We are approaching a critical time in our nation. Unless God moves in us, all our efforts to bring about needed change will not be enough. We need God to move in us in ways our generation has not yet seen or experienced. He will begin this move by revealing a deeper expression of His love. That revelation will begin to change the focus of our efforts. It will begin individually, not in a revival meeting or in any orchestrated group attempt to bring about that change.

Once that revelation takes place, a supernatural shift will begin. It will not be because one side wins another election or because a particular interpretation of theology comes to the forefront. It will come because the love of God was revealed to us in unexpected ways.  

This morning, I started a fire in our woodstove. It was so cold outside that some smoke began to fill our living room because the stove pipe had been filled with cold, dense air overnight. Only when the fire’s flames fully developed did the smoke eventually dissipate.

As I was tweaking the stove’s vents to reduce the smoke, the Lord brought to mind something that happened to me many years ago when I was a little boy. One night, for some unknown reason, I could not sleep. My father heard my restlessness and came to my bedroom. He asked, “Are you hungry?” I said yes. My father then said, “Get up and come with me.”

I was led into our living room, where I watched my father start a fire in our fireplace. I was still drowsy and simply watched my father in silence. I can still remember how he carefully assembled the kindling and logs in the fireplace and then struck a match to ignite the fire. In silence, we both watched the fire ignite. I was excited because my father included me in that experience.

A few minutes later, I watched my father go into our kitchen, cut up a piece of steak, and place the pieces on two skewers. He handed me one skewer, and we sat together in front of the fire, cooking the meat over an open flame. It was one of those moments when I felt especially close to my father, and to this day, I’ve never forgotten the moment we shared.

This morning, as I recalled that childhood memory, the Lord reminded me of what He will do for us, as we can no longer sleep in the delusions we have been told to believe. Those delusions have led us to this moment. As my earthly father did to me, the Lord will ask us if we are hungry for Him to move in our lives and within the nation where we live. 

In that hunger, He will take us to a place where He will personally ignite a fire of revival. In that place of personal revival, He will feed us spiritual truths that were not available when we relied on the results of natural change.

The Lord will begin this change by asking us a question: “Are you hungry?” He will take our hunger to a place where He will ignite a fire of revival that will change everything, even in the middle of the discord and division we see playing out that has kept us awake and unsettled in the middle of the night. How that move of God’s Spirit will affect us will depend on how we answer the Lord’s question, “Are you hungry?”