We Want More!

     I was "born again" ("born from above" is closer to what the term means) when I was a Bible college freshman (better late than never!). From that day to this, Papa has placed in me a longing for genuine encounters with Him and especially for His people to be truly awakened! I became an early and devoted student of spiritual awakenings, and my reading the stories of what God has done and is doing even now has only served to increase my hunger. 
     Perhaps this is the reason why I am most at home with those who share this passion, regardless of their church tribe or format. I love being around people who are so hungry for God that their continuing cry to God is "We want more of you! More of your presence, more of your power, more!"
     Some, I suppose, would question the legitimacy of asking God for more of Himself, since in some ways we already have Him living inside of us and we live in Him, but there is clear biblical precedent for asking God to saturate us with His Spirit. Paul's passionate hunger to know Christ (in resurrection power and in His sufferings) comes to mind. There is no doubt that Paul's words here are speaking of ongoing encounters with Jesus. And then there's his admonition to the Ephesians not to get drunk on wine but to "be being filled with  the Spirit." That sounds like "We want more!" to me, especially since the context implies an experience similar to the Day of Pentecost. And since Paul was definitely one whom we would describe as already full of the Spirit, his instruction has special weight. This is the man who prayed in tongues more than all of the Corinthians! This is the man who was caught up into the third heaven. This man, writing late in his life, encourages his readers to be seeking to "be being saturated" with God's Spirit.
     Church history also gives encouragement to seeking ongoing and increasing encounters with God. Every great spiritual awakening was preceded by intense hunger for God as well as a spirit of repentance. And the descriptions of what transpired when God answered the desperate cries for more of Him are remarkable (and scary for those for whom God is an idea rather than a Person whom you regularly encounter!).
     So I cry out with many of kindred spirit, "Lord Jesus! Saturate me, inundate me, overwhelm me with your Spirit!" I am not seeking a mere experience, but I am expecting encounters that leave no doubt that God has touched me at levels beyond my comprehension. 
     An infinite God always has more of Himself to give to us, dear ones. And biblical encounters with God are always attended by experiential evidence (often overwhelming) that He has revealed Himself in a special way. 
     “But some who want more don’t give it away very well. They don’t deserve more, do they?” Yes, it's true that some people seem to be "experience junkies," and it's rather annoying to some folks that God keeps on touching them! But no one deserves grace! God gives us Himself to us, He overwhelms us with His embrace and pours His Spirit out upon us, not because we deserve it but because it’s His nature, and because He loves us with an unconditional love. Unconditional love will always give more—no strings attached. And it's my opinion that anyone who gets really "saturated" will eventually overflow. Some people stop short of saturation because they feel unworthy or because they stop listening and get stuck somewhere short of maturity. But the scandalous “wastefulness of grace” will keep giving more until we get it. 
     And so we cry out for more! And I will do so until I see His Kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven, until what I have read about in history becomes our reality!
     It is written about Smith Wigglesworth that he wept when he saw Niagara Falls and cried out, "Like that, Lord, like that!" I weep even as I think of his passion, and I marvel that I understand it! And we are so close, dear ones! Just last Sunday Father said to me that what we have experienced so far is just a thimbleful, and that what He has ahead for more than Niagara Falls, it is Iguaçu Falls! (Largest average annual flow of water in the world!). 
     So I will unashamedly align myself with the desperate but expectant ones who say, "We want more!"


Tom, one of Abba's thirsty little boys