Knowing God...Being Desperate for the Holy Spirit

1 Corinthians 2:10-16

Do you ever wonder if you can really know God? Through all my study I still find it a mind blowing fact that God is knowable. Although we can never know Him fully or exhaustively, we can know him truly. The part that I missed for so many years is how to know God. I think in our scripture reference today it becomes clearer and clearer that we know God through His Spirit. I recently heard Dr. David Platt say it this way:

"Only the Spirit of God knows the fullness of the glory of God. If we want to know God, then we need the Spirit to reveal Him to us. Therefore, a people who are desperate to know God will be desperate for His Spirit. If we are not desperate for His Spirit, it is a sure indicator that we have grown content with knowing little about God. Do we want to know the glory of God? Then let us be a people desperate for the Spirit of God"

A few months ago, we witnessed this type of desperation and almost had revival at our house during the week of the "fall back" time change. Nothing reeks havoc on preschoolers like a time change, and since we have two boys ages 4 and 22 months, let"s just say we were experiencing a little havoc! Our oldest son, Joel, had been waking up at 5 a.m. since the time change, so this particular night I was determined to have him in bed on time. After our nightly prayers, I went straight to the tub for a little relaxation while my husband, B.J. sang his repertoire of songs for Joel. At some point, B.J. had gotten in the habit of having different toys "sing". Joel's favorite toy to sing was the "Spirit of God". Now before you think you can go out and buy a "Spirit of God" toy let me explain. We are very demonstrative people and therefore we act out a lot of Bible stories. When Joel was two, we used to act out the story of Moses and the Passover almost everyday. We had to have something characterize the Spirit, so we used a collapsible ball that came from the Discovery store. Ever since then, that ball has been the "Spirit of God". Anyway, that night Joel wanted the "Spirit" to sing. At first, B.J. said 'no' because he didn't know where it was, but then he saw it sitting on the shelf so he decided that the "Spirit" could sing. However, Joel had already changed his mind and wanted a different toy to sing. B.J. was also tired and so said, "No, the "Spirit of God" is going to sing." Well, at this point Joel began to pitch a fit so B.J. put the ball up. This really upset Joel. I heard him shouting "I want the Spirit of God! I want the Spirit of God!". Then he screamed at the top of lungs, "I want the Spirit of God!!!!!" I jumped out of the bathtub wondering what in the world was going on and just sure that the Spirit was falling in wind and fire on our house! Unfortunately, Joel was getting two pops for pitching a fit! However, this really made me think, if we as believers ever threw a fit for the Spirit to come upon us, what would happen in our lives, in our jobs, in our churches, communities, country, world? If every believer was that desperate for God to fill us with His Spirit daily what would happen? Maybe throwing a fit could change the course of history.

"We have but to want Him badly enough and He will come and manifest Himself to us"
A.W. Tozer