Desires.
Psalm 42.1-3MSG
A widespread cry is growing in the hearts of believers for a real, tangible encounter with God. They want, like Moses, to see Him face to face. They don't want only to read about Him, have head knowledge of Him, talk about Him, and pay homage to Him on Sunday mornings.
I believe that this strong undercurrent in our nation manifests as a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo of the institutional and traditional church.
From, Psalm 42 we read of spiritual hunger. A King that anticipates feedings by his living God.
-King David, a man with pain, and rejection from his own kin. David leans heavily upon his relationship with God.
Psalms 42:1-3 MSG “A white-tailed deer drinks from the creek; I want to drink God, deep drafts of God. 2 I’m thirsty for God-alive. I wonder, “Will I ever make it— arrive and drink in God’s presence?” 3 I’m on a diet of tears— tears for breakfast, tears for supper. All day long people knock at my door, Pestering, “Where is this God of yours?””
Jack, a professor of psychology and literature, had a brilliant mind. He had declared himself as an atheist at the age of 15 and in adulthood adamantly defended his atheistic faith. Christian friends tried to persuade him. As Jack put it, “everyone and everything had joined the other side.” -But the Bible, he had to admit, was different from other literature and myths.
About the gospels, he wrote, “If ever a myth had become fact, had been incarnated, it would be just like this.”
One Bible passage became more influential to Jack – Exodus 3.
Here, God is calling Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt.
Moses asked God who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, God responded, “I Am who I Am.”
This passage is a complex play on words and names, but reflects God’s eternal presence from the beginning.
Interestingly, later, Jesus echoed the same when he said, “before Abraham was born, I Am, John 8.58! ”
Jack, better known as, CS Lewis, was deeply persuaded by this passage. “This was all that the one true God should need to say – simply that He is the, I Am!”
In a life-changing moment, Lewis gave in, and admitted God was God.
-This was the beginning of a journey for Lewis toward accepting Jesus.
Perhaps you’re struggling with belief, as Lewis did, or maybe with a Luke-warm faith.
We might ask ourselves if God is truly the I Am, in our lives.
God is looks for people with a heart like David, who declared in, Psalm 27:4 "One thing 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 inquire in His temple”
A great woman of the faith, Eugenia Price wrote, “My need is the most glorious possession I have outside of Christ himself.”
Have you ever considered being desperate for God as a precious gift to be sought?
-Do you have a need?
Once more, CS Lewis expressed, “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
Why should we be desperate for God’s presence?
1. The first reason we should want to be desperate is, because that will bring Revival
Without God’s presence, life is meaningless; without the power of the Holy Spirit, ministry is fruitless.
Moses knew this and was unwilling to go forward without the assurance of God’s personal presence. Exodus 33:15 Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.”
We stand in dire need of revival, but we don’t always carry a personal urgency for revival.
Much of the book of Lamentations is the cry of a prophet who sensed the immediacy of his nation’s need for revival.
Yet the prophet’s cry was one of anguish because the people to whom he ministered were content to live without it.
In shocked agony, Jeremiah asked a piercing question: “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Lamentations 1:12.
His question could be repeated today. -None of us would mind revival; but few are desperate for it.
King David, a man that experienced the call of God on his life, as a young lad. David out tending the sheep as the prophet Samuel came to anoint the next King of Israel. No one in David’s family believed Samuel was coming to anoint David.
Did you know that if someone can’t tend to sheep, they sure aren’t ready to go loin, and bear hunting, much less to go against a giant named, Goliath!
Again, Psalm 42:1-2NLT As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. 2 I thirst for God, the living God. When can I go and stand before him?
2. The second reason we should want to stay desperate is, Desperation will answer our prayer.
Psalm 102:17AMP He has regarded the prayer of the destitute, And has not despised their prayer.
I typically would define destitute as “homeless.” Maybe you too? While we typically interpret this word as “lacking food, clothing or shelter,” the second definition simply means “lacking.”
You see, it’s not about what we lack. It’s the fact that we are always missing something when we rely on ourselves. It’s when we come to Him in honest desperation that God can do incredible work in our hearts and lives.
Psalm 42:3-4NLT Day and night I have only tears for food, while my enemies continually taunt me, saying, “Where is this God of yours?” 4 My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!
Pain, anger, depression, and the need to please becomes taxing, fear of the future, future of the present, and tormenting thoughts from our past should always lead us to God. P.H
1 Samuel 1:1-15- A girl named, Hannah got desperate for God.
Hannah wept, because of the barrenness of her womb. More than this, she wept until she was sore. She poured out her soul before the Lord. Hannah’s heart was grieving; she was bitter of soul, provoked, and of a sorrowful spirit.
Now that’s a pretty good list of afflictions – sorrow, hardship, and everything else that came upon this woman.
Know this, The key to Hannah’s whole situation is that she was a praying woman.
Verse 20 States, Hannah reaped her reward. “And it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked him of the Lord.’”
I say this quite often– God answers desperate prayer! “Your prayer life denotes how much you depend on your own ability, and how much you depend on God.
Remember this song? “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling….”
The more self-confidence you have, the less you pray. The less self-confidence you have, the more you have to pray.
1 Corinthians 1:28NLT God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.
3. Desperation will transform our life, and our church and community.
Psalm 42:5-6aNLT Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again—my Savior and 6 my God!
We are living in unprecedented days in the history of the church! The Lord is moving in powerful ways, building His church and expanding His kingdom.
Revival is impacting many cities and nations. Leaders are praying with anticipation that they might cross the threshold into genuine revival, leading to transformation of cities in the United States and the Western world. This is not a "trend" or the latest ministry strategy. We are beginning to see tangible evidence of God’s intention to fulfill His promise in Scripture to restore and rebuild cities that are desolate.
These verses are side by side, but I want you to hear there significances.
Ephesians 3:20AMP Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams] according to His power that is at work within us,
Again, This desire, this desperation, will produce change in a church, change in a family, change in a marriage. This desperation will sometimes change the mind of God. P.H
Ephesians 3:21AMP to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever. Amen.
Why is there a lack of desperation/desire for God from our end?
1. The lack of desperation produces the Peril of Prosperity (self-seeking and self-sufficiency):
• For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)
Why is there a lack of desperation/desire for God from our end?
2. Many love life more than God: We feel full and satisfied. However, our fullness must be in Jesus Christ!
Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' (Matthew 22:37)
Why is there a lack of desperation/desire for God from our end?
3. Because of busyness of Life:
• Making ourselves busy for things other than the Lord’s work, distances us from our Lord.
Why is there a lack of desperation/desire for God from our end?
4. You have Issue with Prayerlessness: Part of the issue of prayerlessness (or prayer deficit) is that we are not desperate for God.
We are self-satisfied and content with our lives as they are.
Spiritual death comes when we think we have enough of God, when we think our cup is appropriately filled. -The hungry are fed!
Jeremiah 29:13 God said to the nation of Israel, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart”
Joel 2, is a promise from God. Joel 2:28-29AMP “It shall come about after this?That I shall pour out My Spirit on all mankind;?And your sons and your daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams,?Your young men will see visions. 29 “Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days.
According to, Matthew 24, The perils of evil will grow worse and worse. That’s why I know through scriptures, even through the OT, that God’s spirit shall mushroom within the believer’s life! P.H
Hear this documented story from a persecuted missionary in China. The desire, the desperation! Just listen, The heavenly man. Illustration: To have church in China is risky. However, the desperate looks for ways, new ways, and old ways.
