Every Thursday, we will post an article that was previously featured in the Texico Harvester. Today, we go all the way back to the featured article in the May/June 2010 issue which was written by our General Superintendent, Rev. David Bernard. Enjoy.
A Thirst for More
By David K. Bernard, General Superintendent
“Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
While we rightly rejoice over the blessings of God and the progress of the church, we cannot afford to become complacent. We are still laying a foundation for a great future, should the Lord tarry. We are at the threshold of the kind of revival that God wants to give us. We have only just begun to see what God desires to do in our midst.
Therefore, we must have what I call “holy dissatisfaction.” While we should be thankful for what God has already done, we should not be satisfied with the results we have seen, but we must thirst for more. A sense of urgency and even desperation must grip us. The harvest is great, the laborers are few, and time is short! In these last days, God wants to pour out His Spirit upon all flesh—and most of the world has never heard the full gospel message, much less experienced it.
The good news is that Jesus has promised to fill all who would hunger and thirst for righteousness. This principle applies to those who are seeking salvation, and it also applies to those who are seeking an outpouring of the Holy Spirit for their churches and communities.
When people are truly thirsty, their need for water supersedes anything else. Finding water becomes their utmost priority. Nothing else matters. It doesn’t matter if the water is warm or cool, clean or dirty; they are looking for something wet to slake their thirst.
As a child, I remember staying in Mokpo, Korea, with my missionary parents as they held a revival there. The city was suffering a drought during a hot summer. There was no city water, and even the wells had run dry. Vendors would fill old wine bottles with water and haul them into the city on carts as soon as the dawn curfew lifted. By early morning the water would be sold out for the day.
At night, after exuberant worship and prayer in a hot, crowded building with no air conditioning, my sister and I wanted as much water as we could have. Just before bedtime, we would beg our father for water, but none would be left. It was hard for us to go to sleep while we were thirsty. We would make Dad promise that as soon as he purchased water in the morning he would wake us up and give us a drink, no matter how early it was.
The next morning when we awoke, we would ask for water. He would explain that he had already awakened us and had given us our drink for the morning, just as he had promised. But we were still thirsty. We would protest that we didn’t remember waking up and getting a drink. We wanted more.
That experience taught me how powerful thirst can be and how desperate we can become when we are truly thirsty. In the same way, the Lord wants us to be thirsty for His presence and the outpouring of His Spirit.
Let us pray fervently for a mighty revival in our churches and across our fellowship. A spirit of revival will help us overcome any internal problems as we focus on winning souls, discipling converts, and growing the church. As someone has said, if we don’t have revival, nothing else matters. And if we do have revival, nothing else matters.