- for assurance the we are enjoyed by God
- to be fascinated
- to be beautiful
- to be great
- for intimacy without shame
- to be wholehearted (passionate)
- and for significance in our lives that has a lasting impact
I, and many other Christians and non-Christians have thought/been taught all my life that many of these are sinful and fall under pride and vanity. I was shocked to discover that God made us with these longings on purpose, and that each longing is a reflection of his personality. These longings, when focused in their intended ways, enable us to walk with Jesus as his eternal companion and give us insight into how God created our spirit.
We will have these cravings forever; and as a result we have a great appetite for pleasure. We can't get rid of them by repenting of them; which [the idea we need to repent of them] plays into a false paradigm1 of religion and God. Our tension (trouble) in life comes when we seek to satisfy these longings outside of God. Each of these longings has a counterfeit in this life, meaning there are false ways presented by this world in which we can attempt to satisfy them.
1 paradigm |ˈparəˌdīm|
noun1 technical a typical example or pattern of something; a model : there is a new paradigm for public art in this country. See note at model .• a worldview underlying the theories and methodology of a particular scientific subject : the discovery of universal gravitation became the paradigm of successful science.
When I refer to a wrong paradigm of God, I'm referring to concepts, ideas and beliefs that we as society have about God and religion that are based on misconception or half-truths that are applied incorrectly to our lives. I know in my own personal walk with God over the past year, I have uncovered at least a dozen of these, and I'm convinced many people I know and love are living spiritually dull lives because those false paradigms are designed to confuse us as to God's purpose and wisdom and it feeds off of our insecurities and wrong assumptions.
"Why does God let bad things happen to good people?" "If God doesn't want us to sin, why did he create us with these instincts and longings?" "If God wants to be with us so badly, why doesn't he just end all the suffering now and come and get us?" "God will only love me if I obey all his rules perfectly", "God's love for us is limited when we sin or based on how much we sin", "The bible says I should look forward to going to heaven, but I feel guilty because I don't [or] based on what I know of heaven, I think I will miss things that I have here (not just material objects, but aspects of me, of my humanness, and thus I don't long for it the way the bible says I should". Having the WRONG answers to these questions will keep us from truly accepting and loving God!!!
We are designed to live EXHILARATED in God! Many people have no idea what I'm talking about, they have no concept of this in their lives. Even Christians who love God live their lives without FEELING him in their being. They see the commandments as a laundry list of do's and don'ts (that can't possibly be followed completely or are outdated for our times) and do one of two things: they attempt to live by them by their own accord; fail, suffer constant guilt and loss because they think the life of a Christian is meant to suffer for God (again, a wrong paradigm) [or] they throw in the towel and live by a false grace message, I'm saved so I can live how I want because I'll be forgiven.
The truth is, both are wrong. And the CORRECT answers to all of those questions and more are in his word. His word is the living flesh; if you don't know that truth in your own lives then you are ill-equipped to receive and give love to/from God in fullness. Satan puts just enough truth into a lie to make it believable. Like this one:
"We, the saints, are meant to suffer for God"
That's true in many rights but is applied falsely in many churches. Consider this reality of "suffering for Christ" to see if it applies to you.
This believer loves God, attends church sometimes, maybe even regularly (or not at all). They believe the bible is God's word, that Jesus is his son, all of that. They seek him out in times of trouble through prayer and they have basic knowledge of the bible and/or bible stories. They call themselves a Christian, but in their heart they feel like most people who attend church are hypocrites, putting forward a face of obedience but don't walk the walk or are are extremely critical of others. This believer wants to be a good person and feels it's important treat others well, but they have all these unanswered questions about why bad things happen to them. They've been told it's all part of God's plan, and they parrot that phrase in front of other Christians but feel an emptiness in that answer, like it's weak and isn't a good enough explanation.
They know they are supposed to believe and accept it as God's will, but deep within their heart they are at conflict with that and harbor secret hostility, pain or despair over this conflict. Their lives feel unfulfilling and they struggle with the pain and wrongs that have been inflicted on them and have difficultly moving past them. Or they adopt a fervent need to succeed, accomplish, conquer - always saying, "once I do this I'll be happy" or "once I get to that point I'll be satisfied", but contentment in their lives never seems to come. This believer tries hard to do what's right, but find themselves unable to refrain from certain behavior. They suffer continuous guilt over it and the only God they "feel" is a God that's disappointed in them and looking down on them shaking his finger. So they feel guilty and try again and fail and they live a life of misery as a Christian because that is what they believe a Christian's life looks like. It's all sacrifice, no reward. We don't get our reward until we die, so suck it up now and take it like a man. In their minds, this is what it means to suffer for God.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is - that when Adam and Eve sinned, they surrendered their rights as rulers of this world to Satan. Their birth right became the devil's. God doesn't just stand by and let bad things happen; Satan is the God of this world and it is he who inflicts pain and suffering on us - and it is our separation from God that causes us suffering. Our SIN makes us suffer. And since the moment that mankind sinned, separating us from God, He has been coming for us with a lovesick heart, desiring above all else to have us dwell with him again. God sent Jesus down to win mankind back to him and reclaim mankind's right to rule the earth with their God. The monkey-wrench in all of this is free will. God gave us free will because he wanted us to choose to love him. He can't just wave his hand and make all the bad stuff go away and get rid of Satan because then his greatest creations would be separated from him forever. So through the natural course of history, the story of mankind is unfolding to fulfill the word of God, which ends with God being reunited with his people.
So, short of Jesus coming again, we will endure suffering this side of eternity. But the truth of that is that we don't suffer for God, we are supposed to suffer through God. The believer that is tired of suffering the wrong way must set their heart to love God and to seek out his word. "God, I'm setting my heart toward you, I ask for forgiveness, and I seek out the truth in your word, help me to see it". If you can say that prayer and suffer through the boredom of reading the bible, something will happen. He will reveal meaning of his word to you. Then you need to change your prayer, "Ok, Lord, you've revealed this truth to me, show me how to apply it to my life, I want to commit to living it."
Rinse and repeat.
Knowing his word is only part of the equation; you have to set your heart on living what you've learned. And when you screw up and slip, you confess your sin, ask him to help you. You're not a hypocrite for setting a standard for yourself and falling short; that's what the grace of God is for. You commit to this pattern of thinking and worshiping and I promise you soon you will begin to feel God's power in your life. What do I mean by power? You will learn to harness the power of God and funnel your suffering on to him for him to bear. Things that used to upset you now don't have the same grip they once did. Areas of your life that were dark begin to brighten. The truth that Satan does not want you to know is that when you love God through obedience, you gain His power.
Those "sacrifices" that the Devil tries to convince you are too valuable to give up become nothing compared to God's love and the benefits you've received from those sacrifices. It becomes easier and easier to do His will because he is giving you more of his power to cope. The more you choose to love Him first before yourself, the happier you are. He puts permanent gladness in your heart. He showers you with confidence in his love and joy abounds throughout your life onto others. You sacrifice through God because you give your worry and pain and sorry up to him and you are left content in every circumstance. When you can loose your job and rejoice in gladness in the Lord in your trust that he will provide for you, and your trust is pure and wholehearted like a child's, you're beginning to see the power of God. All of the depression and guilt and inadequacies and sin that kept you trapped in a dull spirit fall away in the name of Jesus, and you are bright and full of joy and fascination and awe at everything around you.
I digressed way off the topic of the 7 longings, but I felt it was important to know how to get to the right understanding of these longings and how they play into who we are. Each of us were created with a craving in our hearts to be pursued, delighted in, and enjoyed, first by God and then by family and friends. One of the prevailing strongholds of the mind are the fear of rejection and the trauma of shame. Satan takes the shame of our sin and uses it to convince us that we've gone too far for God's grace to apply, and we fear His rejection so we run from Him when we sin instead of running to Him. This creates "emotional traffic" that drains our strength.
#1] Our longing to be enjoyed by God is fulfilled as we receive full revelation of God's emotions (affections) toward us. The finished work of Jesus dying on the cross means that Jesus's blood absorbs our sin so that we stand in the presence of God as blameless as Christ. When we understand why God sent his son to die for us and why Jesus chose to make that sacrifice, we can fully know how much we are desired by God. A third of the angels in heaven rose against Him and were cast out without a second thought; but ALL of mankind rejected Him and he said, uh-uh, not so fast. He came after us, took on our form, lived our life, died our death, was raised from the dead, ascending to the right hand of the Father to save our rightful place next to Him. God desires us. The trials of this life are conditioning us - designed to bring free-willed humans into spiritual maturity. God's will is taking every bad thing that Satan can throw at us and turning it into positive growth for us to be prepared to be with him forever. And he gives us every tool at his disposal to deal with it all with a glad and satisfied heart.
#2] We have a deep craving in our spirit to be fascinated, to marvel and be awestruck and filled with wonder. The entertainment industry has tapped into this instinct and used it to make unsurmountable profit. But when God reveals God to our spirit, we experience "divine entertainment". Without a sense of awe, we live aimlessly and in boredom. A spiritually bored believer is weak and vulnerable to Satan. A fascinated believer is strong and equipped to face temptation.
#3] Our inner desire to be beautiful and to look upon beauty is not a sin; it was purposefully instilled into our spirits by our creator. Our own beautiful God created us in such a way that we long to possess and feel His imparted beauty, and that beauty is evident through His salvation. God transfers his beauty to humans through Jesus. Our culture has an obsession with physical beauty and seeks to answer this legitimate longing in the wrong way. Many pursue beauty at all cost and feel unsettled without it. To have an unnatural focus on physical beauty while neglecting inner beauty transforms this legitimate longing into sinful nature.
#4] Humans long to be great. Our God is great and thus, created us to be great. We were made to be crowned with glory, honor and nobility. God created mankind to rule equally with and under the guidance of His son. But we must do it His way, not ours. Our desire for greatness and success isn't wrong and cannot be removed from us through repentance. But exercising that longing to be great in this life through vanity or power is a sin. His requirement for greatness and the highest honors in the kingdom to come is to be meek and have the heart of a servant here. Humans drunk with power abuse it; but the person with humility at his core that puts the needs of others first in this life will be given the highest positions of power in the life to come. Humans that are most like God will gain the most power, riches and accolade in the afterlife. At the core of God is humility and love. We must live as a humble servant in this life to become a king in the next.
#5] We have desire raging in our core being; we crave intimacy without shame. But the counterfeit of desire in this age is lust and immorality. Our desire is burning out of control, lashing out every place, exploding at us through technology, desperate to find satisfaction. No pleasure of this world can provide permanent satisfaction to this longing. If you look deep into your heart and objectively look at your life, you know this to be true. The greatest sex, the deepest love, the highest high; ALL come crashing down eventually and do not last outside of the will of God. Intimacy involves a two-way knowing. When we delve deep into the heart of God, he reveals his secrets to us as he already know ours. To be fully known without shame and to be free from the fear of being left along is exhilarating.
With an equal intimate knowledge of each other (ourselves and God) we can satisfy this longing. He rejoices and celebrates with us in our triumphs, he understands the secret aspects of our lives that are unknown, unnoticed, and misunderstood by others. He sees our painful struggle with sin, and understands our pain in failure and protects us by not disclosing the vast majority of our sin. He knows our shameful deeds, yet believes in us and treats us with honor. He sees our costly sacrifices as we walk in faith and obedience to him. And he knows our heart's passions and our deepest dreams and sees our intentions to do good.
#6] God instilled our longing to be wholehearted and passionate. We long to give our deepest affections to God; and he empowers us to be passionate. We cannot function properly until we passionately give our heart to a Person and purpose beyond ourselves. If we don't have something to die for, we have nothing to live for. The human heart wasn't designed to work half-heartedly. The passive heart is bored and vulnerable to lust. To be emotionally whole, we must live whole-heartedly. Walking in wholehearted love for Jesus frees us from the burnout of spiritual boredom. The "joy of lovesickness" is exhilarating.
#7] The longing for our lives and our works to be significant and to have a lasting impact drives us to succeed. But our definition of success in this age isn't biblical, and cannot fulfill us completely. Something is missing. Our consumerism is driven by this premise; the drive for success and to obtain wealth and things is all driven by this longing for significance and impact. God designed us to have great impact in each other's lives under the guidance of things that are significant to HIM, not us. Your working and striving to accomplish in this age by the world's standards will leave you emotionally bankrupt. Our significance is found in our works expressing the love of God to others in our world and our impact is the expansion of our hearts to increase our capacity to receive the knowledge of God and share that with his people.
Mike Bickle's sermon brings it home much better than I do, if any of this has struck a chord with you, I encourage you to listen to it (link is at the beginning).
"We, the saints, are meant to suffer for God"
That's true in many rights but is applied falsely in many churches. Consider this reality of "suffering for Christ" to see if it applies to you.
This believer loves God, attends church sometimes, maybe even regularly (or not at all). They believe the bible is God's word, that Jesus is his son, all of that. They seek him out in times of trouble through prayer and they have basic knowledge of the bible and/or bible stories. They call themselves a Christian, but in their heart they feel like most people who attend church are hypocrites, putting forward a face of obedience but don't walk the walk or are are extremely critical of others. This believer wants to be a good person and feels it's important treat others well, but they have all these unanswered questions about why bad things happen to them. They've been told it's all part of God's plan, and they parrot that phrase in front of other Christians but feel an emptiness in that answer, like it's weak and isn't a good enough explanation.
They know they are supposed to believe and accept it as God's will, but deep within their heart they are at conflict with that and harbor secret hostility, pain or despair over this conflict. Their lives feel unfulfilling and they struggle with the pain and wrongs that have been inflicted on them and have difficultly moving past them. Or they adopt a fervent need to succeed, accomplish, conquer - always saying, "once I do this I'll be happy" or "once I get to that point I'll be satisfied", but contentment in their lives never seems to come. This believer tries hard to do what's right, but find themselves unable to refrain from certain behavior. They suffer continuous guilt over it and the only God they "feel" is a God that's disappointed in them and looking down on them shaking his finger. So they feel guilty and try again and fail and they live a life of misery as a Christian because that is what they believe a Christian's life looks like. It's all sacrifice, no reward. We don't get our reward until we die, so suck it up now and take it like a man. In their minds, this is what it means to suffer for God.
Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is - that when Adam and Eve sinned, they surrendered their rights as rulers of this world to Satan. Their birth right became the devil's. God doesn't just stand by and let bad things happen; Satan is the God of this world and it is he who inflicts pain and suffering on us - and it is our separation from God that causes us suffering. Our SIN makes us suffer. And since the moment that mankind sinned, separating us from God, He has been coming for us with a lovesick heart, desiring above all else to have us dwell with him again. God sent Jesus down to win mankind back to him and reclaim mankind's right to rule the earth with their God. The monkey-wrench in all of this is free will. God gave us free will because he wanted us to choose to love him. He can't just wave his hand and make all the bad stuff go away and get rid of Satan because then his greatest creations would be separated from him forever. So through the natural course of history, the story of mankind is unfolding to fulfill the word of God, which ends with God being reunited with his people.
So, short of Jesus coming again, we will endure suffering this side of eternity. But the truth of that is that we don't suffer for God, we are supposed to suffer through God. The believer that is tired of suffering the wrong way must set their heart to love God and to seek out his word. "God, I'm setting my heart toward you, I ask for forgiveness, and I seek out the truth in your word, help me to see it". If you can say that prayer and suffer through the boredom of reading the bible, something will happen. He will reveal meaning of his word to you. Then you need to change your prayer, "Ok, Lord, you've revealed this truth to me, show me how to apply it to my life, I want to commit to living it."
Rinse and repeat.
Knowing his word is only part of the equation; you have to set your heart on living what you've learned. And when you screw up and slip, you confess your sin, ask him to help you. You're not a hypocrite for setting a standard for yourself and falling short; that's what the grace of God is for. You commit to this pattern of thinking and worshiping and I promise you soon you will begin to feel God's power in your life. What do I mean by power? You will learn to harness the power of God and funnel your suffering on to him for him to bear. Things that used to upset you now don't have the same grip they once did. Areas of your life that were dark begin to brighten. The truth that Satan does not want you to know is that when you love God through obedience, you gain His power.
Those "sacrifices" that the Devil tries to convince you are too valuable to give up become nothing compared to God's love and the benefits you've received from those sacrifices. It becomes easier and easier to do His will because he is giving you more of his power to cope. The more you choose to love Him first before yourself, the happier you are. He puts permanent gladness in your heart. He showers you with confidence in his love and joy abounds throughout your life onto others. You sacrifice through God because you give your worry and pain and sorry up to him and you are left content in every circumstance. When you can loose your job and rejoice in gladness in the Lord in your trust that he will provide for you, and your trust is pure and wholehearted like a child's, you're beginning to see the power of God. All of the depression and guilt and inadequacies and sin that kept you trapped in a dull spirit fall away in the name of Jesus, and you are bright and full of joy and fascination and awe at everything around you.
I digressed way off the topic of the 7 longings, but I felt it was important to know how to get to the right understanding of these longings and how they play into who we are. Each of us were created with a craving in our hearts to be pursued, delighted in, and enjoyed, first by God and then by family and friends. One of the prevailing strongholds of the mind are the fear of rejection and the trauma of shame. Satan takes the shame of our sin and uses it to convince us that we've gone too far for God's grace to apply, and we fear His rejection so we run from Him when we sin instead of running to Him. This creates "emotional traffic" that drains our strength.
#1] Our longing to be enjoyed by God is fulfilled as we receive full revelation of God's emotions (affections) toward us. The finished work of Jesus dying on the cross means that Jesus's blood absorbs our sin so that we stand in the presence of God as blameless as Christ. When we understand why God sent his son to die for us and why Jesus chose to make that sacrifice, we can fully know how much we are desired by God. A third of the angels in heaven rose against Him and were cast out without a second thought; but ALL of mankind rejected Him and he said, uh-uh, not so fast. He came after us, took on our form, lived our life, died our death, was raised from the dead, ascending to the right hand of the Father to save our rightful place next to Him. God desires us. The trials of this life are conditioning us - designed to bring free-willed humans into spiritual maturity. God's will is taking every bad thing that Satan can throw at us and turning it into positive growth for us to be prepared to be with him forever. And he gives us every tool at his disposal to deal with it all with a glad and satisfied heart.
#2] We have a deep craving in our spirit to be fascinated, to marvel and be awestruck and filled with wonder. The entertainment industry has tapped into this instinct and used it to make unsurmountable profit. But when God reveals God to our spirit, we experience "divine entertainment". Without a sense of awe, we live aimlessly and in boredom. A spiritually bored believer is weak and vulnerable to Satan. A fascinated believer is strong and equipped to face temptation.
#3] Our inner desire to be beautiful and to look upon beauty is not a sin; it was purposefully instilled into our spirits by our creator. Our own beautiful God created us in such a way that we long to possess and feel His imparted beauty, and that beauty is evident through His salvation. God transfers his beauty to humans through Jesus. Our culture has an obsession with physical beauty and seeks to answer this legitimate longing in the wrong way. Many pursue beauty at all cost and feel unsettled without it. To have an unnatural focus on physical beauty while neglecting inner beauty transforms this legitimate longing into sinful nature.
#4] Humans long to be great. Our God is great and thus, created us to be great. We were made to be crowned with glory, honor and nobility. God created mankind to rule equally with and under the guidance of His son. But we must do it His way, not ours. Our desire for greatness and success isn't wrong and cannot be removed from us through repentance. But exercising that longing to be great in this life through vanity or power is a sin. His requirement for greatness and the highest honors in the kingdom to come is to be meek and have the heart of a servant here. Humans drunk with power abuse it; but the person with humility at his core that puts the needs of others first in this life will be given the highest positions of power in the life to come. Humans that are most like God will gain the most power, riches and accolade in the afterlife. At the core of God is humility and love. We must live as a humble servant in this life to become a king in the next.
#5] We have desire raging in our core being; we crave intimacy without shame. But the counterfeit of desire in this age is lust and immorality. Our desire is burning out of control, lashing out every place, exploding at us through technology, desperate to find satisfaction. No pleasure of this world can provide permanent satisfaction to this longing. If you look deep into your heart and objectively look at your life, you know this to be true. The greatest sex, the deepest love, the highest high; ALL come crashing down eventually and do not last outside of the will of God. Intimacy involves a two-way knowing. When we delve deep into the heart of God, he reveals his secrets to us as he already know ours. To be fully known without shame and to be free from the fear of being left along is exhilarating.
With an equal intimate knowledge of each other (ourselves and God) we can satisfy this longing. He rejoices and celebrates with us in our triumphs, he understands the secret aspects of our lives that are unknown, unnoticed, and misunderstood by others. He sees our painful struggle with sin, and understands our pain in failure and protects us by not disclosing the vast majority of our sin. He knows our shameful deeds, yet believes in us and treats us with honor. He sees our costly sacrifices as we walk in faith and obedience to him. And he knows our heart's passions and our deepest dreams and sees our intentions to do good.
#6] God instilled our longing to be wholehearted and passionate. We long to give our deepest affections to God; and he empowers us to be passionate. We cannot function properly until we passionately give our heart to a Person and purpose beyond ourselves. If we don't have something to die for, we have nothing to live for. The human heart wasn't designed to work half-heartedly. The passive heart is bored and vulnerable to lust. To be emotionally whole, we must live whole-heartedly. Walking in wholehearted love for Jesus frees us from the burnout of spiritual boredom. The "joy of lovesickness" is exhilarating.
#7] The longing for our lives and our works to be significant and to have a lasting impact drives us to succeed. But our definition of success in this age isn't biblical, and cannot fulfill us completely. Something is missing. Our consumerism is driven by this premise; the drive for success and to obtain wealth and things is all driven by this longing for significance and impact. God designed us to have great impact in each other's lives under the guidance of things that are significant to HIM, not us. Your working and striving to accomplish in this age by the world's standards will leave you emotionally bankrupt. Our significance is found in our works expressing the love of God to others in our world and our impact is the expansion of our hearts to increase our capacity to receive the knowledge of God and share that with his people.
Mike Bickle's sermon brings it home much better than I do, if any of this has struck a chord with you, I encourage you to listen to it (link is at the beginning).
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