Supposed Jesus Christ was to appear to you in person and say, “I promise to answer one of your prayers. What would that prayer be? (Ask members of the class). Read Jeremiah 9:23-24.
In a sense you know God when you are truly saved, but your knowledge consist only of the fact that you are forgiven of your sins and know that you are going to heaven.
In Philippians 3:7-9, the Apostle Paul says that he has sacrificed everything and has counted them as garbage in order to gain Christ. However, in verse 10, he prays that “I might know Him”. Certainly, Paul knew Jesus more intimately than any man who has lived on this earth. But the more he knew Him, the more he wanted to know Him. Note: Ephesians 2:7. Also most scholars believe that David knew God more than any other person in the Old Testament, yet he prayed in Psalm 42:1-2, “as the deer pants after the water brook, so pants my heart after thee”. Note: Thomas Shepherd, founder of Harvard, said, “in true grace there is an infinite circle. By thirsting, a man receives, and when he receives, he thirst for more.” Personally, I have known God for many years but I desire to know Him more today, by far than ever.
But you may ask, what are the benefits of Spiritual thirst?
- First let Jesus answer in Matthew 5:6. “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled”. Also see John 7:37-39.
- Listen to Isaiah 30:18. “How blessed are all those who long for Him”.
Now who initiates Spiritual thirst in you? The reason you thirst for God is the Holy Spirit in you (I Cor. 6:19-20).
- And the Holy Spirit is not passive. He is constantly speaking and leading us toward Jesus.
- The Holy Spirit also cries out Abba Father (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15).
Why does the Holy Spirit initiate Spiritual thirst? He initiates the thirst that He might satisfy it Psalm 107:9 says “He satisfies the longing soul”. A great theologian has said “the Kingdom of God does not belong to the well meaning but to the desperate”.
While the Holy Spirit initiates thirst. He uses means to produce the thirst:
- Reading the Scriptures carefully and relevantly. Ex. Ephesians 1:1-7. “Just reading can become information that passes through the mind like water through a pipe” George Muller. So reading is not enough to produce Spiritual thirst.
- The memorization of the Word. To most modern Christians memorization is equivalent to martyrdom. Here the rule for memorization. It is hard by the yard but a cinch by the inch.
- Meditation on the verses memorized– ask questions, pray over it, doodle on a pad, apply it to your life, “soak your soul slowly in the water of the Word”.
- Pray through the Scriptures, such as Psalm 1, 51, 63, 23; Romans 8, etc.
- Read of great men and woman who thirsted for God – Edwards, Spurgeon, McCheyne, A. W. Tozer. Read Edman’s book They Found the Secret.
- Associate with individuals near and far, “who are thirsting after God”.
- Stay under the anointed expository teaching and preaching of God’s Word. Note: Beware of “good stuff” that is not “God Stuff”.
- Make the Spiritual disciplines your life style beginning with internalization of the Word and disciplined prayer.
- Develop close friendships with someone on the local scene who is thirsting for God.