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Human Fullness
is The Greatest Obstacle
to Supernatural Filling Some of us are determined to "present our fullness for God to fill." Then we complain to anyone who will listen that this "intimacy with God stuff" is a hoax. God isn't interested in meeting you at your best-that is really when you are at your worst. He isn't interested in blessing your independence; He responds to your dependence. His strength is attracted to your weakness. He casts down the proud, but He runs to the pitiful1 (The God Catchers, p. 100). Many confirmed God Chasers in this generation and in generations past share the common conviction that the powerlessness of the church stems from its prayerlessness and its habit of leaning on the weak arm of the flesh rather than on God. It is easier to conduct church business and church worship gatherings according to "cut and dried" patterns, using the more easily controlled natural gifts and abilities of people rather than admitting our reliance upon the irritatingly supernatural gifts and abilities of God. The problem is that if we think and act like we can do a thing without God, then it isn't His. Take the time to examine your life and the life of your church. How much of what you do each day, and how much of the typical church service, is duplicated effortlessly in business offices, civic organizations and country clubs every day? How much can be attributed solely to the intervention, provision, or personal visitation of God? We can make people feel better through comforting words, and we can sound wise by delivering the wisdom of men packaged as the wisdom of God. We can even educate people in the Word of God without ever introducing them to the reality of His presence. Yes, their lives will be improved through their proximity to the Truth, but they deserve more. If we presume to "do church" in God's name, the least we should do is lean upon His strength, wisdom, love, grace, and mercy with all of our ability (or should we say "inability"?). I don't remember John saying, "As many as are led by the habits, patterns and programs of men, behold, they are the sons of God." Isn't the Spirit supposed to be involved somewhere in that process? If we think we can "do church" using our "human fullness" without relying on His personal participation and supernatural visitation, then it seems logical that anyone can "do church" without God and have the same "unsupernatural" results. Unfortunately it is more than logical; it seems to be a way of life in much of the modern church world. (Is it any wonder that we are often powerless to transform lives, heal the sick, deliver the oppressed and provide godly leadership in our cities?) Is it wrong to meet needs using your natural gifts, wisdom or accumulated knowledge? Is a God Chaser a "hyper-spiritual" person who over-spiritualizes even the mundane things of life? (You know the answer to these questions is no.) How should you, as a God Chaser, remain dependent upon God and offer Him emptiness throughout the normal day so His supernatural fullness can invade the mundane? The desperate widow and mother who encountered Elisha turned to God's fullness for relief when her life and the lives of her sons were endangered by the loss of her husband and the emptiness of her food pantry. She didn't offer God full bowls, pans or containers. She didn't even limit her offering to her personal capacity for "emptiness." Elisha the prophet told her to "collect emptiness" from her neighbors, so she scoured the area for every pot and pan she could.2 The widow didn't understand the importance of her collected emptiness, and neither do we most of the time. "She didn't realize that her cumulative emptiness would literally determine the measure of her miraculous filling" (The God Catchers, p. 99). God loves to pour out His fullness on man's emptiness, but this won't happen until we run out (or willingly lay down) our strength, resources, ideas, programs, agendas, personal charisma, and "holy hyperbole." James said we "have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy."3 God is "full of pity" or compassionate (The God Catchers, p. 100). It may hurt, but I have to ask you: Are you full of yourself or full of His presence? What has the fullness in your life produced? What are you "full of"? What do you offer to Him? Erroneous Assumptions, Presumptions and Misaligned Paradigms I don't mean to hurt anyone's feelings, but it appears that the real harbinger of revival is not a good preacher or a good singer-it is the amount of our "collected hunger." The "God of More Than Enough" is inexorably drawn to the empty capacity of our growling spiritual stomachs, especially when we gather in one mind and one accord with an unappeasable appetite for Him (page 98). Human beings like clear "cause and effect" relationships. If revival ignites somewhere, we assume that "something" triggered it-something we can duplicate that will benefit us. We really hope that "something" allows us to enjoy the benefits without taking any of the responsibility. Perhaps you've noticed that God doesn't work that way. Our responsibility for hunger is unavoidable on the individual and on the corporate levels. You and I are called to hunger for God. 1. What are you hungry for? 2. What do you hunger for in your local church? Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 4:1-7, in which God uses a destitute widow to reveal how the volume of our spiritual hunger determines how much of His fullness we can receive. 1 A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves." 2 So Elisha
said to her, What shall I do for you? Tell me, what do you have in the house?"
And she said, Your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of
oil."
3 Then he said,
Go, borrow vessels from everywhere, from all your neighborsempty vessels; do
not gather just a few.
4 And when you have come in, you shall shut the door behind you and your sons; then pour it into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones." 5 So she went
from him and shut the door behind her and her sons, who brought the vessels to
her; and she poured it out.
6 Now it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said to her son, Bring me another vessel.?And he said to her, There is not another vessel.?So the oil ceased. 7 Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil and pay your debt; and you and your sons live on the rest.? The New King James Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers) 1998, c1982. "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it." Matthew 11:12 Do you want to be a World Changer? http://groups.yahoo.com/group/worldchangers2010/ YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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