The Possibilities of Zeal

“So the service of the temple of the LORD was reestablished. Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced at what God had brought about for his people, because it was done so quickly.” (2 Chronicles 29:35-36)

In sixteen days, a 25-year-old overturned sixteen years’ worth of damage to the temple. 

On the very first day of Hezekiah’s reign, he opened the doors of the temple that his father Ahaz had shut. He commanded the Levites to get to work. He gathered the city officials. He led a mass offering of sheep, rams, bulls, and goats. He rededicated all of the officials of Judah to the Lord. He reestablished the service of the temple.

By the sixteenth day of his reign, the temple, which had been shut down for years, was cleansed, sanctified, and reopened to the people. 

That’s the power of zeal. 

There is a dam holding back divine power, fortified on each side by pillars of sloth and unbelief. Waters of healing stand ready behind the dam—but without faith and fervency, it cannot break through.

Zeal breaks the dam. 

When the Spirit of God finds a zealous believer, he opens the floods of renewal, flattens old patterns of sin, waters the dry ground, and quenches the thirst of a people in drought. He does in a matter of moments what no one could do in a century. He comes like a raging river to end a dormant era and usher in seasons of refreshing.

Sometimes, God changes things one degree at a time (2 Corinthians 3:18).

But there are pivotal moments when God sends a deluge of reform. He wants to show the exceeding power of divine blessing over all chariots, horses, swords, and shields. He looks for one who reaches higher than human timelines, human precedent, and human plans—one who hungers and thirsts for what can only come from heaven. 

He searches for a servant with zeal. 

And when God finds such a servant at such a time, he flips tables. He overthrows an army of unclean spirits. In a snap, he cleans out what is old and moves in what is new. He spreads a wildfire of burning passion, like a torch passed straight from the heart of the King—the very one who fashioned a whip of cords, of whom it was written: Zeal for your house will consume me.

These are the last days, and God is reversing all temple decay. He is searching for cracks in the dam—sons and daughters of zeal in the midst of a sleepy generation. 

Will he find it in you?