God's Desires & Passions

God has a strong desire and passion in His heart to save all people and to have a reconciled relationship with everyone. I Timothy 2:4 tells us that God wants all men to be saved, and 2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God does not want anyone to perish but for all to come to repentance. How strong is God's desire & passion ? So strong that He sent His only Son Jesus to suffer terribly and to die a horribly painful death on the cross, in order to make it possible for us to have a restored personal relationship with Him ("God so loved the world..." - John 3:16).

Another of God's desires and passions is to have intimate fellowship with us. This is fact, is His call for all Christians. We normally think of when God calls a pastor or a missionary, or when He calls us to do something for Him, when we think of the words "God's call". But I Corinthians 1:9 tells us that God calls us into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ. "Koinania" is the Greek word for fellowship in this verse, and this means the closest possible intimacy and fellowship and friendship with God. And there is a 2nd part to koinania fellowship with God, where we have a partnership with God and join Him in His work. When we walk in close intimate fellowship with God, we will begin to desire what God desires, and His passions will become ours. God wants to place into us His desire & passion to have intimate fellowship with Him. We are His first love and passion, and He wants to be our first love and passion. When we only focus on doing things for God, we miss out on the intimate fellowship that God wants to have with us.

God also wants to take His desire and passion for all men to be saved and place it into our hearts. When we have a soft & moldable heart for God, then He is able to place His desires & His passions into our hearts. Then we, God's people, God's church, will live passionately and purposefully to try to help all people to have a restored relationship with God through Jesus, and to help them to be true disciples of Christ. In Luke 19:10 Jesus said "I have come to seek and to save the lost." Jesus did not wait around in church for the lost people to come to Him ... He went out to seek them and then to try to help them to be saved. Like Jesus the church needs to be outwardly focused and actively seeking to reach people in their community, in their nation, and in all nations of the world.

In Romans 1:9 Paul says "I serve God with my whole heart in preaching the Gospel of His Son." Paul gave everything he had and everything he was to join God in His work. Acts 19:8-10 are some interesting verses. Paul went to Ephesus to preach the Good News of Jesus. Verse 10 tells us that he worked hard for 2 years, until all the Jews and Greeks in that area heard the Word, the Good News of Jesus. That is one of God's main plans and goals for His church - to work hard until all the people have heard about how to have a personal relationship with God through faith in Christ. Is your church working hard in this way, so that everyone in your community and beyond is hearing the Good News of Jesus ? If not then you are falling short of God's desire and plan and design for the church.

God needs to touch our hearts and fill us with His desires and passions, so that we will only desire to walk closely with Him and be willing to do whatever it takes to join Him in what He is doing in the world.