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Posted: 10/16/2009 at 2:06pm
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Cultivating Our Spiritual Hunger - Wade Taylor
Draw me, we will run after You. The King has brought me into His chambers. Song of Solomon 1:4a.
This verse expresses in two words, a prayer that is vital to our spiritual well being. These words are easily remembered and may therefore be prayed often, "Draw me."
Following our prayer of desire is a commitment to the Lord that we will indeed respond to Him, as He creates within us a spiritual hunger - "We will run after You."
Finally, the marvelous result of the outworking of our prayer of desire and of the expression of our determination to respond to Him follows - "The King has brought me into His chambers."
This essential prayer, "Draw me," relates to the spiritual hunger that in varying degrees is resident within each of us. This hunger drive, a powerful basic "urge" at the foundation of all life, seeks its satisfaction in many ways.
In the physical realm, a baby is born hungry. The mother cannot produce this hunger within her child, she can only nourish it. The spiritual hunger within each of us is a creative act of God that comes from Him alone. It cannot be produced or imparted by man; but only by the Lord.
The Lord will enlarge our spiritual capacity, as in faith we look to Him to cause us to become spiritually hungry. A primary means to accomplish this is to present ourselves before the Lord and then actively "wait upon Him." As we wait, the Lord will work in our behalf, and He will respond to our desire for increased spiritual hunger and capacity.
And unto one He gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took His journey. Matthew 25:15.
These "talents" relate to our spiritual capacity. Once we become spiritually hungry, we must be careful to separate this newly acquired spiritual capacity from other desires and not allow some substitute to seemingly satisfy it. Nor should we seek some other means than the Lord Himself to satisfy our spiritual hunger.
As we actively look to the Lord and prayerfully ask Him to "draw us," this hunger within us will intensify, causing us to cry out for its satisfaction. The Lord will respond, and He will come to "sup" with us. As we welcome His presence, and then "feed Him" with our worship, and with the expression of our commitment to "run after Him," He in turn will "feed us," fully satisfying our hunger with Himself.
For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who partakes of My flesh and drinks My blood dwells in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live through the Father, so he who partakes of Me, even he shall live by Me. John 6:55?57.
Our Lord is a seeking God who is both desirous and anxious for our fellowship. He will, as we seek to better know Him, create within us the spiritual hunger that will lead us into His presence, that we might intimately, personally, sup with Him. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will dine with him (we feed Him) and he with Me (He feeds us). Revelation 3:20.
This "dining with Him" has to do with our partaking of His very life, thereby becoming a part of Him.
For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Ephesians 5:30.
As our spiritual hunger increases, we will be motivated with desire, and moved upon by the Holy Spirit to wait before the "door" that will lead us into a relationship of intimate personal communion with our Lord. We do this by setting aside all that is earthly to seek communion with Him, in His abiding presence.
Blessed is the man who hears Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at the posts of My doors. For whoever finds Me finds life, and shall obtain favor from the Lord. Proverbs 8:34-35.
We open this doorway into His manifest presence, and into the realm of divine activity, as we respond to His beckoning knock. As we invite the Lord within and commune with Him, He will draw us into an active relationship with Him which will result in a deepening of our spiritual capacity and experience.
Deep calls unto deep. At the noise of Your waterspouts, all Your waves and Your billows are gone over me. Psalm 42:7.
This increased sensitivity and responsiveness to His desire for our fellowship will induce Him to knock upon the door of our heart more often, as the "approbation of God" (divine favor) rests upon us.
I sleep, but my heart is awake. It is the sound of my Beloved that knocks, saying, Open to Me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled: for My head is filled with dew, My locks with the drops of the night. Song of Solomon 5:2.
The Lord had been out in the "night," searching for someone who longed to be with Him. This expression of a desire to be with Him, "My heart is awake" moved the Lord to respond.
You have a hidden garden, Lord, Where You seek for Your own, Bidding them come apart and rest Sweetly with You alone.
Each flower reveals Your loveliness, Each tree speaks of Your care; Under the sheltering boughs I would sit, Finding deep solace there.
Take me into Your garden, Lord, See! I stand at the gate; Open wide the golden portals, Lest I enter too late.
Lead me gently upon Your arm Into a place apart; Take me into Your garden, Lord, Receive me into your heart.
Thus, the spiritual hunger that we hold before the Lord is the foundation of our spirituality, and of our growth into spiritual maturity.
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Edited by Moderator on 10/16/2009 at 2:06pm
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Topic: Cultivating Our Spiritual Hunger - Wade Taylor
