Article Display
Email  |  My Account  |  Donate
You know, sometimes the Lord will catch you off guard. You may have been seeking Him diligently for something, praying, "God, will You do this? Lord, I want this so much. I need You to do this!" Then suddenly He just hits you with what you've desired when you don't expect it!

One night during a meeting, at a ladies' conference I attend every year, I entered a place in God I hadn't visited for a long time. And do you know what the result was? It made me even hungrier for Him. I didn't think I could get any hungrier, but I found out I could!

You see, there are degrees of hunger, both natural and spiritual. You can be just hungry enough to want to snack a little, or you can be so hungry that the thought of food consumes your mind.

I know what it feels like to be that hungry. Recently, as my family and I were on our way to a nearby lake, I realized I hadn't eaten all day. Ever since we had started the trip, I couldn't figure out why I was being so fidgety in the car. But then I realized the reason - I had just forgotten to eat! And for the rest of the trip, I was so hungry for food that I couldn't think of anything else.

That's how hungry you should be for the things of God. For instance, when someone preaches by the anointing of God and the Holy Spirit starts moving, it should make you hungry for more of God in the same way a little one-course meal makes you hungry for more food.

But do you know who can make you hungrier than anyone else? God can! That's why you have to come before His throne on a daily basis and give yourself to prayer. It's so important that you have seasons of prayer with God all by yourself.

You see, it's all well and good to come together corporately as a local body of believers and enjoy the presence of the Lord together. But it's not nearly as wonderful as it can be when God meets you alone in the intimacy of your own prayer closet.

Hunger Opens the Heart to God
So on this particular night at the ladies' conference, I came to a place in God where I hadn't been in a long time, and it made me so hungry for Him. And I stayed hungry all night! I stayed even hungrier the next day. As God kept making me more and more hungry, my heart started opening up wide to Him.

You see, when we don't hunger after spiritual things, our hearts can become closed and hardened toward God. The good news is, however, that God specializes in softening our closed, hard hearts by making Himself known to us.

The way our hearts sometimes get hard toward God reminds me of a turtle. A turtle has a hard shell on top of him, but underneath its body is soft and pliable.

Similarly, our hearts can get covered up with all sorts of things - family affairs, the circumstances of life, problems, bad attitudes and so on. If that happens, we won't be wide open when God knocks on the door of our hearts. The hard shell we have built around our hearts will keep us closed off from the joy of God's presence.

However, the moment we encounter the reality of God's presence even once, it softens our hearts and makes us hungry for another divine encounter. That's how powerful it is to experience firsthand the love and mercy of God!

A New Heart for the Lost
So by the time I entered another service (one in which the Lord caught me up in the spirit and gave me a vision of His divine invasion of the earth), I was wide open to Him and hungry for more. And God was faithful to give me more. One of the things the Lord gave me that night through the vision was an even greater hunger for souls.

Through the years, God has given me a great burden for souls. But since God gave me the vision of His invasion, something new has been happening to me as I pray for the lost. I don't understand it all, but I'll try to explain it the best I can.

As I prayed in the past, the people were always descending in a downward spiral into the pit of darkness, and I was reaching for them in prayer, trying to grasp their hand with my hand to pull them out of the darkness. But since I saw that divine invasion, God has moved me into the midst of the lost souls as I pray. I have become one of them.

We are all crying out to Him, but my cry is the loudest. I walk among the lost and cry out to God for them as the Spirit of God prays through me.

Through these experiences in prayer, I have come to understand that I am my brother's keeper. That's what comes up inside of me as the Holy Spirit prays through me. I am my brother's keeper.

And so are we all. You see, Judgment Day is coming - when all our works will be tried by fire and all the "wood, hay and stubble" will be burned up (1 Cor. 3:12-13). Only the gold and silver of our works that endured will be left.

Did you ever wonder what your pile of gold and silver will look like? Will there only be a small pile of godly works left after the fire burns up the works of the flesh, or will there be a huge pile of gold to present to the Lord?

And what will we do when it's time for souls to be condemned to hell? What will it be like to stand there and watch as people are thrown into the lake of fire forever? Will we think, Did I know any of them? Could I have done anything that would have kept them from going there?

Source: When God Invades The Earth by Lynne Hammond.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers

Author Biography

Lynne Hammond
Web site: Lynne Hammond Ministries
 
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”
Read more...

About Us

The online ministry of cfaith has been helping people discover faith, friends and freedom in the Word since 2000. Cfaith provides a unique and comprehensive collection of faith-building resources for the worldwide faith community.

At cfaith, you can strengthen your faith and deepen your understanding of the Word of God by digging into the vast collection of teaching articles, streaming audio and video messages, and daily devotionals. No other website offers such a unique and extensive collection of spiritual-growth resources aimed at helping you grow in your knowledge of the Word.

Read More...

 

 

Support Us

Why support cfaith?


(All contributions are 100% tax deductible)


SUPPORT CFAITH WITH ONE CLICK!

For every Internet search you make using
goodsearch, cfaith will receive one penny!

GS Logo 250x38

Contact Us

Business Hours:


Monday—Friday: 9 a.m.—5 p.m. CST
Saturday & Sunday: Closed

Phone:

(763) 488-7800 or (800) 748-8107

Mailing Address: 

CFAITH.com
9201 75th Avenue North
Brooklyn Park, MN 55428

 

Login Form

Please ignore the “Secret Key” field; it is not needed to log in to cfaith.

Login Change Article

Spring360x442
You need to enable user registration from User Manager/Options in the backend of Joomla before this module will activate.