A Life of Passion

Cottonwood Ladies Retreat “Pallette of a Woman’s Life” continued!Session 4- A Life of Passion, Katy Davis

Katy shared her revelation of what true passion is, which she received while on a mission trip. She received this revelation “In a van, on a mountain, in Bulgaria, at midnight” as the group travelled to minister to women who have been rescued from the sex slave industry in Greece.

Passion must come from a place of freedom. You cannot be truly passionate about God or about helping other people when you are not free. You have to minister out of freedom. When you are unhealthy, you cannot minister health to others. In order to help anyone, you have to help yourself first.

Real passion has nothing to do with enthusiasm and excitement. Passion is based on “ownership”. Many people live their own live like a renter. A renter does not invest into the house they rent. You don’t save up to buy a new oven for a rented apartment. You don’t sacrifice to upgrade. A home owner invests their money and their time to upgrade and take care of their home. As a Christian, if you live your life like a renter, you might go to church on Sunday, maybe an occasional Bible Study. An owner is ready to give themselves completely to the Christian life. A person with a renters mentality considers their life to be a result of things that happen to them. They shy away from dealing with hurts and wounds, they don’t set healthy boundaries. Giving of themselves generously doesn’t make sense. Ownership mentality steps into their own life with boldness. They seek healing for emotional and physical hurts. They say, “I own this life. I’m going to change.” They go out on a limb to be obedient. They partner with God to overcome bad habits and life patterns. Decide, “This is my one chance to live here on earth, so I am going to step into it.”

How do you get into the life of ownership.

1. Know who you are. If you have submitted your life to Christ, you are royalty, a daughter of the king. You may “feel” lie a servant, but you are still royalty. You don’t have to scrub the kitchen floor until it shines to earn favor from the King, because He is your Father. You have a crown on your head, so get out of the dungeon and back to the castle. Understand that you don’t serve to gain acceptance. Serving to gain acceptance is really slavery, but serving to help others to find freedom is true servanthood. If you agree to serve in anyway because you feel obligated or to gain acceptance, you are actually in slavery.

2. Know the Father. Passion flows from the heart of God. You pump yourself up enough to have passion. Our earthly father paints a picture of what our heavenly Father is like. Unfortunately, our earthly fathers are human. They may reflect God in some ways, but in other ways, they fall short. We attach a string that says our Heavenly Father is like our earthly father. We need to cut that string. We often define truth based on our experiences, but we have to understand God by knowing the truth from the Bible. Here are a few truths about who God is…

God is…with you in everything you do, near us, merciful, faithful, mighty, awesome; God is our rock, our refuge, our strength; God is wiser than any human wisdom, my help, the one who sustains me, my portion forever; God is holy, truthful, the bread that came down from heaven; God is love; God is the one who fights for you and gives you victory over your enemies; He takes great delight in you, and will rejoice over you with singing.