Hunger never goes away. We eat, we drink we sleep, but tommorrow, though we ate today we are hungry again, thirsty again, tired again.

I read J.C. Pollock’s biography of evangelist D.L. Moody some years back; Moody was at one point holding a missions conference, and one of the ministers who came and was sitting with Moody at the breakfast table before the day’s events told Moody that he was hoping to get enough spiritual sustenance at the conference to last him through the remainder of his ministry. Moody laughed, and responded, “You might as well try to eat your fill of breakfasts for the next forty years!”

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. (Amos 8:11 &12)

Are you hungry? I sometimes find myself looking, seeking to hear someone with some spiritual dynamism. Some spiritual bread, or water.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. (Matt. 5:6)

Who has the Word of the Lord? I have occasionally been blessed by certain youtubers, or bloggers who invest themselves to study the word – ministers… or pastors. Yet so often these are on one day and off the next. Too oft concerned with what will get views, or likes rather than living in the stream of sustenance from the Lord.

Who abides in the steady stream of God’s revelation, who is eating and drinking their fill every day?

The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou heatest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit. (John 3:8)

A missionary spoke at the church we’ve been attending this last week. It often leaves me feeling frustrated, as I feel like I’m relegated to the sidelines rather than being used of the Lord on the front lines. Do you ever feel that way?

In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of. …My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finnish his work. (John 4:31,32,34)

This world is full of appetites, we hunger for food and water, yes. But our flesh lusts for other things besides. We want money, we want to be loved, we desire pleasure. The world will pass away, and the lust thereof, but the word of God abides forever.

You and I may be in different stations in life; like me, you may wonder how best to serve the Lord where you are when you encounter someone like a missionary who works with persecuted believers who can share testimonies of whole tribes and villages coming to faith in Christ through their ministry. This is what leaves me frustrated; I am richly blessed to see and hear that the Lord is at work… and I long to be in the center of it with Him. Yet being not in the same capacity as of that missionary, how can I serve the Lord? How can I walk, and abide in the anointing? Am I failing God because I’m not in the same situation? Shall I allow my flesh to feel like I’ve failed Him?

Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be free, use it rather. (1 Cor. 7:20, 21)

Where are you? What is your station in life? Are you in a hard situation? ‘Care not for it;’ i.e. don’t stress it, as a believer, Christ is with you regardless of your difficult estate. If you can get free of the situation, by all means do so.

For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the Lord’s freeman; likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ’s servant. Ye are bought of a price, BE NOT YE THE SERVANTS OF MEN. (1 Cor. 7:22, 23)

If you’ve become a Christian, and are in a bad family or work situation that you can’t get out of (in the temporal), then take heart! Christ has made you free; you are born again, and no one can take away your salvation, and your freedom to fellowship with God from within your own temple (body).

If you can get free of the situation in the natural, by all means, do so. You have been bought with Christ, the primary goal of your life, now, is to serve the Lord, not man. The ancient community that Paul is speaking to here included slavery many new Christians of the time were slaves, and unable to leave the situation they were in when they got saved. The Christian response to that? Serve God in the capacity that you’re able to where you are. If you can obtain freedom, then certainly do so. If you can’t, don’t worry about it, God knows your situation and is pleeased with your heart of service toward Him.

I wonder at my service to God, whether it is acceptable, I see others in an estate or capacity that I long to serve God in; a frustration – not jealousy, or envy, but frustration, wanting to accomplish something great for the Lord. Introspectively, I look at my own estate, and wonder: I must be doing something wrong.

No, but whatever you do, in word or in deed do it unto the glory of God. Have I done this? Then:

Let every man abide in the same calling wherein he is called. Art thou called being a servant? Care not for it; but if thou mayest be free, use it rather.

I’ve been trying to get fit, and have lost a good deal of weight. I’ve got a bit of a sweet tooth though, so its hard to say no to certain things that my body doesn’t need. I have developed a tactic for this, though (I’m not really talking about weight loss, here). I do two things that help me say no to sweets: the first thing I do to compete with my sweet tooth is to stay satiated as much as I can. That is: I eat food that makes me feel full longer (more protein; stuff with hot spice like cayanne or jalapenos (these create a sense of fullness in the stomach because of the heat)).

The second thing I do is eat sweet fruits. Over just a short period of time, eating sweet fruits daily has begun to help me change my cravings for sweets. Rather than grab a candy bar, grab a peach; rather than ice cream, eat some pinnaple or a mango. Way less calories, healthy (rather than processed) sugars, full of vitamins and nutrients my body wouldn’t otherwise get.

That’s a parable I hope you percieve. If we fill up on fellowship with the Lord, its easier to say no to temptations. Do you suck honey from the rock? We may have a hunger and thirst for the word of the Lord, but why would we seek first unto man to fill that up – why seek for human teachers first?

But the Comforter which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE shall teach you all things…

You have free access to the Living God through the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:19 & 20): True spiritual vitality is at your fingertips. Truly, God is not far from any one of us (Acts 17:27); He is as near as your ability to repent and believe.

Yet it is said:

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst. (Amos 8:13)

There is a famine in the land. And the famine is only going to get worse. Even the leading ministers in our day are more fixated on the political (junk food) than the spiritual. We have turned a corner into the final days and the last days deception will grow and gain power (and they don’t even know what that deception, now at work in the church is!); the love of many will grow cold. Yet there also is a live and pure stream of living waters. Where shall we go to find it?

Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the words of the Lord:

And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.

In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst.

They that swear by the sin of Samaria [idolatry – the turning away from the living God unto types and shadows of Him (even the alignment of the political nation which called itself Israel though it had denied worship of I AM in Judah and Jerusalem)] and say, Thy god, O Dan liveth [the golden calf – the ancient facsimilie of I AM (1 Kings 12:28-30), the false god formed by the carnal priest] and, The manner of Beersheeba liveth [the old covenant, which excluded the gentles from Abraham’s well (Messiah – Gen. 21:27-32)] even they shall fall and never rise up again.

I saw the Lord standing upon the altar [cross]… (Amos 8:11-9:1)

Would you be filled today? Does your heart long, as mine, for spiritual vitality?

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of our God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. (Psalm 46:4)

Repent, and believe on Jesus Christ, as your living hope and personal friend, for you are called unto fellowship with Him. The old ways of tradition, religion, and political allegiance has fallen to never rise again: leads only to famine of the True Word of the Lord, the spiritual vitality found in Christ, alone. No religious form, nor organization has it; no ethnicity has the capital on it; Jesus: the pure fountain of Abraham, undefiled for all who believe on Him (John 7:37,38).

Jesus saith unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. …

…and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:35, 37)