Opening illustration: Play video
Introduction: Being desperate for God isn’t about acquiring His presence in our lives—we must already believe that God will always be with us and the Holy Spirit will accompany us everywhere. It’s about knowing He already exists in our lives—this desperate need for God stems from already having a relationship with Him, and wanting more of Him so that we are reduced to nothing.
A widespread cry is growing in the hearts of believers for a real, tangible encounter with God. They want, like Moses, to see Him face to face. They don't want only to read about Him, have head knowledge of Him, talk about Him, and pay homage to Him on Sunday mornings. This strong undercurrent in our nation manifests as a holy dissatisfaction with the status quo of the institutional and traditional church. Many people who have attended church faithfully for years are now wandering around disconnected from any connectedness to the Body of Christ. Researcher George Barna estimates that more than ten million born-again believers in the United States are now considered "unchurched." People have become disillusioned and jaded, many are unwilling to return to the local church in its current condition.
What are people longing for? God being Omnipresent is just not enough for them. I believe it's the presence of God in the midst of His people, the manifestation of His nearness, and an awareness of His love that is both real and relevant. We desperately need the tangible presence of Jesus both in the church and in our communities!
God is looking for people with a heart like David, who declared: "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Ps. 27:4, italics added NKJ).
David’s desperation
Specifically, we can trace this desperation for God back to David, who wrote Psalm 63 while he was in the Desert of Judah.
David’s language in Psalm 63:1 is not only poetic, but desperate. The NIV and similar other translations have David “earnestly” seeking God—David’s “whole being” thirsting and longing for God. One translation says that not only did David “eagerly” seek God but that his body “faints” for Him.
The sons of Korah had similar things to say in Psalm 84, saying that they “long and yearn for the courts of the Lord; my heart and flesh cry out for the living God.” (Psalm 84:2)
These verses do more than show Old Testament writers who were desperate for God—they show men who were desperate for more of God. In Psalm 63, David immediately exclaims that God’s “faithful love is better than life” (Psalm 63:3), clearly showing that he already has a relationship with this God he “faints” and thirsts for.
These are not people seeking God for the first time—these are children seeking more of Him.
There is an unsurprising lack of poetry throughout the New Testament, so finding similar language in the days after Jesus is trickier. But one need only look to reminders to “seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6) and “seek first the kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) to see that God never provides us with an end-date to seeking Him. We are to do so continually, through all of our days here on Earth, until He comes again, or we are taken to Him.
What is desperation for God’s presence?
Many people dismiss this desperate longing for more of God by relying on a dictionary definition of “desperate.” The Oxford Dictionary defines it as “feeling or showing a hopeless sense that a situation is so bad as to be impossible to deal with.”
This does not sound like the sense of hope we know God provides His children. But any English teacher or student will surely be able to point to the fact that words have multiple definitions, or variations on a definition. Such is the case with “desperate” which, according to the Oxford Dictionary, also has a predicative definition which reads; “(Of a person) having a great need or desire for something”, such as a drink of water or relationship with people.
This is the desperation that we should have for God—a great need or desire for God.
Jon Bloom, author and co-founder of Desiring God, writes that “the lack of a sense of desperation for God” is deadly. Bloom speaks specifically of the easy lifestyle in America “in which it costs the least to be a Christian” compared to the “hard struggle with sufferings” (Hebrews 10:32) that many missionaries face day to day. “If we don’t feel desperate for God, we don’t tend to cry out to him.”
? And this leads to spiritual death.
Being desperate for more of God should be the cry of every Bible-believing Christian. We should want our cup to overflow with God’s presence and existence, and we should be ever seeking more of Him. Spiritual death comes when we think we have enough of God, when we think our cup is appropriately filled.
To avoid the ruination of our faith, we should follow in the path of the Psalmists and ever be longing for God.
The Hungry Are Fed
God said to the nation of Israel, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV). Some of the Psalms express a desperate desire for God’s presence, comparing the longing for God to panting for water in a desert, but how can you make yourself desire more of God?
A great woman of the faith, Eugenia Price wrote, “My need is the most glorious possession I have outside of Christ himself.” Have you ever considered being desperate for God as a precious gift to be sought?
Illustration: After listening to passionate missionaries from overseas who have served God in very intense and persecuted areas, displaying immense desperation for God, leaves most American Christians wondering if we’d be able to hack it. And that’s unnerving.
Why should we be desperate for God’s presence?
1. Because that will bring REVIVAL
Without God’s presence, life is meaningless; without the power of the Holy Spirit, ministry is fruitless.
Moses knew this and was unwilling to go forward without the assurance of God’s personal presence. “Then he said to Him, "If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.” (Exodus 33:15).
There’s not a committed Christian in America who wouldn’t like revival. But I’m afraid there are few who are desperate for revival.
We stand in dire need of revival, but we don’t always carry a personal urgency for revival.
Much of the book of Lamentations is the cry of a prophet who sensed the immediacy of his nation’s need for revival. Yet his cry was one of anguish because the people to whom he ministered were content to live without it.
In shocked agony, Jeremiah asked a piercing question: “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12).
His question could be repeated today. None of us would mind revival; but few are desperate for it.
2. Because that will ANSWER our PRAYERS (I Samuel 1:1-15)
I Samuel 1:1-15 gives an account of the yearly trip Elkanah and his wife, Hannah, made to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. During this time, Hannah had been distressed that she was not able to bear a son for her husband. This passage of Scripture gives quite a descriptive account of her time in prayer concerning the barrenness of her womb. It says that Hannah wept. More than this, she wept until she was sore. She poured out her soul before the Lord. Her heart was grieving; she was bitter of soul, provoked, and of a sorrowful spirit.
Now that’s a pretty good list of afflictions – sorrow, hardship, and everything else that came upon this woman. But the key to the whole situation is that she was a praying woman. In verse 20 it says that she reaped her reward. “And it came about in due time, after Hannah had conceived, that she gave birth to a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I have asked him of the Lord.’”
Now I say very often – and people don’t like it – that God doesn’t answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer! Your prayer life denotes how much you depend on your own ability, and how much you really believe in your heart when you sing, “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling….” The more self- confidence you have, the less you pray. The less self-confidence you have, the more you have to pray.
What does the Scripture say? It says that God takes the lowly, the things that are not. Paul says in I Corinthians 1:28 that God takes the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. We need a bunch of “are nots” today.
3. Because that will TRANSFORM our LIFE and our CHURCH/CITY
We are living in unprecedented days in the history of the church! The Lord is moving in powerful ways, building His church and expanding His kingdom. Revival is impacting many cities and nations. Leaders are praying with anticipation that they might cross the threshold into genuine revival, leading to transformation of cities in the United States and the Western world. This is not a "trend" or the latest ministry strategy. We are beginning to see tangible evidence of God’s intention to fulfill His promise in Scripture to restore and rebuild cities that are desolate.
By His own design, God has ordained seasons of revival throughout history to restore His church to simplicity, power, and effectiveness. God intends that His glory be manifested "in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever!" (Eph. 3:21 NIV). His will could not be more explicit. He desires that His glory be manifested in the church in every generation and in every culture. The world will see the glory of God only when Jesus Christ is clearly seen in the church-and through the church to the world (as Jesus prays in John 17).
Scripture promises that a mighty outpouring of God’s glory is coming (Joel 2) that will include signs and wonders, a harvest of souls, and the Gospel being preached to the ends of the earth (Matthew 24:14). We have a responsibility as the people of God to cry out for His presence to fill our communities toward that end. The church is not meant to be a spectator on the sidelines; God is inviting us into full partnership with this end-of-the-age drama.
Are you desperate for God’s presence? Do you pray for revival?
But why is there a lack of desperation for God from our end?
1. Peril of Prosperity (self-seeking and self-sufficiency):
• For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:21)
2. Love life more than God: We feel full and satisfied. But our fullness must be in Christ!
• Jesus said to him, " 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' (Matthew 22:37)
3. Busyness of Life:
• Making ourselves busy for things other than the Lord’s work, distances us from our Lord.
4. Issue of Prayerlessness: Part of the issue of prayerlessness (or prayer deficit) is that we are not desperate for God. We are self-satisfied and content with our lives as they are. We are content with our mediocrity. Jesus’ desire for his disciples was that they would come to terms with the spiritual fat that, “Without me you can do nothing.” It is the story of the vine and the branches. The problem is we often, just beneath the surface, really think we can do something significant, worthwhile, and of eternal value without him. We are strong, clever, gifted. We rest on our own arm to rescue us. We can, and do, get along pretty much without him. If he does not answer prayer, that’s OK we will find another way. We are self-sufficient. Prayerlessness says, “I can do it without him,” perhaps thinking all the while, “Won’t he be proud of me when I get this done.”
Application: We were created for an intimate relationship with God. Jesus came to make that possible. Sometimes I have found I get distracted, caught up with other things – even our work for God can distract us from our relationship with him. At other times I am absolutely desperate for God’s presence, his mercy and grace. When we find ourselves in this place of desperation, nothing but the presence of God will satisfy.
