Have you ever asked God for something and had Him answer in such a way that you knew the answer came from Him, but you also had more questions than before you made the initial request? In other words, He answered in such a way that caused you to hunger for more.
This isn’t unusual. Often, God answers our prayers while simultaneously answering in such a way that He creates more questions. He does this because He wants to prompt us with deeper questions, so we can receive an even greater answer to prayer. In other words, God isn’t withholding, He’s actually trying to get us to experience more of Him. Let me explain:
Jesus said we are to live by every word that proceeds forth from the mouth of God. When Jesus made that statement, He was actually quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3. It says, “ So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.“
The children of Israel asked God for food in the wilderness and God answered, but He didn’t give the answer they were looking for. He fed them for 40 years with heavenly bread called manna. The word manna means, “What is it?” God answered their prayer, by feeding them “what is it?”
I want you to catch something else in this verse. God allowed hunger and fed the children of Israel with “what is it” so they wouldn’t depend on the answer, manna, but on the one who gave the answer, God. God answered in such away that He simultaneously fed the children of Israel and stirred more hunger in them at the same time.
God’s plan was always to take the children of Israel into a promised land flowing with milk and honey. His best was never manna, but He had to use manna in such a way that He would stir the children of Israel to hunger for the promised land. If He would have released an outpouring of milk and honey in the desert, it’s quite possible, they would have never wanted to go further and enter into God’s promised land.
God did this me with many years ago. In my early 20’s I began to listen to Andrew Wommack. I heard him tell stories of the power of God working in his life. He saw blind eyes open, deaf ears open, and miraculous provision in his ministry. I asked God to send me to Andrew’s bible college so I could learn more. When I got to Andrew’s school, I was excited to feed on a steady diet of faith, healing, and miracles, but instead I was mostly fed with a heavy diet of grace.
My initial reaction to the heavy diet of grace was, “What is it?” I was very similar to the children of Israel. I was eating, but I didn’t understand what I was eating. For a period of time I was a little disillusioned because I wanted something different: more faith, more healings, and more miracles. I was challenged by all the grace teaching and just didn’t get it. It created dozens of challenging questions for me about how I saw God and how I saw mankind.
God knew what He was doing, because somewhere in feeding me a heavy diet of grace, God changed my taste buds and I began to hunger for more grace. As I hungered for more, God established my mind, will, and emotions in His grace. Then something happened I didn’t see coming. People started getting healed when I prayed for them.
God caused me to hunger for grace and then the promised land of healings and miracles I was initially hungry for began to appear. Why was that? I got a revelation of God’s love. I went to bible college hungry for miracles, a hunger God put in me so He could get me ready to receive a revelation of His love. When I received an increased revelation of His love, healings and miracles happened as a by-product because faith works by love.
Getting a greater revelation of God’s love seems like a small adjustment in thinking to provide such a major shift in experience, but big doors swing on little hinges. It’s often these little hinges or little questions God asks us as He provides other answers that cause us to take a step back and challenge what we previously believed. It’s during those uncomfortable seasons that God is able make our heart receptive, so he can show us new options we previously didn’t realize were available.
In the natural a person who fasts for a prolonged period of time will lose their appetite. This is true spiritually too. When we stop eating the spiritual food God is giving us we lose our appetite. The only way to get hungry for spiritual things is by eating. I want to encourage you to eat the manna God is currently setting before you. As you eat the manna set before you the Holy Spirit will stir hunger in you to eat more. This is how He will bring you into your promised land.
