-
On One Condition
Contributed by Pastor/Author: Terry Sisney on Aug 19, 2005 (message contributor)
Summary: Do you feel like your walking through a spiritual desert? does it feel like you’ve been in a spiritual drought? As you meet this condition I believe that drought is going to break. Right now, I hear an abundance of rain coming your way
- 1
- 2
- Next
On one condition
You’ve heard that phrase before:
it is the difference between whether a deal is made or not, whether a job is accepted or not, or whether a person is hired or not
Regardless of what the circumstances might be you know when you hear those words that everything is going to be decided by whether or not that one condition is accepted or met.
This is also true concerning our relationship with the Lord, There is one condition that everything hinges on.
Lu 10:42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
In other words there is one condition that is required and mary hath accepted = met that condition = Hungry
Mt 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Hunger:
1a) to suffer want 1b) to be needy ( to crave ardently, to seek with eager desire)
2. A strong desire or craving
Thirst:
) to suffer thirst, suffer from thirst
1a) to thirst is to painfully feel their want of, and eagerly long for, those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, strengthened
Spiritual Hunger or Desire does not come upon one suddenly, uninvited, and overwhelmingly, It must be cultivated.
You must create a place of emptiness, that cries out to God to be filled.
The intensity of our hunger will determine the dimension, and the degree of our filling
Many times as Christians we lose our spiritual appetite because we have allowed our souls, to be filled with natural earthly, carnal things.
Hunger, thirst, (spiritual desire is the single most required characteristic of the growing maturing, advancing Christian life,.) Yet it seems at times to be the most easily forsaken or lost.
What is our attitude toward the Lord? His presence? His Word?
Martha welcomed Jesus into her house, but forsook his presence for earthly concerns.
She took his presence for granted, she felt what she was doing was more important than what Jesus was saying.
(Mary sat at his feet and heard his words)
Martha had not accepted the condition
The church is filled with people like Martha who are busy about the Lords business but have never met the condition.
Their lives are full of everything except the presence of God.
Thirst or spiritual hunger and desire is the thermometer that determines the spiritual health of a believer,a church,or an entire organization.
When we lose our spiritual appetites, for the presence and the glory of God in our midst, then we are in critical condition, because if you’re not hungry and thirsty, you won’t eat and you won’t drink, and if you won’t eat and drink. You’ll die.
Ps 63:1-2 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
Isa 44:3 For (I will pour water upon him that is thirsty), and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
2nd Kings 3: We find three kings facing a dilemma: they were deep into the wilderness surrounded by hostile kings and they were out of water.
The Solution (One condition)= Empty (Make this valley full of ditches)= create a capacity for receiving)
These three kings at the word of the Lord began to dig ditches, It didn’t make any sense, They didn’t feel like it, but they started digging,
They were not digging for amusement, they were not digging for exercise, (They were digging for their lives)
I believe it can be spoken truly today that we are digging for our lives,,
This is not about comfort, it’s not about convenience, it’s not about preference, it’s not about what makes me feel good, (it’s all about survival) it’s a matter of life and death.
In the hour that we live in there are many that are going to have to make the choice are you going to do what you’ve always done because you’ve always done it, are you going to hold on to the old and try to force God to agree with you?
Are you going to die of spiritual malnutrition or are you going to accept the condition and start digging for your life?
We’ve got to dig through religion, it will not sustain us, dig through anger, resentment, frustration, dig through pride and stubbornness, dig through feelings and emotions, dig through the cares of life.
We must dig until we hit a fresh anointing of the power and glory of God we’ve never experienced before.
We talked about the foundation last week, we must get the foundation right but the church is not built upon the foundation of scripture alone but upon the Spirit and Life and Power contained in those scriptures.