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.