Fresh Bread (5) – appetite

It’s Day 5 on the theme of Fresh Bread and I am reminded of these verses from Isaiah 55:

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and you will delight in the richest of fare.”

Many years ago our Pastor shared the following word and vision with our church fellowship from these very verses. It greatly impacted me at the time and I want to share it with you today too. As with all such words and visions, pray, weigh and test.

The Holy Spirit spoke these words to him:

“I am going to restore the appetite of the church for the manifest power and presence of God. A spiritual famine has touched your land. It’s not the result of the lack of, or withdrawal of God’s presence and power, but it’s a famine of the appetite of God’s people.

Then I looked and saw two groups of people. The first group looked thin and drawn and slightly withered, they were frail and looked prematurely old.  God said to me,  these people are not the result of an imposed famine.  Their condition is the result of a famine in their appetites for the presence and power of God.   They have withdrawn in their faith, belief and expectation of God.  As a result their appetites have been suppressed, reduced and their health is at risk.

Then I looked and saw another group of people, they were overweight, large people. I said to myself, they must have an appetite Lord. And I felt the Lord say to me “they are also part of a famine. They have just filled their lives with something other than the manifest power and presence of God. They have substituted their appetite for God for other things, as a result they too have suppressed their appetites.

I was reminded of this scripture. Isaiah 55 v 1-2. “Ho everyone who thirsts come to the waters and you who have no money come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread and your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance.”

I know that in my flesh I still have an appetite for wrong, unhealthy things. I ask the Lord that my appetite for those things will diminish, that greed for those things will loosen its hold and I will be free.

I want an appetite for God, the things of God and His Kingdom. I ask God to restore and increase my appetite for Him so that I truly hunger and thirst for His righteousness and for the Living Word and will overflow the “goodness of God in the land of the living“.

I do not want my expectation of God to shrink back or decrease but rather to be filled with faith and trust in God’s love, mercy, power and sovereignty. God is all knowing, all powerful and His Kingdom is everlasting.

My dear friends, the days we live in are short let us not waste them.