Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

We are living in exciting times in the history of the world and also in the history of the Church.

In the world, never before have we seen development, innovation, information exchange and growth happen at such a pace. With innovative ideas companies grow, expand and capture global markets almost overnight become powerful trend setters.

Similarly, in the Church – we are seeing amazing things happen at an amazing pace. People being saved, lives transformed, communities and cities being affected with the Gospel, God’s power being released in unusual ways. Much of what we see happening in the Church is spearheaded by simple ordinary people who dare to rise up and make a difference.

There are two key characteristics that seem to describe such people – people who are trail blazers, barrier breakers, trend setters for the Kingdom of God:

• They are always hungry for more
• They are foolish enough to attempt the impossible

Stay hungry for more

You don’t break barriers by accepting the status quo
You don’t gain new ground by getting comfortable
You don’t blaze new trails by refusing to stretch beyond limits
You cannot be a trend setter if all you do is please people by conforming

Stay hungry for more of God

Psalm 42:1,2
As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?

The more you experience Him, the more you will be like Him.
The more you know Him the more you are empowered by Him.

Daniel 11:329(b) …….but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits.

You know you are hungry for God when you want to spend more time with Him – in prayer, worship, meditating in His Word. This is a true barometer of your hunger level. You don’t feel like you’ve had enough of Him.

Stay hungry for more of His power

Psalm 63:1-2
O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.
So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory.

There is so much more of the power of God that is available for us than what we are hearing and seeing in the Church today. We need to press in to more.

Matthew 11:12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

A great example of spiritual hunger is Moses. Moses had seen it all – right from the burning bush till he had sent 40 days in God’s presence. And yet, after interceding for God to go with Israel, he makes this one request “And please show me your glory”. Exodus 33:9-23

Hunger-killers

Spiritual Complacency/laziness, worldliness and sin, dead intellectualism, unbelief, lack of divine purpose, dependence on natural talent – are some of the common hunger killers. They rob us of hunger for God.

Hunger-stimulators

• Stay around other hungry people. Spiritual hunger is contagious
• Feed your spirit with
• Read about what God has done in history – God can do it again
• Tie your passion to a higher purpose. Passion itself will not keep you going. You need a higher purpose that your passion is hooked into – that will keep you ‘fired up’ all the time.
• Ask God to make you more hungry
• Stir yourself up

Stay foolish enough to attempt the impossible

In God’s working – it is those who are foolish enough to see the invisible, who end up doing the impossible.

• Abraham saw himself as a father of a multitude when he still had no children, and he saw a city (a nation yet unborn) whose builder and maker was God – and he became that, the father of a nation.
• Caleb was eighty years old – and still believed he could take the mountain God has promised him.
• David believed he could kill a giant that everyone though was impossible to kill – and he did.
• Daniel, Shadrach, Mesach believed they could stand up againt the political superpower of their day and remain faithful to God - and a king who never bowed before anyone, bowed before their God.
• It was foolish to fill water pots with water and expect to draw out wine – and God did just that
• It was foolish to think you could feed more than 5000 people with 5 loaves and 2 fish – and God did just that.

1 Corinthians 1
20 Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, ..........
25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
26 For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.
27 But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;
28 and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,
29 that no flesh should glory in His presence.
1 Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

God has given us a mind – and we must use the renewed mind. Yet we cannot confine God to our mind. God is infinitely greater than our mind.

• Have the faith and courage to try the untried, to walk the untrodden path, to attempt the impossible, to conquer the unattainable. Believe in the God who called you!
• Don't fight what you don't understand - just because it does not fit into your ability to comprehend, don’t fight it. If it bears fruit that glorifies Jesus and fulfills His will, then leave it alone.
• Impossible is someone’s opinion – don’t limit yourself to people’s opinions.
• Foolishness is not presumption. Presumption is an assumption and will lead to destruction. The kind of foolishness were talking about is having faith and courage to step out on a definite word from God.

Steve Jobs' is perhaps one of the icons of the generation we live in. An amazing journey - dropping out of college, and co-founding Apple, which in 10 years had become a $2billion company, and has since, revolutionized the world. Steve Jobs commencement address at Stanford University in 2005 is one of his most quoted speeches. He concluded his speech, quoting a statement from the back cover of the last issue of “The Whole Earth Catalog” magazine released in 1970 — "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." As an innovator, a creative genius, a trail blazer, a barrier breaker, a trend setter in his sphere, Steve knew what he was talking about. He knew what it takes to be one in his sphere. I believe, this translates well into Kingdom living too.

I invite you to “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” in the things of God and for the Kingdom of God. Be a trail blazer, a barrier breaker for the Kingdom. Set no limits to the power of God, no limits to what faith in God can do.