This word is submitted by Shirley Craft (sjcraft@sbcglobal.net)

-----

                Desperate for More of God


Over these past days the Lord has been speaking to me regarding being
desperate for Him. He said, "You have been saying in your prayers that 
you are desperate for Me?  He then said, "How desperate are you for Me?"    
I responded with a safe answer, "Lord you know."  But that's not what 
He wanted to hear, for He does know. He challenged me to consider how 
desperate was I for Him.  I pondered His question for a while and then 
responded to Him, "I was in a desperate condition and that without Him 
in my life I was even more desperate then I could stand."  He agreed 
with my response, but He wanted to drive the point home into my heart.  

And I feel this word is not just for me but for the body of Christ as 
well.  Are we truly desperate for God?  Do we recognize if we are?  I 
mean down deep in our spirit-man.  

The Lord is saying: "Are you desperate enough for Me to abandon yourself 
to Me?  Are you desperate enough to pick up your cross and follow Me 
regardless of the outcome?  Are you desperate enough to labor in the 
great harvest for souls for My kingdom?"

These are challenging questions that the Lord is asking His people to 
consider in this hour in history.  The Lord reminded me of some of the 
desperate people in the Bible.  Just to name a few: king Asa when the 
Cushites marched against Israel.  Asa called out to the Lord for help 
for the Cushites were too great for them to fight, and God responded to 
his prayer.  Daniel prayed and fasted and repented for 21 days, and 
God responded by sending His angel to bring the answer to his petitions.   
The disciples in the boat on the stormy waters of Galilee cried out for
Jesus to save them lest they perish.  And the 120 believers in the
upper room were desperate for God, for Jesus had just been taken up
into heaven.  

The Lord is saying, "I allow My people to come into that place of 
desperation."  it may be the circumstances surrounding us at this time 
that makes us desperate.  For only desperate people do desperate things, 
desperate exploits. To be desperate is an extreme condition requiring 
an extreme response.  To be desperate for God is being totally sold out 
to Him.  God is ready to respond to our prayers.   However, He is asking 
us to consider what it means to be desperate for Him. He is saying that
it will cost us much and we need to count the cost.