Tommy Tenney, The God Chasers

Firstly, before reading any further – God is asking you the following – take a few minutes and think about your answer:

• I am not asking you how much you know ABOUT me.
• I want to ask you “do you really KNOW me?”
• “Do you really WANT me?”

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I have recently re-read the book “God Chasers” by Tommy Tenney and felt very inspired to share from it.  I also feel that God wants to speak to and challenge us both as a church and individuals through some points the book throws out. The main focus of the book is hunger for God.  It is about:

• Being hungry to know God more
• Being hungry to see God move:- in our lives, in families, in friends, in work colleagues, in your city!

It talks about people being so HUNGRY for God that their passion spills out into those around them. That the people around them see God in them that they want Him too.

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled” 
Matthew 5:6

I love this scripture!  It doesn’t say “for they might be filled” or “for they shall be half filled”!!  It says “for they shall be filled”!  How amazing.  If we seek God, if we hunger for him with everything that we are, and truly long to know Him more – He will fill us!

BREAD / CRUMBS / CONTENTMENT

“There is much more of God available than we have ever known or imagined, but we have become so satisfied with where we are and what we have that we don’t press in for God’s best.  Yes, God is moving among us and working in our lives, but we have been content to comb the carpet for crumbs as opposed to having the abundant loaves of hot bread God has prepared for us in the ovens of Heaven!”    

• The bread represents God’s presence
• The crumbs represent the small amount of God’s presence we have seen and are content with

There is a story in the book about a normal Sunday morning meeting where God really shows up!   I’m not talking about a few nice songs and a good preach – I’m talking about nothing but GOD.  The people on Sunday morning were so hungry for God – they didn’t want the nice songs to make them feel good, or the good preacher who put out a nice little challenge for the week – NO – they wanted to meet God and that was all – they were hungry.

The story goes that the morning starts as usual when suddenly ‘God shows up’ (the reason I invert that in comas is because God is always where we are, but I am talking about the manifest presence and glory of God ‘showing up’).  The worship team couldn’t sing, the congregation were in tears flat on the floor, the pastor and other leadership people were ‘out in the spirit’ – there was no one leading the meeting from the front – God was meeting with individuals.  And Sunday night came and nobody wanted to leave – but people did, they went to work on Monday, and on Monday night ... back to the church to meet God!  This same routine carried on for a few more days.

Now I am not suggesting that we all have to be in our church building to meet God.  Nor am I suggesting we have to meet there every day after work.  What I am pointing out is that these people were hungry for God – and God met with them and His presence fell in that place.  They were so hungry that nothing else mattered!  They didn’t go for Sunday lunch, or bother about dinner – they didn’t let Monday night’s plans distract them – they were focused purely on meeting God and nothing could stop them!  Only God could fill their hunger - they were not content with where they were at.  These people wanted to get to KNOW Him more.  And out of their hunger – they saw the lost saved.

OUR HUNGER SEES REVIVAL

This is quite a long extract from the book, but if you are enjoying the article so far, read on...

"We don't understand revival; in fact, we don't even have the slightest concept of what true revival is.  For generations we have thought of revival in terms of a banner across the road or over a church entryway.  We think revival means a silver-tongued preacher, some good music, and a few folks who decide they're going to join the church.  No!  Real revival is when people are eating at a restaurant or walking through the mall when they suddenly begin to weep and turn to their friends and say, "I don't know what's wrong with me, but I know I've got to get right with God."

Real revival is when the most "difficult" and unreachable person you know comes to Jesus against all odds and possibilities.  Frankly, the main reason such people aren't reached any other time is because they are seeing too little of God and too much of man.  We've tried to cram doctrine down people's throats, and we've printed enough tracts to paper the walls of entire buildings.  I thank God for every person reached by a gospel tract, but people don't want doctrine, they don't want tracts, and they don't want our feeble arguments; they just want HIM!  (When will we learn that if people can be argued into the faith, then they can just as easily be argued out of it as well?)

People may be attracted by our great music for a while, but it will only keep them interested as long as the music is good.  We must not compete with the world in areas where they are as competent (or better than) us.  They can't compete with God's presence.  I can tell you a secret right now if you promise to tell someone else.  Do you want to know when people will start coming inside the confines of your local church building?  They will come as soon as they hear that the presence of God is in the place.  It's time to rediscover the power of the manifest presence of God.

God is looking for enough hungry people to receive HIS presence.  When HE comes, you won't need any advertisements in the newspaper, or on radio or television.  All you need is God, and people will come from far and near on any given night!  I'm not talking about theory or fiction-it is already happening.  It all begins with the prayer of the hungry.

I don’t have the terminology to describe what God is about to do.  How do you describe a “tsunami”?  How do you describe a tidal wave?  The biblical model I dream of seeing is God’s dealings with the city of Ninevah.  I want to see a wave of God sweep through a city, pushing before it all of man’s arrogance while leaving behind it nothing but a trail of broken repentance.  I’m hungry for revival like we see in Jonah’s description of citywide repentance and fasting in Ninevah.”

Come on people – let’s be hungry!  Let’s step out of our comfort zones and
“press on towards the goal, to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.”    Philippians 3:14

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run!  But only one receives the prize!  Run in such a way you may obtain it.”    1 Corinthians 9:24

I was recently watching the TV show 'Fame Academy'; where 12 contestants live in the same place and each week one is voted off.  The contestants were all singers and the big prize was:

• £1m record deal
• Audi TT
• Flat in Notting Hill
• Celebrity lifestyle for a year

On one of the final episodes, the vocal coach at one point asked one of the remaining 3 contestants “do you want to win?”  The guy gave a very laidback reply:  “Yeah, it’d be nice”.  She then told him that if she was at home she wouldn’t pick up the phone and vote for him – because “he wasn’t hungry enough to win” !

Our prize is far beyond that – incomprehensible – and yet some of us are like: “yeah, it’ll be nice to finish” – but we’re not that hungry to win!  We are quite happy plodding along in our little comfort zones.

It’s time to step up a gear – it’s time to seek God and put Him first in every area of our lives – it’s time to be HUNGRY to KNOW God more – not know ABOUT Him but KNOW HIM!!!  It's time to see our family, friends, work colleagues etc. seeing Jesus so much in us that they can't help but want Him too.

ENDNOTES

• All book quotes are taken from “The God Chasers” by Tommy Tenney
• All Bible references are from the New King James Version