fulfill the greatest commands, to love God and love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39)? It is a constant decision to pick up our crosses and obey Jesus willingly. How do we keep this up? To love God is a daily choice. God is the one who then takes that choice and makes us able to love. Love is the most fulfilling part of life. The Way of love brings fulfillment! We must depend on Him and His love completely, fully, and humbly to walk in the Way of love. Maybe this too is why Jesus reacted so harshly to Peter; He knew that Peter wasn’t surrendered fully to God’s will.

That place of obedience and surrender to the Way of walking out His command is where our ego dies. Denying ourselves doesn’t just happen. It takes a willing humility to choose it every day. We will fail sometimes. That’s okay. But there is nothing better than being surrendered to the will of God. That is the place God intended for us from the beginning, when all was perfect in the Garden. There is no room to feel self important in that place of complete grace, mercy and childlike dependence. Jesus’ work on the cross made a Way for us to come back into God’s will. In that place, serpent’s questions are silenced. There is no ego in love.

Allow your heart, your soul, your very self, to be moved by God’s love for you.

It is in that place of acceptance of being loved by God that we can begin to live freely and lightly, under the authority and protection, the abundance and goodness, the meaning and fulfillment, of Christ.

We do not make ourselves able; we make ourselves available to Him.

That is our step; to be open to God and all He has for us. In doing that, we let Him come close to rescue us, give us His Spirit, and fight temptation with us. God makes us able. Amen.

“Resist the devil and he will flee…” (James 4:7)

“Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, ‘He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us?’” (James 4:5).

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Tag: the way

Fervent in Spirit

The Serpent’s Question