In this hour, God does not need people to just quote Him; He needs a mouthpiece to speak His word. Amos prophesied concerning the time in which we are now living: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. And people will stagger from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they will not find it.” Amos 8:11, 12.
That prophecy seems to contradict what God is now sending right from His heart to His end-time disciples—a living Word from the Lord. How rapidly it is moving and spreading. Some of the purest discipleship to come forth in the history of the Church is coming forth now. Nevertheless, Amos’ prophecy is still true. A remnant does not negate a truth. However, it is a small but effective counter tide to that which seems to be taking place in the whole earth. As the day of the Lord approaches, it is a source of terror. Men’s hearts are failing them for fear (Luke 21:26). But that is for the rest of the world. The Lord said to His disciples, “Lift up your heads, for your redemption is drawing near” (verse 28).
Two different kinds of events are happening in the world today. The judgments of the Lord are in the earth, and at the same time a remnant is coming forth. The judgments of the Lord are an occasion of confusion and consternation in the minds of most of the people in the world. Even among the religious, the so-called spiritual people, there is a famine. More preachers than ever before are preaching the Scriptures, and they can be heard everywhere and at all times on television and on radio.
Many messages are coming, and yet Amos did not prophesy about a famine of sermons or a shortage of preachers. The real famine is for hearing a word from God. There is a big difference between a sermon and a word from God.
In this hour, God does not need to be quoted from random places in His Scripture while people preach and push forth their limited vision. He needs humble men to stand and be mouthpieces to speak a word from the Lord. Peter said, If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God… I Peter 4:11. To speak God’s word is rare—and for that word there is a famine. In I Samuel 3:1 we read that the word of God was precious in those days. Even though there were priests to take the offerings and a Levitical system was still working in the old Tabernacle, the people simply did not have a word from God. There were no sources of the prophetic word who could come forth and speak, “Hear! Thus saith the Lord.”
The issue that makes the difference and brings the persecution is when a person really has a word from God. The Pharisees and the scribes of the New Testament knew the Scriptures and were well-opinionated about what they meant. They themselves thought that the Scriptures were better understood at that time than at any other time. Yet they wanted to crucify Christ because He was saying, “I came from the Father. I am speaking from the Father. I speak nothing but what the Father shows Me” (John 8). For those statements they wanted to kill Him. If He had quoted the Lord, and if He had set Himself up as an authority or an expositor, their attitude would have been different.
In this day, God is bringing so much real revelation and direct flow of the Word that He is making obsolete the limited revelation of teachers and expositors of former generations. He is bringing forth a day far more glorious than the past. The seals are now being taken off the Book (Daniel 12:9; Revelation 5:9). But even though the fount is being opened up again, there is still famine, and people are wandering from sea to sea. God’s people today are jumping fences and doing things they have never done before in order to receive what they think is a word from God. Christians are even dabbling in astrology, spiritualism, and witchcraft because they want something more than men’s opinions.
It does not matter how much of the letter a sermon has, for the Word says that the letter kills but the Spirit makes alive (II Corinthians 3:6). Orthodoxy can be dead, and also very deadly if it is without the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This is the reason that a tremendous famine is now in the land for hearing the word of the Lord. It is extremely important to be hungry to hear from God Himself, in order to be able to walk with God in this generation. A real walk with God is more important than church programs or any other activity. You must have a word from God to know how to walk with Him.
In the emptiness of their hearts, this generation is probably more imperiled than any other generation in the history of the Church. Because of the emptiness of many Christians’ hearts, they are open and susceptible to deception. The Lord said that false Christs and false prophets would arise to such an extent in the end time, that if it were possible, they would deceive even the very elect (Matthew 24:24). For lack of a word from God, many empty hearts will be imperiled.
In Matthew 12:43–45, the Lord gave the parable of the man who is delivered of a devil. He is like a house swept and garnished. The devil goes out to the dry places to seek rest, but finding none he returns with seven other devils, and they all repossess the vessel. The latter end of that man is worse than the beginning. This passage shows exactly what happened to the generation to whom Christ was preaching. Their hearts were empty, but if they had opened up to the word that God was bringing, they would have been all right.
For lack of a word from God in this generation, people’s hearts are empty, and therefore they are open to demon possession and various oppressions. In a person’s life, a vacuum is extremely perilous. There are examples of this in some of the great healing campaigns that came through the years. Many people were delivered, but a few months later they were in a worse state than before. Apparently, they not only lost their healing, but they seemed to have something more deadly than before. There should not be a ministry of deliverance alone; there should also be a ministry of fullness. If a man is delivered from something and a vacuum is left in his heart, Satan will fill that vacuum in a short time. Whenever a person reaches out to God, but does not go on to seek a real word from God that will fill his heart, he is in much peril. Never minister negatively just to empty out a vessel. Fill the vessel with something from God. It is dangerous to leave a person open and susceptible. Nature abhors a vacuum, but the spirit world seeks one and will move in as rapidly as possible.
God is showing a remnant of believers who seek Him that the real answer today is a living Word from God—God speaks, bringing His word down into their hearts until they are filled with that word. Paul prayed for this: … that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us (out of the fullness that is working in us), unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Ephesians 3:19–21.
The answer now is for the Lord to fill you with His word. Hunger after His word; thirst after His word. Ask God to speak to your heart. Do not be content only with sermons and that which comes as predigested food. Grow up into God until you can tear off chunks of the Word on your own. Digest it and fill your heart with it continually. I Peter 2:2 says that you should desire the sincere milk of the Word, and yet such milk is a predigested spiritual food. As an illustration, cows must chew and rechew their food for a long time before their milk finally comes forth as a predigested food. Honey also is a predigested food. Sometimes there is such a blessing in a service that you could say, like David, “It is sweeter than honey to my mouth” (Psalm 119:103). But how blessed are the people who are so hungry that they search through the entire Bible to get the meat. They become a people who wait on God until finally the Word becomes alive to them. No longer will sermons or doctrines completely satisfy them after they have a direct word from God. This is the hunger and the thirst God wants above everything else.
What can be done about hungering and thirsting? The Lord said, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink … out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive.) John 7:37–39a. Are you thirsty? Are you really hungry? Is there something within you that cries out for that word—for God to speak to you, for God to meet your heart and fill every part of your being?
The Lord is going to come for a Church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5:27). Sometimes people concentrate on getting out the wrinkles rather than on obtaining the fullness, and yet the fullness has a way of eliminating the wrinkles. A good illustration of that is an old wrinkled gunnysack. Shovel it full of grain until it is bulging, and every wrinkle will disappear. You can become so absorbed in the discipline of trying to eliminate all the wrinkles from your life that you might forget the real way to get it done: … Walk by the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. Galatians 5:16.
Be filled with the Word: Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119:11. David’s heart was like a bulging old gunnysack. When he was full of the Word and had hidden it in his heart, he had the antidote to every tendency toward sin. If you want the fullness of the Lord within you, just hunger after God. David prayed, As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? Psalm 42:1, 2. This is the deep cry of a person’s spirit that says, “Meet me, Lord. Fill me.” This is not just to stir the emotions for the moment, but to realize that the famine is on, and that the thirsting is for a word from God—to be filled with it until it overflows. “If any man thirst, let him come to Me.”
Are you thirsty? Are you hungry? This is needed above everything else. Many people say that they are really hungry to have God meet them. But at the first indication of any persecution or of any price involved, they disappear. People talk a great deal, but God looks upon the heart. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness… Matthew 5:6. This principle of the Kingdom is not a passing issue with them. Everything is total. They hunger and thirst after righteousness, and they shall be filled.
Are you hungry? Are you looking to God to really meet your heart? It is up to you. Do not wait for something to happen to you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. James 4:8. A famine is on but it need not affect you. God can make you to be a Bethlehem, which means a house of bread. He can fill you today to overflowing. This is what the Twenty-third Psalm speaks of—you will sit at a table in the presence of your enemies. Your cup will run over though everything around you will be falling apart. Throughout the earth there will be antichrists, false prophets, and all kinds of deception which, if it were possible, would deceive the very elect.
A good sheep does not wander very far (and a false prophet does not deceive him) if he has a real hunger after the Lord. God can stir up your hunger until you cannot stay away from His Word, until you cannot deny the deep drive of your spirit to be filled.