News Archive
No satisfaction?
I was privileged to be at a conference recently with John and Carol Arnott from Toronto. The theme was Grace and Glory.
God really spoke to me afresh about his grace. I thought I understood what grace was all about. Perhaps I did, but somehow a light was switched on for me that weekend that helped me to enter deeper into God's grace rather than just having a good theology of grace.
We had wonderful times of just resting in the Father's presence during the three days. We saw people healed by the power of God; hearts released into the fullness of the Father's love, and many wonderful testimonies of God working deeply in people's lives.
And it has made me hungry - hungry to see the church of God not settle for anything less than a genuine encounter with the God that we serve. Jesus invited the hungry and thirsty to come and receive the Holy Spirit. He didn't ask us to qualify for it, or earn it or even to understand the theology of it fully before we receive it (that might unsettle a few of you!). He simply invited us to come and receive a spring of living water that won't run dry up.
The strange thing is that as we hunger for God, He pours out more of himself. And the result? We just get more hungry for Him. We learn that only He can satisfy our deepest longings, and our desire to be satisfed by other things begins to fade.
I pray that each of us would become hungry for God... really hungry! So that we wouldn't be satisfied with anything less than a genuine encounter with the Father in whatever way He chooses. Don't presume to know how God will meet you: it may be through serving the poor and needy; it may in the still small voice, or maybe like Isaiah you'll find yourself crying "Woe is me".
But seek Him earnestly, and settle for nothing less.