I am a proponent of God’s prevenient grace, grace initiated by God that seeks to draw us to Him and which enables us to respond to His call to turn from sin to righteousness.  It does not compel.  Rather, prevenient grace invites.  “Prevenient grace is grace that comes first.  It precedes all human decision and endeavor” (Editor’s emphasis) (Elwell, 520).  An illustration of how this grace works is found in 1 John 4:19, “We love Him because He first loved us.”     Even John 15:16 makes the point that God always initiates and invites in this teaching to His first disciples, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you…”

I have come to believe that many in my tribe of Christianity (having a Wesley-Arminian theological bent) view prevenient grace in an unnecessarily limited way by attaching it only to God’s invitation to salvation through Jesus Christ and the subsequent experience of entire sanctification wrought by the Holy Spirit, the latter being the mark of Christian maturity.   It’s easy to see why this might be the case as our theology heavily emphasizes this salvific view as being appropriate to being holy (ref. Leviticus 11: 44, 45; 19:2; 20:7; 1 Peter 1:16).  Note: Salvific means having the power or intention to save or redeem.   

I agree with the teaching; I don’t agree with the limitation.  I believe God anticipates our needs and precedes us in action (the meaning of prevenient) in a variety of ways.  How many anecdotes have each of us heard about someone being diverted from a catastrophe because they were distracted in an unusual way or their car wouldn’t start or they were held up in traffic?  How often have we experienced a vibe or some inner urging to do something or not do something or to avoid a particular area and we found out later that, had we ignored the urging, something unfortunate would likely have happened to us?  I know of people being awakened in the middle of the night with a strong urge to pray for a person or a situation, only to find out later that God was working powerfully on behalf of that person or in that situation. I have had these experiences.  We certainly could attribute all of this as coincidences as I’m sure many do.  It is also possible that these were times when the grace of God, that goes before us, guided us and protected us or someone else. 

Unlike many, I am not a Deist who believes in an impersonal, distant God who does not involve Himself in the affairs of His creation.  I believe in a personal God who loves and cares deeply for every baby born and who seeks every man, woman, and child who draws breath that they would crave to be in relationship with Him in the same way He desires to be in relationship with them.  The reality of Jesus Christ and His redemptive sacrifice directly contradicts the claims of Deism. 

Because God loves and desires eternal fellowship with each of us, He warns us to avoid pathways that would endanger this possibility.  The entirety of the Bible might be viewed as an instruction guide on how to journey on the safe path, and as one component in that instruction, warnings are given.  Some are quite specific and even threatening, not in contradiction to His love but because He never stops being God, the One who has no equal and who dwells in the high and holy place, the One who’s ways and thoughts are higher than ours, even though we sometimes believe we know better and are better at self-guiding than He is at guiding us (ref. 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 7:22; 1 Chronicles 17:20; Isaiah 55:9; 57:15; Jeremiah 10:6,7).  I contend, therefore, that warnings from God are as much prevenient grace as is any other way He anticipates our needs and seeks to influence us.

All of the preceding was groundwork for something I feel compelled to share, a warning that has surfaced to my conscious thinking following a time of intensified seeking of God through prayer and fasting.  I’m not sure if what I believe I have received is narrowly confined or has broader implications, but I am confident that God has shared something of His heart with me and I am not to keep it to myself.  

God, I believe, is very concerned with a loss of fervor in His children, those who call themselves Christians and claim a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ.  To the extent there is a lack of fervor in His called ones, there is a lack of fervor in His church, the body of Christ.    

What is fervor and what does it mean to be fervent?  Fervor is a noun referring to heat, more specifically boiling heat that impacts everything it touches.  The adjective form, fervent, is descriptive of people and activities (zealous is a common synonym).  A well-known scriptural use of this word is found in James 5:16, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”   A translation might be “Christ-centered prayer boiling over in its hunger for God and prayed by people consecrated to Him produces good spiritual fruit.”      

 Romans 12:10-12 happens to be the beginning of a teaching by Paul the Apostle on the marks of a true Christian.  In it, he says, “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer…”  (Underline is mine). 

This is not to say that there is no fervency within the body of Christ, however for many, parochial zeal has replaced zeal for the high holiness and goodness of God expressed perfectly in Christ Jesus and wrought in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Passion for and in self-interest, passion for things associated with our particular cultural attachments, passion for and pride in our church affiliation, and passion for our tribal institutions (be they social, cultural, and/or religious) become the loci of our loyalty and service, effectively replacing the call to the kingdom of God and the interests of this eternal kingdom.      

Commentator William Greathouse says, “Zeal [fervency] in all our Christian duties is the natural consequence of agape filling our hearts…When the love which moved Him dwells in us we will be fervent in spirit” (Author’s italics).  Dr. Greathouse goes on to remark, “The RSV [Revised Standard Version] translates Romans 12:11, ‘Never flag in zeal, be aglow with the Spirit, serve the Lord’” (Greathouse, 245).  

If I am discerning the Spirit correctly, this is missing in Christ’s church enough that His attention is drawn to it and warns about it.

What are symptoms when fervor is lost?  I will name five possibles: 

1. Jesus is a concept more than a person. We reach the point where we know of Him more than we actually know Him.  There is no strong relational bond to which we are attracted and so attached that His presence guides our values and our priorities and which positively influences our desires, as well as constraining them in accordance with His will.  While the concept of Jesus is to be studied and understood, the person of Jesus is to be loved (see John 14:15).         

• Loss of the joy of salvation.  To enter the kingdom of God by having a saving relationship with God through Jesus Christ, to a Christian, ought to be the greatest existential event in life.  In the NT, Jesus often used parables to illustrate this phenomenon: In Matthew 13 – the parable of the hidden treasure; the parable of the pearl of great price; In Luke 15 – the parable of the lost sheep; the parable of the lost coin; the parable of the prodigal son).  Giving priority to other interests and desires causes this joy to stagnate as David came to confess in Psalm 51.

• Inattentiveness to a life of devotion.  Being a living sacrifice unto God is, according to Paul, our reasonable worship and ought to be demonstrated by a mental transformation and accompanying behaviors that acknowledge the preeminence of God in all things (as opposed to being conformed to worldly standards) (ref. Romans 12:1-2).  This suggests that approaches to life that veer away from this are unreasonable in the eyes of God and is an unreliable course of the spiritual formation God uses to conform us to the image of Christ, thereby glorifying Him and blessing others (Mulholland, 12).   This effectively makes for a testimony without teeth.  One example would be the delusion of being able to live a Christ-centered life without a regular prayer life.  

• Independence of Self rather than Dependence on God.  To choose to be independent from God is a mark of spiritual pride and a rejection of His spiritual authority.   The humility that acknowledges one’s spiritual poverty leads to willing dependence on God and the blessedness of possessing the kingdom of heaven, but this humility is distasteful to the independent-minded (ref. Matthew 5:3; also see Isaiah 64:5 and Matthew 25:31-36 on Jesus’ sheep and goat metaphor).  Explanatory Note: Adam Clarke says that sheep are “emblems of mildness, simplicity, patience and usefulness [and] represent the true disciples of Christ.  Goats, which are naturally quarrelsome…were considered as the symbols of [spiritual impurity, representing] all who have lived and died in their sins” (Clarke, 822). 

•  Lack of eschatological readiness. Remaining in the joy of our salvation, living a life of devotion, and submission to God’s authority are signs that the affairs of the Lord’s household are being carefully attended to by those He has left in service during His absence, all the while promising that He would return at an unexpected time.   A loss of fervor leads to inattention to His affairs and being unprepared for His return (ref. Luke 12:36-40).  

Does this feel harsh?  Warnings typically do, but when they are received as intended, there is usually an accompanying salvific effect.  They are a sign of love because their purpose is to avoid danger.  Natural children, whose parents discipline them alongside of giving affection and life instruction, know this instinctively.  That warning look or word from mother or father, if heeded, staves off negative consequences.  This is good news because warnings provide an opportunity to change direction, or in biblical language, repent.  This is the prevenient grace of our loving God.     

Works Cited

Clarke, Adam. Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, abridged.  Ralph Earle (ed.).  

     Iowa Fall, IA: Word Bible Publishers, 1967.  

Elwell, Walter A.  Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2^nd Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker 

     Academic, 2001. 

Greathouse, William. “Romans,” Beacon Bible Commentaries, Volume III. Kansas City, MO: 

     Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 1968.

Mulholland, M. Robert.  Invitation to a Journey, A Roadmap for Spiritual Formation.  

     Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993. 

© Byron L. Hannon, unless otherwise noted, 2025.