Harnessing your Zeal
Imagine living your life without color, joy, or enthusiasm. A lackluster existence without any zest. Wow, just thinking about such a state of being without zeal, vigor, vitality, nor laughter filling my days is rather somber, daunting, dismal, and depressing. According to Charles Fillmore, Unity’s Co-Founder, Zeal, our tenth faculty or power of man, is the underlying power which motivates us into forward action. It seems that without zeal no one would accomplish much of anything. Fillmore also tells us that to be without zeal is to be without a zest for living. A flat, uninspired, dull, humdrum way of living. So, zeal is important, but it can be like the elusive wild stallion, just out of reach. How can we each harness zeal, that incredibly powerful, energy and life force, in a way that will drive our lives into their full potential?
According to Webster’s Dictionary, zeal is defined as “eager interest and enthusiasm; ardent endeavor or devotion; ardor; or fervor,” while dictionary.com defines zeal as “fervor for a person, cause, or object; eager desire or endeavor; enthusiastic diligence; ardor.” Charles Fillmore tells us in the Revealing Word that zeal is “the inward fire of the soul that urges man onward, regardless of the intellectual mind of caution and conservation.” He goes on to tell us that, “zeal is the mighty force that incites the winds, the tides, the storms; it urges the planet on its course, and spurs the ant to greater exertion. It is the urge behind all things.” Zeal is the affirmative impulse of existence; its command is “Go forward!” Mr. Fillmore tells us in his book The Twelve Powers of Man that the tenth power is zeal or enthusiasm.
According to David and Gay Williamson in Twelve Powers In You enthusiasm means “En-theos” or “On fire with God” and “filled with God.” So harnessing our zeal and enthusiasm is getting in touch with what fills us with God, what creates a fire within us, knowing what invigorates us.
Now that we have a pretty good understanding of what zeal and enthusiasm is, we need to know how we get it working in our lives. How do we become more enthusiastic? How do we move forward with fire in our lives? How do we get the oomph to finish those projects that always seem to be pushed to the back burner? How do we persevere, when the fire has seemingly burned out?
Paul Hasselbeck and Cher Holton tell us in Power Up: The Twelve Powers Revisited as Accelerated Abilities that “underdeveloped zeal results in a person who is listless and has little zest for life.” While the person with overdeveloped zeal results in a person who is zealous, impulsive, ruthless, compulsive, and overly ambitious and can come across way too strong. However, Paul and Cher go on to tell us that zeal from an elevated consciousness is the ability to be enthusiastic, passionate, inspirational, and motivational based on Ideas, Truths, Principles, and Laws that are Divine in Nature. We use zeal to be the best Christ we can be.
So how do we do that? How do we use zeal to become the best Christ we can be?
The first secret is you don’t have to do anything to get your zeal faculty going, you just have to become aware of it within you to feel its fire within you! Your zeal already exists within you as an inner spark, but you have to imagine it within you as it truly is. One way is to visualize it fired up, by keeping it as the focus of your mental energy. Focus your attention on the place it’s said to reside in the body. Charles Fillmore, in his book The Twelve Powers of Man, tells us that the power of zeal or enthusiasm resides at the base of our brain, our medulla oblongata. The medulla oblongata is called the reptilian brain and we have it in common with most other animals—it’s our instinctive fight and flight center. The medulla oblongata controls the rate of our breathing and as well as our heart rate and circulatory flow. When we are scared, nervous, excited, impatient or angry, our breathing and heart rates change. Instead of being full and deep, our breathing and heart rates can become shallow and hurried.
One of my favorite Bible verses is apparently a favorite of the Bible’s, as well, because it’s in the Bible at least twice! In 2 Kings 10:16 and in Isaiah 9:7 it reads, “… The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.” While referring to two different situations in the Bible, the Bible is definitely telling us that God’s zeal will do whatever it is we need to do. That is what we need to remember, that when we activate our zeal faculty, God’s fire will burn within us and will be able to do whatever it is that is ours to do.
Charles Roth tells us in his book A Twelve-Power Mediation Exercise, that zeal is inner-motivated, constant, durable, persistent, and dependable because it flows from a spiritual source within you. I was taught by one of my Unity Urban Ministerial School instructors, Rev. Dr. Julian Telesford, to place my thumb on one side of the base of my skull and my index and middle fingers on the others side of my skull and affirm that the zeal or enthusiasm of God is now quickened within me. I invite you to try it. Hold your thumb and index and middle fingers about an inch or so apart and place them on either side of the column of your neck. By doing this and holding the physical spot, there is great power in igniting your zeal.
The second secret is to use your zeal in conjunction with your power of wisdom. When you do, it creates a happy and satisfied life. We must use our wisdom to know when and how to express our zeal and enthusiasm appropriately. Zeal can have the propensity to bubble over. I imagine that Simon the Zealot, the disciple affiliated with the power of zeal, had many moments of using zeal in conjunction with his wisdom, but I would hazard a guess that he was also known for having it spew forth unchecked at times, as well. Having spent the majority of my youth as a live zeal cannon, it took me many years and primarily the tutelage of my mother-in-law, to help me better direct my zeal with wisdom.
In order temper your zeal with wisdom, Charles Roth tells us that we must develop a “center of calmness.” He tells us that when situations in our environment trigger us to react with emotion, being able to retreat into our center of calmness, even for just a moment, can thwart our compulsive emotional response. In doing so, we can stop the fight or flight mechanism from firing and maintain poise and patience, so we can use our wisdom to make wise and right responses for the given situations. Our wisdom center is in the pit of our stomach, our solar plexus, or as I like to call it, my “God-gut.” When we move to our calm center, we can tune into what our God-gut is telling us, instead of reacting instinctively in fight or flight mode. Focusing on the base of the skull and breathing can help us move to our calm center, so we can temper our zeal with wisdom (place flat palm on solar plexus) and act from an elevated consciousness of zeal.
The third secret to harnessing your zeal is to utilize affirmations to manifest zeal in your life. Affirmations have always been a part of my life. You probably have all heard of Charles Fillmore’s famous affirmation, written when he was 94 years old:
“I verily sizzle with zeal and enthusiasm and spring forth with a mighty faith to do the things which ought to be done by me.”
That’s an extremely powerful affirmation. I also alluded to an affirmation in our scripture, “…The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this” and fill in the blank for yourself. “…The zeal of the Lord will be tempered in me with wisdom.” That affirmation might work for you. Some additional affirmations to consider include:
- The zeal of God is quickened in me.
- The enthusiasm of God is activated in me.
- The power of zeal is now active in my mind, body, and life.
In Power Up: The Twelve Powers Revisited as Accelerated Abilities, Paul Hasselbeck and Cher Holton share these affirmations:
- “I claim zeal now.”
- “I use zeal to be passionate and enthusiastic about being the best Christ I can be.”
Any one of these might speak to you or you might create another one.
By focusing our attention (again, place index and middle fingers and thumb at the base of the skull), moving to our calm center (place flat palm on solar plexus) and using affirmations, we can all harness our zeal and live in an elevated consciousness where we use zeal to enthusiastically be the best Christ we can be.
