Thoughts for Life: #41 How to Deepen Your Desire

Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: 1. Welcome God-given desires. From one viewpoint, real desire is a gift of God. From another viewpoint, you must deepen your own desire with the help of God.

Finney teaches that if you find a desire for the good of other people strongly impressed upon you, there is a strong possibility that the Holy Spirit is giving and deepening this desire so as to stir you up to pray. He adds,

"In such a case, no degree of desire or importunity
in prayer is improper. A Christian may come as
it were and take hold of the hand of God." (Principles
Principles of Prayer p. 26)

Listen to Jacob pray,

"I will not let you go unless you bless me" (Gen. 32:26)

Did this attitude insult God? No! It made Jacob a prince with God, with a new name—Israel. Moses prayed with such a desire that God came face-to-face with him (Exod/ 33:12-23; Num. 12:8)

2. Do not quench or lose these holy desires. They are a fire of the Holy Spirit. Do not put them out (1 Thess. 5:19).Do not let other things divert you or distract you. Let the Holy Spirit deepen your prayer more and more as you cherish these holy longings and hunger for them ever more deeply.

3. Surrender your own desires. Remember that in your humanity you may often wish for things and be more self-motivated that God-motivated. Your prayer may be colored more by self-interest than by desire for the glory of God.

The Holy Spirit will faithfully teach you God's perspective, God's priorities, and God's process if you remain filled with the Spirit and selflessly committed to God's will. Then divine and human desires glow and merge together.

4. Trust God for what you desire, and praise Him. As you press on with deep, holy desires for God's will in the situation for which you pray, the Spirit will bring you to the place where faith will seize God's promise and the Spirit will give you the "garment of praise" (Is. 61:3).

Desire is another word for hunger. Unless there is sighing, longing, hungering and thirsting, and perhaps even tears of desire, you have probably not yet reached prevailing prayer.

Unless your heart cries out from its hidden depths, Satan's roadblocks seem at times unmoved, and Satan's captives remain bound.

O fellow Christian! Cherish the hunger. Guard your hunger for God's answers to prayer. Pursuing hunger may cost you misunderstanding, even suffering. You may be considered an extremist or even a fanatic. Many churches experience very little prevailing prayer.

Learn to drink in the Spirit of Christ as He hungers to see the chains of evil habits, drugs, and Satan snapped and people set free. Learn to weep over your Jerusalem with Jesus if you would see Spirit-given revival come to your city or church.

Mighty answers to prayer can be costly, but they are worth all the cost. Learn to hunger if you would prevail.

Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. (Jean's emphasis added)

Mighty Prevailing Prayer

#41 How to Deepen Your Desire

by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 70-72) Zondervan

Let's pray-

Google image

Father, help us not be anxious about

anything, but in everything by prayers

and petitions with thanksgiving,

to present our requests to You.

From our hearts, we cry out from the

hidden depths, the longings and concerns

that are within us today.

May there come sighing, longing,

hungering and thirsting, and, yes, even

tears with our desires, so we can
truly achieve prevailing prayer.
We ask this in Jesus' Name.
Amen.

Today’s Bible verses-

(Micah 7:9 b) "He will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness."

(Jonah 2:7) "When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple."

Today’s quotes-

~ Charles Spurgeon- "I know of no better thermometer to your spiritual temperature than this, the measure of the intensity of your prayer."

~ S. D. Gordon- "The greatest thing any one can do for God and for man is to pray. It is not the only thing. But it is the chief thing. A correct balancing of the possible powers one may exert puts it first. For if a man is to pray right, he must first be right in his motives and life. And if a man be right, and put the practice of praying in its right place, then his serving and giving and speaking will be fairly fragrant with the presence of God." (Taken from p. 11 of QUIET TALKS ON PRAYER by S. D. Gordon)

Our thought today-

If God wasn't good, how could we trust Him? Because He is Good, you can trust Him! Take a step of faith and be determined to trust Him, even in the Tough Stuff. He is Faithful, and is always by your side, my friend. (Swindoll's book is a great one!)

Some questions today-

If God is Faithful and true to His Word, why is it we don't trust Him to guide us in our daily actions, decisions and thoughts? Does He really care for me? you ask. God made a way through Jesus to take our punishment for sins so we could be made righteous.
As God is Holy, and we are not, there had to be a way made for us to become clean and holy. So through our faith in Jesus and receiving His holiness, we can become holy...This is LOVE (John 3:16).

Upcoming posts-

#42 The Dynamics of Fervency

12th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

The Lord Prepared a Way for Me

14th- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes

Exemplary Christianity

15th- Sunday evening's post by James H. Cagle

#43 We Need New Mighty Movements of the Soul

17th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel

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