Sitting on Walls Spitting
 A Study on the Zeal of God
by Stef Liston
London, UK
Sitting on walls, spitting – my life before Jesus (killing time before the pub opened). Energy squandered foolishly on women known for only minutes. Passion invested in selfish schemes promising much, delivering little. Sporadic enthusiasm rooted in idle daydreams and producing only talk. Zeal? None. Then I got saved. God’s pure mercy. Enter the Consuming Fire – hard to stay the same with Him inside – all change. Not instantly, bit by bit with intoxicating moments, eyes wide at the unsearchable riches of Christ (Eph. 3:8). Shocking – I couldn’t (and didn’t want to) switch it off.
Other people noticed the difference before I did. Some people (Christian people) started saying they wished they could be zealous like me. Then I realised the funny thing; they thought the zeal was from me, that it was mine! They thought it was part of my personality, you know, one of those things you were either blessed with from birth, or not. This didn’t ring true, sitting on walls, spitting.
What had happened? God. Same God as theirs – the God. So what was the explanation? The more of Him I saw, the more I wanted, the more I needed. I was chasing Him, and it seemed to be working! Or was He chasing me?
Burning God
Zeal is God inside the person. He is an ‘eating fire’, the ancient Israelites were told (Deut. 4:24), and in case they were wondering if much had changed 2,000 years later, the revelation holds true: our God is an ‘eating lightning’ (Heb. 12:29).
He burns and blazes throughout eternity, roaming the heavens and scouring the earth, searching for smaller fires to sing with, stoke and strengthen (2 Chr. 16:9, John 4:23).
To really welcome Him we must abandon our fixation with ‘health and safety’ – we have been so ruined by the ugly forces of sin that beautification requires the deepest and most intrusive treatment imaginable – this is the realm of blood and fire.
Jesus, the model man and walking revelation of God, was eaten up with heat for the Father’s business (John 2:17). It took upturned tables and scattered coins to restore the house of prayer. Off with the thieves and in with the blind and lame for healing, as children sing their songs of praise (Matt. 21).
Here’s the invitation: for self-esteem to give way to self-denial, our own petty empires conquered by His everlasting Kingdom. Also, to be free from empty individualism so we can love the church with Christ’s own affections (Phil. 1:8), or so that He can love the church through us, or so that we can get so tied up together that we become like one (1 Cor. 6:17).
Loving God
Don’t we all know this and keep telling one another, He is a loving God. But what does that look like? ‘Stir not up, nor awake love, until he please’ (Song. 8:4). Love is a ‘He’, the God of ‘gods’, the exalted One – mighty, burning, holy love, and when He awoke it all kicked off and the devil’s works got wasted! (1 John 3:8, 1 John 4:8).
Snorting with anger, Jesus with tear-stained face, cried out to Lazarus, transforming his tomb into a second womb. Out of the cave stumbled Jesus’ friend, still wrapped in cloths but brimming with supernatural life! (John 11). So Solomon was right again – love is as strong as death (Song. 8:6) and proved far stronger at Christ’s cross and resurrection – death’s reign toppled by the crumpled figure’s shout – tombs split open, dead saints raised and three days later a scandal breaks out! (Matt. 27:50-54, 28:1-10).
This is true love, love that changes what apparently cannot be changed.
The insipid, pathetic sentiments we often mistake for love don’t have the power to change the channels on the television let alone the hardened chambers of the human heart. That sounds quite angry, but anger, without sin, is surely the biggest need in the church today. After all, although we don’t talk about it as much, He is an angry God.
Angry God
God’s wrath? That’s controversial talk in a tolerant world! Are we entering the realm of 9/11, terrorist training camps, mutilated bodies on the streets of Baghdad? No! We are entering the realm of transformation. When things get as bad as they’ve got, only anger will do. Not out-of-control-I’m-going-to-hit-you-with-a-wrench-because-you’ve-stolen-my-parking-space-anger, but the anger that dares to speak up for the defenceless, anger that feels the wrong of a situation so deeply that self-preservation is over-ridden and we walk into the path of the bullet.
This holy anger is the kind that, for the sake of love, also finds itself hating; hating the despicable, hating the destructive, hating ugly loveless-ness.
Hating God
Our God is not just a loving God, but also a hating God. The radiance of the Father’s glory (Jesus) was noted not just for loving righteousness but also for hating wickedness (Heb. 1:9). These days, we enjoy the first part and go strangely quiet on the second. Shouldn’t we hate the proud arguments of those who justify and legalise the deaths of millions of babies before they get a chance to see the light of day? Shouldn’t we hate the cruel oppression of violent men ruling over homes with iron fists, their moods and family’s daily destiny hanging on the latest football scores? Shouldn’t we hate our own self-righteous pride, caring more for what we’re thought of than the reputation of our Saviour? Let us learn to hate that we might be like God.
Jealous God
The ancient Hebrew Phinehas was commended by the Lord for driving through the Jewish man and Midianite woman in the throes of passion; today he would be imprisoned. This is not a call to arms but a call to hating all that God hates and taking up spiritual weapons of warfare, to feel the very jealousy of God Himself (Num. 25:11-13). He is, after all, a jealous God and is fiercely determined to restore our broken selves into His glorious image.
It’s not that cool to be jealous, in the same way that it’s not very cool to be hot; but when all’s said and done, nothing can stand before jealousy. That said, with so much darkness to deal with, jealousy becomes a vital weapon in our armoury.
Fighting God
And fight we must, because our God is a fighting God. The Scriptures describe Him as a man of war (Exod. 15:3) and in case we want more detail, look no further than Revelation 19:11-21: eyes blazing fire, blood-dipped robe, furious feet poised to tread God’s justice winepress, one tattoo-emblazoned thigh mirroring those awesome words written on His robe: ‘King of kings and Lord of lords’, ready to rule with a rod of iron, ready to strike with words sharper than blades, ready to fight for the fatherless and widow.
He is undoubtedly ‘tooled up’, and so must we be, with the weapons of righteousness in the right hand and the left (2 Cor. 6:7), but more than anything else, with His heart. We must be moved by the things that move Him – we must allow ourselves to feel what He feels.
Gasping God
And boy does He feel! The prophet Isaiah reveals the Sovereign One, not just high and exalted, robe filling the temple (chapter 6), but also bent down, gasping and panting like a woman in labour (chapter 42). He is sometimes, by way of judgement, the silent God, and then at other times, the gasping God. He cries out in anguish at the idolatry of His people, and He cries out in victory before He gives up His spirit (Matt. 27:50-54).
And there aren’t just gasps, but also groans as the Holy Spirit takes up God’s cause and groans with groans too deep for words. But this time the groans are not from heaven to earth but from earth to heaven, the Holy Spirit praying through the saints! It is felt, it is ultimate reality, it is a relationship with the groaning God.
Saving God
This is what we’re saved for, to be filled with Him and be lost in Him and find out who we truly are in Him. He is a saving God, His zeal accomplishing Jesus’ birth to Jesus’ everlasting reign and everything in between (Isa. 9:6-7). He not only burns internally to see His Son universally adored but also clothes Himself with the same fire (Isa. 59:17) so that inside and out He is about one thing.
This was sorely tested in the garden just before the cross. ‘Your will be done,’ cried out through gritted teeth, heaving sobs and bloody sweat. He’s all about the Father – we have one God about one thing – Himself. He calls us after Him.
So what do we do? Repent and be zealous (Rev. 3:19)! If you’re sitting on a wall, spitting, please stop, not just because it doesn’t look very nice, but because you are made in God’s image and He is a burning, loving, angry, hating, jealous, fighting, gasping, groaning, saving God. Wake up! |
|