Friday, January 13, 2012

Day Three - January 13, 2012



Are you desperate enough for God?

  • Desperate people do not care what anyone thinks.
  • Desperate people do not care what anyone says.
  • Desperate people will go where no one else will go.
  • Desperate people won't let anything stop them.
  • Desperate people will do desperate things.

Emptiness is the prerequisite for desperation.  Desperation is the condition that exists when a recognized need is present.  All of God's people are needy, but few are willing to acknowledge that need.  It is when the need is acknowledged that a condition of desperation begins to be developed in us.


Why desperation?
Desperation only comes when there is a recognized need that is beyond our ability to meet.


Desperation:

  1. Dangerously reckless or violent as from urgency or despair.
  2. Showing extreme courage; especially of actions courageously undertaken as a last resort.
  3. Showing extreme urgency or intensity especially because of great need or desire.
Contrary to the way we view things, desperation is not a bad thing.  We have let the world define things for us and by the worlds definition desperation is a condition to be avoided at all costs.  But from a divine perspective there are many blessings and even promises of God that cannot be obtained apart from being desperate.

It would be according to the will of God today that everyone of us should reach some measure of desperation conceding the huge gap between what God has made available to us, and what God expects of us, compared to where we are actually at. 

When we see in the Word the life that is available to us, and we see in our own lives and churches the low level of spiritual life and the absence of spiritual power it should create a sense of emptiness within us...a recognition of falling short of the glory that has been prepared for us.  This in turn should serve to stir in us a sense of desperation.

Desperation because we have recognized the need of spiritual power to reach the lost, to heal the hurting and to deliver the oppressed.  Only God can give us what we are lacking.
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will tear the roof off if and when necessary.
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will push through the crowd.
  • Blessed are the desperate...because they won't be offended (even the dogs eat the crumbs.)
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will gladly give up dignity for an encounter with deity. (Zacchaeus proved that.)
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will break barriers. (lepers, woman with issue of blood.)
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will lay in the dirt or climb a tree or jump in a lake.
  • Blessed are the desperate...for they will not argue about what God does or how He does it. (Jesus put mud and spit into the blind mans eyes.)
  • Blessed are the desperate...for if it was not for them the presence and the power of God would never be manifested in our churches at all.
It's not religion, ceremony, tradition, methods, programs, preaching or singing that brings the power of God into church...IT'S DESPERATION!

PRAYER
Lord, I'm desperate for You.  I desire a move of Your presence more than ANYTHING else!  I just want You!  I just want You!  I just want You!  Father, I don't ever want to become numb to Your presence.  If You see me growing cold and indifferent, please do whatever it takes to set me on fire again!  You are my hope, life, breath and reason for living!  I give You my whole heart today...I'm desperate for you!  Amen.