It's Time To Get Hungry!

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Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6

For a little while now I have wondered whether or not we have lost our zeal and our faith in the ability of Christ to move. Our services have become almost denominational. We have our programs, our philisophical diatribe, a little music, and of course our many offerings. What we seem to have lost is our real hunger for God. It is confusing, and sometimes I find myself being angered by the lack of desire, but when I do what I can to pray, and be available if needed, and still no change, well it gets easy to be discouraged, or even full of doubt.

I understand it is the last days, and many will fall away. I also understand the 'preachers with itching ears thing.' I think I even know a few of them. But I think we blame who we have become on the scriptures say it will happen rather than being willing to do something to change.

It is depressing to see people come in, get the holy ghost, be baptized, and never come back. Some would say, they just didn't have the hunger for God. Others would say, it is just a sign of the times, but the bible says 'they that hunger, shall be filled.'

Have we become so complacent in our worship, so busy with our lives, so afraid of controversy that we fail to realize that we are slowing dying. A body can only go so long without food, and without hunger the body will not realize the slow deterioration until its too late.

There are instances where we are unable to find food. In a spiritual sense, if our minsters are not clued in with what is needed, then we will not find what we need. If we base what we do on the programs that have worked for others rather than seeking God, and finding fresh food for our own people, then we are slowly killing them. Even a baby will get sick of nothing but milk when it begins to grow, and yet the same repeated message comes across the pulpit over and over. Stale!

Now, I understand there can be a need to reaffirm the message of our faith. Water baptism, the holy ghost, the love of God, needs to be taught. But, if the message didn't come from prayer, and study, it is microwaved bread. It is not good, tough to chew, and though there may be a bit of food value left, it isn't easy to choke down.

It irritates me though, that instead of fresh bread, and fresh water, and especially a fresh anointing, we are expected to exist on what is the topic of the day. We have the fire, we have the bread, why isn't the bread fresh and hot? We are hungry pastor! Feed us!

Imagine it like this. We are sitting there at a banquet table filled with all kinds of glorius treats, but instead our host comes up to us, and says, I am sorry but you will only be able to eat this moldy, stale, bread. And when someone makes a grab for the meat, he apologizes and takes it away!

GET REAL PASTOR!

Try feeding your wife stale bread and dirty water, when there is cake and fresh milk available. I am sure you will wake up to realize, either she doesn't want you around anymore, or that she has died of hunger!

Eventually though, we succumb to eating the stale bread because it is all we are given. Our hunger for greater things dies.

This is the state of the Apostolic church. Content with less, when we could have so much more. Some of it is the pastors faults. Some of it is the saints who sit there on their pew and are willing to accept less than the best. I have seen souls die spiritually and in actuality because their needs were not being met. Psychology, charisma, and an act of 'worship' is not enough to sustain those in need. Still we persist. I have begun to believe that some do not even realize what they are doing. (He wist not the spirit had departed.) I know this is talking about Samson, but I believe it is relevant to today.

Sadly, I have found myself wondering if I was wrong, if perhaps I was backslid myself. I am not. I want to see God move like He used to. He deserves all of our praise. But, I wondered, does anyone else feel like I do? Am I alone in this hunger?

Thankfully I am not!

A friend sent me the top photo from her church camp. There is still hunger, and there is still a cause. Are we going to feed them? Or let them die like so many of us already have. Is there not a cause??? Little kids hungry for God! So many of us toss them aside, tell them to 'shush!' and act like they do not matter. But they are hungry, and they believe God can. I do not see how we can sit on our pews of complacency, or how we can go on with the program when some child is hungry for God. We need to throw our plan, and our agenda out the window, before it is too late.

See, it is not just them that would be lost. It is us! They want a move of God. They don't feel embarrassed by what we believe, and they want to share it with others. Look at the hunger in her face, look at the desire. Do you still have that?

If we keep silent the rocks will cry out! Already there is talk of the holy ghost falling in other churches, and yet we have one or two a year? Believe me I am not against the holy ghost falling where ever it has to, but do we really want to be the ones on the outside looking in?

In many churches the all night prayer meetings are gone. I cannot remember the last time my pastor called a fast for some need that wasn't financial. We no longer linger in the altar, and our 'musicians' can't seem to know what the spirit is leading to draw more people to the altar. Loud music is confused with praise, and one of two shouts and we think we have had a move of God.


Just last week I was in revival, and the services were better than I can remember in quite a while. A comment was made from the pulpit, ' We need services like this, sometimes.' SOMETIMES?

If you aren't hungry you will not get fed. But I know for myself, when I am hungry for barbequed ribs, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob; cream of wheat, doesn't cut it! When I am hungry for some reason, I seem to cook better. I don't make my kids eat leftovers, I make em something fresh.

And that is the answer! When the pulpit gets hungry, the pews will no longer accept stale bread and stale water. When the pastor displays his hunger, the saints will follow.

It is time to get hungry!

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