It’s okay to have cravings, as long as they’re for the right things. “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God” (Psalm 42:1 NKJV).
If you want to become more spiritual, then you must become more surrendered to the Holy Spirit so that He can dominate over your life. The more the Holy Spirit reigns in you, the less your flesh will control your cravings.
Don’t wait for New Year’s Day to change what is not right in your life today. “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (Galatians 5:16 NLT).
When your flesh controls you, then your cravings will be born out of your flesh. You can be a Christian and yet remain controlled by your flesh. The way we know what controls us is the things we crave and the attention we seek.
The more you fit into the world, the less you belong in heaven. “Do not love this world nor the things it offers you…For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever” (1 John 2:15-17 NLT).
Spiritual cravings are born out of the Holy Spirit when He is controlling the life of a believer. It is not the loss of free will to the person, but the willing surrender to the Lord. When you give up the right to your “flesh self,” then the Lord will give you a new “spiritual self”.
If you want to go on with God, then don’t be the limit of yourself. “For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13 NLT).
Fleshly cravings are always selfish. The flesh will always crave that which will please the flesh. Whether it be comfort or pride, the flesh is always out for itself, no matter the cost there may be to others. Selfishness justifies in favor of oneself.
Stop blaming the devil for the choices you have made. “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15 NLT).
Spiritual cravings are always selfless. With the help of the Holy Spirit, your spirit will always crave after that which will please the Lord. In humility, your spirit will do anything for the Lord, no matter what the cost is to yourself. Selflessness is justified by the Lord.
You won’t trip over natural things when you’re walking in the Spirit. “But I say, walk and live [habitually] in the [Holy] Spirit [responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit]; then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God).” (Galatians 5:16 AMPC).
Spiritual cravings will desire to know the Lord God deeper and deeper. Your craving will be an insatiable desire to know the Lord in all His majesty more and more each day. You can never have enough of Him, but you will always have more than enough in your seeking.
Spiritually, you need an appetite before you’ll gain the nourishment to grow. “Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment” (1 Peter 2:2 NLT).
Spiritual cravings go after the things of heaven and ignore all the trappings here on earth. God may have given you some earthly possessions, but having God is all you really want. You’re thankful for having even a little because you’re so full of heaven.
Only the divine nature in you can help you understand divine truths. “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life…he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires” (2 Peter 1:3-4 NLT).
Your cravings for the Holy One are holy in all of their desires. God keeps giving you new desires that make you crave for even more of the holiness held in heaven. Your spiritual food and drink are ever flowing and always satisfying to you every day.
You must empty your own desires so that you can be filled with His. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4 NKJV).
If you want to have spiritual cravings, then you must first be spiritual. Being spiritual is rarely an out-of-body experience but a radical change in the domineering force that is within you. Either your flesh controls you or the Holy Spirit does.
The problem is far deeper than the desires you fulfill; it’s the desires you have to begin with. “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17 ESV).
The reason most Christians are not dominated by the Holy Spirit is that they don’t want to give up the pleasures they crave for in their flesh. They say they belong to Christ, but they wear the sign that says “mine” held high over the natural desires that they hold onto.
Imagine your life surrendered to God. “Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes” (Romans 6:12-13 GNT).
Be honest with where you are at and be willing to go ever higher. There is nothing you could ever give up in your flesh that the Lord could not satisfy in you a thousand times more. Heaven is better than earth, and the Spirit of God is better than flesh.
You can’t do what only God can do in you. God promised us that “I will give you a new heart—I will give you new and right desires—and put a new spirit within you. I will take out your stony hearts of sin and give you new hearts of love. And I will put my Spirit within you so that you will obey my laws and do whatever I command” (Ezekiel 36:26-27 TLB).
Child of God, ask the Holy Spirit to reign in you today.
Blessings to you always,
Paul Balius
As always, many good points that could be commented on in this posting.
When we find ourselves in a dry place spiritually, as in a season of ebbing as opposed to flowing in the Spirit of God, let your mouth speak that for which the hearts cries out for. ‘Oh God’ I want to know you! The father will respond to the honest cry from a seeking heart.
Your statement “You can be a Christian and yet remain controlled by your flesh. The way we know what controls us is the things we crave and the attention we seek” This is a true evidence of either our control or His control over our lives. Just as the flesh always seeks to comfort the flesh as you have pointed out, selfishness is replaced with selflessness as spiritual cravings dominate over fleshly cravings.
Another truth is that stinginess is replaced by generosity as the Holy Spirit reigns over the flesh.
I really loved what you wrote, “Another truth is that stinginess is replaced by generosity as the Holy Spirit reigns over the flesh.” It is the Spirit of God that turns things upside down changing us from the inside out! Can you imagine a church filled with believers like that?
This “Spiritual Cravings” writing, the Spirit bears vivid witness to my spirit, is, as is consistently so with other writings of this brother, shared from one who, in all actuality, walks in the Spirit that which the Spirit gives him to write. We ought always to pay close attention to what the Spirit is speaking to our spirits via this brother’s spirit. Thanks be to the One Beautiful God of all grace for Paul’s gifting and faithfulness.
Thank you, Brother. It is when we can share our spiritual insights that we can gain the amen in the spirit of others who can bring us confirmation. It is so important that we do that for one another, to lift each other up is the greatest work we can do.