As I shared in our April letter, engaging God and His word has taken on new depth for me. The reason being is that instead of seeking to understand the meaning of what God’s word says, the Spirit directs me to simply read through a passage and when I get to a verse, phrase or word that He wants me to focus on, He stops me and directs me to meditate on it. I focus on the word and allow the Spirit to bring it to Life by revealing to me what He wants to reveal. I call it seeing the word in 3D. Words that I have read many times before and simply skipped over are coming alive through the Spirit. As I engage the Spirit with these words, I ask these questions: “Why did you have me stop on this verse or word? What is it you want to teach me, to reveal to me or to expose in my life? Are these words something I need to experience more of in my life?” In this letter, I would like to share with you four words the Lord has me focusing on.
Longing and Yearning
As I was reading Isaiah 26:9 the Spirit stopped me at the words “yearning” and “longing.”
“My soul yearns for you in the night, in the morning my spirit longs for you.”
(Before I go on, let me share with you some of the meanings of these words in the original Hebrew according to Strong’s Lexicon Rather than give you all the many definitions of these words, I will share the ones that the Lord wanted me to focus on.)
Yearning – to desire, wait longingly for, wish for, want, crave.
Longing – great affection for, to strain after, to greatly desire to have something or someone.
I asked the Spirit, “Why these two words?” As I meditated on them, I could hear the Spirit say, “This is what your heart wants more of. You want a deeper yearning and longing for intimacy and oneness with Me.” When He said those words, my spiritual eyes were opened, my heart was stirred, and I immediately began seeking the Lord to make them more than words.
As I begin reflecting on these two words, it was like going to a bakery or restaurant where they display the desserts in a glass case. You survey the desserts and suddenly your eyes stop on a dessert (chocolate, of course) that you very quickly determine that you cannot do without. It was not sufficient to see it, you had to taste it. You are not sure what it will taste like, but after the first bite you are yearning and longing for more. Much like this dessert, I no longer wanted to just have a deeper understanding, I wanted to taste/experience a deeper experiential yearning and longing for God. These words became like a divine magnet to my soul. As I reflected on the biblical definitions of these two words, every meaning became an enticement for more. “To wait longingly for, to wish for, to have great affection for, to strain after and to crave” all became the desires of my heart. I realized that even though there has been a yearning and longing for God since I discovered Life in Christ, this time when I read these two words, I realized that Isaiah was talking about a deeper, more intimate yearning and longing than I was experiencing. It created a need in my soul that could only be satisfied by an intentional pursuit of the Lord to transform my heart to yearn and long for knowing more of His heart, to experience more of His love, and to experience a deeper awareness of His presence moment by moment.
As I began to “taste” a yearning and longing the Lord brought Psalm 34:8 to mind. “O taste and see that the Lord is good…” This began my journey of tasting and seeing the words yearning and longing in a more personal way.
Panting and Thirsting
After reading Isaiah’s words the Spirit led me to David’s words in Psalm 42.
“As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, the living God….” Psalm 42:1-2
Even though I had read this passage several times, this time the word “pants” and “thirsts” grabbed me. What I saw was not simply a verse. Rather, I saw David’s heart for God. It felt like I could hear and feel him saying these words to God with great passion. As with the Isaiah passage, I realized my desire was to say, believe and experience these words in the same way David did.
As a result, I began beseeching the Lord to sink these four words deeper into my heart and experience. It has been a process but I am now beginning to experience these words in a new light. They are more than words on a page. They are deeper desires of my heart.
I share this with you for two reasons. One is to let you know where I am on my personal journey. Secondly, I pray these four words cause a deeper stirring in your heart for a deeper intimacy with God. You may be much further along in this area in your journey, but if not then I encourage you to seek the Lord to give you that same yearning, longing, panting and thirsting for God that Isaiah and David spoke of.
You might even want to pause for a moment, and savor those words like a rich dessert. When you think of these four words, are they drawing your heart to know God more deeply? Like a divine magnet do they draw you into a greater desire to be in His presence, to experience His heart and to experience His love? I have been praying that these four words will grip your heart like never before. As they do, there will be a spiritual satisfaction that will supersede eternally more than the richest dessert you have ever tasted.
“Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth.” Psalm 73:25
