The full soul loatheth an honeycomb; but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.
Proverbs 27:7 (KJV)
We all have our favorite foods. It is part of belonging to the diverse human race that each of us will come to like certain foods better than others. Sometimes taste is the deciding factor and sometimes texture. As I have grown older, I seem to like a wider variety than I did as a child and as a younger man. I remember going out with friends to eat my very first salad when I was a freshman in college. After insisting from childhood that I did not like salads (they are still not my favorite) I found eating the salad an overall pleasant experience. Perhaps I just enjoyed the company. Of course in high school all of us kids griped incessantly about the lunches served. However, in retrospect, they were generally pretty good. There were days in high school when it seemed that by lunch time, especially if one was assigned to eat on second shift, when the lunch bell finally rang, one’s belly button was having close fellowship with one’s backbone (as I once heard an elderly gent intone). On those days, when hunger felt as though it was gnawing at my insides, my least favorite school lunch became a gourmet repast which I scarfed down gratefully. The primary difference between those days and others was not the quality of the food. It was fairly consistent. The difference lay in my level of hunger!
The writer of this proverb knew the principle well. If one is satisfied where one is, then one will not strive very diligently to press forward. The effort will not seem worth the trouble. However, when one is “hungry” for more, one will do whatever is necessary to press in for more. Pastor JOHN Osteen used to say that one could stop in one’s walk with God on whatever level one wanted to stop. But that one had better not make fun of someone that craved to go further in Kingdom realities. The difference between a person of “preference” and a person of “passion,” is that a person of “preference” will do what he can, but a person of “passion” will do what it takes!
Soon after being Born Again, a few of those well-meaning folk who had been praying for me to be “saved,” tried to inform me that now I “had it all.” If I “had it all,” I reasoned, then why was I still hungering for more? My searching led me to a little store front gathering of believers, where I received the Baptism in the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. Though thankful beyond measure for the experience I had with God, my heart still hungered for more. Not long after, I met some members of a particular Pentecostal denomination who informed me that I needed to be baptized in water by their pastor in their way. They said, “You need to come and get it all!” Well, I definitely wanted “it all,” so I was so baptized (which I certainly still believe is Biblical and vital). And I did receive a wonderful blessing standing in the tank after being brought up out of the water by a Bishop in that denomination. Yet, in my deepest heart of hearts, I was still hungry for “more!”
The question has often been presented to me, “Do you believe in the ‘second blessing?’” My answer is, “Of course I believe in the ‘second blessing!’ And I believe in the ‘third,’ and the ‘fourth,’ and the ‘hundredth,’ and the ‘thousandth’!” Growing in the knowledge of the Lord over the years has taught me, among other things, that, as long as God is infinite, there will ALWAYS be MORE of God than what I have presently experienced. And while, legally and judicially, all that God is and has belongs to me by virtue of being “in Christ,” I have not yet entered in to a full experience of all that God is or has. Thus, no matter how deeply or often I may experience God, my spirit always hungers for more of Him! After years of walking with the Lord on an extremely intimate level, ultimately writing over half of what would come to us as the New Testament, the Apostle Paul cried out, “That I might KNOW HIM!” (Philippians 3:10).
Jesus declared that it was the one who hungered and thirsted that would be filled (Matthew 5:6). Yes, you MUST be Born Again (John 3:7). In addition, if you have embraced faith in Jesus Christ, but have not yet been Baptized in Water, or Baptized in the Holy Spirit, according to the New Testament pattern, be assured that the promise is for you (Acts 2:38-29). But please remember that these experiences, though vitally important, are not “arrival points” in our walk with the Lord. They are rather “doorways” into new vistas of the abundant life that Jesus promised (John 10:10). No experience with God should be viewed as a “destination” but rather as a “launching pad” for the next steps in our Kingdom journey!
Sadly, too many of God’s precious people have become complacent and “satisfied” with where they are in their walk of faith. They have signed a “peace treaty” with the “zeitgeist” (spirit of the age), and have compromised on some level with the prevailing world culture that surrounds them. Many Charismatics loudly proclaim themselves to be “Word” people, but what they have become is “favorite Word” people. Whatever Scripture verses challenge their preconceived notions, or exhort them to a deeper communion with the Lord or more radical separation from world culture, they dismiss. Others declare Biblical Truth regarding spiritual authority to be “bondage,” and Biblical Truth regarding holiness to be “legalism.” They have learned to live compartmentalized lives, with their “religious life” on Sunday, and their “real life” the rest of the week! Many of them see no wrong in compromising with the “world” regarding the way they dress, the way they treat others, the way they conduct business, what they watch on the movie screen, or how they vote in local or national elections. They “go along to get along” and don’t want to “make waves.” And then they wonder why there is not a greater manifestation of God’s Glory and Power that we all claim to believe in. Honestly, I question whether the church could stand the degree of Glory that we have been crying out for. Remember that God’s Glory always brings BOTH blessing AND judgment!
The Apostle Paul reminded the Ephesian elders that he had been faithful to declare to them the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27). Paul did not preach only the Scriptures that would not cause controversy or offense. He preached it ALL! If we are truly going to be “Word” people, we must be “WHOLE WORD” people! We cannot afford any longer to merely shout when the blessings are proclaimed and then “puff up” when a corrective Word is declared that demands we adjust and align with it! Even in the natural realm, foods that we may not particularly “like” are often good for us and needful for our body. For instance, a doctor told me several years ago that I should eat more broccoli. Now broccoli is one of my least favorite foods, although Linda does a masterful job of making it palatable for me. But if we are truly hungry enough, we will even scarf down broccoli with thanksgiving! Those who are stuffed full and “satisfied” do not desire even the sweetest honey. But to the famished, even broccoli will taste good. If we are sufficiently hungry and thirsty for the Righteousness of God (His way of being and doing “right”), then we will embrace and adjust to God’s correction as well as rejoice in His blessing!
The ultimate question is, “How hungry are YOU?” Be Blessed!
