[T]hou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength

Mark 12:30 KJV (portion)

The fool says in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1).  It takes faith to please God, for one must first believe that God is!  (Hebrews 11:6).  This is the first, and greatest commandment.  The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Consider for a moment, the Gospel of John.  Jesus says in John 16:27 that the Father loves us because we love His son and believe that He came from God.  In John 14:15, Jesus says that if we love Him, we will obey Him.  And, throughout the final chapters before the crucifixion, Jesus’ repeated command to the believers was this:

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

John 13:34

While the summation of the Old Covenant, all of the Law and the Prophets hung upon these two commands, it should be considered that the goal of the New Covenant is the same, that is also hangs upon these two.

And, of course, it should.  The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom hidden from the foundation of the world in one respect (Matthew 13:35).  While it was precisely these two commands that proved to be  impossible to live out in the strength of the flesh, it is by the overcoming power of Christ within that, as He grows within us individually and corporately, that we are enabled to walk out today (mistakes and slips not excluded as we learn, of course).

Yet, it is the first of these commands, to love the Lord, is our greatest command.

Jesus said it this way.

He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

Matthew 10:37

Jesus does not simply require our best, He requires our all.  Many hold this passage to be true yet lack the understanding of how it applies to their life.  Yet, it is borne out in everything we do.

Our Passion, our One Thing, must be Him.  We must live a life of devotion to not only His truths, but His ways.

This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

This is what the LORD Almighty says:  If you will walk in my ways and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

Zechariah 3:7

It is in His ways, through the Sermon on the Mount, through the demonstration of His character, from the overflow of His grace within us, that the true life comes.

Jesus said it was the violent, the forceful, who take the Kingdom by violent force.  It was those with a need, those with an energy that some might even consider to be destructive.  There was something driving them towards the necessity of the righteousness of Christ.  Through the prophet Jeremiah, the Lord said, “but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving-kindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things”. (Jeremiah 9:24, portion).

It is our passion to be like Him, to walk in His ways, that we might govern His house, and have charge of his courts.  As Joseph was second in command in all of Pharaoh’s house, why should not we, diligent servants, desire to be the best and most honorable and trusted servants in all of the Lord Jesus’ house?  Why should we not desire it above our own promotion, advancement, and position?

All of our passion, all of our desire, are wrapped up in Him.  His consumes our focus.  His command not only takes precedence over all others, but replaces all others.  When it comes to obedience, if we truly desire to be His servant, it must be 100% on account of our will.  We may take some time to get there, and so long as our heart desires to get there, it is enough, but at some point, the realization that what we want is in the way of what He wants interrupts our daily life.

The door way is surrender to His name, and the power to do it is called Grace in His Spirit.  The power of the overcoming life is accessed through faith in Jesus Christ’s ability, accomplishment, and overcoming blood, and nothing else, but it is a price that must be paid.

While the price in once sense was paid fully on Calvary, the choice is ours whether to listen to it’s report or another.  And, in that, the life of prayer, the life of fasting, the life of daily seeking will never be abandoned, from start to finish.  If Jesus needed to send even His disciples away to pray and be alone with the Father, so must we.

But, when the passion from within erupts, who are we not to answer that call?  There is no greater thing then to be enraptured by all the energies of your creator, who knows you perfectly.  There is no more powerful place than to be in touch by faith with the author of the universe.  There is none before Him, nor will there be one after Him.

He captures every sense, every attention, and every molecule of the body.  He transforms in His touch into the very Power of Heaven.  Not that it is ever about you.  Not that it was even your arm that did it.  But, simply, only, and always, because, Most Happy are the poor in Spirit….  Most Happy are the persecuted for righteousness sake….

When we grasp the difference, to be touched and used mightily by God, and yet touch not the glory, the recognition, to realize it came because we were faithful, and He gave us a mighty deed to do, we realize that we have nothing we did not receive.  We boast freely of His magnificence, because we know that it is His mighty power that did it.

Psalm 37:4 says to delight ourselves in the Lord, and He will give us the desires of His heart.  This is the passion of the Gospel.  Dead to the world, and everything of the world looks like a dead corpse to us.  There is nothing it to attract or distract.

Yet, what did Jesus say?  He said that if we hear His words and do them, we will be a house built upon a rock.  This is not a house built upon the emotional life, although the emotions are still there.  This is not something built upon passing feelings, our own weak thoughts, but the thoughts of God Himself, through faith.  This is His mighty power working in and through us for which we gladly lay down our lives.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field….

Matthew 13:44, adapted

When was the last time that something of the Kingdom gripped you in this way?  Certainly, at salvation it did.  Certainly, something of His nature and character grabbed a hold of your attention and twirled you around to a way you did not know prior.  Yet, is that all?

Where do you suppose people get notions to take whole countries for the King?  Where do you suppose people get the idea to surrender everything?  Sure, some people operate out of a religious notion, and a spirit of striving, feeling like they have to do something just to be acceptable.  Some people do not know why they do it.  But, there are those others, who with a clean, upright, and knowing they are right before God, work with all of His energies within them, until heaven proves their wisdom with their results.  They produce a fruit that remains.  In spite of the bad, there is the good.

Yet, that passion, that one thing, comes only from the King.  That energy, that drive, that good forcefulness, derives directly from the throne.  For, listen to these words.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and Zion.  But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease

Zechariah 1:14-15 (portion)

For, it was the Lord Himself that was zealous over Jerusalem.  In Zechariah 1:11, the report of those who patrol the Earth was that there was peace throughout the whole land.  In the verses after, the question was then brought before the Lord about the fate of Jerusalem, who as yet had not received her comfort.  It was in the this, that although there was apparent peace throughout the land (according to how man looked at peace), that God was not at peace.  In His zeal, and in His strength, He announced that He would return to Jerusalem and that His house would be built.  This of course, would mean the stirring up of much strife, much contention, and much unrest.  But, it was God’s word, and it was God’s name.  He was being faithful to Himself, and His own nature.

So long as our passions derive from any other source, we will find ourselves at odds, eventually, with the purposes of God.  If we are in a time of war, and strive only for peace because that is a portion of what He wants, we may find ourselves, towards the end, wondering why He is inciting war.  If we live only in war because of our many enemies, we may find ourselves brought to a place of peace unexpectedly, or worse, miss an opportunity and wonder what went wrong.

It is only those who do the will of the Father that enter the Kingdom, and this is primarily found in the place of prayer, study of His Word, and fasting (Deuteronomy 8:3).

Yet, when our passions are humbled to His, and our exultation, our boasting, and our great strength in Him is fully limited to Him, for we are under His authority, so long as we stay in that place, the sky is the limit…

There is no devil, no man, nor institution that can stop you.  There is no cosmic power able to resist you if you stand firm.  There is nothing in all of Heaven or Earth that will defeat you, so long as you stay true to that purpose.

And, even Jesus, after having done all, and having been crucified, accomplished one of His greatest as of then ‘unfulfilled prophecies’ after His resurrection–the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

You see, it was only the place of His passion, in full accord with passions of the Father, that the fullness of the Kingdom was made manifest through Him.  What before was limited to Him, became multiplied, and has spread and filled the whole Earth!

To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Acts 1:3 KJV