“…All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me.” — Psalm 42:7
A breaker is a heavy sea wave that breaks into white foam on the shore.
It rises and crashes on the beach and pulls back into itself what it throws itself upon.
This is what I want.
I want the Lord to crash upon me and pull me into Himself.
I want to be completely dominated by the Lord.
I want all that He is to wash over me.
I want to encounter Him more.
I want to know Him more.
I want to be submerged in Him.
All because I want Him… I want to be like Him… I want to think about Him always… I want to be conscious of Him and Him alone.
But if I’m going to say yes to Him, I inevitably must say no to something else.
If my soul is to thirst for the living God, then by default it cannot thirst for something else.
To thirst is to be consumed by the object that can quench it.
A deer pants for the water brooks because only the water brooks can satisfy its thirst.
Likewise, a soul pants for God when it realizes that He alone can satisfy its longing.
And I believe that there is a panting that’s being released within God’s people.
Church, I believe that there is a great divorce that is coming between God’s people and that which does not satisfy… the world itself.
I can’t explain it.
Sometimes you just feel or know a thing.
But I feel deep within me that there are people that are finding it possible to surrender more of who they are to Him.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again here: There is a deeper consecration being worked in the hearts of God’s children.
The only attractive thing is the altar they find themselves laid upon.
They have no interest in getting off of it.
In fact, they long for His fire to fall upon them again and again.
There is a fresh invitation in the air to come and die anew… to present your body as a living and holy sacrifice (Romans 12:1)… to throw yourself at His feet and tell Him that there’s no one else you want to live for but Him.
There is an invitation to pursue sanctification — a holiness by which you set yourself apart unto Him by separating yourself from any want or longing for what the world offers.
Hebrews 12:14 urges us to do this very thing by saying, “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”
The pursuit of holiness causes me to see Him and others to see Him in me.
If I’m wanting to have more of Him, I must bid farewell to that which doesn’t have its origin in Him.
If I’m wanting to experience more of Him, I must seek for what pleases Him.
But when He is your desire… when it’s Him that your soul thirsts for… that which you let go of or say, “No” to isn’t considered loss.
It’s a joyful sacrifice.
Friends, I’m beginning to believe more and more that bridal hunger and thirst — the kind that joins with the Spirit and says, “Come.” (Revelation 22:17) — is rising up.
There is a company of people rising up that share the sentiment of the psalmist who wrote Psalm 42 and they are making themselves ready for what’s coming.
I write this to tell you that if you’re in that company, you’re not alone.
There’s nothing wrong with you… it’s called lovesickness.
Your love for Him is what’s causing you to long for Him and it’s out of that longing that you’ll find yourself crying out for more and being satisfied by nothing but His presence.
I still believe with all of my heart that before Jesus returns there is going to be another great outpouring of His Spirit and I believe with the same conviction that this hunger and thirst within God’s people is drawing it ever closer.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries
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