What do you want?

This is the question so often asked by Jesus (in different forms).  This is a strange question because religion would not come up with that question for fear of what a person might answer that religion may not be able to deliver.  Religion would seek to tell you what you are looking for and then tell you what you really want.  The reason I bring this up is that at this point in my life, I am 42 years old, I sense my Father asking me the same question.  I had not given this question much attention because first I didn't know if there was an answer and it seems a rather brash question.  Desire is what drives all of us but you have to look closely to understand what truly drives a person.  For the first time in my life I admitted before God and others that I don't really know, I could have given those nice Christian-ease answers (like do the will of God, serve the Lord, or even have Christ be my life).  There would be some truth in these answers but it would not come out of Christ united with me at the deepest part of my being and it would not allow the question to do it's probing work on my heart.  I believe there are some questions that have the ability to dig beyond the skin, even beyond the tissues and reach down into the very bones of our being.  When Jesus would ask this question, it was as if He was reaching into the person's very heart and inviting them to reveal a once hidden place within them.  It seems to me that desire and faith are intertwined.  Jesus would so often say after a healing or a deliverance that their faith had made them well, this is strange because their faith was not very religious or proper but more like raw desire that collided with God/Man Jesus.  Often in religious circles desire is sought to be controlled, squelched, or even killed in the name of being godly.  Desire is messy and often does not fit into the neat boxes we have designed to organize and control life.  Yet Jesus not only welcomes desire but even stirs it up through His probing questions which bring the person's hunger to the forefront.  As I asked a person if they really wanted the affair they were in or to be loved, accepted, cherished, and filled.  I could see that desire had led them into the affair but would eventually be destructive but the desire itself was not bad just the way of getting it filled.  This gives new meaning to the verse, "we like sheep have all gone astray."  It is not circumstances that have led us astray but our desire married to the Lie that we are self-sufficient and independent of God.  We, in the Body of Christ, seem to bemoan people's selfishness and lack of fervor for the Lord but are we somehow missing how to tap into people's desire as Jesus did and then offer Christ flowing through us in power as the solution.  I believe that people have been drawn away by counterfeit affections, not that there desire is bad in the first place.  I believe we could embrace people more lovingly if we learn how to tap into people's deep desires instead of constantly sending them the message that they must control their desire because it is bad.  Maybe its true that God wants to fill our deepest desires, longings, and dreams.  I seem to be too practical or just plain worldly because I gauge my desire according to the resources I possess, this really puts fences around desire.  God even seems to throw gasoline on the fire when in Ephesians 3 the Holy Spirit says through Paul, "...is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]"  That is a lot of gasoline!!!

In Christ who invites us to desire,
Bret