Pastor Colin Dye
The fifth mark of revival in your life is an intense spiritual desire. Many of us do not know the kind of hunger for God that the writers of the Bible experienced. David writes in Psalm 42 “My soul pants for you”. Whenever we are physically hungry, we know that our senses immediately begin to revolve around our physical need – other things are forgotten.
Spiritual desire operates the same way. When our first love is restored everything else will seem less important. Our perspectives and priorities will change. This kind of focus may seem rare, but it’s God’s plan for all of us. He wants first place in our lives and nothing less.
The Good or the Best?
Many of our desires are not wrong. They are simply the way we express human vitality. God delights to meet our needs and he also delights to bless us extravagantly. But problems arise when we let his gifts take all our attention. This can happen over time, and can often be deceptive. Suddenly in revival we wake up to the fact that we have become preoccupied with secondary things that have kept us away from Him. Then our human desires give way to the most important thing, which is to know God. Being with him, seeking his holiness and glory become the primary goals in your life. Nothing else really matters anymore.
Retaining Relationship
If you missed a close friend then your desire for them would not be vague – you would miss particular things about them. When we desire for God there are clear things we want in our lives. We want righteousness – the freedom to be who we were created to be. We want our prayer life to carry a fresh passion. We cannot stay away from the Bible. We delight in godly disciplines. Our hearts reflect his own and we ache for the lost and become passionate to win souls.
Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount that sin starts in the heart. It is not enough to examine our actions, because they are the result of wrong thinking and wrong desires. The opposite is also true. Correct thinking and having a righteous heart will spur us on to godly action. If your life does not reflect God’s priorities then there is a good chance that the fires of God need to be re-stoked. Seek Him now.