C. O. T. III

Psalm 145:¹⁶ “When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing.”

For every sacrifice that you make for God, it is the hunger behind your sacrifice that God receives. When we bring offerings to God and we say, accept us and accept our offerings. It is the sacrifice that rises up to heaven, the notes stay here, have you noticed? I have shared the story of one of my daughters that had a lot of challenges with having children. The doctors had told her that because of several factors, she could not have any children. But miraculously she had three children. Praise God because that was a miracle by itself. Then one day she came to me and said that we should pray because she wants another baby boy. This lady already had a male child, but she wanted another one.

I prayed with her but in my heart, I was like what kind of person is this? Let me use my time to pray for people who need to have even one child. You already have three. But you see, it is unto you according to your faith. That is how it works. So, she will come to my office and her prayer was always very passionate. I was like, what kind of human being is this. I confess that I did not have the faith, but I did not tell her. I kept it to myself because I did not want to discourage her. Until she did something; one day, she came to my office with a large sum of money, and she said it was her seed for her son. At that point I could see her faith; you know when the Bible says Jesus looked at them and saw their faith. Long story short, she had a baby boy. It was seemingly impossible but guess what? When you go over and above with God, God will go over and above with you. Not only did she have a baby boy, but she also had another baby girl.

Meanwhile, someone else who has not had one child is complaining about praying too much. The hunger determines what flows to you. That is just how it works. When I just started pastoring years ago, I was determined that I did not want to be the kind of Pastor that cannot demonstrate the reality of Jesus being alive. If He is alive and He has sent us, we should see is His works, shouldn’t we? So, I began to pray for God’s power. I get back from work, sleep little and wake up at midnight to pray until the early hours of the day. That was my daily routine.

After a while, I noticed that I was sleeping longer than I was praying. I was determined that sleep will not cheat me. Guess what my hunger made me do? I start praying inside the house but when I start to feel sleepy, I would go outside and kneel on the strip of gravel in my compound. Kneeling on gravel is torturous, so why put myself through that? It depends on what you want. I am grateful to God that I got what I wanted. You cannot buy the anointing of the Holy Spirit with money. You can only access it with hunger, with thirst.

Prayer: Father, by Your Holy Spirit, stir up a hunger in me for all that You have for me in this season and beyond, in Jesus Mighty Name. Amen!