BLOG - “The secret of spiritual success is a hunger that persists … It is an awful condition to be satisfied with one’s spiritual attainments … God was and is looking for hungry, thirsty people.” – Smith Wigglesworth
I have been reading a lot about revivals, where God just shows up and manifests His glory.
It was a Sunday morning when God told me something that shook me. Our congregation was worshipping and I had such a desire for God to walk in and fill the building with His glory because when that happens, things happen.
As I was talking to God, telling Him how hungry I was for more, I heard Him say, “My people are not hungry enough; they do not want me badly enough.”
My felt as if my heart was shattered completely. I do not know how to describe how I felt. I wonder if I had experienced how God felt. I had felt such sorrow. If I had the boldness and courage, I would have run to the front. I wanted to shake everyone and tell them what I had just heard. We are not hungry enough. We need to change this.
When was the last time you saw God show up and reveal His glory?
When was the last time you were in a service in which no one could talk or move - too afraid to stand in the way?
When was the last time you saw people running towards the church just because they knew they must get right with God? The funny thing is, we did not have to say a word; we did not have to convince them of anything, because God’s presence already did that. When was the last time you saw people standing up from wheelchairs, ligaments growing back? All these things are possible. God, we are hungry for more.
A cry for attention
There is a perfect story in the Bible of which the Holy Spirit reminded me. Mark 10:46-52: There was a blind man sitting outside the city of Jericho and Jesus and His disciples were leaving the city.
The blind man called out, “Jesus, Jesus, have mercy on me!” People rebuked him, trying to keep him quiet. He kept on shouting out more and more, so much more that Jesus heard him, stopped, and told him to come.
Our cries for more need to grab the attention of our Father, so He cannot help but stop instead of walking on. Our hunger needs to reach His ears so that He cannot help but listen. We need to call out to God, not whisper. The man who wanted to be healed did not speak softly; he shouted.
Here is a fun fact I stumbled on. Bartimaeus means "honourable son". The Latin word for honourable is honorabilis, which means respectable or acting justly. Do you think the people thought what he was doing was right? I mean, they tried to silence him. I do not think the people had any respect for him at the time. He must have been determined to catch Jesus’ ear, according to his behaviour. He was not afraid, nor discouraged. Our hunger for God needs to reach beyond our love for praise, even beyond our fear of men. We need to get this right.
What is happening in your quiet time?
We need to go to our secret rooms and close the door. We need to search for God, and I mean really search. Not the “okay, I will give You five minutes of my time, let’s see what happens” attitude. The desire for more needs to consume your every thought, day and night. It needs to be at a place where you cannot wait to close your door and just linger in His presence.
This is going to sound crazy: I would close my eyes and literally wait, straining my ears so I could hear any movement in my room, because maybe, just maybe Jesus chose today to stop by. I would be too afraid to open my eyes, because maybe he would disappear. Sometimes, even though I heard nothing, I knew he was in the room, sitting on my bed. I mean, there are countless testimonies of Jesus visiting people. Why ask for anything less? Father, we are hungry for more of You.
Make no mistake; your hunger will be filled. Jesus filled the blind man’s hunger by giving him sight. The craziest thing of all is when your hunger is filled, somehow it grows again and then you want more, because you have tasted of the real bread. I know it sounds absurd. It makes little sense, but then again, does anything of God make sense? It is like a hunger that will grow and grow and grow.
It starts with us, each individual, not the church. We are looking at the church and judging it, when we are actually the problem, not the church, and I am also at fault. You will see nothing happen in the church if there is nothing happening in your room. The question you should ask yourself is: “What is going on in my innermost being?” Only then will it manifest to the outside. It starts with you and God.
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