Psalms 42:1-2a As the deer longs (pants) for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God…
Psalms 84:2 I long, yes, I faint with longing to enter the courts of the Lord. With my whole being, body and soul, I will shout joyfully to the living God.
One day, the word of God came to me saying, ‘I long, I thirst, I pant, I FAINT for the courts of God…’
God reminded me of an incident that happened on January 25th this year, in Yaounde, Cameroon. The African Cup of Nations was happening and the gates to the stadium weren’t being opened. There were multitudes and multitudes being squeezed onto the chain-link fence.
The folk couldn’t wait to get in. Some were even fainting minutes before the game. Once the gates were opened, some people were stampeded to death on spot! 8 died and 38 were injured. Very very sad! I remember watching them run into the stadium, racing in…
And God asked me, “Do you run in to me like that? Do you faint like these people did for a match? Would you wait at the gates that desperately… for me?”
You know, in this grace age, we think because we are under that covenant, we have to lose the discipline of longing. So many of us show up late for rendezvouses with God. And we brush it off saying ‘He’s merciful.’
If the Psalmist had such attitude towards God, then how much more we! If he was a king and had more resources at his disposal than you do, and yet he still yearned for God that wildly … how much more you?
I use that image or clip to get me out of bed early in the morning to pray. I picture myself running into a match, having waited for the gates.
You don’t have to convince your body to get out of sleep mode. This invites it to run, for the revelation from the Spirit indeed rebukes it.
This week, I had slept quite late, and yet I have a date with God at 4am. I wanted to cancel it. Then I remembered the question, “Do you FAINT…for my presence (courts)?” I set my alarm and I was up, to enjoy Him.
Your schedule with God should not be routine. It has to become a place of pleasure.
There are things that you might long for. Apply that same energy to God. Some people for example wouldn’t mind being rained on while playing or watching a match of their high school league, but would quickly seek a shed, or cancel plans if they were in an open space prayer service.
Others long for an occasion — go shopping for what they’d wear, iron their clothes months before the d-day, but when it comes to church time, ironing commences the time church service begins, and thirty minutes later is when they get to the temple.
Let’s understand that fainting for God — the maker of the world now and the worlds to come, should be the highest quintessence to LONG for, and how we long for the lesser things should teach us how to long, faint, pant and thirst for the highest thing!
May God use your lesser things to teach you to faint for Him.
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