Echoes of Truth
January 18th
Theme: The Right Hunger
The hunger for God’s presence is the hunger that only God can satisfy. – Leonard Ravenhill
What many Christians may define as the hunger for God’s presence certainly is far from the truth as presented in the Scriptures. Mostly, it is more of a superficial activity.
Being able to dance and gyrate is considered joyfulness, being driven to some moments of tears is defined as God’s touch, the experience of falling under the anointing sometimes is all performance.
God’s presence is simply about how it makes you feel and nothing about God Himself. That is why people say things like, ‘I enjoyed the service today, the sermon was so nice’, ‘I fell under the anointing today during the prayer sessions, the tongues the pastor spoke gave me a lot of goosebumps’.
In fact it is so direct that some say that it is the praise and worship session they like because it makes them dance well in God’s presence.
The point is not to say these things are bad or they are impossible.
However, it is important to be clear that if this and its similitude is what we define as the glory of God’s presence, this is what we are so hungry for, then, we have been sold a gospel that did not include the revelation of who God is.
The true hunger for God’s presence detracts all attention from us and the focus is God. We must be very careful of portraying God’s presence as the place meant to make us feel good and make us feel important. Far from it. God’s presence is the place where God is exalted and nothing about us will exist.
In God’s presence, like Isaiah cried out in Isaiah 6:5 ‘Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.’
God’s presence highlights our unrighteousness and we need for God to make us whole and pure. That is what God’s presence does to us.
Like Mary fell at Jesus feet and used her hair to clean it, that is what God’s Presence does (John 12:3). Before Jesus, Mary bowed to her lowest to highlight her submission to God. Her stooping to the lowest shows how true hunger for God’s Presence is expressed, it brings us low, abases us to inconsequentiality.
God’s presence is the place where we are humbled and like John we confess and exalt Him that He may increase while we decrease.
In God’s Presence, we are nobody until He gives grace that lifts us up. David cried in Psalm 42:1-2, ‘As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?’
Our souls were designed for God’s Presence, sister, no other substitute. Many have attempted to quiet this longing with religious routines, emotional experiences camouflaging as encounters, yet never filled. That is simply because hunger for God’s presence cannot be filled with anything other than God Himself.
Jesus did not say blessed are those who hunger for activities, or those who thirst after success and accomplishments, a church with great music or one with deep affirmations, a pastor with oratory gifts… Rather, He pronounced blessing upon those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, they shall be filled with God Himself (Matthew 5:6).
This hunger is the soul’s silent cry for the presence of God. And no substitute, no matter how ‘virtuous’, can satisfy it. Those who long to tarry in His Presence, staying with Him until they are transformed into Christ’s image from glory to glory by the power of the Spirit (2Corinthians 3:18), will be filled with life, eternal life, the life of God Himself (John 17:3).
They will be enriched with genuine encounters and find divine alignment with God’s will, and overall intimacy with Him.
The hunger for God’s presence is a humbling journey that will always lead to a life of worship where only God matters and He is exalted above all others.
That settles it, sis! Knowing that you will not be left hungry, rather, you will be satisfied until you begin to experience transformation. And the more God fills you, the more your desire becomes pure and it becomes increasingly for Him. Hallelujah!
Read this short article by Bro Zac and listen to the short sermon by Bro Gbile on hunger:
Let Us Pray:
Lord, awaken in me a true hunger for Your presence. Deliver me from settling for substitutes that distract me from drawing closer to You, when only You can satisfy. Fill my soul with Yourself. Align my heart with hunger for Your righteousness. Keep my desire fixed on You alone, until nothing else competes for it, In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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