This prophetic teaching article continues God’s present emphasis on the need for holiness in the church today.
As I was out praying in the midst of the storm the other morning, I received the word “sublimated passion”. The word “sublimation” is a technical term for the unconscious modifying of the natural expression of an impulse to one that is socially acceptable. Let me begin with a personal example of this process.
As a younger man I thought of myself as a very direct, uncompromising and forceful preacher. (People had often compared me to John the Baptist.) One day a psychologist who was the member of the congregation approached me and raised the issue of anger in my preaching, she stated that I was angry from a very deep place in my life and bringing this out in my messages. At the time this was something I was unable to receive, it seemed to me it was God’s passion I was feeling against the sin of the people. With lots of help I was later able to realise it was childhood anger directed against my parents that I had never able to safely express that was being diverted and “sanctified” into the socially acceptable (to me) image of a fiery preacher.
There is immense sublimation in the general culture. For example, outward displays of aggression are socially reprehensible in young males, except on the sporting field where they receive accolades. Passionate longings for intimacy in relationships can be diverted into the safer, physical, side of sexuality. The God – given desire of men to be emotionally present fathers is turned into slavery to work. Instead of living for God, the created longing of women to be nurtured by husbands is transformed into living for their children. Closer to home, personal disappointments with God are translated into a passion for “ministry”.
All of this constitutes a major and generally unrecognised problem for the church. A highly relevant contemporary example has to do with the modern “worship phenomenon”. A young man came out of an intense and inspiring worship service and turned to his friend, saying “We come here week after week and praise and worship God but our lives are not being changed.” If this was a true description of reality, as his friend agreed it was, then the conclusion is inescapable that the fire and energy of these young people was not pure. Their “worship” brought emotional satisfaction but it was not spiritually transforming, they were not growing in holiness. At a deep and unconscious level, the “well springs of life” (Prov 4:23) were polluted by a desire for a heightened “experience” rather than being the longing of the pure in heart who are promised that they will “see God” (Matt 5:8).
The only thing that can deal with the unconscious power of sublimation is the greater power of the cross. The cross is the one place of absolutely pure passion in the whole of human history; it is “unsublimated passion”. At the cross the sole object of the affections of Jesus is the Father – he loves the Father and the Father alone. The sacrifice of the cross is of such an order that there can be no other reason for this commitment than the love of God. This is because the cross is the only place in human history where to love God purely means to not see God, to be without God and without hope in this world. Jesus great cry of abandonment, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) tells us that when God is most purely loved by his Son he is least experienced – he is not known as Father at all. There is no possible external reason – such as good feelings, social acceptance etc., nothing other than unconditional love, which can explain the passion of Jesus for his God expressed in his death. It is this act of selfless love that makes Jesus a completely holy person.
How does this apply to us? That is, to we people of a very sublimated spiritual passion. I believe that God spoke to me today another word; this is “severe blessing”. The cross was a severe blessing to Jesus because without its pain for humanity he never would have been able to receive the fullness of the Father’s reward at the resurrection. The cross was a severe blessing to the Father because it was the cost of being able to inundate Jesus with blessing in the resurrection.
God is at this very moment working a “severe blessing” in the lives of those who will lead the way in the Spirit in what he is going to do in our city. These persons, like Jesus, are man and women struggling with a pain that has been opened up in their lives by God – they are being purified and perfected through suffering for the kingdom of God (Heb 2:10; 5:9). With time, they will emerge as persons of “unsublimated passion”. Their lives will communicate an intensity that is pure and holy; it will penetrate into every sphere of life transforming it to the glory of God. Such persons, and we can certainly pray to be among their number, know that they need to be “burnt alive” for the cause of Jesus.
When they come forth they will radiate an irresistible spiritual attraction – a pure and uncreated light that will issue in a new phase of uncompromising godliness for the church in Perth. In this true power of the Spirit there will not be burn out, compromise, corruption, immorality and other things that seem so common in the church of God in our day, but an unclouded manifestation of the person of Christ. This is what so many, consciously or unconsciously, are longing for in their hearts.
It is important that we ask the Father to expose any areas of sublimation in our lives, so that our passion for him becomes increasingly like his for us, so that the world may be saved. Glory to God alone!