A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art.. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They would often sit together and admire the great works of art. When the Vietnam conflict broke out, the son went to war. He was very courageous and died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified and grieved deeply for his only son.
About a month later, just before Christmas,there was a knock at the door. A young man stood at the door with a large package in his hands. He said, 'Sir, you don't know me, but I am the soldier for whom your son gave his life. He saved many lives that day, and he was carrying me to safety when a bullet struck him in the heart and he died instantly. He often talked about you, and your love for art.'
The young man held out this package. 'I know this isn't much. I'm not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this. 'The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son, painted by the young man. He stared in awe at the way the soldier had captured the personality of his son in the painting. The father was so drawn to the eyes that his own eyes welled up with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay him for the picture.. 'Oh, no sir, I could never repay what your son did for me. It's a gift.'
The father hung the portrait over his mantle. Every time visitors came to his home he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them any of the other great works he had collected. The man died a few months later. There was to be a great auction of his paintings.
Many influential people gathered, excited over seeing the great paintings and having an opportunity to purchase one for their collection. On the platform sat the painting of the son. The auctioneer pounded his gavel. 'We will start the bidding with this picture of the son. Who will bid for this picture?' There was silence. Then a voice in the back of the room shouted, 'We want to see the famous paintings. Skip this one. 'But the auctioneer persisted. 'Will somebody bid for this painting? Who will start the bidding? $100, $200?'
Another voice angrily. 'We didn't come to see this painting. We came to see the Van Gogh's, the Rembrandts. Get on with the Real bids! 'But still the auctioneer continued. 'The son! The son! Who'll take the son?' Finally, a voice came from the very back of the room. It was the longtime gardener of the man and his son. 'I'll give $10 for the painting...' Being a poor man, it was all he could afford.
'We have $10, who will bid $20?''Give it to him for $10. Let's see the masters. 'The crowd was becoming angry. They didn't want the picture of the son. They wanted the more worthy investments for their collections.The auctioneer pounded the gavel. 'Going once, twice, SOLD for $10!'
A man sitting on the second row shouted, 'Now let's get on with the collection!' The auctioneer laid down his gavel. 'I'm sorry, the auction is over.''What about the paintings?' I am sorry. When I was called to conduct this auction, I was told of a secret stipulation in the will. I was not allowed to reveal that stipulation until this time. Only the painting of the son would be auctioned... Whoever bought that painting would inherit the entire estate, including the paintings. The man who took the son gets everything!'
God gave His son 2,000 years ago to die on the cross. Much like the auctioneer, His message today is: 'The son, the son, who'll take the son?'
Because, you see, whoever takes the Son gets everything. FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, WHO SO EVER BELIEVETH, SHALL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE...THAT'S LOVE.
Thursday, September 3, 2009
ONE TICKET PLEASE
Thursday, September 03, 2009
By:Pastor Marquis Boone
The word of God tells us about spiritual warfare in 2 Corinthians 10:3-4 (NKJV) "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds."
This scripture is so power, and filled with nuggets to help us as we face this thing called spiritual warfare. See I have learned that when God is moving in your life that's an indication to get ready for the warfare. When things seem to be going great that's a representation to get ready for the warfare just ask Job. When you're doing what God said that's a motion to get ready for the warfare.
I don't know about you but it seems like since the start of this year the warfare in the believers' life has intensified. To intensify means to make something greater or stronger, or to increase in strength.
When you break the word warfare down it becomes two words. The first word is "WAR" which means conflict, struggle, and battle. The next word is "FARE" which means charge, price, cost, and ticket. Basically the amount charged for a journey. When you put the word back together it is the battle price, the struggle ticket. No matter how you say it, what you're going through your a paying passenger.
This spiritual warfare is the amount you charged for your journey; your conflict is the amount you charged for a journey; your struggle is the amount you charged for a journey; your battle is the amount you charged for your journey.
You want to know why spiritual warfare is necessary. You pay a fare to ride a bus, plane or train with a destination in mind. After you have your ticket anything can happen. There could be a delay, a crash, or just a smooth ride, but at the end you still get to where you wanted to be.
I just want you to know that even though you are going through this spiritual warfare, trust God, and know that you are on your way to your destiny.
Spiritual warfare - the amount charged for a journey.
Monday, August 31, 2009
GIANT KILLERS
David therefore departed thence, and escaped to the cave Adullam-.-.-.-And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; —1 Samuel 22:1-2
When David and his men went into the cave, they were discouraged, in debt, and defeated. In the natural they had plenty to be discouraged about, but they were in the cave with God's anointed King. They became intimately acquainted with David, and the anointing on David's life rubbed off on them. When David's men came out of the cave, they were mighty, valiant men of war! Spend intimate time with God and receive His anointing on your life.
In the presence of the anointing, you will grow stronger and more assured than ever before. Stay in the presence of the Anointed One—Jesus the Christ. Refuse to leave His presence. There you will come to know intimately the One who died for you.
You will come out stronger and surer than when you went into the cave with God. Your steps are ordered of the Lord, so expect signs and wonders to follow you. Proclaim boldly, "I have been with the Lord God Jehovah, and I am ready to reap the harvest He has prepared!"
Lord, before I kill any giants, let me spend time with You, the killer of giants. I know that You have defeated all the giants in my life. Draw me close to You so that I might be immersed in Your anointing. Amen.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
DID GOD SAY THAT?
Fine Tune Your Ability to Hear God
By Teresa Seputis
Have you ever thought God was saying something to you, but you weren't sure it was really His voice you were hearing? Have you found yourself thinking, How do I know it was really God I heard and not my own imagination—or worse, the enemy?
God's solution is simple: "'If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him'" (James 1:5, NIV). When we need to know if we are hearing God's voice, all we have to do is ask Him!
We can go to God, tell Him what we think we heard Him say, and then ask Him to confirm it or correct our hearing on the matter. God wants to give us an understanding of what He says to us because He wants to communicate with us. He is eager to teach us to correctly hear His voice.
What are some steps we can take to make sure we're hearing God?
What are some steps we can take to make sure we're hearing God?
1. Put your faith in the right thing. When I was first learning to hear God's voice, I went overboard in my need to double-check my hearing. I was so afraid I might hear God wrong that I tended to check and recheck my hearing on just about everything. I became very sluggish in obeying God because I spent so much time verifying everything I heard.
My problem was that I had placed my faith in the wrong thing. I was trusting in my ability to hear God—instead of in His ability and faithfulness to speak clearly and to correct and redirect me if I heard wrong.
I used to think that "correction" was the same as "punishment." But God revamped my thinking by reminding me of my old ice skating coach.
I really liked him. He would watch me try to execute a move and then offer feedback, saying something such as: "Your weight is drifting to the left when you turn. You need to keep it balanced over your skating foot."
I knew I had just been corrected, but I wasn't put down or made to feel small or punished. The intent of the correction was to help me excel, and as I applied what he told me, my skating improved.
God told me that I should look to Him as my coach when it came to hearing His voice. He promised that He would let me know when I got something wrong and how to correct it so I could excel in following Him. Suddenly correction became something to be desired instead of something to be feared, and I found out just how faithful and committed God is to the process of teaching us to hear Him.
2. Look for scriptural precedents. It is wise to get into the habit of checking what God says to us against Scripture. God will not say something to us that contradicts what the Bible says. There will be certain "words" we can eliminate immediately as "not from God" when we line them up against what God has already said in the Bible.
At the same time, there are many areas that the Bible does not address explicitly. Still, God is often willing to give us a scriptural precedent for what He says to us. For instance, imagine that you are trying to decide which of two job offers God wants you to accept. You believe He is telling you to take job offer No. 2, one that will put you in contact with hurting people to whom you can minister. But job offer No. 2 is a much lower-paying job than job offer No. 1, so you want to be sure you are hearing God.
You ask Him for a confirmation, and as you're considering your decision, God directs your attention to Matthew 9:12-13: "'It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick....For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.'" Those words come alive to you, and you realize that you have just received the confirmation you need to take the second job. God will often use such scriptural precedents to help confirm His communication to us.
3. Don't fleece God. We must not give God an ultimatum about how He is to confirm His word to us. That's called "putting a fleece before the Lord," and it refers to the experience of Gideon found in Judges 6:36-40.
God wanted Gideon to lead Israel in battle against the Midianites, but Gideon was not feeling very confident in his calling—or in his hearing from God. So he laid a fleece (a sheepskin) on the floor and asked God to make the morning dew come only on the fleece, and not on the ground around the fleece. God did this for him, but poor Gideon was still unconvinced. The next night he asked God to reconfirm His word by covering the ground with dew but leaving the fleece dry. Once again, God did as Gideon requested.
Based on this passage, some people assume that they can tell God precisely how to confirm or correct what they believe they have heard Him say to them. In essence, they believe they can dictate the "supernatural hoops" through which God must jump to prove He really said what they believe they heard.
God allowed Gideon to fleece Him, but there is no indication that He was setting a precedent for the rest of us to follow. In fact, there is a strong scriptural precedent against telling God specifically what to do.
Jesus Himself refused Satan's suggestion to put a fleece before God by casting Himself off the highest point of the temple. Instead, Jesus said, "'Do not put the Lord your God to the test'" (Matt. 4:7).
When we go back to God for confirmation, we need to allow Him to choose how He will correct or confirm what we heard. It is not our place to dictate how He does this. Instead, we must trust that He will do it in a way that we can clearly recognize as being from Him.
4. Avoid making assumptions. When hearing God's voice, we need to be very careful about making assumptions. God can speak to us very clearly, and we can hear Him accurately.
But we can still go wrong by making an assumption about what God means by what He says, only to discover later that we heard God but didn't understand Him. We have to be very careful not to put words in God's mouth.
Let me give you an example of how this can happen. A close friend of mine had been praying for some time about a deep and painful rift in her relationship with her sister. Then she received a prophetic word from a lady who seemed to really hear from God.
The word had to do with the restoration of a broken relationship in my friend's life. However, the lady proceeded to assume that the relationship in question was between my friend and her husband, and she began to minister to my friend about her marriage (which was, in reality, rock solid).
The prophet had received a very keen word from God about my friend's situation, but the power of that word was almost lost when she assumed the relationship involved was with a spouse. This is an example of how we can accurately hear from God and then make assumptions that mislead others and us. We want to be careful to avoid doing that!
5. Recognize areas of "hearing loss." We need to remember that there are certain areas of our lives in which our hearing is likely to be less accurate. It is more difficult to hear God clearly in areas where we have "big stakes" in the answer, where our hearts are tremendously engaged or where we know we have a history of hearing wrong. We must double-check these areas and ask God to confirm what we've heard.
Here's an example. A friend of mine who hears God pretty well in most areas of her life recently went through a divorce. After a "recovery period" of a few months, she met a single man who seemed to be everything she wanted in a husband. She thought she began to hear God speaking to her about this man, telling her that indeed he was the man He had for her.
I strongly suspected that this was her own heart speaking, not God, and I tried to find a gentle way to tell her this. But she thought God was saying more and more detailed things to her. She thought she heard Him tell her that her Christmas present from this man would be an engagement ring, with the wedding following shortly after that.
She was so sure she was hearing God's voice! But December came and went, and she didn't receive any Christmas present from this man—much less an engagement ring. Later he told her that he considered her no more than a casual friend.
She was devastated not only because the man was not interested in her but also because she had been so wrong in hearing God. She had failed to recognize her own heart imitating God's voice to her. She didn't double-check her hearing with God, because she so desperately wanted to hear what she thought she heard.
6. Be ready to obey. Once we hear God, it's important that we obey what we hear. There are two kinds of obedience: cheap obedience, which is obeying when the stakes are not very high or when it doesn't cost us much to obey; and expensive obedience, which is obeying when significant consequences are involved. The job decision mentioned earlier is an example of expensive obedience because it involved a choice between a low-paying job and a higher-paying one.
But money doesn't have to be the issue. For example, if you believe God is telling you to terminate a relationship because it's unhealthy, that is expensive obedience; if you've heard wrong, you put a relationship that is important to you at risk. You want to be sure you have heard from God before you do something that could require expensive obedience.
On the other hand, if the obedience required is low cost or low risk, then you should always and instantly obey. It may very well be God speaking to you, and you want to be in the habit of obeying God instantly rather than spending a great deal of time double-checking with Him first.
God understands that it can be frightening for us as we begin venturing out in hearing and obeying Him. He knows we need confirmation from Him to be sure we have really heard Him correctly. But God is not only willing—He is also eager to meet us and teach us to hear His voice. All we have to do is ask.
ACTIVE FAITH
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. —Matthew 21:22
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive. —Matthew 21:22
The devil cannot hinder those who believe they receive when they pray.
A woman in our church was abandoned by her husband. She prayed for his return, and she believed she received when she prayed. There was no evidence to support her belief as one year turned into two and then three.
One day she said to me, "Pastor, my family thinks I am crazy, because I am still waiting. But I believed I received when I prayed, and there is nothing I can do now except thank God that I shall have it."
That faithful woman believed for twelve long years. One day she called and said, "My husband came to my house and said he had an experience with God. He asked if I could forgive him and let him back into the family."
How long are you willing to wait on God—a day, a week, a month, a year, a lifetime? Are you willing to wait for as long as it takes?
I had the joy of renewing their marriage vows, and they are still happily married today. Why? She believed she received when she prayed.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
3 KEY WEAPONS OF SPIRITUAL WARFARE
Posted by Paula White
Sat, August 08, 2009 at 11:54 AM
- from Jesus’ sermon on the Mount!
- from Jesus’ sermon on the Mount!
Many Christians often wonder why they are still struggling with a myriad of issues, although they have been saved and born again through Christ.
Why are so many of us are still living with illness and disease… addiction… fear and anxiety… depression… emotional scars… negative childhood memories…and more?
I have often said that it’s not always what we’re doing wrong – sometimes it’s that we’re not doing enough of what’s right.
The fact is, in the natural world we live in, we will still have to struggle against many spiritual attacks, weaknesses of the flesh, and strongholds/negative mindsets. And during certain periods of difficulties we must use the extra defense, inspiration, and intervention that comes from the power of the Holy Spirit within.
In other words: to overcome certain barriers to our victory through Christ, we must be prepared to engage in spiritual warfare!
Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is filled with commands and strategies for achieving the victory He so dearly paid for.
In the sermon, there are three powerful keys for achieving victory through Christ – three eternally vital and life-transforming strategies for overcoming the challenges of life. Separately, I believe each is as important to the believer as eating or drinking. But combined together they cleanse, purify, and prepare the believer for battle—and fill you to overflow with the power of God’s Spirit. Together, the three become spiritual weapons that will help you break generational curses, overcome bad habits and negative self-talk, and achieve the true freedom God intends for you.
The three keys that will prepare you to battle your obstacles through spiritual warfare are giving, prayer and fasting.
These are not suggestions that we are given to follow—Jesus makes it clear that God expects us to do these things by using the word “when”:
• Jesus instructs us that we are to give love offerings (alms).
But WHEN thou doest alms…thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:3 - 4
• Jesus instructs us that we are to pray.
And WHEN thou prayest…enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:5 - 6
• Jesus instructs us that we are to fast.
Moreover WHEN ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance…and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. Matthew 6:16 - 18
When these three vital Christian principles are followed, together their combined power provides life-transforming “weapons” for engaging in spiritual warfare.
And even during periods of peace and tranquility, you will deeply benefit from engaging in a period of spiritual practice that combines these three acts.
By combining giving, prayer and fasting, you will pave the way to walking in the true freedom God intends for you. You will be equipped for spiritual warfare that will break every yoke and destroy every stronghold in your life! Chose to live a victorious life in Jesus!
Monday, August 17, 2009
ARE YOU HUNGRY FOR GOD?
By: Maureen D. Eha
Long ago the psalmist wrote about hunger for God in what we now know as Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (NKJV). The type of desire he describes is the type every one of us should have. It's not something unusual that is reserved for only a few impassioned souls; the normal state of a Christian is to be thirsty and hungry for God.
The Bible tells us that God "satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" (Ps. 107:9). But we must meet the requirement of the Word in order to receive the promised reward: We must be thirsty and hungry.
Spiritual hunger seems to come naturally when we first give our lives to Christ. I know when I got saved, I was truly hungry for God. I was single at the time, and everything I did—going to prayer meetings, praying, listening to teaching and worship tapes, reading books on spiritual topics, attending conferences—was intended to bring me closer to Him. Every spare minute of my day was filled with pursuing God and feeding on Him.
I was so in love with Him! It was like being on a perpetual honeymoon. That's the way our relationships with God should be.
I wish I could say it stayed that way. But something happened: I fell in love and got married.
Ideally, that should have enriched my relationship with God. But so many things in my life changed in a short period of time that I became distracted by my circumstances. In addition, I did not have the same opportunities to pursue God that I'd had before—no charismatic church, no prayer meetings, no encouragement from spiritually minded friends, no time to myself to study and pray.
By the time my husband finished school—four years and two children later—I had completely lost my focus. My eyes were constantly at ground level, assessing my situation, instead of on Jesus. I was no longer hungry for God because I was feeding on my discontent—as well as on fear and anxiety.
Impediments to Hunger:
The condition I found myself in is not an uncommon one. All of us have been guilty of not being hungry when Jesus lays a banquet of His presence before us, and it's usually because either we're sick—or we've been snacking on something else.
We know how this works in the natural. Our bodies were designed to require nourishment, so it is normal for us to feel hungry when it is time to eat—unless our appetites have been suppressed by illness or satisfied by something we ate before we got up to the table.
It works the same way in the spiritual realm. We were created for fellowship with God, but if we don't desire it, then either we are in sin or we have allowed other things to take the place of God in our lives. The result in both cases is that our appetites become dulled, and we don't pursue God with the same passion we normally would.
Notice I didn't say that spiritual sickness is equated with sinning; I said it comes from being in sin. There's a difference.
If you commit a sin but are quick to acknowledge it and sincerely repent, receiving God's mercy and forgiveness can actually draw you closer to Him. But if you are lacking truth about yourself in some area of your life, the habitual sin that is the result of it will take the edge off your hunger and keep you at a distance from God.
Two of the most common spiritual "sicknesses" are unbelief and unforgiveness. The Bible says that "without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). Most of us believe that God exists, but if we don't really believe that He will respond to our pursuit of Him with a greater portion of Himself, we are likely to be half-hearted in the chase.
Unforgiveness not only dampens our hunger but also puts us in a very precarious position with God. Jesus said, "'If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses'" (Matt. 6:14-15). It is unlikely that you will even try to draw close to God when you know there is a debt of unforgiveness hanging over your head.
If you suspect that some form of spiritual sickness is taking the edge off your hunger for God, don't feel condemned! Cry out with the psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me...and see if there is any wicked way in me" (Ps. 139:23). Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the sin and revive your desire for God.
What if you're not sick, but you've been snacking? Allowing other things or people to come before God in your life will have the same effect as being in sin. You see, it is the nature of man to want to satisfy himself, to seek to assuage the insatiable hunger he was born with—but often we try to satisfy this hunger with the wrong things. We don't understand that the emptiness in our souls can be filled only by God.
The truth is, God has a banquet prepared for us—a feast of His presence—but we won't have the appetite for it if we have been satisfied with something else.
Many of us make the mistake of filling up on junk food—immoral TV programs, movies and other forms of entertainment, for example. But even seemingly good things, such as certain spiritual activities or disciplines, can diminish our hunger for the best. We are to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33, emphasis added).
Often we fail to do this because we get our eyes on something else, something that seems more pressing—or more appealing—than the meal set before us. But the ideal is for our hearts to burn with unquenchable desire for God in all circumstances.
Is this the kind of believer you are—one who is hungry for God no matter what? Or have you allowed something other than Him to become the focal point of your desire?
Desperation Determines Destination:
You may be asking, If perpetual hunger for God is the goal, how do we achieve it? How do we remain continually hungry for Him? I believe there are two things we must do.
First, we must realize that only God can satisfy us. No matter what else we try to substitute for Him, it will bring only passing pleasure. This is why the Bible says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world...For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
And what is the will of God? That we "'love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind'" (Matt. 22:37).
In The Dangerous Duty of Delight, pastor and theologian John Piper puts it this way: "God has...filled the human heart with longing. But we know not what we long for until we see the breathtaking God. This is the cause of universal restlessness. Hence the famous prayer of Saint Augustine: 'You made us for Yourself and our hearts find no peace till they rest in You.'"
This is the way it is supposed to be. We were made for God, and it is the endless longing Piper describes that motivates us to continue pursuing Him.
Second, if we want to remain hungry, we must learn to "taste and see that the Lord is good," as Psalm 34:8 encourages us to do. But what does it mean to "taste" in the Spirit?
In the natural, tasting food means that we put it in our mouths to experience the nature of it—the flavor, texture and composition. In the Spirit, "tasting" means something similar: to experience the nature of God. And just as with a delicious meal, every "taste" in the Spirit makes you want more.
By "experiencing God" I'm not necessarily talking about quaking and shaking, rolling on the floor or laughing—though these can be outward manifestations of an encounter with Him. I'm talking about being aware of His presence in your life in whatever way He chooses to make Himself known. This could be through the whisper of His still, small voice; through visions, dreams or visitations; through the weight of glory we sometimes feel or the fragrance we smell of His perfume; through His healing touch; through being slain in the Spirit; through coming face to face with Him in worship. Whatever the experience is, you know you have tasted Him, and the encounter becomes a catalyst for even more passionate pursuit.
I mentioned earlier that during the first several years of my marriage, after having been saved and filled with the Spirit, I lost my passion for God because I began to focus on my circumstances. Thankfully, God didn't leave me in that condition.
One weekend in 1994 I went to a women's retreat. When the minister prayed for me, I was slain in the Spirit, and the Lord spoke the verse to me that I just quoted: "Taste and see that the Lord is good." It was an encouragement for me to get to know Him and allow Him to prove what my negative situation made it difficult for me to believe—that He is good and that He alone satisfies. At that moment, "tasting" became the motivating force in my life—and has been ever since.
How do we "taste"? In the natural, we sit down at the table and put food in our mouths. In the spiritual realm, we get to know God through prayer—not only talking to Him but also listening to, worshiping and enjoying Him—as well as through reading and studying the Word, receiving the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and practicing His presence throughout the day.
In other words, we pursue God. We sit down at the banqueting table every chance we get and partake of the choice food He has prepared for us. We feast on Him.
I said at the beginning that God promises to satisfy the thirsty and fill the hungry with good things. But I also said we are to remain both thirsty and hungry.
How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?:
Here's what happens. We recognize our need for God and begin to desire Him. Our yearning motivates us to pursue Him. As we get to know Him and experience His presence to a greater degree, our desire is satisfied (God "fills" us)—but only momentarily, because the more we come to know Him, the more fascinated we are, and the more we realize there is to know.
You could say that our "honeymoon" with God never has to end. As we get to know Him better, we see more of His goodness, more of His infinite beauty and perfection and holiness, and we desire to know and love Him even more. The ongoing revelation of God's nature increases our hunger for Him, and we begin to understand why the psalmist declared, "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps. 73:25-26).
Can you identify with the psalmist's sentiments? Are you one who desires nothing on Earth besides God, who will not be satisfied with just a taste of Him?
We must press in to know God, to experience Him. It's not enough to have just one touch or visitation. That would be like surviving the rest of our lives on only one meal! We need to develop a lifestyle of "tasting and seeing that He is good."
Long ago the psalmist wrote about hunger for God in what we now know as Psalm 42, verses 1 and 2: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (NKJV). The type of desire he describes is the type every one of us should have. It's not something unusual that is reserved for only a few impassioned souls; the normal state of a Christian is to be thirsty and hungry for God.
The Bible tells us that God "satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things" (Ps. 107:9). But we must meet the requirement of the Word in order to receive the promised reward: We must be thirsty and hungry.
Spiritual hunger seems to come naturally when we first give our lives to Christ. I know when I got saved, I was truly hungry for God. I was single at the time, and everything I did—going to prayer meetings, praying, listening to teaching and worship tapes, reading books on spiritual topics, attending conferences—was intended to bring me closer to Him. Every spare minute of my day was filled with pursuing God and feeding on Him.
I was so in love with Him! It was like being on a perpetual honeymoon. That's the way our relationships with God should be.
I wish I could say it stayed that way. But something happened: I fell in love and got married.
Ideally, that should have enriched my relationship with God. But so many things in my life changed in a short period of time that I became distracted by my circumstances. In addition, I did not have the same opportunities to pursue God that I'd had before—no charismatic church, no prayer meetings, no encouragement from spiritually minded friends, no time to myself to study and pray.
By the time my husband finished school—four years and two children later—I had completely lost my focus. My eyes were constantly at ground level, assessing my situation, instead of on Jesus. I was no longer hungry for God because I was feeding on my discontent—as well as on fear and anxiety.
Impediments to Hunger:
The condition I found myself in is not an uncommon one. All of us have been guilty of not being hungry when Jesus lays a banquet of His presence before us, and it's usually because either we're sick—or we've been snacking on something else.
We know how this works in the natural. Our bodies were designed to require nourishment, so it is normal for us to feel hungry when it is time to eat—unless our appetites have been suppressed by illness or satisfied by something we ate before we got up to the table.
It works the same way in the spiritual realm. We were created for fellowship with God, but if we don't desire it, then either we are in sin or we have allowed other things to take the place of God in our lives. The result in both cases is that our appetites become dulled, and we don't pursue God with the same passion we normally would.
Notice I didn't say that spiritual sickness is equated with sinning; I said it comes from being in sin. There's a difference.
If you commit a sin but are quick to acknowledge it and sincerely repent, receiving God's mercy and forgiveness can actually draw you closer to Him. But if you are lacking truth about yourself in some area of your life, the habitual sin that is the result of it will take the edge off your hunger and keep you at a distance from God.
Two of the most common spiritual "sicknesses" are unbelief and unforgiveness. The Bible says that "without faith it is impossible to please [God], for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6). Most of us believe that God exists, but if we don't really believe that He will respond to our pursuit of Him with a greater portion of Himself, we are likely to be half-hearted in the chase.
Unforgiveness not only dampens our hunger but also puts us in a very precarious position with God. Jesus said, "'If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses'" (Matt. 6:14-15). It is unlikely that you will even try to draw close to God when you know there is a debt of unforgiveness hanging over your head.
If you suspect that some form of spiritual sickness is taking the edge off your hunger for God, don't feel condemned! Cry out with the psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me...and see if there is any wicked way in me" (Ps. 139:23). Allow the Holy Spirit to reveal the sin and revive your desire for God.
What if you're not sick, but you've been snacking? Allowing other things or people to come before God in your life will have the same effect as being in sin. You see, it is the nature of man to want to satisfy himself, to seek to assuage the insatiable hunger he was born with—but often we try to satisfy this hunger with the wrong things. We don't understand that the emptiness in our souls can be filled only by God.
The truth is, God has a banquet prepared for us—a feast of His presence—but we won't have the appetite for it if we have been satisfied with something else.
Many of us make the mistake of filling up on junk food—immoral TV programs, movies and other forms of entertainment, for example. But even seemingly good things, such as certain spiritual activities or disciplines, can diminish our hunger for the best. We are to "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33, emphasis added).
Often we fail to do this because we get our eyes on something else, something that seems more pressing—or more appealing—than the meal set before us. But the ideal is for our hearts to burn with unquenchable desire for God in all circumstances.
Is this the kind of believer you are—one who is hungry for God no matter what? Or have you allowed something other than Him to become the focal point of your desire?
Desperation Determines Destination:
You may be asking, If perpetual hunger for God is the goal, how do we achieve it? How do we remain continually hungry for Him? I believe there are two things we must do.
First, we must realize that only God can satisfy us. No matter what else we try to substitute for Him, it will bring only passing pleasure. This is why the Bible says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world...For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever" (1 John 2:15-17).
And what is the will of God? That we "'love the Lord [our] God with all [our] heart, with all [our] soul, and with all [our] mind'" (Matt. 22:37).
In The Dangerous Duty of Delight, pastor and theologian John Piper puts it this way: "God has...filled the human heart with longing. But we know not what we long for until we see the breathtaking God. This is the cause of universal restlessness. Hence the famous prayer of Saint Augustine: 'You made us for Yourself and our hearts find no peace till they rest in You.'"
This is the way it is supposed to be. We were made for God, and it is the endless longing Piper describes that motivates us to continue pursuing Him.
Second, if we want to remain hungry, we must learn to "taste and see that the Lord is good," as Psalm 34:8 encourages us to do. But what does it mean to "taste" in the Spirit?
In the natural, tasting food means that we put it in our mouths to experience the nature of it—the flavor, texture and composition. In the Spirit, "tasting" means something similar: to experience the nature of God. And just as with a delicious meal, every "taste" in the Spirit makes you want more.
By "experiencing God" I'm not necessarily talking about quaking and shaking, rolling on the floor or laughing—though these can be outward manifestations of an encounter with Him. I'm talking about being aware of His presence in your life in whatever way He chooses to make Himself known. This could be through the whisper of His still, small voice; through visions, dreams or visitations; through the weight of glory we sometimes feel or the fragrance we smell of His perfume; through His healing touch; through being slain in the Spirit; through coming face to face with Him in worship. Whatever the experience is, you know you have tasted Him, and the encounter becomes a catalyst for even more passionate pursuit.
I mentioned earlier that during the first several years of my marriage, after having been saved and filled with the Spirit, I lost my passion for God because I began to focus on my circumstances. Thankfully, God didn't leave me in that condition.
One weekend in 1994 I went to a women's retreat. When the minister prayed for me, I was slain in the Spirit, and the Lord spoke the verse to me that I just quoted: "Taste and see that the Lord is good." It was an encouragement for me to get to know Him and allow Him to prove what my negative situation made it difficult for me to believe—that He is good and that He alone satisfies. At that moment, "tasting" became the motivating force in my life—and has been ever since.
How do we "taste"? In the natural, we sit down at the table and put food in our mouths. In the spiritual realm, we get to know God through prayer—not only talking to Him but also listening to, worshiping and enjoying Him—as well as through reading and studying the Word, receiving the revelation of the Holy Spirit, and practicing His presence throughout the day.
In other words, we pursue God. We sit down at the banqueting table every chance we get and partake of the choice food He has prepared for us. We feast on Him.
I said at the beginning that God promises to satisfy the thirsty and fill the hungry with good things. But I also said we are to remain both thirsty and hungry.
How do we reconcile this apparent contradiction?:
Here's what happens. We recognize our need for God and begin to desire Him. Our yearning motivates us to pursue Him. As we get to know Him and experience His presence to a greater degree, our desire is satisfied (God "fills" us)—but only momentarily, because the more we come to know Him, the more fascinated we are, and the more we realize there is to know.
You could say that our "honeymoon" with God never has to end. As we get to know Him better, we see more of His goodness, more of His infinite beauty and perfection and holiness, and we desire to know and love Him even more. The ongoing revelation of God's nature increases our hunger for Him, and we begin to understand why the psalmist declared, "Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever" (Ps. 73:25-26).
Can you identify with the psalmist's sentiments? Are you one who desires nothing on Earth besides God, who will not be satisfied with just a taste of Him?
We must press in to know God, to experience Him. It's not enough to have just one touch or visitation. That would be like surviving the rest of our lives on only one meal! We need to develop a lifestyle of "tasting and seeing that He is good."
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