spirit_desperation

Spirit of Desperation, by Randall D. Kittle

Both God and Satan are releasing a spirit of desperation upon the earth in our days — one is a spirit of hopelessness and false hope, while the other is a spirit of hunger for more of God. One spirit will cause despair, while the other will produce desperation for a fresh encounter with God.

To see the invitation of the enemy’s spirit of desperation, all we need do is watch the evening news or read the daily newspaper to discover that these are despairing days across the globe. Almost everywhere we look, we see a stalled economy, high unemployment, budget crises, rampant crime, racial unrest, wars, environmental catastrophes, natural disasters … and the list goes on. These desperate days are truly days of crisis. However, the word “crisis” originally and literally means “decision.” For believers in Jesus Christ, these are days of decision, for it is we who choose which spirit of desperation will operate in our lives.

Satan would have our minds overwhelmed with the problems of this world. His desire is for us to have our faith neutralized by eliminating our hope (after all … faith is the substance of things hoped for). If the heaviness of these days does not cause us to give up all hope, the enemy will try to get our hopes off God and put them onto other people. In other words, he wants us to have false hope. No politician, no newsperson, no radio personality, no church leader has the answer for these dark and daring days — only Jesus Christ, the Messiah! Our hopes must be fixed on the Lord and not upon anyone else. To do this you might have to turn off the TV, stop listening to certain radio programs, or even stop reading the newspaper. To break through and be victorious, you do not need more information … you need more desperation! This is the paramount need of the days in which we live.

The good news is that, in these anxious times, the Lord is pouring out His Spirit of desperation who ignites a hunger and thirst for more of God. He is pouring out His Spirit of desperation in unprecedented measure in these unusual times. The Spirit will stir up our hearts to move beyond merely wishing for more or wanting more of God, and take us to the place where we are desperate — we must have more. He will fill our hearts with a holy hunger to spend ourselves on worshiping God, a willingness to wait upon the Lord, and a resolution to settle for nothing less than all God has to give us.

Recently, while worshiping at the end of a service, there was a strong presence of the Lord pouring out His Spirit of desperation. I asked the Lord if He was sending another wave of His Spirit. Clearly the Lord declared, “My desire is not to send a wave of My Spirit, but to find a people who will willingly open the floodgates of their hearts — who will throw their hearts’ doors wide open to Me. To them, I will not merely send a wave of My Spirit. The tide of My presence will come in and be with them.”

What a tremendous promise. The Lord wants us to open our hearts to embrace His Spirit of desperation. If we will, He will be with us, not like a quickly come and quickly gone wave, but like the gradually-increasing, long-lasting tide. A wave is temporary — only on the shore for a few seconds, while the tide is prolonged — it comes in for hours. With a heart of invitation, the Lord is asking if you will be one who surrenders to the enemy’s spirit of despair in these dark and desperate days, or will you take desperate measures by heeding His calling to open up the floodgates of your heart — open them wide — so the Holy Spirit can deposit His holy desperation. Those who will see the glory of God will be those whose hungry hearts sing:

I’m desperately needy for you.
All that I have … simply won’t do.
So, I implore,
Pour out much more;
For I am desperate,
I’m desperately needy for you!