Increased Spiritual Capacity

As I stated in my last post, I began searching for God in the charismatic Christian conference circuit.  For any kind of glory meeting that promised the manifest presence of God, I was there.  I was hungry for His touch and willing to travel about to find it.

Now, I wasn’t prepared to lie about receiving something that I didn’t; I just wouldn’t violate my own conscience that way.  I had a genuine passion to experience God and I wanted an actual experience.  Though I might have been willing to sell myself for some counterfeit, I wasn’t going to make it up or work myself into it. Funny enough, God wasn’t up for my settling for counterfeit, so I just stood in the mass of Christian experience, waiting.

Waiting for Him to Fill My Spiritual Capacity

I wasn’t doing this for others; I was doing this for ME.  I wasn’t seeking to save face in front of people. This was my long-time pursuit, one that had arrested me as a young child. So among the Toronto Blessings, Rodney Howard Brown meetings, Brownsville Revivals, and the like – I sought God.

Now usually I left these meetings in tears, or in anger, because the Spirit didn’t touch me in the way He seemed to touch others.  I said to Him as I left these meetings, “What is it about me that You don’t like?” You see, a deep-seated spirit of rejection and fear of abandonment played with my emotions like a cat with a mouse.  So I left these meetings with the accuser, accusing God of withholding from me something I NEEDED.

Now let me just give you a brief preview of where I am going. I am not saying God abused me, not one day of my life.  Though He was willing to hurt me, it was for an amazing plan and purpose. Often I’ve thought that pain equated wrong.  If I hurt, it must be off.  If something is hurting you, fix it right?!?!

He Was Increasing My Spiritual Capacity

God’s so incredibly trustworthy with our hearts. He is about the working of things together with such skill and intricacy.  And the sign of hunger is not the evidence of error.  My Creator was working into my heart an increased spiritual capacity to experience Him. He was stretching my ability to experience and this had to be done through hunger pains and resistance to my demands. You don’t demand to move into a house when only the foundation is set. No, you wait until the Builder builds the dwelling and sets things in order.

…And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Then Jesus said to her, “O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once.
Mathew 15:26-28 NASB

Martha has taught me that the size of the hunger is the size of the fulfillment. In my NOW generation, delayed gratification is seen as abusive.  But God is unmoved. He’s working together a purpose and fulfillment that is His to bestow.  This Canaanite woman was willing to do something I failed to do: humble her self and take the lowest place. I had my demands of God but not the humility to bow. I had always seen this event as cruel . . . I wonder why! Jesus wanted to increase her hunger to fulfill His choice of satisfaction. She was willing to bow. I, on the other hand, had to receive a few more knocks.

So maybe you can relate to my story? Maybe you have scampered about looking for that legitimate, undeniable touch from your God? Has God withheld to increase your spiritual capacity? On Friday, my saga continues!