Hungry Heart

NONE BUT THE HUNGRY HEART Fellowship Bible Church From the leadership development ministry of FELLOWSHIP BIBLE CHURCH MISSIONS The contents in this devotional are a selection of writings from many Christian authors compiled by Miles Stanford. the true character of the old material--i.e. FORWARD all that he is as a child of Adam and a man in the flesh--and to be as dissatisfied with it None But the Hungry Heart is a as God is. You may see this in Job and devotional series that will help you in your Saul of Tarsus. One of them said, "I abhor Christian growth and walk with the Lord. myself," and the other said, "I know that in The first issue in this series was published me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good in 1968 and the final issue was completed thing." Such language as this is the mark of in 1987. For a period of approximately 20 one born again. He identifies himself with years, Miles Stanford has collected and that new "inward man" which is of God, categorized quotes from some of the best and he judges everything of a contrary authors in the realm of Christian growth. nature to be sin. In itself this is not a happy Contained at this site, you will find the experience. It is not very pleasant for one intimate truths of God's Word explained who has been self-sustained and self- and expounded by His humble servants. satisfied in a moral and religious life to find that there is not one bit of good in him. Before God could use these men, He had Some may discover this by a single flash of to bring them to the end of themselves. He divine light, as in the case of Saul of had to teach them that self-confidence--no Tarsus, and others may have years of matter what it's form--could only result in struggling and disappointment before they defeat. Many of these servants had to learn it, but it must, and will, be learned spend years of struggling in the "self-life" sooner or later by every one that is born before they learned to depend on the again. Risen Lord Jesus to be their All in All. One such man was C.A. Coates. The following You might be very well up in the doctrine of account reflects some of the lessons that deliverance (Gal 2:20), and yet all the time he learned in his own struggle with the be secretly attempting to correct and flesh. improve yourself, and suffering a good deal of private vexation and disappointment on I had to see about some work being done account of the failure of your attempts. I the other day, and was asking the know how long I struggled on in this way contractor how much it would cost. 'It won't myself, praying and striving to be more cost very much,' said he, 'because we can holy and Christ-like, and continually use all the old material.' Now that is disappointed with the result. I do not think precisely what God could not do. There that it ever occurred to me in those days must be a new start altogether with new that I was trying to improve the man whom material. God rejects the old material God had set aside. It was at a moment altogether and begins entirely anew, and when I was utterly discouraged, and ready the one who is born again begins to learn to give up the whole thing in complete despair, that God showed me how I was attempting to work upon the old material which He could only condemn, and that my disgust and despair as to myself were only a feeble echo of His. I shall never forget the joy of finding out that in the depth of my disgust with myself I was thoroughly at one with God. God had ceased to look for any good in me and had Christ before Him, the perfect and infinitely acceptable Object of His heart; and I, in my nothingness, had ceased to look for good in myself, and was tasting the deep joy of being in CHRIST, and free to have Him as my Object; while, as to life, I entered in some degree into the blessedness of knowing that it was "not I, but Christ liveth in me." This discovery of the inability of self to please God is what turned men such as Hudson Taylor, Andrew Murray and George Muller into instruments that could be used by God. In order to do any lasting work for the Lord, we too will need to make that same discovery. Only as we learn to abide in the Vine will we be a vessel that is It meet for the Master's use." In None But the Hungry Heart, you will be introduced to the heart beat of such men who "walked humbly with God" and "placed no confidence in the flesh." PREFACE April, 1968 None But the Hungry Heart is a devotional Colorado Springs study, originally published in a series of booklets each having thirty-one portions. Colorado, U.S.A. The following four factors have been considered in arriving at this form of presentation: 1. A spiritually hungry heart is the requisite for entering into the growth truths of identification with Christ. 2. Prayerful study on the part of the believer is the means by which the Holy Spirit ministers these truths. 3. The concentration of the Christ-life truths in brief daily studies facilitates their assimilation. The authors quoted have been carefully selected; however this does not necessarily mean that we advocate all that these writers teach. Only the initials of authors are given, where known. Much of the material has been gleaned through the years from tracts, magazines, and books long out of print. As always, dear friend, it is our desire “that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9, 10). ~Miles J. Stanford 1-1. Nothing Daunted onward and upward to heights toward which less ardent believers look with “Blessed are they that ... seek Him and entertain no hope of reaching.” with the whole heart” (Ps. 119:2). “For He satisfieth the longing soul, Once the Holy Spirit instills within and filleth the hungry soul with our hearts the hunger for God’s very goodness” (Ps. 107:9) best, all must and will become secondary to this supreme goal: “ . 1-2. Life’s Purpose .the mark for the prize of the high “For in Him dwelleth all the fulness calling of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). 3:14). Our puny, worthless all Our Lord the Vine provides all that His exchanged for the One who is All in all! branches will ever need for fruit- “For of Him, and through Him, and to bearing. All provision is according to Him, are all things: to Whom be glory our Father’s riches in glory by Christ for ever. Amen” (Rom. 11:36) . Jesus (Phil. 4:19). “A sage of India was asked by a “Christian growth is the becoming real young man how he could find God. For in ourselves, of what is already true of some time the sage gave no answer, us in the Lord Jesus. ‘I am the vine, ye but one evening he asked the youth to are the branches, He says. But the vine come and bathe with him in the river. furnishes the branches, not only with While there he gripped him suddenly the principle of life, but with the type of and held his head under the water until life. No pressure or molding from he was nearly drowned. When he without is needed to shape them to the released him the sage asked him: pattern of the parent stock. Every ‘What did you want most when you minutest peculiarity of form, and color, were under the water?’ ‘A breath of air,’ and taste, and fragrance is determined he replied. To which the sage by the root, and developed from it. A answered, ‘When you want God as you true believer, therefore, will ask no wanted the breath of air, you will find better thing of the Lord than that the life Him.’” -G.G. also of Jesus may be made manifest in “Every Christian will become at last his body (2 Cor. 4:11). For such a what his desires have made him. We manifestation will, by a necessary are all the sum total of our hungers. principle, be the unfolding within him of The great saints have all had thirsting every needed element of joy and hearts. Their cry has been, ‘My soul sorrow, of suffering and triumph.” - thirsteth for God, for the living God....’ A.J.G. Their longing after God all but “Straining, driving effort does not consumed them; it propelled them accomplish the work God gives a man 1 to do; we must partake of Christ so fully A-S. that He more than fills the life. It will “Afflictions are in the hands of the Holy then be not overwork but overflow.” Spirit to effect the softening of the heart “And ye are complete in Him, who is the in order to receive heavenly impression. head of all principality and power” (Col.

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