Craving God

^{CRAVING GOD}

^{Richard L Spangler}

   ^{Recently I had a craving for some of my homemade chili but it was still in the 80’s outside, and not the weather for chili. My wife couldn’t believe I was cooking chili on such a warm day. But, when you have a craving for something it does not matter, it’s the only thing that will satisfy you. At about the same time, I felt a strong urging of the Holy Spirit to revisit 2 Chronicles 7:14. At this point I had not made the connection with the craving for chili and the urging to revisit an oft quoted verse of scripture.  You may ask, “What does craving chili on a warm day have to do with craving God?  Where are you going with this?”}

  ^{Many believers are wondering what happened to 2 Chronicles 7:14. Many believers pray, repent and yet ask, “Why isn’t our land healed?”}

   ^{Our nation is divided. The same balance of power between remains and the nation is in an almost 50/50 split. The economy is still in trouble, with no clear solutions.  So what happened?}

  ^{First, I believe many prayed their political beliefs, believing that God could only be on their side. Joshua learned in Joshua 5:13-15, that Lord is on neither side. We therefore need to make sure we are on the Lord’s side, not a particular political party. The leaders of both political are guilty of giving lip service to God when it is good for them to do so. God knows it and so should we.}

   ^{Second, and most importantly we missed a key part of the scripture in 2 Chronicle 7:14 and that is to ‘seek my face”. To get a better understanding of this phrase, I looked at several different translations. They all said the same way except the Amplified.}

^{2 Chronicles 7:14 in the Amplified: “If My people, who are called My name shall humble themselves, pray, seek, crave, and require of necessity My Face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from Heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land.”}  

 ^{The word crave stands out in a powerful way to me. According to Webster’s Dictionary crave is defined as, to ask for earnestly: beg, demand. to want greatly: need, to yearn for: to have a strong or inward desire} 

 Some Synonyms:ACHE (FOR), COVET,DESIRE,HUNGER (FOR),LONG(FOR),LUST (FOR OR AFTER),THRIST(FOR)

 Then the verse says, “and require of necessity” again using Webster’s Dictionary: Require means: a: to claim or ask for by right and authority b: to demand as necessary or essential. Necessity means: the state of being in need: requirement, an urgent need.

So here we have God saying that we need to beg, and demand with a strong inward desire for His face. We are to ask for by the right and authority he gives us as his people.

  The church as a whole is not craving God, we are not seeking Him. Many have taken on the attitude of, “What I have in God is good enough.” or “The next move of God is coming and all I have to do is wait on it.” There is no drive, no passion, no craving to know God in an intimate relationship, let alone to seek His face.

Every great move of God started with God’s people seeking to know him more. We need to go beyond just seeking God, and to crave Him.  We must get to the point in our life where nothing else will satisfy us. Many talk about this but very few actually do this.

  This means making our relationship with God our number one priority. Make the sacrifice, turn off the computer, the I-Pad, TV and dare I say it, the cell phone. We need to stir ourselves up, until nothing else with satisfy us, making our face to face relationship with Him essential to our very existence. We need to beg, and demand as our right, as children of God, to see our Father face to face. 

  Some may say that we cannot ask or enter into God presence in such a matter. But the Word of God says we can. In Hebrews 4:14-16 we can enter fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near the Throne of God (AMP). The Message Bible puts it this way: "So let's walk right up to him and get what he is so ready to give,Take the mercy,accept the help."

 

The good news is God wants and desires this type of relationship with his children. God created man to be in relationship with Him. Adam and Eve had such a wonderful relationship with God that they knew the sound of his walking. Abraham had a relationship where could not talk to God but could reason with him face to face. Moses had face to face talks with God at the Tent of Meeting in the wilderness. The Apostle Paul received a personal teaching from the Lord. The Apostle John in Revelation saw the Lord.  

    You too can have this type of face to face with the Lord but you must crave it above anything else. It is when the children of God, crave his face that God will hear from heaven and heal their land.

 What does craving chili have to do with craving God? Nothing except that God used it to stir me to write about craving a face to face relationship with Him. I may never look at a bowl of chili the same way again. By the way the chili was great.

 

©COPYRIGHT 2012 RICHARD L SPANGLER