The dictionary defines the word ‘hunger’ as a craving or urgent need that is caused by a lack of food or a certain nutrient. It is certainly fitting that this definition of hunger relates to food specifically, because food is necessary for survival. It also causes us to develop cravings towards one type of food over another. The brilliance of our God provided for our appetites even before He designed our bodies. He constructed our bodies to require sustenance, and then gave us choices of fruits, meat, and vegetation to satisfy our hunger. If you’ve ever experienced an incident of not having food when your body required it, or not having a choice regarding what you will eat, the notion of hunger takes on a new dimension. We need to explore this dimension, because it provides some context for understanding where we are in life, and what we need to go further.
Reading and studying God’s Word has taught us that hunger applies to more than food. When Jesus Christ was thirty years old, he was baptized in the Holy Spirit by his cousin, John the Baptist. Our blessed Lord was fully man, and also fully Spirit; the fullness of God was operating in him during his life and ministry on earth, but still, he had to be tested in order to fulfill God’s Will. After being baptized, he was led into the wilderness where he fasted for forty days and nights. There, he was tested and tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:3(NKJV) tells us, “Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” This is the first test of temptation that Jesus Christ endured. His physical hunger, a hunger of the flesh, was tested by the devil in an attempt to get Jesus to give up authority and kingship for food. This tells us all we need to know about how severe a condition it is to be truly and deeply hungry, without an immediate supply of what you need. Again, Jesus Christ was fully human. He had a body that needed and craved nourishment just as our bodies need and crave nourishment. We cannot afford to overlook the truth that the devil tempted him with physical hunger first, because this is the same tactic the devil uses with us.
Our Christ authority is attacked by the devil because he wants it, and he also wants to render us useless and ineffective for the Kingdom of God, so that God’s Kingdom doesn’t expand on earth. The devil knew the power that Christ had, or he would not have put the test before him. Jesus could have turned stones into bread. Certainly, the necessity for food was severe enough for him to have done so, because he had been fasting for forty days and nights without food or drink.
During the time of his fast, it was no doubt a period of great challenge and discipline, but it was also a time of extremely close dialogue and communion with Heavenly Father. Jesus knew God was and is his sufficiency, (2 Corinthias3:5) and that he could have been fed at any time, but he also knew the closeness with God that only denying one’s flesh could bring. The preciousness of it far exceeded the satisfaction that food would yield. So he did not—would not—turn stones into bread, but fasted to build spiritual strength for the message, mission, and mandate of God he was called to fulfill.
Jesus proved to us that just as there is a greater food to be desired than that of fruits, meat, and vegetation, there is also a greater hunger than that of physical desire for food, water, or physical pleasure. The devil tempted Jesus! This conveys to us that a very tangible risk existed, all could have been lost, but our Lord and Master Jesus responded to the temptation with “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’” He made it clear that physical hunger is secondary to spiritual hunger, and nothing is worth having our spiritual hunger for the Word of God unfulfilled.
Yielding to temptation gives the devil the power and upper hand he seeks. The devil tempted Jesus by attempting to appeal to cravings of a physical nature, and the devil wouldn’t have done this if the prize wasn’t worth it to him. This is why you have to ask yourself honestly, ‘what do I hunger for?’ because the answer is linked to where you are in your walk with Christ, and what the devil is using to tempt you the most. We desperately need to be fed the Word of God in this hour. We need to hunger for it more than any other thing, so that our destiny to move to the next level of blessing and growth is not stolen by a plot of temptation.■
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“What Do You Hunger For?” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2018. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.