Hunger is a powerful thing.
Governments have learned that they can control their citizens fairly well until those citizens get hungry. As long as people’s stomachs are full, they’ll put up with almost anything. But when they get hungry, watch out! They will resort to violence if necessary. They will do whatever they have to do to satisfy that hunger. Hungry people are dangerous.
The same thing is true spiritually. The most dangerous person in the world to the Devil is the person who is hungry for God.
That’s been proven repeatedly down through the centuries. I’ve studied it myself. I’ve read about and examined the lives of people like Smith Wigglesworth, Rees Howells, and John Lake. I set myself to discover what they had that we don’t. I wanted to know why they had more powerful manifestations of God in their lives than we do.
What I discovered was this: they were hungrier for Him more than we are. They had a greater craving to know Him and see Him work than we have. They had a void on the inside of them that demanded to be filled.
God always fills empty places. He always supplies what our hearts demand.
He never holds back. To the degree we hunger for Him, to the degree we open our hearts and cry out for Him, to that degree and that degree only can He fill us. If our hunger for Him is a shallow, casual thing that can be satisfied with a nice song service and a couple of goose bumps, then that’s all we’ll get. But if our heart’s desire is so deep and wide that we can’t bear to live without great manifestations of God, we are sure to receive them.
Scripture Reading: Matthew 11:12
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”