You can be contented and be hungry in the kingdom of God. God takes hunger very seriously. Last week, we looked at contentment. We will be looking at hunger today. You can be hungry and be contented. So today we will be looking at hunger the prerequisite for more of God. And our text will be from Ezekiel 47:1-12. It is our reference text and we will be looking at other text from there.

"Then he brought me back to the door of the temple; and there was water, flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east, for the front of the temple faced east; the water was flowing from under the right side of the temple, south of the altar. ² He brought me out by way of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gateway that faces east; and there was water, running out on the right side.

³ And when the man went out to the east with the line in his hand, he measured one thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the water came up to my ankles. ⁴ Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist. ⁵ Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed. ⁶ He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river.

⁷ When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. ⁸ Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed. ⁹ And it shall be that every living thing that moves, wherever the rivers go, will live. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters go there; for they will be healed, and everything will live wherever the river goes. ¹⁰ It shall be that fishermen will stand by it from En Gedi to En Eglaim; they will be places for spreading their nets. Their fish will be of the same kinds as the fish of the Great Sea, exceedingly many.

¹¹ But its swamps and marshes will not be healed; they will be given over to salt. ¹² Along the bank of the river, on this side and that, will grow all kinds of trees used for food; their leaves will not wither, and their fruit will not fail. They will bear fruit every month, because their water flows from the sanctuary. Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for medicine."

Ezekiel 47:1-12

I want us to follow closely. This is an experience, that shows depth, that shows that our walk with God is not a shallow walk. And because of the nature of the depth of God, Apostle Peter said something, talking about the love of Christ, and he said nothing can separate us from the love of God, now there is a depth in that love, there is a height in that love, there is a width in that love it is bigger than us. And this experience shows us that there is deeper in God and because of the nature of God, men must continually and perpetually look on to Jesus. Because there is no matter how much you run, in God that you get to the finish line that is why our experience in God is to the degree of our ability to chase after Him.

And this is what we will be seeing from this Scripture and verse 3 says the waters came up to my ankles. This is a level of experience. He said he measured a thousand cubit and the experience I had the depth I got was the ankle.

He said in verse 4: "Again he measured one thousand and brought me through the waters; the water came up to my knees. Again he measured one thousand and brought me through; the water came up to my waist." This is another experience, now I am getting deeper, now I am getting more involved. He said the waters came to my knees after he measured another one thousand that me and the first one thousand plus another one thousand makes two thousand. It is not like first one thousand was measured I went back then suddenly they measured another one thousand then I had a new experience, No! It is deeper, the first one thousand was a threshold. I will not get to the next one if I have not arrived at the first one. So my arriving at the ankle experience, got me experiencing a deeper level which was the new experience.

And again he measured one thousand and brought me through, the water came up to my waist, now the water is getting deeper when you see a man or a woman in a water and the water has gotten to the waist you will say this man is deep in the water and this was the experience that Ezekiel was having here and in verse 5 it says again he measured, I want us to notice and I want us to focus on the fact that the experiences did not change until there was a change in measurement. So the experience was premised on the measurement.

 

Listen to Podcast: The Prerequisite For More of God

 

Verse 5 says: "Again he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross; for the water was too deep, water in which one must swim, a river that could not be crossed." This was the experience of Ezekiel, everyone of us start our journey in God the moment we become born again, you become born again you give your life to Christ, you confess the Lord Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and you begin a journey, the question we should ask ourselves this morning is, who is measuring our line? And are we following the measurement? Many of us become born again and we remain on the same spot. Who is measuring our line? We would continue with Ezekiel 47 but I want us to see 1 Peter 2:2. It says: "as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,"

Who is measuring our line? How far have we gone since we became born again? I want us to break this Scripture down into bits and pieces. It says "as new born babes." So, the example we have here is the example of new born let us know, not just babes but new born. There is a desire as a mother. I know there is a desire a child has. Once a child is born, separated from the mother, there is an instinct for survival in that child and that child knows that if I don't feed on that milk I would not be able to survive.

And it says as new born babes, we desire the pure milk of the word. Now let us look at the example of a new born babe, you will see a child when the child is born and introduced to the breast milk for the first two days, the child is trying to adjust but at the point when the child knows this is the source that produces the experience in me you will see that that child begins to long for. When the child becomes hungry, when the child's stomach becomes empty the child begins to long for, the child begins to yearn. Let us look at this experience because it is practical. The child begins to cry for the mothers attention if the child does not get that breast milk, the child will cry the more, the child is seeking for attention because that child knows if I can cannot lay hold on what I laid hold of before I not going to survive, my experience will not change.

The same way, let us look at the experience of the new born babes we should desire the word of God the same way we should desire God. We are building a foundation. When we are talking about hunger, we must look at it the way God sees it. When God created you and I He did not create man to be independent of Him. God never created you to live without Him. God never created you and I to exist without Him, when you were created you are like that new born babe, you were separated from your mother, you were separated from God but it does not mean that because you are now removed from your mother's womb, the placenta has been cut away, you can now live independent of that mother you need that mother the same way you and I need God.

God created you on the earth now it looks as if we are independent of God. But we cannot truly survive, we can't truly live this life we can't do all that partying to life and godliness without Him. That is why every believer has been called to the place of hunger. And not hunger for food or drink you must be hungry for God because you need Him to survive. You can't live without Him, you can't exist without Him, you can't fulfill all that He wants you to do on earth without Him. You must be in that state of hunger.

And it says as a new born babe desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow thereby.
And it takes us back to Ezekiel 47, a measurement was made. It talks about growth it talks about progress. Now, if you do not take that measurement, if you don't follow that line you can't go deeper. All of us can be hungry for God, but we can't be hungry for God at the same level. We can't be hungry for God at the same level at the same tenacity because there is a measuring line for all of us. there is a line that is been measured for me that is different from yours.

If you don't follow your own line, you can't be satisfied. Let's look at it in the real sense of our daily experiences. If I am hungry and Mr. Abiola is hungry, what will fill him, is it the same thing that will fill me? No. But we are both hungry, why because our capacity, our wiring is different that is why the Holy Spirit has the measuring line for each and every one of us. And if we can but follow that line we will get in to another experience another experience of satisfaction different from the one we experienced yesterday. But notice something. The Holy Spirit is always measuring you. How many years do you want to spend on the earth that you want to exhaust the eternity nature of God? You can't. So till you are 80, the Holy Spirit is still measuring your line. Never feel you have arrived at this point you know what I am good with God, am just good there's nothing God want to say now that I don't understand am just good.

You are deceiving yourself because the measuring line that the Holy Spirit use to measure for us takes us into different dimensions and different experiences and you must not be ignorant of it. The line Holy Spirit is measuring for you right now is different from mine. Yours might be a measuring line He is telling you follow through it will take you to fast three days in a week, spend four hours in the place of prayers everyday two hours in the morning two hours in the evening, it might be your own measuring line, if you don't follow through you cannot be satisfied. And you say; why should my own measuring line be like that? Let me follow bro. Gboyega's measuring line let me fast once a week, and let me pray one hour a day, you will not be satisfied.

So, as much as our level of hunger is dependent on us, it is dependent on God. The Holy Spirit has our measuring line there is a level of hunger required for your assignment. You can't be hungry at my level and achieve the destiny God has for you, there is a level of hunger required for your assignment, and until you position yourself to that level, you cannot be satisfied and it is God that satisfies us. Let us go back to Ezekiel 47. I want us to see something from that verse 6-8. The Bible says: "He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen this?” Then he brought me and returned me to the bank of the river. ⁷ When I returned, there, along the bank of the river, were very many trees on one side and the other. ⁸ Then he said to me: “This water flows toward the eastern region, goes down into the valley, and enters the sea. When it reaches the sea, its waters are healed."

This was the same water that he was meant to go through, now there is a result that your satisfaction brings. When you are hungry and you are satisfied by God, there is a result the satisfaction brings. There is an experience it brings and it started talking to him about the experiences, He started talking to him about the results that you have gone through this is the result, this what the waters you have gone through this is what they produce in you.

And He started talking to him down to verse 12 about the result, He started talking to him about the experiences that he will have. So the Holy Spirit has the measurement for you and I. It's not enough to say Lord I want to get there, Lord let it be all that you said concerning me. Let it come to pass. when He is nudging your heart and measuring the line are you following through? There is no magic in the kingdom. I remember two days ago, my daughter was watching a cartoon and she just told me that she needs a "ginee", that she wish she had a "ginee." So, I told her there is nothing called "ginee", that Jesus is more than a "ginee." You have Jesus. And as we were having that conversation, something that dropped in my heart was that what she thought the "ginee" do was granting wishes.

Somebody comes to them and the person in the bottle will come out and say make any wish, and they will grant the wish so that's the mindset she has, that she wants a "ginee" that will also be granting her own wish. When I told her that Jesus is more than a "ginee" something dropped in my heart. Jesus does not just grant our wishes, He aligns our wish with the will of God. There are certain things that we desire in our lives. You just have this quiet desire, you just want to do this, you to become that, you want to travel the nation, you want to become great and what Jesus would do for you is to bring your desire, your own wish and aligns it with the will of God for you, so you want to travel the nations? You will travel the nations preaching the gospel.

Quietly He gives you the desire. But now, it's not just your desire that is being fulfilled, the will of God is being done in it. So, the experience that comes from the satisfaction of our hunger is not just been hungry, you can be hungry for spiritual things but many a times, you are also hungry for material things in a sense of there are certain things you want, there are certain things you want to become now what Jesus said to Peter when Peter, when He called Peter He knew that Peter was a passionate fisher man, in fact he was a leader in the fishing business and he knew he wasn't just doing it, it was something that he is called into, and when Jesus met him He aligned his desire with the will of God.

He said follow me and I will make you fisher of men. The hunger of Peter was satisfied in the will of God. So, when we are talking about hunger, there are certain things you desire. You have expectations, you and I have expectations that in our closet, we pray to God and say God I just desire to become this, I have an expectation of doing this, if only you can just allow the Holy Spirit to measure the line for you. If you can trust him enough to take you through, He will align your desires, your expectations with the will of God for you and it will be in perfect alignment. You have your desires in the will of God, I don't know another way I can put it.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Lara Gboyega Adedeji!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!