Our God desires us to live in the moment. This is His heart. True living is about relationship with Him. And the way He accomplishes this is to reduce us down, down to dependence on Him, a moment-by-moment involvement. This is true hunger, desperation.
Hunger for God from Not Knowing
The Lord will not allow us to read the book of our lives, not a chapter, not even a page nor a sentence. Often He won’t even give us a word at a time but merely a letter. You have no idea what the meaning is until you totally focus on Him, so absorbed with Him that He can merely breathe the idea into you. Human nature, on the other hand, wants the book first.
“Give me the title and tell me what the book is about. Give me a preface and the introduction, the back title! Give me reviews, let me know there’s no risk of unknowns, then I’ll get into it! I will wait for the ending but let me know exactly where I am going. At any given point you can give me a twist in the book. But just make sure I have a picture of where the book is going.”
But God doesn’t often give you the subject of the book. He wants you to be so dependent on him that each letter, forming each word, comprising the sentences of our lives, has to come from His nearness. Why did John the beloved know Jesus as God so intimately? Because John had his ear on His breast.
Why Do I Have to Live With Hunger?
Now why does God want this? The reason is because He is so hungry for our fellowship, so completely desirous of our love and relationship. His hunger is to give. We think that when we are hungry, the hunger is from us, but the hunger you have is not your own. “It is My hunger coming through you.”
We have no hunger, no desire for anything of God. In us is nothing, so if we have any desire to read the word, worship – any desire at all – it is because He is pouring it through us. His desire for intimacy is birthed THROUGH me and it feels like it’s me. But I have to know that I am by nature a brute beast. I will not – by any means – ever seek anything spiritual or anything in the Spirit. Naturally I will grunt and forage through dirt because that is the nature of man. A perspective change needs to take place. If I have desire for God, it is God’s desire coming through me. If I have hunger for prayer, for spiritual things, it is the Life of God coming through me. It’s the indwelling of His desire moving my spirit toward Himself.
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.
Psalm 139:16
So deep and precious.
Thank you John, for this. I’ve believed that hunger was a gift, but I love the revelation that it’s His hunger for me that I experience.
Hi John , thank you so much for sharing, what the Lord is showing you; your words are deeply touching me. Yes, Jesus’ very nature is to give, without any limits, without any caution, constantly giving Himself, letting us feel His overflowing joy in His love- embrace with the Father. We will feel this life (the Holy Sprit), if we are quiet enough and have our hearts open to receive Him. Therefore, please be one of the few, who satisfy His hunger, He richly rewards us, all this seems so incredible, nevertheless so true! He is always first, meaning here:… Read more »
Gosh, thank you, John. This so reminds me of how A.B. Simpson wrote in ‘Himself’ and how the Lord revealed to him how He desired relationship to be… like you said : )
“ He said: “My child, you must come to Me for the next breath because I love you so dearly I want you to come all the time. If I gave you a great supply, you would do without Me and would not come to Me so often; now you have to come to Me every second, and lie on My breast every moment …
That is absolutely beautiful! Oh, thank you so much for sharing this! WOW Lori! Love you
Thank you, Lori for your “Himself” quote, which I feel in my own heart as well. What an encouragement, how I want to live up to this His desire!
Blessed in this realization
Bless you and love you Arleen! Same here!
(Question) So because I am His, even when I make poor choices, “It’s the indwelling of His desire moving my spirit toward Himself.”?
Ahhhh, the grappling with His sovereign hand. ? Well Tammy, if He wasn’t able to use even my poor choices to lead me to Himself, I would be nowhere at all. I have quite a few poor choices in my story and in many of them I see not only did He use them, but often, they were orchestrated by Him so I would be desperate and dependant to come to Him. His passionate desire is moving in and through us all the time so that we would know Him and love Him. Love you Tammy!
Exciting! Isn’t it!
Thank you!
Love you!
What precious, costly ointment! i don’t know how many times I went back to this yesterday. Each time reading was more wonder-full. Today it is like being there when Mary took the pound of pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. And the fragrance of the perfume has filled the house. What love. What worship. Thank you, John. Glory to God.
WOW John: You certainly said it for me.
Jesús nos Ama Y Bendice. No es posible hacer estos comentarios de Vida, si no tuviéramos una vida entregada a Jesús que Es Dios. Gracias amados hnos. Ricardo. <
Yes, and that’s why He wouldn’t let us have the book. We’d just grab it all and run and use it for ourselves. So now, if we want to have the book, we have to wait and to listen for every single letter, as you write. It is not so easy then to put ourselves on His place again. We have to stay where we belong, at His breast or at His feet. In His love He deals with our nature the way it needs to be dealt and makes it easier for us to choose submission “in little daily… Read more »