Does not save natively

Two of the most powerful influences are hunger and thirst. Now, they say that the body can go up to 40 days without food, which is why usually when somebody goes an extended fast, they can go for 40 days. Jesus went on a 40 day fast.

During that time, the hunger goes away and after 40 days, your hunger returns because your body starts to get into starvation. So you can go up to 40 days, depending on your state of health, without food. Water is a bit more essential and the body can't go longer than three days without water before it begins to suffer bad effects.

So hunger and thirst are two very important forces in our lives to keep us alive. Without those, we would not survive. Now, as proof of this, I'd like you to answer this simple question.

What do you spend most of your money on each month? Perhaps it varies, but for most of us, the answer is this, what we put into our stomachs. Check your budget. You'll be amazed how much of your monthly budget is for what you put in your stomach.

Hunger and thirst, food and drink are right at the center of our lives. And when we're hungry or we're thirsty, we don't actually even consider the cost. We just take whatever money is there and we buy to satisfy that need, because those needs are so strong in us.

When your body begins to hunger, you can think about nothing more than I want something to eat. When you're thirsty, you've got to get a drink. Well, how do you decide what you eat or drink? Well, you know, I eat to stay alive.

No, you don't. You're not even thinking about the fact that the food's keeping you alive. If you ate to stay alive, you'd eat all the healthy stuff that nobody likes.

All the health experts are telling us we should eat greens. I maintain that if God wanted me to eat greens, he would have made me a cow. But they say greens are supposed to be very healthy for you.

You know, I don't lie awake at night thinking, man, I can't wait to get some more greens in my body. Now, they're very healthy, but no, what is it that I desire to eat? Food has a far greater effect than simply keeping you alive and feeding your body. Food has an emotional content.

It meets an inner emotional need. And most of the time, what we eat creates a feeling, a good feeling. Sometimes where we eat creates a feeling.

If you love going out to eat and to be served in a restaurant, there's a feeling, an atmosphere that is created by your act of eating. And the same with drinking. Why is it that very few people drink as much at home as what they do in public? People who drink alcohol, unless they're alcoholics who are totally dependent on the effect, there's a social aspect to it.

They want to go out and meet with others and have fun and have a good time. So these driving forces within us are not only for our body, but they affect our soul as well. They lie at the core of our being.

So why do you eat or drink? Because of the feelings it creates, not because of the health it creates. You know that old saying, everything I ever desire is either illegal, immoral or fattening. It's a fact.

But how do you get what you want? I'm going now beyond these two basic drives. How do you get what you want in life? You must develop a deep desire, which I like to call a core desire. A desire that's at the core of your being.

A desire that becomes a consuming passion. Well, when you're hungry, your consuming passion is food. When you are thirsty, your consuming passion is liquid.

What is your consuming passion the rest of the time? What is it that drives you to do what you do in life? Now, that is very important. And if you really want to succeed in the thing you desire, you're going to have to have a desire that's as strong as your desire for food and drink. It's going to have to be as strong as the drive of hunger and thirst.

And the story is told of a young man who earnestly desired to succeed in life, but he really just didn't seem to be getting much success. And he was taken up with a man who was quite famous in public. Who really seemed to have it all together.

And he came to the conclusion, if I could just get to speak to this man and ask him the secret of his success. How did he become so successful? What is it that he did? Oh, if only I knew the secret to success. But it seemed every time he tried to get to this guy, it was almost impossible.

There were people around him all the time. He was in the public eye. It was impossible to even get an appointment with him.

He thought, oh, if only I could speak to this guy alone. One day he was walking down the river bank and his wish was granted. There sitting on his own was this man fishing all on his own.

Wow, what an opportunity. He ran up, introduced himself. He said, I hope you don't mind.

Could I ask you a question? I put down his rod, he said, sure. He said, I want to know. I really want to know the secret to your success.

How did you become so successful? The guy smiled and he put down his rod and he said, come with me. And he started to walk into the river. Tell that way, but I'd be up to the water.

As he stood there with the young guy, he suddenly grabbed him and he pushed him under the water. And he held him there for a while. And then he let him out.

And the guy was sputtering. And after he caught his breath, he pushed him under the water again, left him a bit longer. Not long enough to drown just.

And then he let him out. The guy sputtered and gasped, went there and just collapsed on the shore there. Trying to breathe.

The old man said to him, now I'd like to ask you a question. And if you answer my question, I will answer yours. He said, tell me why you were under the water there.

What was the only thing on your mind? What was the most important thing in this world to you? He said that I could breathe and get some air. Old man said, when your desire for success is as strong as what your desire was to breathe. Then you will succeed.

Now, you can go 40 days without food. And you can go three days or more without water. But you can only go minutes without oxygen.

Have you had difficulty trying to maintain your passion and desire to the same degree that you have for food? Takes a lot of effort. How about the desire to have something to drink? It takes even more effort. But even that's not good enough.

How about your very desire to breathe? You see, until your core desire, until your passion is as strong as that desire, you do not have what it takes to rise up and experience the things that you desire. Well, what do you desire? Most of the time we desire the things that our bodies love, don't we? The bodily functions, nourishment, food and drink. We spend most of our money on that.

We desire the body function of defense. We like to win. We like to play sport.

We like to play games. We have a sense of competition. We have challenges in life to keep us going.

These become our drive and our motivation. The need for reproduction or the desire for reproduction that attracts us to members of the opposite sex. Most of our lives, very often, revolve around just these three things.

But there are the desires of the soul. And in the soul lies the emotions where all the feelings are and the thoughts and your abilities and will. So the soul desires good feelings.

I like to feel good. Nobody likes feeling depressed. I want to feel happy and full of joy.

I want to have good thoughts, positive thoughts in my mind. And I want to have abilities to do things. Oh, if only I could do that.

That requires an act of your will. So your body and your soul actually preoccupies most of the desires that you have in life. And then we come to the spiritual life.

And we say, well, what does my spirit desire? Well, you know, I really don't have time for that. It's so deep. I just can't seem to touch it or reach it.

And besides, you know, God doesn't want us to make it on the flesh. Some people believe God doesn't even want us to have fun. Christians are supposed to be austere, serious people.

We have a job to do. There's no time to play around and have fun. We're supposed to be doing the work of the Lord.

Well, I'm afraid you missed. God's too intent for you. Because the Lord wants you to have all of these things.

Let me give you a scripture in Psalms chapter 16. In verse 11, it says this. You will make known to me the way of revival.

In your presence, there is joy that fully satisfies. At your right hand, there are pleasures that last forever. He wants you to have fun.

He wants you to have good feelings. He wants you to enjoy life. All these things in the body, he created them.

Satan didn't come and create it after the fall. Well, you know, before that, they were very serious, just talking to the Lord every day. Adam and Eve didn't even touch each other.

There was no sexual nonsense. God created that. Well, you know, food wasn't important to them.

That's why God gave them the best food source there was, the most beautiful fruit trees and things that they could eat. God wants us to enjoy our food. He wants us to enjoy what we drink.

He wants us to enjoy all the desires of the body. And he wants us to enjoy liberty and freedom in our soul. He wants us to be filled with joy, to have thoughts that are filled with good things, an ability to do wonderful, awesome things in this world.

But you know where all of these things are found in their purest and highest form? Is in his presence. In his presence. The trouble is we go away from his presence and we go into the world to find that.

We go for the social events of the world. We go for the food and the drink that this world provides. We go for the drugs and the other stimulants that will create those feelings of joy and ecstasy.

When the Lord has promised more than that, if we would come into his presence. Unfortunately, most believers, when they think of God's presence, they think of, oh, I don't want to be in his presence because I haven't been living the way I should. I sinned quite a few times yesterday and I'm not sure what the Lord will think of me if I were to come into his presence right now.

So let's just avoid it for now, shall we? Well, you know, it's an obligation. I need to pray. Need to get in these words.

So I will force myself. I'll give him five minutes. Five minutes is a long time.

Okay, I'll be generous and I'll give him 10 minutes. Do you ever think about that when you're out having fun? You know that old expression? Time flies when you're having fun. Several hours later, you don't realize the time is gone.

Man, we're having such fun. Don't you realize that he offers you more fun than what this world can offer? But most believers have not experienced it. And that is why they don't appreciate it.

They don't realize what he has to offer. Well, if all those pleasures are to be found at God's right hand, I should find out where his right hand is, shouldn't I? If I can find out where his right hand is so I can get there, I can get all those things for free. It costs a lot of money to get these in the world.

Imagine if I could find his right hand. Well, where is God's right hand? It's easy. Jesus is sitting there.

Scripture says he was raised up to take his place at the right hand of God, right? So Jesus is sitting at the right hand of God. So if you want to find the right hand of God, find Jesus. But I've got even better news than that for you.

You see, you are also there at the right hand of God. So I sure don't feel like it. See, Ephesians 2, verse 6, after Paul has said that God lifted Christ up and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly realm, he says, and God has raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.

See, the trouble is you're trying to look with your body and with your soul. And you left your spirit out. See, your spirit is seated in heavenly places right now with Jesus.

And the door, the door to the right hand lies in your spirit, not in your body or your soul. What do you do when you're feeling frustrated? What do you do when you're feeling blah? What do you do when the pressures of life come upon you? You start looking to satisfy it with the desires of the body. I start craving my favorite foods when I'm feeling blah.

Perhaps you want to have that glass of wine to perk you up a little bit or something else that makes you feel good. If you're married, you probably have a strong desire for sex. All the body desires get stirred up.

But none of those things take you into the right hand of God where the true pleasures lie. You've got to make a choice. You must choose to go there.

And Paul tells us in Colossians 3 from verse 1, if then you were raised up with Christ, continually desire. It's the Greek continuous present tense. Continually desire what is above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life has been hidden away together with Christ in God. So you've got to make a choice.

Well, now that I've made that choice, how do I get there? How do I experience this? How do I experience his presence in which I'm told there is joy that fully satisfies? How do I experience his right hand where there are pleasures that last forever? Well, you've got to enter into the throne room where Jesus sits. He's seated on the throne, you know. He's a king.

You say, well, you know, I just don't feel worthy. I don't feel spiritual enough. I haven't spent two hours in prayer preparing for this.

I haven't confessed all my sins to prepare for this. Well, if you want to come into the throne room of the Father, yes, that might be a good idea. Because when you come to the throne room of the Father, you want to fall on your feet and die like Isaiah did when he saw God high and lifted up.

But you see, the throne room of Jesus is not the same. We are told that we can come boldly to the throne of grace to receive help in time of need. So what do we do? We come boldly into his presence.

Hebrews 4, 16. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. It took me a while to realize that there was a throne room in which Jesus sat.

Now, I've shared this in my teaching on the mantles. If you want more explanation of it. I always came into the throne room of the Father and it was an austere and very reverent experience.

There was a lot of awe. There was no time for fun and joking. It was serious.

Because he stood there as the judge at his bench with his hammer ready to pass judgment. And I came trembling until I realized that I was clean through the blood of Jesus and I could come with confidence to the Father. It wasn't a fun place.

You ever seen people having fun in a court? Yeah, it's a party. I'm going to have them. I'm going to have them.

You see, the throne room of the Son is very different. Very different. When I first came into the throne room of Jesus, I saw him seated on the throne.

I looked up pictures online to see what throne rooms look like. And it's just a big room where the king sits on his throne. And people come there.

And there was Jesus sitting on his throne. And there were crowds of people all around. And you know what it reminded me of? It reminded me of my days in the world when you go to a dance and the band was up there playing and entertaining.

And everybody was on the floor dancing and having an awesome time. They were having a party in the throne room. Well, I didn't expect that.

And everybody was having fun. And they were glorifying the Lord. Oh, what they do at a dance, they glorify the band who is singing.

And people even singing with the band. Well, why can't you sing to the king? You know what? On the dance floor, people are getting drunk. I've got news for you.

In the king's throne room, people are getting drunk too. They're not getting drunk on the wine of this world. They're getting drunk on the new wine and the glory of his presence.

See, that's why there's pleasures that last forever. That's why there's joy. Because when we come into his presence, we're high.

Better than any high that any substance in this world can give you. Oh, but all we think about is the throne room of the father. I've got to come.

Oh, dear. Sorry, Lord. I know I've been a bad boy.

I'll try and do better. Yeah, I am. Smack my hand.

See, that's the wrong idea we've got. Jesus wants to offer us fun, pleasure, enjoyment, happiness, and joy. And if you can learn to come into his throne room, that's what you're going to try and experience.

When I first stepped in his throne room, I said, Lord, why didn't you show me this before? This is so much better. And you know what? The doors open 25 hours a day. As I got to know him better, he took me one step further.

And he said, I want your heart to become my throne. He said, and if you allow that, I'll bring my throne room into you. So you won't have to go all the way up there to the throne room.

You can tap it right here. It's going to be with you all the time. How do we do that? Make Jesus Lord of your life and continually desire to be in his presence, in his presence.

What is it that you hunger for? What is it that you thirst for? Is the Lord and his presence and all that he has to offer, is this as important to you as breathing? Or is it something you kind of fit in if you have time? I don't know about you, but I so desire more of his presence. I desire to have his power. I want to be able to go out in his name and heal the sick and set the captives free and bring joy to people and change lives.

I need his presence to go with me before I can do that. Imagine if sitting down with Jesus was better than sitting down to a meal. Imagine if being with Jesus was better than getting high on alcohol or drugs.

Imagine if you could do this anytime. Imagine if you could have these awesome experiences without all the after effects and the hangovers. Imagine if church meetings were like this.

Imagine if when you came to church, you weren't thinking, I hope they sing some decent songs today. I hope the preacher's not boring, because I know it's going to follow the usual route. We'll start the meeting, we'll have the worship.

And every church got the rituals. Then we have the offering and the announcements, and the preacher stands up and they go through all their rituals. I know what to expect.

I know what's coming next. Some people, they arrive a little late just so they missed the first part on purpose, because they don't feel like that. Imagine if you came to church wondering what God was going to do today.

I wonder what's going to happen in today's meeting. I wonder what God has planned for us in our get together today. But you know, that's not going to happen because the preacher never gave God a chance.

The preacher decided what he was going to preach. He decided what order he was going to follow. And all the deacons and the elders and all the whole church structure has been laid out and decided.

Jesus is not Lord. But you know what? What's a church meeting? Church meetings when two or three people get together. What happens when two or three people get together? We sit and gossip about somebody else.

We moan and groan, complain about the political situation, the economic situation, the pandemic. When two or three believers get together, the power of God should be present. I spent many years of my life going that old route.

One day God met me. Unexpectedly. And his presence and his glory came on me.

And I felt his power all over me. That was such an exciting experience. And I got back home again after being to that special meetings.

I wanted more of that. I thought, wow, I wish church could be like this all the time. Well, we got back into our church.

And there was the pastor doing his usual thing. And all us young people, all excited. Yeah, yeah.

We want God to move. Calm down, guys. Calm down.

We know you're excited. We know you're young. Us oldies, we've been there.

We've been through all of that. Just let it die. Let it calm down.

Move back to normality. Formality. Death.

Oh, we try to stir up the old people. But that was like trying to ignite dead coals. So we started having our own meetings.

We go to church faithfully. And after the boring meeting was over, we'd gather in somebody else's home. We'd have a glory time.

Hallelujah. Praise you, Jesus. And we had fun.

We had our own little spiritual party. And you know what? He was there every time without a problem. But I also grew old.

And matured. And got to important things. You see, you got to have your meat and vegetables.

You can't live on desserts. Who says? Who says you can't live on dessert? You try and convince any kid that they can't live on dessert. Give them a chance.

They'll prove you they can. But you know what we've done? We brought in the meat and veggies. We took the dessert away.

Instead of adding it. We've taken away the fun that there is in serving the Lord. We've taken away his glorious presence that should be manifest every time we come together.

Every time we come together. Cloud of the glory of his presence should be there. We should feel it.

We should get to the place where we get high spiritually. Where we're having such fun. Well, you know, these people, they worship for an hour.

My goodness. Don't they ever get tired of this? Perhaps they were in the cloud. And time goes when you're having fun.

Unless you have some fun serving the Lord. There's a term that they use for this. It's an old-fashioned term.

And it's kind of fallen out of vogue. It's called revival. Revival.

When a group experiences revival, there comes a fresh touch from above. A fresh experience of God's anointing power that is tangible and powerful. And when a few people get excited about it, they start to draw a crowd.

And people will flock from all over the world to come to a church that's a revival. Because they've got a preacher there who has a good solid teaching ministry. Very seldom.

Very seldom. In fact, a lot of these guys running the revival things, they, you know what? You wonder how much of the scripture they ever did study. They have one message they preach.

Now, people aren't going for the preaching. They aren't going for the teaching. They're going for the presence and the power and the glory.

We're taught to pray. Come your kingdom. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

We lost the power and the glory. Where did it go? We moved away from his right hand. We try to move into legalism and effort and serving God and going through rituals.

Instead of the excitement of just being with him, you say, how's it Lord? Aren't we going to have a good time today? Oh Lord, I'm here to party. I'm here to have a wonderful time. Your presence, David expressed it so well.

And I think David knew what this was like. In Psalm 84 verse 2, he said, my soul yearns to the point of exhaustion to be in the place where the Lord Yahweh lives and reigns. My body and soul cry out joyfully for revival from God.

The life that he brings. Don't know about you, but that's what I want. I want his presence all the time.

I want his presence in my private prayer time. I want his presence when we sit together and just share and fellowship. I want his presence when we come together to worship and whatever we do together, whatever we do as a church.

I want his presence and his power and his glory to be manifest. But you know, I started to hunger for it. And now I'm starting to thirst for it.

And I'm almost at the place where it's as important as breathing to me. I can't live without it. If I can inspire you in some way to get excited about serving the Lord, not for the price you're going to pay, not for all.

Oh Lord, when I first became a Christian, I didn't witness to anybody because I thought I don't want to subject any happy unbeliever to all that I've gone through. It looked like they're having fun. Let's just leave them.

Oh, you've never had fun in the Lord's. You should be. I'm having fun in the Lord.

I've spent years getting into the word and teaching and training and calling people to death. I'm tired of it. There's a place for it.

I'm not throwing it away. I just handed it over to somebody else. I want to have parties now.

I'm old enough to retire and have parties now. I want to have fun in the Lord. And you know what? When his glorious presence comes on you, it touches you inside and out.

You know, every bit of darkness in you just disappears. Every bit of evil that Satan has tried to bring, all the bondages in your life vanish away. Sickness and disease has to flee at the presence of the King of Kings.

Oh Lord. I want this, don't you? Let's reach out to him right now and ask him for some of it. Hallelujah.

Oh Jesus, we come into your throne room now. We come to experience your joy, your glory, your power. We come to have fun and to enjoy your presence.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise you Lord.

Lord, may we experience that joy that satisfies in every way. May we start to have the pleasure of what it is to serve you. And it becomes so exciting that we want to do it over and over and over again.

That we don't want to get involved in the activities of this world, which are so inferior by comparison. But so much more. Reach out to him now and ask him for a fresh touch from above.

Come into his throne room right now. You can come boldly. You do it by faith.

See yourself stepping into that throne room and there you are. There is the King. Can you see he's waving to you? Hey, hi, welcome.

He's waving to you. Can you see that? Come on in, come and join the party. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Praise you Lord. Praise you Lord.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. You want to sing and dance because you're filled with his joy.

All the cares of this world melt away as his peace saturates you inside and outside. Oh, what a wonderful feeling it is. And you know, you can experience this anytime because he's closer than breathing.

Anytime. The cares of this world are getting you down. When Satan has been attacking you from all sides, just step into that throne room.

Say, Lord, here I am. Thank you, Jesus, for your presence. Thank you for your anointing.

Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise you, Lord.

Hallelujah. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for manifesting his glory to us now as we stand in his presence. May your presence be manifest in the life of each person who's listening to this message right now.

In the name of Jesus, I ask the Lord to reach out and touch you now as you lift your heart to him, as you reach out. As you reach out with desire. It'll be quite fun to have it, I suppose.

Yeah, it would be nice. No, no, you're getting nothing. You're getting nothing.

A core desire. I got to eat. I got to drink.

I got to breathe. I got to have his presence. I got to have it.

I got to have it. I'm not going to be satisfied until I get it. When you have that determination, let me tell you, he's going to withhold nothing from you.

He's going to shower it on you. It's overflowing. You're going to walk out in light and glory.

Your life's going to take on new meaning. And everywhere you go, you're going to spread joy and life and light. And every bit of evil that you confront will flee at your very presence because you are clothed in the mantle of his glory.

This is available to you as a child of God. No matter your spiritual status, no matter how long you've served the Lord, I don't care if you're a preacher or if you got saved yesterday. The same promise is available to you.

Step into the throne room and start to enjoy it now. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Thank you for your joy, Lord. Thank you for your joy upon your people now. May the clouds of darkness just vanish away as the cloud of the glory of your presence comes.

In Jesus' name, receive it now right where you are. Just receive it. Just reach out and take it.

It's yours. Just receive it by faith and start to thank him for it now. Your life's going to change.

You'll see. It's going to go from strength to strength. It's going to get better.

And the more you come and spend that time in his presence, the more you're going to experience it, the greater the pleasure of the experience. And then it's going to be like a fire that you're going to take out and you're going to ignite everybody else that you meet. Whoever you meet, you're going to set them on fire because you're on fire.

Hallelujah. Let the fire burn on me, Lord. Let it burn.

Oh, actually, it feels so good. I don't want to end. Hallelujah.

Thank you for it, Lord. Thank you for it, Lord. Move upon your people now.

Move upon your people now. Let them experience it. Let your revival power be manifest in this place.

And then every person that's watching this right now, may it spread throughout this world. May it spread in your body, Lord. I ask it in Jesus' name.

Amen.

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