PASSION Mike Leichner
One quality that I feel is missing in much of our ministry today is passion.
The greatest display of power ever seen on planet Earth took place the third day just outside of the city of Jerusalem at the Garden Tomb where Jesus arose from the dead. This was the greatest show of power in history! What was it that caused His power to be released? The answer is found in the first chapter of Acts verse 3(a) ‘To whom also He showed himself alive after His passion!’
Power follows passion. If you lose your passion you lose His power. If someone loses passion their ministry cannot effectively go anywhere. That is why Hell wants your passion!
I never sing a song that I can’t feel from my heart.
I never preach a message that doesn’t burn in my soul.
I’ve heard some say, ‘I don’t know why my ministry is going nowhere. I have good songs and a good message, what’s wrong?’
One old-time preacher told me when I was a young evangelist ‘Let a man take a Bible with fire in his soul (passion) and step out on a buckboard and preach, somebody will come to hear him!’ I have found that we can have Acts 1:8 ‘but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you’ and not have verse 3 ‘after His passion.’ It was after His passion that Jesus displayed His power. Real power follows passion!
Is this not what we all desire in our ministry – Power? Elijah was a prophet of power. He called down fire from Heaven. He called life into a boy’s body. He shut down rain for three years and he outran the King’s chariot. This natural man lived a life of the supernatural in the power realm. Nothing in the Word is said about his family, his parents, or about him personally. What is said in James 5:17 is that he was a man of like passion.’
Elijah prayed earnestly and his passion was his power! We say, ‘Where is the God of Elijah’ and God responds ‘Where are the Elijahs of the Lord?’
I greatly desire the double portion, I want Elijah’s power released through me! I can hear God say, ‘Show Me a man or woman who has Elijah’s passion and I will show you a man or woman who can have Elijah’s power.’ The key to supernatural power with God is passion!
In Mark 5, there was a woman with an issue of blood. For twelve years she had tried everything to be healed of the disease. She knew it was not lawful to touch the Master. Logic said the crowd was too big, or you’ll never be able to get to Him anyway. Yet she said within herself ‘If I can but touch the hem of His garment I will be made whole.’ Something inside of her told her if she didn’t get to Jesus now, the healing would never come. There were hundreds of people reaching out to Him and they were saying He would never pass this way again. Yet when the unnamed woman touched Him, He stopped and said, ’ Who touched me?’ Those words have echoed down through the ages. The disciples responded ‘Lord, there is a multitude crowding around You, and You ask who touched You?’ The Master said, ’I felt dunamis leave my body.’ Dunamis is Greek translated as dynamite power. Jesus felt power being released from Him. There were hundreds pressing in around Him, touching Him, yet there was no viable passion. When this woman reached out and touched Jesus’ garment with faith and passion, power was released and virtue (dunamis) went out of him. She was made whole, body soul, and spirit!
When we release passion; strong, extravagant, ardent, fervent passion, we can expect that power will always follow.
