Deepest Desires

Last night, I dreamed of a church gathering. The theme given by the Holy Spirit was for people to write down the deepest desires of their heart. There was a group on stage who was praying with people about what they had written down. Someone asked if the desires could include things that we wanted God to change in our lives. The answer provided was to write down our heart desires in a honest fashion, just to tell God what was on our hearts. Initially, the leader intended to share each person's desires with the group as a whole. Due to possible discomfort within the group, they changed their mind and said that we would come back in the summer to share what we had written down.

The time was short and not everyone made it on stage, but I understood that I could continue the process after the service. As I contemplated the deepest desires of my heart and worked to put them on paper, a woman in the group stood up. She shared that God had spoke a word to her spirit when she had been at the airport. Then she began to sing a song to the Lord. As she sang, there was a clear sense that God was calling us to move from a focus on our desires to a focus of praising him. Everyone stood and joined the woman in the song of praise to God.

Afterwards, a man came to me to let me know of someone who had recently spent time in a mental institution. Apparently, I had spoken a word over them that they were at risk for paranoia and they had not followed through with a response that would have prevented such an incident.

I believe that God is probing our hearts and wants us to be honest with him about what we deeply desire. As we place our desires before him, he will turn our hearts to praise him. He is worthy of our focus. It does not mean that our desires are not important, but it does mean that we must worship Father in spirit and in truth. In this time, the alternative is a deep fear that "dreams" of all the ways that we could be not taken care of, not protected, and not provided for. It is time for us to dream of the hopeful future that God has placed within our hearts and to praise him for what he has done our behalf and for who he is.

Like the woman in the airport, we are waiting on God to propel us further than we could ever go in our strength. As our hearts are open before him and as we praise him, we will find that he fulfils godly heart desires in the proper season.

Does God Hide?

We have often heard the verse that starts out, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then...". Why would God's people need to seek God's face? Because God hides his face from his people when they claim his name but live in wickedness. God calls us to himself and continually convicts us. It is possible for us to enter into a place of believing that we will be untouched by the coming catastrophes and yet be mistaken. Though Micah 3 was originally about the nation of Israel, the nature of God toward his people is unchanging.

4 Then they will cry to the Lord,

But He will not hear them;

He will even hide His face from them at that time,

Because they have been evil in their deeds.

And later in the chapter:
11 Her heads judge for a bribe,
Her priests teach for pay,
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord, and say,
“Is not the Lord among us?
No harm can come upon us.”
12 Therefore because of you
Zion shall be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins,
And the mountain of the temple
Like the bare hills of the forest.

There are hard days coming upon the US and the world. It is intended in part to purify those who claim to belong to Jesus. May our confidence be true faith and not presumption! When the economy collapses, the banks close, and there is no food on the grocery shelves, it will terrible for those who have not lived in the place of intimate obedience. Samson operated in a powerful gift even while he was in the midst of comprise. In a moment, he lost it all. May we be spiritually ready lest God hide his face from us in the day of trouble. Though we call out to him at that time, he will not hear us until we have turned from our wicked ways.