Developing a Spiritual Appetite

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This lesson continues our study of the fourth Beatitude, Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I will not have a long review of the previous lessons, but I do want to highlight three areas. First of all, we need to remember that spiritual hunger and thirst is that insatiable craving after spiritual things that can be characterized by having the attitude of a starving man in the physical realm. Secondly, we want to remember that the basic definition of the word righteousness is the state of one who is approved and accepted by God. The last area we need to remember is that there are three kinds of righteousness. There is positional righteousness, eventual righteousness and experiential righteousness.

Positional righteousness has to do with the spirit. Eventual righteousness has to do with the body. Experiential righteousness has to do with the soul, (mind, emotion and will). Positional righteousness has happened if we have accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. It is a past event. Eventual righteousness will happen. It is a guaranteed event. Experiential righteousness is happening right now. It is that present, variable state of the Christian, as God in him, makes him into what God wants him to be. That is what we are dealing with in this passage. It is a day by day becoming in mind, emotion and will such as we ought to be. That is the process of being conformed to the image of God.

The crucial issue for us in this lesson is not to determine what is spiritual hunger. We have already done that. Spiritual hunger is an insatiable craving to be strengthened and sustained. We have determined that spiritual thirst is a parched longing to be refreshed and renewed. The crucial issue is not determining what righteousness is. We have agreed that it is the day by day becoming of the mind, emotion and will such as we ought to be. The crucial issue, then, for this lesson is—How do we develop a spiritual appetite?

At the conclusion of the last lesson, I shared a simple acronym to help us remember a solution to getting spiritually hungry. The solution is EAT. The "E" stands for EXERCISE. This is the process of spiritually allowing the nourishment you have to be turned into muscles rather than fat. The "A" stands for ASK. This is the process of securing from God both the appetite and the capacity for spiritual truth. The "T" stands for TASTE. This is the process of personally experiencing the righteousness of God. That righteousness, in itself, creates a hunger for itself.

We will consider three steps in this process, and then will close by asking ourselves two final questions. The first question is, “Is there a difference in being righteous and being hungry for righteousness?” The second question is, “Is there a difference between being filled and being full?”

1- EXERCISE

The first stage of our process is to EXERCISE. Ask yourself, What kind of spiritual athlete are you? Paul says that the Christian life is an Olympic performance for which the Christian must be 1) spiritually clothed, 2) spiritually trained and 3) spiritually available. Are you ready?

Step 1- We need to be spiritually clothed. Paul said that we are to put on the new man which, after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness. Paul tells us to put on the whole armor of God, so that we can stand against the wiles of the enemy. He said to be clothed in the righteousness of God.

Step 2- We need to be spiritually trained. Paul tells us that we must keep our bodies under subjection, lest having helped others we are put on the bench and not allowed to play.

Step 3- We are to become spiritually available. “No man that wars entangles himself with the affairs of this world that he may prove himself to be a good soldier for Jesus Christ.” So our ability to hunger and thirst may well be dependent upon the presence or absence of this spiritual exercise that makes our bodies cry out for nourishment.

Paul said that the first step is to be clothed for the race. Just as the San Antonio basketball team, the Spurs, don't show up on the basketball court in a football uniform, the Christian's clothing for the exercise of righteousness is clearly defined in Hebrews 12:1-2. It simply says that we need to lay aside any weights, those unnecessary encumbrances that hold us back. We don't run the 440 yard race in combat boots. Some of us as Christians are trying to do that. Practically speaking, we may be unable to develop a spiritual thirst or spiritual hunger because our souls are being filled by besetting sins. Sin kills the appetite for righteousness.

We can easily use the illustration of an adult who fills up all day on junk food. He passes the little machines that he can get goodies from. He puts in his money, pushes the buttons and as his eyes glaze over. He hears the comforting sound of his choice being dropped to the bottom. He fills up on junk food all day. When he gets home, his wife may suggest going to a fancy restaurant where they have gourmet food. It doesn't taste good to him, because he is completely saturated with junk food. When the real thing comes along, his taste does not accept it, because he is full of junk. You might have a child that you have raised on junk food and fast food. When he grows older and gets invited to a friend's house for a good home cooked meal, he might not enjoy it, because of all the new spices and tastes. It just doesn't have what a Big Mac has.

We basically kill off our appetites for righteousness with besetting sins. If we are not able to develop a spiritual appetite, the first step is to take inventory of those continual, nagging areas that drain our strength. When our mind is fixed on unrighteousness, how easy is it to really pray? Even if we can, we just mouth words. When our minds have been fixed on unrighteousness, how easy is it to meditate on the Word? I don't know about you, but when I am struggling in this area, I don't even want to think about the Word.

2 Corinthians 6:14 is a passage that is used to instruct us on unequal yoking among Christians. It says, “What fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?” Here is our word, righteousness, again. In the Christian's life, what fellowship is there between the things of God and the things of this world? If we saturate and permeate our lives with the things that drag us down, with the besetting sins in our lives, there is no hunger and thirst after righteousness. We see this in Ephesians 6:14 when Paul instructs us to

...put on the breastplate of righteousness, clothing yourself with a hunger for the things of God.

After having been clothed properly, the second step in a balanced exercise program is to be trained or disciplined so that when the race is ready to be run, you are in shape. How many of you jog for exercise? You are basically getting in physical shape. Hebrews 12:11 is a passage we have used many times. We can also look at it in this context. It says,

He 12:11 Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

In this verse, chastening refers to the discipline a father gives his son. It means four things: training, punishment, testing and rewarding. None of this seems to be joyous or circumstantially pleasant, while it is happening. None of this training seems to be fun, rather, it is unpleasant, circumstantially poor, painful. The implication is that afterwards, if you stick it out, the training or chastening produces the peaceable or profitable fruit of righteousness. Literally, it says the profitable fruit is righteousness to them who are exercised thereby. Here is God's exercise program. Let God put you through spring training. He will train you, punish you, test you and reward you. It will be tough. But later, if you stick with it, this exercise program will literally produce righteousness.

The disciplines of the Christian life allow God to produce the righteousness in us that we long to have. In other words, we can ask ourselves these four questions -

1- How am I responding to the tests of life? Wrong responses to the tests of life often kill our spiritual appetite, particularly, once we have been trained in the Word and we know what a test is all about. Remember that we are supposed to say with a joyful heart, "This is a test, but God Is."

2- How am I reacting to personal rebuke? We may say, “Lord, give me a hunger and thirst after righteousness.” But, when someone corrects us, we respond with hostility or get a spiritual ulcer.

3- What is my consistency in the details of life? Athletes have to be trained in a regimented fashion. They can't just work out when they feel like it. There is a big difference between consistency and legalism. They are not the same.

4- Is there a glaring area of disobedience I need to take care of? Matthew 3:15 says that Jesus was baptized to fulfill all righteousness. It was to complete the righteousness of God in Him. He was obeying the Word of God.

Here is an illustration. There may be some of you who have been born into the family of God and are active in it. You have been burdened by the Spirit of God to follow the Lord in baptism, but you have never done it. If so, there is a logical solution. Do it. There may be someone from whom you need to ask forgiveness, and every time you pray he comes to your mind. You may pray for spiritual hunger and thirst, but there is no power in your life. The problem is that you need to deal with that area, so that the road block can be removed. Just go and do it. You may have a bad habit, or you may have made a commitment to the Lord you haven't kept. You need to make these things right.

Having been spiritually clothed and disciplined, the third step in the process of spiritual exercise is to be spiritually available. It simply means to get off the bench. When the gun sounds, we need to realize that the joy is not in the clothing; the joy is not in the training, but the joy is in the winning of the race. Can't you just see a basketball player who has retired running up and down the aisles when the next season starts, wanting everyone to look at his new shoes and new t-shirt. He gets so excited trying to get everyone to look at him, meanwhile, his old team is losing badly. The shoes and shirts are a means to an end. The end is to win the game. To run up and down the stairs asking people to look at your muscles to prove you have been in training is futile. You are not out on the court playing the game. Some of us are like that spiritually.

Paul says, "I fought a good fight. I have finished the race." Most of us want to stop for hamburgers and lemonade on the first turn. Then we wonder which way it is to the finish line. This involves the delicate balance between learning and applying the Word of God.

I want you to use your imagination as we view this diagram for the next illustration. We have three different ways to view our spiritual instruction. We are trying to earn a spiritual degree. You can be Joe Blow F.H., Joe Blow E. B. or Joe Blow B.C. depending on which degree you decide to get.

The F.H. degree is for those who take in the Word of God, and it becomes pure knowledge. The F.H. stands for "Fat Head". The fat gradually blocks the flow of blood giving you hardening of the spiritual arteries. All you do is learn, and it sends a message back to the brain which then craves more knowledge. Scripture describes this as "ever learning, never coming to a knowledge of the truth." It means that you are weighed down with spiritual knowledge, and you can't run a spiritual mile. This describes a church of 300 pound weaklings, 250 pounds of which are from the neck up. Some of us fall into this category. We say, "I want more Sunday School. I want more Bible study. I want more Bible Study Fellowship. I want more sermons. I want more rallies. I want more seminars. I want to join the 8-days-a-week tape club. I want to do this and that." There is nothing wrong with any of these things, but if they are an end within themselves, they are wrong. We get spiritually loaded in the head.

The E.B. stands for the people who join a group that is involved in pure activity. The E.B. stands for "Empty But Busy." These people are trying to "be" without becoming. It is application without doctrine. It is exercise without nourishment. This produces a church with hyperactive 7 pound weaklings.

The B.C. means "Balanced Christian." The B.C. is a degree that God gives to those who continually hunger and thirst after righteousness. As God fills them, they allow that filling to be used and applied in their lives. It produces appropriation, evangelism and edification. Appropriation changes you. It means that they learn a new truth and then go home and apply it. Evangelism changes the world. It means that they have a Savior and they share Him with those about them. Edification changes the church. They assume the responsibility to build up their brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

You are clothed, trained and available. You have learned the truth about the righteousness of God concerning the tongue, but are you digesting what you have learned? The first chance you have, does the tongue still spit out the same venom it used to? If it does, it is no wonder that God doesn't answer your prayer about hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Perhaps you have learned the truth about the righteousness of God concerning testing. When a test does come into your life, do you throw yourself on the ground with bitterness and resentment toward God? You have learned the truth about the righteousness of God concerning testing, but you are not obeying the truth you know. There is no room for hunger and thirst to fill you.

You may have learned the truth about the righteousness of God concerning your ministry, but you are not ministering. I have to ask myself this question. I ask this question of churches in general. Why is it in churches where there is so much excitement about the Word and spiritual growth, and members going to many seminars on varying subjects, there are needs within the body of Christ that are begging to be met and aren't? There may be physical needs such as a need for nursery workers, or to move people from one house to another, or a need for a baby-sitter, or a need for people sitters, or a need for a hospital visit or a need to help someone financially. There may be emotional and spiritual needs. People are depressed. People are wanting to be discipled. There are people who are trained to disciple, but are not making themselves available. There are people who may need to have a friend, and many people who ought to be available just to be a friend. There are people who just want some hope. There may be a need for Sunday School teachers.

Whatever the need is, the greatest crisis in a Word-centered church ought to be the crisis of having a mob arrive to meet that need. Whoever is in charge has to have the leading of the Spirit to sift through to find the right people for the job and put the rest on hold. Your job is to respond, God will take care of choosing the right ones to get it done.

Some of us have a paralysis that sets in when activity that should demonstrate the righteousness of God in our lives comes to the front. We are crying out to be spiritually filled. God is telling us to build up our appetite for righteousness by doing the works of righteousness we already know to do. Don't expect God to fill up your life, if you are unwilling to empty it into others. You may ask why I keep repeating this same tune over and over again. I guess the problem is that everywhere I look in the Bible, it keeps coming up.

2- ASK

The second stage of developing a spiritual appetite is to ASK. In the last lesson, we talked about the necessity for asking for the appetite we lack. I believe this is the very heart of the study. It is important to be able to strip away the things that hinder and to be trained in godliness and apply what we know. However, we need to realize that when we have done all of that, we still have to become available to God. The hunger still comes from Him.

What is the requirement? In the last lesson I encouraged you to pray that you would begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness more. Did you pray for yourself and others? You may wonder why we have to ask. For one reason, we need to ask, because the Scripture says to. I don't think we really need another reason other than that one. We see this in many verses.

Matthew 21:22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

Mk 6:22 ...Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt,

Luke 11:13 ...how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him?

John 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

John 16:24 Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full.

James 4:2 ...yet ye have not, because ye ask not.

1 John 3:22 And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him,..

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us.

Now, why does God make us ask if He knows what we need? I will give you a simple formula to remember, A-S-K. He wants to "A"ttribute the "S"ource to the "K"ing. If we don't ask, we begin to be presumptuous and think that God did it because we deserved it, because we are good, because He didn't have anything else to do, and a variety of other reasons. ASK - Attribute the Source to the King. God says, "I love you. I want to give to you much more than you need and much more than you want. But, I will put one responsibility on your shoulders, you ask Me. If you don't ask, I take absolutely no responsibility to give."

If that is the requirement, what is the process? The process is to focus on the needs of the Spirit, because in eternity, that is all that will matter. I hope there won't be any misunderstanding about my statement. It is a greater need to pray that someone hunger and thirst for righteousness, than to pray for a resolution to a physical problem. The hunger and thirst after righteousness would give that person the right response to the pain or the problem that he is  going through. In Gods' due time the issue will be settled one way or another. What He is after is the change in the spiritual realm. Joe Smith may need a new job. It is important to pray that God give Joe Smith a job, but he may not be getting a job, because he may have a need to have a hunger and thirst for righteousness. When he begins to seek first the Kingdom and God's righteousness, these may be the things added unto him. So while it may be important to pray that Joe get a job, it may be much more important to pray that Joe have a hunger and thirst for righteousness.

How many of you have taken your prayer list and for a month prayed for everyone on your list using nothing but the Beatitudes? Probably nobody. How many of you would like to? If you want to start with a more workable frame of action, for one week take the people on that list and instead of praying for changed circumstances in their life, pray that they become poor in spirit. Pray that they become aware of their nothingness before God. Rather than pray for the circumstances, begin to pray for poverty of spirit. Maybe someone has been grieving or is in a tough situation; rather than pray for a change in circumstance, pray that God will teach him to mourn properly. Pray that he will be grieved over sin and sensitive to the Spirit where sin is concerned.

Maybe someone you know has a problem with an illness or a problem financially. Maybe what we need to do is to learn to pray, "Lord, give my friend a spirit of meekness." Meekness is the absence of hostility and a retaliatory spirit. Instead, it is a spirit of quiet gentleness. We need to pray that more of us would hunger and thirst after righteousness so that we could be filled with the righteousness of God. Maybe there are some for whom we need to simply pray, "Lord, God, make him pure in heart. Lord God, make him a peace maker." That is where the power comes from. That is where we can pray with confidence. Our passage says, “this is the confidence we have in Him, that if we ask anything that is the will of God, He hears and does it.” That is a loose translation of 1 John 5:14.

You may not know the will of God concerning Joe's job. You may not even know the will of God concerning a friend's success, but you do know the will of God for every believer's life. God wants them to be poor in spirit, to be meek, to be able to mourn, to hunger and thirst after righteousness, to have a pure heart and to be a peace maker. If you want to pray for a friend this week, you can pray these things knowing that your prayer will be answered in the Spirit. God says that if we ask anything that is according to His will, He is bound to do it. We know according to this passage that this is the will of God for every believer. This is the requirement and the process.

Now what about the intensity and the insistency with which we are to pray? We are supposed to pray with the intensity of a starving man who is standing at the feet of the one man in the world who has food. That doesn't mean that we stretch and yawn and say halfheartedly, "Lord, make us hungry, Amen. Lord, bless my friend. Amen." Now I don't mean to be facetious. I am mimicking myself. We are supposed to hunger and thirst so desperately that we throw ourselves before God in abandon and stay there until we know that we have His ear.

I think an incredible illustration of this is the situation between Joseph and his brothers. Joseph got a bad deal in life by being shipped off by his brothers. It was a bad deal from the world's standards, but in God's plan, He was working it together for good. He went through many hard times while God was preparing him to feed his brothers who were about to starve to death. When the drought came, they didn't have anything to eat. Jacob, their father, sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt to buy food. Meanwhile, Joseph had been put in a position of high esteem and authority. The brothers unknowingly bowed before their brother, because they were hungry, desperate men. They and their family were going to starve to death.

We can parallel this situation and replace Joseph with God and the brothers with those of us who are coming to God hungry. In Genesis 42:7, we see that Joseph spoke to his brothers roughly. He wanted to test them to see if they were really hungry, or if they were coming just to fulfill something their father had asked them to do. In verse 15, he tested them again and sent them home for the favorite son. In verse 25, we see that as he sent them and tested them, he filled them with good things. In Genesis 43, we see that the famine got worse. Jacob finally agreed to send his favorite son, because they were so desperate for food. In chapter 44, Joseph tested them again, and they were hungry enough to wait. When Joseph knew they wanted it badly enough, he loved them and gave them what they needed. In Genesis 47:11, we read that Joseph placed his father and his brothers in possession of the best part of the land to nourish them. They were desperate. They had a broken spirit. They hungered and thirsted to the point that they poured themselves out before their brother even when they didn't know who he was. They didn't know until he fed them. This is the intensity with which we are to go before God, hungering and thirsting.

What about the insistency? Turn to Luke 11. I am going to read it to you from the Amplified Translation.

Luke 11:1 Then He was praying in a certain place and when He stopped, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, why don’t you teach us to pray like John taught his disciples?”

2 And He said to them, “When you pray, say,

Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come, Your will be done, Held holy and revered on earth as it is in heaven.

3 Give us daily bread, food for tomorrow.

4 Forgive us our sins for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, who has offended us or done us wrong.

Lead us not into temptation but rescue us from evil.”

5 And He said to them, “Which of you who has a friend, will go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread;

6 for a friend of mine who is on a journey has just come, and I don't have anything to feed him.”;

7 And he from within will say, ‘Do not disturb me. My door is closed and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up now and supply you with anything.’”

8 I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is a friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9 So I say to you, ask, and keep on asking, and it shall be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened unto you.

10 For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; he who knocks and keeps on knocking the door shall be opened unto him.

13 If you then, evil minded as you are, know how to give good gifts that are to an advantage to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him?

That is the level of insistency God instructs us specifically to have when we pray. It is a continual process of continually asking. Turn to Luke 18:1-8. I am going to read a paraphrase from the Living Bible.

Luke 18:1 One day Jesus told His disciples a story to illustrate their need for constant prayer and to show them that they must keep praying until the answer comes.

2 “There was a city judge,” he said, “a very godless man who had great contempt for everyone.

3 A widow of that city came to him frequently to appeal for justice against a man who had harmed her.

4 The judge ignored her for a while, but eventually she got on his nerves. ‘I fear neither God nor man,’ he said to himself,

5 ‘but this woman bothers me. I'm going to see that she gets justice, for she is wearing me out with her constant coming!”

6 Then the Lord said, “If even an evil judge can be worn down like that,

7 don’t you think that God will surely give justice to His people who plead with Him day and night?

8 Yes! He will answer them quickly! But the question is: When I, the Son of Man return, how many will I find who have faith [and are praying like that]?”

How long should you keep praying? I will give you a formula. Keep on asking, keep on seeking and keep on looking for eighty years, then you can stop. You ask God for eighty years, and He will bless you ten million times that many. That is the promise for all eternity. Keep on asking. How many of us pray with such casualness. We pray, “Oh, Lord, please give me a hunger and thirst for righteousness.” We get together the next Sunday, and I ask how many had prayed that prayer. Maybe 6 out of 50 answer, "Yes."

You are supposed to come before the Lord, and He is going to test you relative to your spiritual maturity. The more spiritually mature you are, the longer He may make you wait to answer that prayer. Stay on your knees before Him and plead with Him for that hunger for yourself and for others. Our God is not a liar. He will do everything He has said He will ever do. He has said that if we hunger and thirst like that, if you keep on asking like that you will receive.

3- TASTE

The third and final part of the process seems almost academic. The last word for our acronym, E-A-T is Taste. Can you imagine the hungry beggar who waits and pleads, and then upon entering the banquet hall thinks he is full. He can stand there until he drops dead. He can be only inches from all the food in the world, yet he can die of starvation. He must taste the food first. 1 Peter 2:2-3 read from the Amplified Translation

1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn babies, you should crave, -thirst for, earnestly desire- the pure, (unadulterated) spiritual milk, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto [completed] salvation;

3 Since you have [already] tasted the goodness and kindness of the Lord.

The last thing we as Christians are to do is to continue the process of experientially tasting the grace of God. Psalm 38:8 says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good.” It means that from the Word, which is our only basis for experience, and through our time with God, we experience the grace of God to such a point that we are at home in the presence of God. This simply means a twofold process. First, we need to be meditating. Secondly, we need to be in continual communion with God throughout the day.

In conclusion, I want to remind you of two basic principles. The first is that God is not asking you to be righteous, He is asking you to be hungry. There is a big difference. The difference is called grace. The difference is called Jesus. It is the difference between religion and Christianity. If you want wisdom, you ask for it. If you want holiness, you ask for it. If you want poverty of spirit, you ask for it. He is the provider, and you are the recipient. It is His righteousness and He gives it to you. God isn't saying, "Blessed is the righteous man." He is saying, "Blessed is the man who knows he is not, so he can ask for Mine."

The second point is that being filled and being full are not the same thing. The passage never says that those who hunger will be full. It says that those who hunger will be filled. The verb has continuous action. That is, you are continuously given, so that you can continuously give. Pipes are filled with water, but they don't stay full. Buckets get full, and they stagnate. You and I were never called by God to be buckets, we are called to be pipes. As the water flows through us, it fills the pipe. The filling means it is flowing through the pipe to accomplish a purpose at the other end.

Some of you have reached a spiritual plateau. You have stopped eating and drinking spiritual righteousness, and you don't even know you are hungry, because you think the race is over. Maybe your children are in school, and your ministry has been blessed. You may have past accomplishments on which to rest or past failures over which to be angry. Every morning when the gun goes off, you think it is another execution when in reality it is another call to battle. The race is on for another day. God is looking for men and women who want to be used and filled. He is looking for hungry men, thirsting men, hungry women, thirsting women. When athletes reach the age of 40, they are really not worth much. Fortunately in the spiritual realm, God always reverses the spiritual order. In the spiritual realm, the longer you have walked with God, the more useful you can become in His kingdom. Sometime take an average of the age of God's great saints in the Old Testament and New Testament when God used them the most. He is not concerned about your age. He simply wants men and women of all ages who are desperate enough to exercise, ask and taste the righteousness of God. He wants them never to consider themselves to be too full to be filled or too righteous to be hungry.

You may ask, "What does God want with men and women like that?" He wants just one thing. He wants to change the world. That is why He says, "Oh what bliss for the man who is starved in his spirit to become such as he ought to be." God will see that he will become what he ought to become.