S2 EP 5: Blessed, Hungry, and Thirsty

Welcome to the Thirst with Hunger podcast with Pastor Sandy Edwards, where we destroy every obstacle that hinders people from knowing God. Here you'll be challenged, encouraged, and equipped to pursue his presence, walk in truth, and live with bold faith. Let's dive in.

Hello everyone, and welcome back to another episode Of the Thirst with Hunger podcast. I am so thrilled to be at this point in the series because it is my favorite beatitude ever, and that is because it is the spine, the reason, the motive for why Thirst with Hunger even exists. And Matthew 5, verse 6, in the NKJV version, it says, blessed Are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. And the NLT version ends it with the word satisfied. And the reason that I love this scripture is because when I think about our spiritual life and our relationship with God, it's never just one side, right? There's all of these very deep things that, that God does in our lives that sometimes we don't even notice. As we begin to consume the word of God, as we begin to dwell among others who are also consuming the word of God and growing in our relationship with God and maturing, there's all of these things that God is doing within our mind, within our will, in our emotions that Sometimes we just don't take time to pause and reflect on. We don't take time to really honor and celebrate how far we've come. You may not be all of where you want to be right now in your relationship with the Lord, but look at how your thought process is not how it used to be and how God has Slowly but surely cut off things and weaned you off of things that were not healthy for your life in Him, or that really distracted you away from His plan and purpose in your life. Look at how far you've come. And I just want to say that as we go throughout the Sermon on the Mount, as we go throughout the Beatitudes, These are not just things that you do one time. These are things that are supposed to overflow in your life consistently. So don't just listen to the teachings that we have here at Thirst With Hunger in this season where we're walking through Matthew chapter 5 and the opening lines that Jesus began to teach the disciples. Don't just listen to this and say, all right, I checked that off my box. Go back and receive everything that you're supposed to receive from God. So God has done a lot in in your heart. He's done a lot in your mind, in your relationship with Him, and you need to pause and celebrate what He's done. Matthew five, verse six says, "Blessed." Are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. If you think about it, you are hungry and thirsty more than one time a day, right? When you wake up, you eat breakfast, you're eating lunch, you're eating dinner, some snacks in between. Maybe you eat really late at night. But you're hungry for more than one time a day. And the scripture says God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So that means that more than one time a day, more than one moment in your life, more than just the moment where you experience a miracle, more than just 5 years ago when you were healed and God healed your body or brought you out of a situation. More than just that, more than just that one time, you are supposed to hunger and thirst for righteousness. And God promises you that when you consistently hunger and thirst, not just for anything, but for his righteousness, right? Then he promises to fill you. He promises to fill you. He promises to fill you. Now, most people, when they teach this scripture, the word righteousness is left out of it. It's just, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God, for they shall be filled. But that's not what the scripture says. It says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So in order for me to be filled— and this is the reason why I break down scripture this way, because we're not just going to skip over words, we're going to hover over them, be intentional about reading them and understanding the context in which Jesus was speaking. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst So not just being hungry and thirsty, but he was specific about what you should be hungry and thirsty for. In order for your soul to experience hydration in the spirit, you must hunger for the righteousness of God. In order for you to feel full on the spirit, in order for there to be a capacity that is full on the things of the spirit, you Must thirst for what? Righteousness. You must hunger for righteousness. Now let me break down the word righteousness, right? Righteousness means to be right with God, to conform to his character. It has nothing to do with you being able to speak really well, talk really well, do things really well. It has nothing to do With your performance in life. It's not about following rules, right? It is you aligning your soul with the truth about all of God's word, all of God's character, who he really is, who he says that he is, who he is and has been for you. To align yourself, that means to come into full agreement with God. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. So that means that anytime you are experiencing dissatisfaction in your relationship with God, there is a place in you that now needs to come into full agreement with the righteousness of God. So that you can be satisfied. If you are experiencing dissatisfaction in any area of your life, in your relationship with the Lord, that means that there is a place in you that is experiencing lack. And we're not talking about money. I'm talking about lack in your soul. And God is allowing That dissatisfaction to be there to lead you into the place of being filled by him. But most of the time when we feel that void, we run the other way. We go fill it with busyness. We go fill it with other things to do. Think about it. When you feel empty, you feel stressed and all of these other things and you're not satisfied, you go find other things. When you feel that emptiness, When you feel that void in your heart, it is an indicator that God is asking to come in there. He's knocking on the door of your heart, of your soul, saying, hey, let me in. So I can fill it. God blesses those who are hungry and thirst for his righteousness. For they shall be filled. I find it not strange that he uses this same terminology in Matthew 6:33. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and then all of these things will what? Be added unto you. It's the same thing that Jesus is communicating here in Matthew 5:6. He repeats himself very often, just in a different way. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, for they shall be satisfied. Matthew 6:33 says what? Seek ye first the kingdom and his righteousness, and then what? All of these things will be added unto you. That's the same thing as being satisfied and being filled. To be satisfied means to be fed until you are full. That means that nothing is lacking. Nothing is left lingering and longing. This means to, to eat what you're supposed to eat and then rest. There's no temporary relief when God shows up to fill your heart. When he does it, it's done. It's complete. For they shall be filled. God's desire is for you to be filled always, for you to be filled. Always. God's desire is for you to be filled always. This is why David could say in Psalm 23 and verse 5, my cup runs over. That's God's desire for us. That's God's desire for us. Then in John Seven, verse thirty-eight. It says, "Whoever believes in me, as scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them." This means that the Holy Spirit ought to always be flowing through you, through your soul, through your mind, through your will, through your emotions. Does that mean that you're not human? No. But even in your humanity, the Holy Spirit should still be flowing out of you as the person who says that you love God. You say that you follow Christ. You say that you follow Christ. Anyone who believes in Christ, in me, who is the Christ that John 7:38 is speaking about. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink, for the scriptures declare rivers of living water will flow. Some translations say out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, streams of living water will flow from Within him, within you, the same person who is human, that rivers of living water will flow through you. This is what it means to live a life of satisfaction in the Lord. David always talked about, I am satisfied in the Lord. The Lord satisfies the longing in my soul. And your soul is your mind, will, and emotions. That means anytime that my mind is longing, the Lord is waiting to fill that place. Of desire. The Lord is waiting to fill and meet me on the other end of my hunger, of my thirst. Jesus says, I have food that you know not of. And this is exactly what he's talking about— that food that you need to fill that craving, to override that desire to try to be known by everyone except for your Father who is in heaven. That means that when Jesus shows up on the scene and you feel that longing in your soul, he's always on the other end of that longing, waiting to satisfy you. And satisfy— to be satisfied in the Lord means that your needs are completely And entirely met. And this is why we got to get our mind off of earthly things and set our mind on things above. Things above. Set your mind on things above because you're thinking that everything that will satisfy you is tangible to your hands. And the food that Jesus has is not here. You're only going to get it if you hunger and thirst. For righteousness. You're not going to find it anywhere else. You're not going to be satisfied by anything else. And that's God's whole point, to get you to see that he is the only one who can satisfy the longing that is in your soul. So perhaps the reason why you feel dissatisfaction consistently and you feel empty all of the time is because you haven't recognized The one who is standing on the other end of your longing, standing on the other end of your desires, waiting to satisfy you. And it's so easy, especially this day and time, to care so deeply about everything else except for the longing that God wants to satisfy within you. That hunger and that longing was placed there intentionally by God, and he allows that longing to be touched enough to lead you unto him. But most of us, when we feel that longing, we run and fill that space with everything except for God. So yeah, some of us are experiencing cravings in the spirit, and we think that the way that we're going to be satisfied is by filling it with more information, with more scripture, with more of the word. But it does no good to fill yourself with the word if the reason that you're showing up to know the information is because you just want to have knowledge. You should show up to know the information because you want to know more about God, because knowing more about God increases your hunger. Knowing more about him, being captivated by him, being consumed by him increases the thirst, increases the hunger for his righteousness. If you're sitting down reading the word of God and it's not producing more hunger and thirst for his righteousness, then I question The motive as to why you're sitting there in the first place. It doesn't mean that it has to be spooky and deep and weird. Nothing that God does is any of those things anyway. But what it does mean is that, are you sitting with the Lord to read his word because you desire to know him and to encounter him and to experience him? Or are you sitting there because you just want to be filled with all of this knowledge that does nothing for your soul? Appetite is not the same as desire. A desire is something you choose. A desire is something that, that you act on in the moment. You decide your desires. An appetite, however, is something that has been shaped and formed in you over time. Appetites are shaped by your history. Appetites can be shaped by your wounds. Appetites can be shaped by soul ties and patterns of behavior that disconnect you From God. You do not always choose your appetites. Whatever you fed, whatever pattern you fed, whatever pattern of thinking, behaving, speaking, whatever the case may be, whatever pattern you fed and formed over time forms an appetite in you. So again, appetites and desires are not the same thing. An appetite is something that forms over time, and it is shaped by your history, your wounds, your soul ties, and your patterns. A desire is just something that comes and goes and you choose. You don't always choose your appetites because one behavior, one decision shapes an appetite. Over time. God blesses those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, be satisfied. Soul ties, which is when your mind, your will, and emotions are Connected to a place, a person, a thing form your appetites. Pain forms an appetite. Childhood trauma forms an appetite. When wounds go unaddressed, they form an appetite, and you do it unconsciously. You don't think about your appetite. You do it unconsciously. If you're so used to living life in pain, you after a while develop a pain tolerance and you don't feel the pain anymore. You've been so used to living this way for so long, That when God shows up on the scene or other people tell you that this, this is not right, it— you're just like, I don't understand how it's not right because I've been in it for so long. Your mind, your will, your emotions has been trained to surrender and submit to something that is outside of God. So you don't see or smell that you have a problem. So when somebody touches on the issue, you're just like, well, I don't see what you see. So, and then you develop a fence in your heart with people who tell you the truth because you just be like, uh, I don't see that. I don't see what you're talking about. That doesn't make sense to me. I always been doing it this way. And just because you've always been doing it that way doesn't mean that God approves of it or honors it. So yeah, you, you can be in a relationship with someone and you see it as healthy, but God sees it as a soul tie, a demonic soul tie. You can be in a friendship with someone and God sees it as horrible, but you see it as, well, at least I got a friend, at least I got a man. At least I got it. And God was just like, yeah, at least you got it, but you having it is breaking you. You having it is sending you out of my presence. You having it is separating you from me. You having it is creating a barrier and hindering me from moving in your life. So yeah, at least you got a man. Yeah, at least you got a friend. Yeah, at least you got the money. But the root and the source of where you got it from is not from God, then it means nothing. It amounts to nothing. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. So if the friendship, the relationship, that man that you got and everything else, or that woman that you got, whatever you got, if it wasn't formed on the righteousness of God, Then how do you expect to be satisfied? How do you expect to be filled? So here are some of the things that Jesus was also targeting in this specific beatitude. And that is control. That's the illusion of safety. You wanna be in control cuz you wanna feel safe. For some reason you think that you're gonna be satisfied because you're in control, but it's really just fear. Approval. You want the approval of man before you will obey God. That's not righteous. Control is not righteous. Fear is not righteous. Illusions of safety instead of actually being safe in the Lord is not righteous. Achievement. Meaning you believe that your worth is earned. It's never just given to you; it's earned. But God gave us our worth when He created us, so we don't need to go search for our worth anywhere else. Basing your whole life on what you can achieve yourself. It's not righteous. Your worth was given as a gift from God, and God is not an Indian giver. He doesn't take back the gifts that he gave us. He doesn't take them back. Relationships, if they were formed On principles and ideas and beliefs that are not righteous, then they didn't come from God. If the relationship was formed from a void, it didn't come from God. That was not God satisfying you, and you're never going to be satisfied in that relationship. You're never going to be satisfied in anything. That you went outside of God's righteousness to find. It's never going to happen. Another one is ministry performance. Instead of understanding that God is the only one who can satisfy the longing in your soul, not doing ministry, not relationships, not achievement, not approval, not control. All of these things provide illusions. of satisfaction. None of them satisfy you. The thing about these illusions is that you're gonna have to keep coming back and coming back and coming back, coming back, because you're never gonna be filled. You're never gonna be satisfied. God is the only one who can satisfy the longing in your soul. Desires can be redirected with decisions. Appetites you have to be delivered from because they have roots, and those roots go deep, deep, deep, deep, deep within your mind, will, and emotions. So it's not enough to just make a decision to come out of agreement with something. You actually have to be delivered when it comes to appetites. That fuel and provide space for those voids that you have in your life. You have to be delivered. And the way that you get deliverance is by every day, one, resisting the devil, two, looking at every single area of your life, whether it's a relationship, whether it's money, whether it's business, whether it's ministry, whatever the case may be, the way that you experience deliverance from appetites That are found outside of the righteousness of God, that you have filled voids outside of the righteousness of God. The way that you experience deliverance is by making a list of all of those appetites you have that strengthen the appetites. Whatever the people, whatever the place, whatever the thing, whatever it is, list it out and be honest about it. And then I want you to ask the Lord, God, is this relationship from you? Was it formed in the righteousness of God? Is it filling a space in my life that you desire to fill and only you desire to fill? Those are the questions you need to ask. Those are the questions you need to ask. Isaiah 55, verse 1 through 2 says, "Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money." Come buy and eat. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Here it is, God echoing throughout the entire Bible. In Isaiah 55, Matthew 5 and 6. God is consistently asking the question, why are you spending yourself on what does not satisfy? Why are you spending yourself on things that cannot satisfy you? It doesn't mean don't have relationships. God's not saying don't be in relationships, don't have friendships, don't make money, don't do all of these things. Don't do ministry. He's just asking that these things don't become void fillers, that you don't use these things to fill voids that only he can fill. Because if you're using these things to fill the void, that means that the reason and the motive for why you're doing ministry, for why you're in business, for why you're in that relationship is not because you're being obedient to God. You're there because you're trying to fill A void, that space, that quietness that's there. You've been trying to fill it with other things, with being busy, with talking and conversation instead of sitting alone with the Lord. And I find it not strange that the enemy in this hour is amping up noise. Everywhere you look, there's noise, talking and all this stuff. Everybody's busy, busy, busy, busy, busy. Gotta be busy. Gotta be doing something. Gotta be this. Gotta be that. The enemy loves it when our lives are so busy and full of noise. He would actually prefer it, because when we are so loud and moving around all of the time, it's very hard to hear God. It's very hard to hear God if you're not practicing stillness. And stillness, while it's not just about an action that you do with your body, it's also a heart posture. But if your heart is full of noise, how can you hear God? How can you hear him? God's not asking you to do another thing. God is, however, asking you to return to stillness because it's in that stillness That he will satisfy you. It's in that stillness that he will satisfy you. It's in that stillness that he will satisfy the longing in your soul. So I leave you with a question. What are you hungry for right now? And don't try to over-spiritualize this answer. Don't come up with the answer that you think you should say. What, what are you actually hungry for? Because it's through that question, as you sit with the Lord and ask him, that he will reveal to you the areas in your life where you're filling voids, and he'll teach you how to trade those areas for his filling, for his satisfaction. Name what you've been Substituting that part of your life with? Because you need to know that being hungry is not a problem. It only becomes a problem when the Lord is not the one satisfying the hunger. God is the only one who can satisfy the longing in your soul, which is your mind, your will, and your emotions. Matthew 5, verse 6. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled, satisfied completely, lacking nothing. God bless you.

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