Poverty of the Spirit

Months ago, I finally met a man with whom I had been friends for quite some time face to face. Florida resident Roy Heath contacted me one day to tell me that he enjoyed my radio program, and we have been corresponding ever since. When I finally met the man months after our first correspondence, the look in this seventy-three year old gentleman's eyes told of his relational life with the Savior, who had taught him much of grace, humbleness, and love.

Around the same time that I was becoming friends with Roy, a man who had lived almost five decades more than I, I met a man who had lived one less year than I. Twenty-tree year old Kentucky native Mick Allred revealed his heart to me the same day we first crossed paths. He was so desperate for God that the first mention of the faith brought tears to His eyes. Mick was in love with God, but Mick was uncertain that God was in love with him. The desperation to know God more was unmistakable.

So, within the matter of a few weeks, I had made friends with two men who were separated by fifty years and hundreds of miles. Their dispositions were quite different, but they shared a similar struggle. These men have never met. They have never talked to each other, and I am not even sure that I have ever mentioned either one to the other. However, they both revealed to me their inner struggles around the same time. Both men told me they felt inadequate and felt that they did not know enough of God and His love.

What a tremendous blessing!

Our desire to know Him more, our desperation to draw closer, is evidence that we are losing the self-centered heart, and with its fall, we are desperate to cling to Him. Our desperation is a driving force to focus steadfastly upon His love, and our poverty is our proof. We cannot separate ourselves from our selfish desires on our own; only the Spirit in us can do these things. What does it mean when we no longer want to be satisfied by our ignorance of Him? It means He is working in us. His love is infiltrating our being, and we, for the first time, realize we cannot live without it.

Both of my dear friends are still searching daily. Each man still hungers for more. However, there is no longer a fear of condemnation in their desperation, for they realize that it is a God given poverty.