Action vs Passivity
Action vs Passivity?
Are you taking passive action or massive action?
By Pastor George Lehman
Passivity: Afrikaans: Dadeloos/ledig
English: Spirit-lessness / lacking courage / inactivity / indifference = you know you’re doing things you shouldn’t but you just persist in them.
When we are passive, the enemy is active.
When we are active, the enemy is passive. – you don’t give him a foothold
Why discuss passivity? Over the many years, I have seen a passive approach to the Christian walk that many well-meaning Christians adopt without realizing it. I’m ok attitude; I’m happy to just get by.
Jesus Christ is returning for a passionate, active church.
Not a passive look-a-like.
It’s right that we should be aware of end-time events. In the last 50 years a great many prophecies have come to pass.
Matthew 24:6-8 (Amp) – “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened or troubled, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in place after place; All this is but the beginning [the early pains] of the birth pangs [of the intolerable anguish].
Yet, while it is very clear we are living in extraordinary times, let us not get ahead of the Lord. And get sucked into all sorts of prediction. What is most important is are you ready for His return?
Perhaps the most frequently mentioned end-time sign is the spiritual passivity that will lull many Christians to drowsiness and indifference concerning the things of God. The end times is about the condition of the church.
Jesus spoke of 3 distinct Action vs passivity instances in
Matthew 25:
Parable of the 10 virgins – Matthew 25
Virgins indicate purity. Children of God.
5 were ready, 5 were not.
5 active & passionate.
5 passive & compromising.
What a tragic end for the passive.
Matthew 25:13 (NIV) – Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. Watch what? YOUR LIFE!!
Parable of the talents
5, 2 and 1 talents given.
God designed you for active passionate service He SHAPED you with gifts and talents:
Heart – that will be Passionate for service. A heart after the heart of God.
Abilities – Natural talents.
Personality – Your unique identity.
Experiences – Things we go through to grow us, not to cause us to become passive.
Notice the 1 talent guy gave back only what he received.
It was the master’s anyway. He never used what He was given to improve himself and others. He was just passive.
2 were active & produced.
1 was passive & indifferent.
The end result of passivity was tragic.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:14- Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called His servants and entrusted his property to them.
A separation of the sheep and goats.
Sheep are passionate active children of God.
The goats are the passive inactive children.
If you follow Jesus, you must think of yourself as an Active overcomer.
The church is full of passive people who identify themselves as Christians but have no determined will to fight the fight of faith.
They simply have become used to their level of prostration and oppression and just live a mostly empty spiritual life.
Hebrews 6:11-12 (Amp) – But we do [strongly and earnestly] desire for each of you to show the same diligence and sincerity [all the way through] in realizing and enjoying the full assurance and development of [your] hope until the end, In order that you may not grow disinterested and become [spiritual] sluggards, but imitators, behaving as do those who through faith (by their leaning of the entire personality on God in Christ in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom, and goodness) and by practice of patient endurance and waiting are [now] inheriting the promises.
Passivity robs you of living in God’s abundant, passionate joy.
One core reason why so many Christians don’t walk victoriously and courageously in the promises of God is they are in bondage to a PASSIVE spirit.
Passivity arrests our will in many ways:
You’ve become lukewarm because of disappointments.
You may be harbouring offences and hardening your heart.
Maybe you’re living an undisciplined or sinful life.
NB! Whatever makes us spiritually passive also leaves us spiritually vulnerable.
Our activity and passion of being a Christianity does not only flow from our dogma or church services.
Our source of spiritual life flows from our daily union and communion with Jesus. He has to be #1
We do not bear fruit on our own.
John 15:5 (NIV) – “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
It is clear that God has put inside every child of His the potential to be active and passionate.
There is no excuse for passivity, otherwise scripture would not speak so seriously and urgently about a passive life.
Most courageous winners are just ex-passive losers who got active and passionate.
“What generates active, passion, zeal, and enthusiasm in you is – a clue to reveal your destiny.” – Mike Murdock
Fulfilling God’s plan for your life is a active passion or it’s nothing.
Deuteronomy 10:12 (Amp) – And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but [reverently] to fear the Lord your God, [that is] to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being. (A call to an active life)
We need self-control in our lives. Taking control of self will kill passivity and produce passion.
Proverbs 25:28 (NIV) – Like a city whose walls are broken down, is a man who lacks self-control.