It Starts With Desire

About a week later, I was sitting in Church thinking about the truth that God uses us in accordance with whatever we ourselves DECREE.

And I was wondering, "Where does it all start?"

Immediately I was reminded of the Scripture, "Therefore I say unto you, what things soever ye DESIRE, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mk 11:23).

I thought to myself, "It all starts with DESIRE". The way a person ends-up being used by God - and the things a person receives from God - all start with his desire.

Then when I got home, before I went to sleep, I felt drawn to a particular book on my book shelf. When I picked it up, I felt directed to one small section of the book. And when I opened to that section, it opened to a chapter entitled DESIRE (chapter 20, The Art of Intercession, Kenneth E. Hagin).

In this chapter, brother Hagin shares how things don't happen - like God moving and revivals and so forth - by chance or even just because somebody prayed yesterday. They happen because somebody felt stirred by an inner desire, perhaps years in advance.

Brother Hagin illustrated how God placed a desire in the hearts of many people back in 1943 for the power gifts of the Spirit to be restored to the Church - and then, a few years later in 1947, a divine healing revival began in America.

"God carries out His will upon earth through His Church," he said.

"Where did it [the consuming desire] come from, anyhow? Did we conjure it up ourselves? No! God laid it on our hearts. It was a burning desire."

The desire was put there, no doubt, by God, he said.

Nevertheless he said it is up to us to respond, to act on that desire, by prayer and by obedient action.

Having read that short chapter, I put the book down, for that night. That was God's confirmation to me.

The way a man is used by God all starts with desire.