Do you have ZEAL?

Last night Dean, Sai, Aaron, Bea, Nathan and I went to Noho subway station. There was so much demonic activity out, you could feel it in the air. We had a horde of JW's, a raging drunk, a Scientologist handing out his cult material AND the flute guy who plays super loud! (Thankfully the police came and shut him down)

At one point Aaron and I were both moved to open air. Aaron did a great job preaching in Spanish and even though I couldn't understand him I could hear his ZEAL. Afterwards the Lord moved me to preach and to be honest... I lost my mind. Gratefully my recorder was full and I didn't record one second of my preaching, because you would have heard a freak. Yet afterwards the saints said many encouraging things about what was said.

This was my morning reading from Numbers 25:1-13 and I it struck me the practical application of this passage of how we are to have ZEAL for the Lord:

Israel’s Harlotry in Moab

¹ Now Israel remained in Acacia Grove, and the people began to commit harlotry with the women of Moab. ² They invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. ³ So Israel was joined to Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel.

⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and hang the offenders before the LORD, out in the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.”
⁵ So Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Every one of you kill his men who were joined to Baal of Peor.”
⁶ And indeed, one of the children of Israel came and presented to his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. ⁷ Now when Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand; ⁸ and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stopped among the children of Israel. ⁹ And those who died in the plague were twenty-four thousand.
¹⁰ Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: ¹¹ “Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned back My wrath from the children of Israel, because he was zealous with My zeal among them, so that I did not consume the children of Israel in My zeal. ¹²Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him My covenant of peace; ¹³ and it shall be to him and his descendants after him a covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was zealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’”

Now I'm not suggesting you should go out and "skewer" the next JW you see. What I'm asking is: DO YOU HAVE ZEAL FOR THE LORD? In a dark, evil world that is numb to its own sin a man or woman on fire for the Lord will burn brighter! What was encouraging to me is that the Lord says in v. 11 "he was zealous with My zeal". As if God had given it to him.

One thing I had learned after last night was that even though I had zeal for the Lord... I failed. You might ask "How did you fail?" I failed because after I got off the box people said very kind things about ME and that was the problem. If I had preached rightly they would have glorified God! It's not their fault, it is the preachers.

A great quote I once read was after C.H Spurgeon had finished preaching someone came up to him and said what a magnificent job he had done preaching. Spurgeon's response, "I know. The devil already told me before I got out of the pulpit."