Hungry?

I love food. LOVE it. No, seriously, I could pretty much eat all day long. I love to try new foods, to experience new tastes and textures. I love eating, as is indicated by the sheer joy expressed on my face in the picture. It's a cupcake. A carrot cake cupcake. The most delicious carrot cake cupcake on the face of the planet. It was sheer bliss in a pretty pink box.

In all of my eating I have learned one thing. Food is ALWAYS better when you're hungry. It's true. A perfectly grilled steak is delicious, but if you are hungry peanut butter and jelly on stale bread is heavenly. This got me to thinking, what am I hungry for?

The Bible is littered with references to food, mainly in Jesus being like food: "I am the bread of life." -John 6:48, "but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life." -John 4:14 Jesus was on to something with this hunger thing.

The following is an excerpt from the book Expecting Miracles by Heidi & Rolland Baker, who run Iris Ministries. They have spent YEARS, decades really, of their lives in Africa ministering to the poorest and most impoverished people in the world.
I spend a lot of time at the garbage dump. It is my favorite place to be. The people there are so hungry that when it comes time to eat, they literally stomp on each other. They are so desperate that they push and shove each other in order to get to the food first. It does not sound nice, I know, but the ones who scream the loudest and push the hardest get fed first. The ones who press in always get the bread.

I have witnessed this time and again, so I asked God, "What is this, God?" He said, The ones who are hungry get fed. The ones who are thirsty get to drink.

The visual image that is created in that text is heart-wrenching and at the same time so filled with truth. People climbing over each other, pushing, shoving, doing whatever it takes to get to the food. As I was reading this passage in the book the Holy Spirit reminded me of a passage of scripture, Matthew 5:6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. There it is again, HUNGER!

Have you ever been REALLY hungry? Ravenously hungry? A few months ago I was extremely hungry. It had been a couple days since I had really eaten anything and I was (or at least felt like) I was starving. That evening I made spaghetti and rolls for dinner, nothing fancy, seriously, pasta sauce from a jar and Pillsbury rolls. The plate didn't even hit the table before I had pretty much vacuumed the food off of it. I was hungry, and that meal that night was fit for a king.

There has to be a reason why Jesus uses the word "hunger." I am no theologian, nor biblical scholar but I think it may be because everyone has been hungry at one point or another. So the question that begs an answer is this, what are you hungry for?

Jesus himself said that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness shall be filled, and throughout the Old Testament and the New the Bible talks about being hungry for the Lord and His kingdom. Jesus wants us hungry. He wants every believer everywhere to be continually hungry for more of Him, of His presence, and of His supernatural power. We, as believers, we never meant to get to a place of "fullness," that is to say, we are not meant to get to a place where we say "Whoa, God, I'm full now, you can stop with the outpouring of yourself." And at the same time, we are never to stop pressing in to Him and asking for MORE! I know what you're thinking, you're thinking "Liz, even when you are ravenously hungry, eventually you get full." And you're right, you do, but there is a difference between being filled with the Spirit of God and being overflowing with the Spirit of God.

If I take a glass and put it under the water dispenser that is in the door of my refrigerator and just hold it there, what happens? The water dispenses in to the glass and the glass gets full. But, what happens if I don't move the glass? The water will continue to fill up the glass, eventually overflowing from the glass, spilling on to the fridge, the floor, and wetting everything it touches. EVERYTHING it touches. Jesus is the same way. He wants to permeate our lives to the point of overflow so that everything WE touch gets HIS touch.

In order to get to the point of overflow we have to start eating, devouring, ravaging the meaty things of Him. His word, spending time with Him in prayer, soaking Him up. It isn't enough to live on spiritual "junk food" and then wonder why we aren't full to the point of overflow. We live in a world of convenience, and if it doesn't come with a drive-thru window, get rich quick promise, or the claim of "bigger, better, faster, with less work" we don't want it. We fill our days will spiritual marshmallow fluff, CDs, radio, Christian television, books, and wonder why God still seems distant. Don't get me wrong, I love a good worship album, and part of the excerpt of this blog I took from an amazing book, but DO NOT under any circumstances substitute those things for the actual presence of the Holy One.

Get hungry. Seek Him. Overflow to everything you touch. STAY HUNGRY. THAT is how revival is going to happen. THAT is how we will change the world. THAT is how more people will see supernatural miracles. THAT is how we will change the Kingdom of heaven. THAT is how people will get saved.

Agape' House & The Matthew Mandate

Recently I have made some pretty big life decisions, ones that I felt led to share.

I have always had empathy for homeless people. I always thought "oh, how sad." I wanted to do something, but my heart wasn't prepared for ministry in that area. Any time I even began to think about volunteering at a soup kitchen or in a shelter I was rocked to tears. It was all "so sad" that I was not of much use to that ministry.. until recently.

February 15, 2010 my life was radically and forever rocked, changed, blown wide open, and well, not my own any longer. That was the night I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. (For those of you who don't know what it is, feel free to email me, because it is the most amazing experience EVER!) Back to the story, on the evening of March 9, 2010 I was driving in my car and talking with God about wanting to be in homeless ministry of some kind. God gave me a vision of my future, legit vision, I came home and painted it. Agape' House. Agape' is the God-love. The self-sacrificing, give it all expecting nothing in return, love of Jesus. It's the amazing grace covering, sin forgiving, supernatural empowering love of God. Agape' House is a transitional home for homeless people that God has called me to open. Why? Simple, The Matthew Mandate.
34-36"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what's coming to you in this kingdom. It's been ready for you since the world's foundation. And here's why:

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.'

37-40"Then those 'sheep' are going to say, 'Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?' Then the King will say, 'I'm telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.'


This passage from the book of Matthew is a lot of times used as a fluffy feel-good because you did something good kind of verse; but it is so much more than that. It is a mandate from heaven. At least to me. I don't want to have to give an account to Jesus as to why I didn't give him clothes when he was cold, or a room when he was homeless. Do you? This passage has become part of my prayer for the Church. That we would see Jesus in every single person in need, not just the ones we think we can convert, or the ones who "want to help themselves" or the ones "who aren't just looking for a handout." It doesn't matter why they came to us, or where they are going to go from us, what matters is that for this moment they are here in front of us with open hands. Fill them. Love them. Restore them. Send them out to do the same.

So, what does this all have to do with my future? Everything. For the last 15 months I have been working my tush off (okay, not literally as I think it may have actually gotten bigger, but you get my drift) in Court Reporting school. God has recently given me release and peace about moving away from that path in to His path. I am going to be finishing out this semester of school and then taking a couple months to seek God with all I have, after that I have planned to transfer my credits to another school and begin working on a degree that will give me practical resources and learning to implement in the opening and running of Agape' House. Until then I am going to pursue leadership opportunities, ministry opportunities, and social-working outreach opportunities.

I know that God is going to use the house and the work that will be done there to change the world. I will post more about Agape' House, what it will include and how the progress is going along the way with this journey.

Coincidence

Coincidences seem like just that, coincidences, to people with unbelief. To believers, well, we just know better. God has an infallible plan that goes far beyond what our little brains can comprehend. With that, let me tell you about my night by prefacing it with a short story.

I LOOOOOVE John and Lisa Bevere. They are amazing, incredible, heaven grabbing individuals who, quite literally, know how to bring the power and the glory of God into where ever they are. *For those of you who don't know them they are a husband and wife who are both authors and speakers. You can check out their website at www.messangerinternational.com* Okay, so I had the amazing privilege of going to a conference and meeting Lisa Bevere back in February!*See totally rockin' picture where I look like a nerd because I was so excited to meet her!* She was amazing, and totally life changing. So, my dad lives in Tucson and I found out that John Bevere would be speaking at a church in Tucson on Mother's Day. I badgered him pretty much daily to go. I sent him the address to the church and told him how awesome it would be. I was incessant. The Sunday came and went and he didn't go. womp womp womp. I was sad, not that he didn't go, so much as I was sad that he didn't get his face rocked off by God that day. I reminded him of that church a few more times, and told him that was the place to be.

Last night he texts me and tells me that he went to an awesome church service. I asked him where, really what I wanted to know was if he got out of his comfort zone and went anywhere other than his normal place. He told me where he went and my jaw HIT THE FLOOR. I asked "Was it amazing? Did God rock your face off!?" He responded "Have you heard of it?" My reply was simply "DAD!!! That is THE church I have been trying to get you to go to for WEEKS!" For you readers, if you didn't just get chills let's recap: I told Dad to go to a rockin' spirit-filled church. He didn't go. Weeks pass, and Dad seems to forget exactly where I told him to go. In a seemingly coincidental series of events my dad gets invited to the EXACT church I had been telling him to go to. Coincidence? I think not.

God has seriously been blowing my mind lately and I LOVE it. He can keep rockin' my world like this anytime He wants. I know it was not coincidence that my dad ended up at that church, and if he continues to go there I KNOW God will blow his mind.

I was just in total awe and worship this morning sort of giggling to myself at God's plan all along and I really just felt like God himself was chuckling with him, ruffling my hair and saying "see, I got this kiddo." And He does. Oh, does He ever.

Dog Puke

I realize that dog puke isn't the most appealing name for a first post,and I know you're thinking 'how does dog vomit relate to God?" However, stick with me on this one.

Every morning when I wake up there is an epic battle between the part of me that knows I do, in fact, need to get up and take care of my kids, and the side that wants to just go back to sleep. The kids win. This morning as I was taking them downstairs in my usual morning fog I noticed a pile of something on the landing of my staircase-- dog puke. For those of you who don't know me, or my awesome dog, her name is Ginny (yes, as in Ginny Weasley from Harry Potter) and she is 75 pounds of pure love and awesomeness with a wagging tail. That being said, she is gross. Seriously, gross. She is slobbery, smelly, licks at herself, and as the title of this post alludes, she vomits on my floor.

Back to the story, I take the kids downstairs and get them their breakfast. I then begin to prep myself for the awful task of cleaning up said pile. The usual 'breathe through the mouth not the nose!' and 'I will not puke! I will not puke!' were the mantras that I chose this morning. So, I cleaned up the pile and the staircase it was on. I realized that it was very grassy. A little background for you in case you're not a dog lover; when a dog has eaten something that is making them feel sick, they will eat grass in an attempt to make themselves throw up. Sort of a binge-and-purge of the doggy world.

This got me to thinking, Ginny knew enough to purge her body of the things that were making her sick, do I? I'm not talking physical stuff here.

Numbers 33;51-53 "'Speak to the Isrealites and say to them: 'When you cross the Jordan into Canaan, drive out all the inhabitants of the land before you. Destroy all their carved images and their cast idols, and demolish their high places. Take possession of the land and settle in it, for I have given you the land to possess." God had told Moses that before the Isrealites settled in the promised land they would need to drive out all the wicked inhabitants and destroy their idols. Not just go in a settle near them. Not just go in and settle and don't associate with them. Destroy them. In Colossians Paul addresses the New Testament church on this EXACT thing and how it relates to life in Christ:
Colossians 3:5 "Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature..." He goes on to list some things, but the Holy Spirit was realy just speaking to me about this particular section "WHATEVER belongs to your earthly nature. Anything. All of it. Not just the things that other people may or may not see as "wrong."

I think what struck my in both of these sections was that in both the Old Testament and the New, the people had to make this change. In the Old Testament it was the Isrealites who had to go into the promised land and purge it of the wicked people. In the New Testament Paul is instructing the church to purge themselves of their wicked ways. It doesn't say 'believe in Jesus and life will be easy.' It doesn't say 'God will take all your problems away.' And it certainly doesn't say 'You won't have anything to overcome once you're a Christian.'

There are days when I still struggle with my "earthly naure" okay, who am I kidding, I have 2 kids under 5, it's like a daily struggle to stay sane in this house. These passages, and the revelation from the Holy Spirit that came with it, was amazing. It is MY job to purge my body of the earthly things. MY job to make sure that this "promised land" is fit for my King. Of course God will help along the way, but it definitely gave me a wake-up call to some of the things that people assume you just "don't do" once you become a Christian.

I have moments where I get super angry and I find myself attempting to pray "help me not be angry." and a lot of times in my prayer time I hear God speak to me and say "practice not being angry." WOAH! Okay God, you have my attention!