Feel the Zeal!

The other week I was speaking with a group of pastors and church leaders in Denver about the journey of Oceans Ministries. In the middle of sharing about one of our stops along the way a lady blurted out, “ “Feel the Zeel!” Some people looked at her with a perplexing stare as she enthusiastically let those words fly, but Patty and I knew exactly what she was referring to. It wasn’t exactly an amen to what I was sharing but rather a reference to a marketing campaign geared to attract people to the quaint downtown of Zeeland, Michigan, where we once lived.

Ironically, or should I say in God’s Sovereign plan, a few days later I was back in Zeeland with a group of men eager to learn more about the Holy Spirit. As we shared, studied, and prayed together that phrase “Feel the Zeel” kept orbiting around my mind. “Zeal” is great energy or enthusiasm in pursuit of a cause or an objective. This describes how the HOLY Spirit works in the life of a believer. This weekend we referenced the Holy Spirit as….

The Holy Spirit as the power and presence of God- who brings us to the perfect love of the Father and Son producing an abundant life.

The Holy Spirit is zealous for us to come into an experiential knowledge of the love of God the Father through the work of His Son Jesus as revealed in Romans 8:15-17:

“For you did not receive a spirt that makes you a slave to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by which you cry, “Abba Father, (Daddy, Daddy). The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ…”

God the Holy Spirit is zealous to bring us into the Father’s house through the finished work of Jesus and lavish Heaven’s unfailing love upon us. To taste it, to feel it, to be transformed by this perfect love that cast out every possible fear in life (1 John 4:19). This is what happened to Jesus at His baptism, to the disciples at Pentecost and what God the Holy Spirit wants to bring to us. Our world is in desperate need of followers of Christ who “feel the zeal” of God’s unquenchable love. Our churches in the US need to be revived afresh by this unstoppable love if we are going to become attractive to a lost and hurting world.

What attracts this zealous love of God through the Holy Spirit? I believe it is when His followers zealously go after Him. After this two day gathering I left extremely hopeful as this group of men from Zeeland committed to pray and seek after the gift of the Father as promised by Jesus in Luke 11:11-13:

Keep asking, seeking, and knocking – if you father’s who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit to those who ask.

Take a moment to quiet your soul. To hear the Holy Spirit declaring “Feel the Zeal?” May He prompt and prepare our hearts for a fresh move. To bring us into the power and the presence of the the Father and the Son’s love. May this love overflow from the banks of our soul and splash out upon a draw and thirsty world.