On November 8th, I gave a talk at homegroup about hungering for the presence of the Lord and what would it look like if sought the Lord with abandoned hearts. After hearing Ray Muenich talk about this same topic at church today I wanted to go back through my notes from the talk I gave, I just thought I would share what the Lord put on my heart and has been revealing to me::::
"As we are coming closer to the end of the semester, I want
to kind of wrap up this series of teaching about the Holy Spirit with talking
about a hunger for the Spirit and what it might look like for us personally and
for the community if we were to fully surrender to the Holy Spirit. Through out my talk, I am going to
refer quite a bit to a book by Rhonda Hughey called Desperate for His
Presence.
One of the questions I have heard recently in regards to
church is, “what are people longing for?”
Hughey has a great response to this questions saying, “I believe it’s
the presence of God in the midst of people, the manifestation of His nearness,
and an awareness of His love that is both real and relevant. We desperately need the tangible
presence of Jesus both in the church and in our communities.”
God is looking for people with a heart like David, who
declared in Psalm 27:4 “One things I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the
beauty of the Lord, and to seek Him in His temple.” What the Lord desires for His children, is them to be
desperate for the Holy Spirit, His presence to move beyond convenience and
personal comfort and seek Him with all they have.
“An initial honeymoon and thirst often comes with the gift
of salvation, but after the spiritual honeymoon is over, we must intentionally
cultivate our spiritual passion” and seek to know God’s heart more by listening
for the Holy Spirit. We have to
ask the Lord to stir His Spirit inside of us to create a hunger for Him. Desperate hunger for the Lord is the
currency of heaven. Hunger is what
causes us to empty ourselves of compromise and creates a holy dissatisfaction
that drives us to our knees and makes us depend on God. This hunger and desire for God is not
something that we can stir in ourselves, but we need to ask God everyday to put
a desire in our souls to be more filled with the Holy Spirit. We cannot be hungry for God if we are
being satisfied with other things.
I feel like we, as a whole church, nibble on junk food that the world
places in front of us, causing the church to lose her appetite for God. We don’t even feel the pain of hunger
for Him; we are starving for lack of His presence without even knowing it. In order to make room for Him in our
lives, we must empty our hearts and set aside our own agendas. Before we can be filled, we must be
emptied. He Lord promises that
those who hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. We need to ask the Lord to cause a
fresh hunger and thirst to overtake us.
He will give us as much of himself as we ask for. Many of us, myself included, say that we hunger for the Lord, but
are we really? People who are
desperately hungry will do almost anything to satisfy their hunger. Those who are willing to move out of
their normal routine and circumstances to seek the presence of God will not be
disappointed.
So what happens when we let the
Holy Spirit take over?
When Jesus began His public ministry, He announced His purpose
by quoting Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has
anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent me to heal the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord.” Wherever Jesus
went, the blind were healed, the demons were terrified, the lame walked, and
the demonically oppressed were set free.
Huge crowds followed Him, listening, watching, and waiting to see what
He would do. When Jesus stepped
foot in a community, things were changed.
The ministry of the Holy Spirit hasn’t changed, when invited into a
community, He brings life and powerful transformation.
I can’t help think about the early church as it is described
in Acts. In the book of Acts the
believers lived lives of simplicity, yet they had great authority, power and
victory over the enemy. Their
ministry was effective. They did
not have complicated strategies or programs; they had the authority of Christ
and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Their lives had been turned upside down because of their encounters with
Jesus. They loved Him and
completely abandoned themselves to serving his Kingdom with power and they
impacted their cities along the way.
I read a story of Almolonga, Guatemala, which is a powerful
testimony of God’s transforming power.
When the Holy Spirit was welcomed into this community, not only was the
church impacted, but every sphere of society as well. George Otis Jr wrote about it is his book Informed
Intercession: “The town of
Almolonga was typical of Mayan communities, plagued with addiction to alcohol,
idolatry and poverty stricken. The
people who were full of fear and seeking relief from their poverty looked for
support in alcohol and a local idol named Maximon. Tired of living under the influence of idolatry, a group of
believers began crying out to God during evening prayer vigils beginning in August
1974. They gathered together in
unity and declared freedom over their community. They resisted the enemy in their midst and the devastating
consequences of his presence among them.
In the months that followed many people were delivered by the power of
God! God began to respond to their
faith and prayer, delivering many who were demonically oppressed and physically
afflicted. As a result, many
committed their lives to Christ.
After the Holy Spirit began to visit the land, an unprecedented revival
occurred. Families were touched
and transformed by the power of God.
Miracles and healing and deliverance have caused the city to be called
both the “City of Miracles” and the “City of God.” Today more than 90 percent of the people in the community
have become evangelical Christians, and there are nearly two dozen evangelical
churches. The life of the
community, the families, agriculture, businesses, center around the life of the
church. Local people refer
to their community in terms of two time frame: before the power of God came and
after. The last jail closed in Almolonga ten years ago. Imagine children are growing up without
any concept of crime or violence in their community!..... The most amazing indication
of the transformation of the community is that the glory of God is evident in the
lives of the people. Familes are
restored and more- their smiles, the obvious joy and peace that saturated the
city is hard to describe. This is
truly a place where the heavens are open and Jesus is being glorified in every
aspect of life. "
After reading this story and several others like it, I can’t
help but ask, why not here? Why
not now? Why not us?
So why do we often hesitate to invite the Holy Spirit
in? The Lord wants to be known by
us, He wants to be known through the Holy Spirit working in our lives. Our purpose is not only to be saved
from our sins and their eternal consequences. Our purpose is also about pursuing God with an abandoned
heart and discovering His limitless beauty and glory. We tend to settle for a token of God’s presence when He
wants us to experience the fullness of His presence through His Holy
Spirit. We need to ask the Holy
Spirit to continue to reveal himself to us, increase our appetite and transform
our hearts to become more like Jesus.
"For you are what I want. For I have called you to love me with all of your heart, because I love you with all of My heart and all of My mind!"- says the Lord
