How Do I Stay Hungry For God? 7 Things You Need to Know
By Duncan Smith
I knew I had to ask him to pray for me. The preacher, Ken Gott, spoke with fire and passion in his voice. He had clearly experienced God himself, and I didn’t want to go home without him praying for me. I was desperate for more of God.
But it was getting late. As the meeting finished, crowds of people poured out of the building. It was raining as I scanned the car park to find him. Ken had reached his car and was saying goodbye to the leader of the movement. I ran over and approached him, just as he was about to get into the car
“Excuse me, I’m ever so sorry to interrupt. But do you have one more prayer?” I asked.
Ken must have been exhausted, and surely ready to go home, but he agreed. He walked over and prayed for me, and I felt the power of God and I fell over in the Holy Spirit. I landed in a puddle in the car park, but I didn’t care. I was just so hungry and beyond grateful for this amazing encounter.
That night wasn’t a one-off for me. I was in my early 30s at the time, and ever since I had a radical salvation encounter with Jesus at age 20, on a trail in the Rocky Mountains, I was desperately hungry to know Jesus more and more deeply. I’d started a lifetime of tasting and seeing how good God is, knowing that there’s nothing in this world that compares to Jesus.
We read in Matthew 5:6, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.” (NIV). It’s the greatest blessing to be hungry and thirsty for Jesus; to hunger after the bread of life, to thirst for living water.
So how can we develop that hunger for God, and stay hungry for Him?
Receive Hunger as a Gift
Hunger for God isn’t something that we conjure up ourselves. It’s a gift that we can only receive from Him. A lot of Christians try to coerce themselves into hunger for God, thinking, “I’ve got to have more faith, I’ve got to be more hungry, I’ve got to be more loving.”
In Galatians 2:20 we read, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (NIV). In the King James translation, we read “I live by the faith of the Son of God.” When we grasp that Christ is alive inside of us, that we are no longer alive in our old ways, then we can understand that all of our ability to live the Christian life comes from Jesus. All our ability to love God comes from Him. Our hunger for God is because of Jesus’ passion for the Father and the Holy Spirit.
To ask for that gift of hunger, simply pray,
“Father, give me the heart that you have for your Son. Jesus, please give me the love that you have for your Father. Holy Spirit, give me your love for the Father and the Son.”
2. Ground Yourself in the Fear of the Lord
True hunger for God comes from a revelation of the fear of the Lord. When you’re grounded in the fear of the Lord, you want your life to bless Him, for His sake, more than for your own gain. Our hunger is fueled knowing that Jesus is the center of our salvation rather than ourselves. It’s all by Him, through Him and for Him.
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were chosen as a nation to be priests and kings for God’s purposes and His glory. When they understood this, they were on the right track. When, on the other hand, they focused on themselves, whether they were blessed or not, they lost their way and followed other gods. The fear of the Lord was not at the centre of their hearts.
We develop the fear of the Lord by understanding who He is, and who He has made us to be. When you’re grounded in the fear of the Lord, you want God to be glorified in your life. Your entire motivation for your life is to please Him. As you live a life worthy of Jesus Christ, a deep hunger for God overwhelms you.
3. Read the Bible to Develop Lasting Hunger
How do we know that the God we’re relating to is the true and living God? I’m so thankful that He’s given us His Word. It’s by reading and studying His Word that we discover His ways and His character. We can’t learn God’s ways without knowing His Word.
By reading the Bible every day and soaking in His Presence, we develop a lasting hunger for God. I have read the Bible, cover to cover, every year for the last 31 years. Reading and studying God’s Word has absolutely transformed me. It has caused me to be more in love with Him, and to be increasingly more hungry to know Him.
I urge you to develop a disciplined approach to reading God’s Word. It will create a broad and wide foundation for your spirituality. Your passion for God will grow, your fear of the Lord will grow and you’ll develop discernment about how He’s leading you to live your life.
4. Express Your Devotion Through Prayer
As you read the word, your devotion to God grows, and prayer becomes the way you express that devotion.
Prayer looks different in different people’s lives. I pray when I’m riding my motorcycle, or walking. I love nature, and when I’m in the midst of creation, prayer bubbles up inside of me. I look for the sweet kisses of our good Daddy! It might be a butterfly I haven’t seen in a long time, or a particular bird’s song, or the light dancing through the trees, or a fragrance on the breeze. I can’t help but magnify God in worship for all that He’s done and created. I reflect on what He’s done in my life and ask Him to come crashing in on my city, on Catch The Fire churches, in my family. Prayer is a discipline of our faith, but when our hearts are devoted to Jesus, it doesn’t feel like a chore. It’s a deep pleasure.
There are so many ways that you can practice prayer. Maybe it’s in a House of Prayer setting, maybe in a more liturgical, structured format. Find ways to pray that help you express your devotion to Jesus and inspire a greater hunger for Him, not based necessarily on what everyone else does, but from your heart of pure devotion to Jesus.
5. Let Encounters Fuel Your Hunger
Encounters with God are where our theology becomes a reality. When we encounter God, we meet the person of God. We get to experience Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Father’s love, and that brings a fullness to our faith.
Not all encounters with God will be dramatic, but every encounter with God has drawn me into more hunger for Him, as I long to know His heart and hear what He has to say. But it’s faith that truly counts.
Thomas told the other disciples that he wouldn’t believe that Jesus had risen from the dead, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side,” (John 20:25b NIV). When Thomas eventually met Jesus, Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29 NIV). What’s Jesus saying? Faith even beats encounter!
There are many people who are hungry for God that have never experienced God physically, and yet they believe in Him and continue to press in. I believe that they’re more blessed than those who have big encounters with God and then end up with an outworking of their faith that goes up and down, depending on when they had their last encounter.
God is present and good, whether we feel Him or not. Encounter is a beautiful part of our journey of developing hunger for God. It fuels our desire, our passion, and our hunger, but it can’t determine our faith in who God is.
6. Avoid Hunger-Suppressing Fillers
We’re all made with an inbuilt desire for God. We’re made to be hungry for Him. But if we snack and fill up in other areas that satisfy for a short amount of time, that hunger for God will grow dull. These “fillers” look different for different people. For some, fillers are numbing habits, for others perhaps a better salary, bigger success, more possessions, or greater status, even within Christian circles.
The way to figure out if something in your life is a filler is to ask yourself how you’re motivated. Love is always self-sacrificing, and the sinful nature is always motivated by selfish gain. Who is the beneficiary of the things you’re pursuing? Is it God, others, or you? The things that will develop hunger for God in you will be motivated by your love for God, they’ll be things you do as a result of God’s love for you. These things will result in God being glorified, rather than your personal gain.
7. Pursue a God-Focused Life
Your top vertebrae, supporting your skull, is your atlas. I’ve heard it said that if your atlas is correct and in place in your skull, then your entire vertebrae hangs correctly. And if your atlas is out of position, your spine will be out of line.
It’s like that in our spiritual lives. Jesus, the Father and the Holy Spirit must be at the centre of our lives. Then our hearts will be filled with the fear of the Lord, and all our motivations will be for His glory. All our affections will be focused on God, and our behaviours will come into line with that.
I pray that your hunger for God will increase. That your Heavenly Daddy will center you in His love and the life of His beloved Son Jesus. I pray that you would experience His wonderful Spirit every day through His Word and His world and that your life will be ever increasingly filled with His joy. May Jesus become your magnificent obsession. May you live a life loving and pleasing Him as you walk in His love and give it away to those He loves.
Listen to Duncan and Kate Smith’s new podcast, Into The Fire, for Each fresh insight, heartfelt conversation, and practical wisdom for a life empowered by the Holy Spirit.
In Episode 11, Duncan and Kate talk to Seth Fawcett about Drinking of the Holy Spirit; baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues, and embracing the mystery of God.
