Chapter 1: Good Morning Lord →
A Desire So Strong by Joyce Watford Montague Preface On one particular day that Marian, an associate minister and very dear friend of mine, and I were in deep conversation about the ways and wonders of God, she shared with me a deep concern. While watching a television ministry, Marian was taken aback when the preacher said, “I have a problem with people who proclaim to have long conversations with God!” The preacher went on to say that God is a God of little words. He said that God only speaks one or two words and He doesn’t have long drawn-out conversations nor does he talk every day, all day. Those words made me wondered about the God this preacher served. Indeed, throughout the study of God in the bible, we find God to be a God of many words. Yes that’s right—God does talk using full sentences. He is more than a one—or two-word God. Now, there are times when God can speak just one word—that word being so powerful it shakes your spirit. The reason that the one word can move you in this awesome way is because prior to that spoken word, you and God had already engaged in related discussions. The word go doesn’t move me to act if I don’t know where it is that I’m supposed to go; neither does the word stop move me to discontinue an action if I don’t know what it is that I’m supposed to stop doing. Oh my friends, that preacher said a very foolish thing regarding God that day! Of course, God and I had to discuss the statement that preacher made. During our discussion, God made some very good points. He indicated that the preacher evidently didn’t read the bible, evidently didn’t have much fellowship with Him, didn’t realize that he was a tool being used to discourage communion with Him, and was suggesting that He lacked communication skills. And then God asked me some questions: Do you talk every day? Do you use complete sentences when conversing with others? Do you ever have long conversations with others? Well of course I do, I told Him. I also told Him that I knew He did too. But God doesn’t just want to talk, He also wants to be an active participant in the lives of people. A very strong desire of God is to have intimacy with man. He desires fellowship and communion with man. So I ask you: Have there been times in your life when you observed activities in which you wanted to participate but for which you were not invited or particularly not allowed to participate? How’d you feel inside? I’ve been there myself, and the feelings are unpleasant. Well, guess what—God experiences those same kind of feelings when we—His people—don’t allow Him to participate in the activities of our lives. For many years I’ve walked with God. Throughout those years I’ve seen and experienced the many aspects of Him. Each facet has taken me into a deeper fellowship with God and has impacted my life in a very special way. I can confidently say that there is no one like Him. Ministry, as well as the retail business, has blessed me to meet so many wonderful people by phone and face-to-face. I’ve been blessed to work beside and with many people. Some of these people have literally said, “Joyce, you take this God thing too far.” Every time my reply has been “And you don’t take this God thing far enough.” To my amazement, some of the accusers have been professing Christians. Though many have accused me of over-rating God, the very same ones often inquire of the constant joy and happiness they see in me and in my life. They’ve often inquired about the positive energy they feel in my presence. “What is it that keeps you so young and active, so positive and joyous?” many have asked. My response is always the same: “This Jesus! He came that I might have life and have life more abundantly.” Many days have found me in the presence of God asking about the limited fellowship with Him that exists in the lives of so many believers. More than once the Lord has said to me that He gives Himself to us in the same measures that we give ourselves to Him. There are so many believers who have more fellowship with the activities going on in the building called church and more fellowship with the leaders and members of the building than they do with the God of the body called church. This condition saddens me. There are several places in my home where God and I meet to fellowship and commune. In July of 2008, I was in one of those places conversing with the Lord about the grief I was experiencing towards so many people’s lack of intimacy with Him. My heart was heavy because a professing Christian accused God of being partial. “God doesn’t interact with me Joyce the way he does with you. He doesn’t fall all head over heels about me as He does about you,” she’d said. “He doesn’t wake me up in the wee hours of morning to commune, nor does He speak to me the awesome things He says to you. He thinks more of you than He does me.” Listening to all of what God wasn’t doing in that Christian’s life showed me instantly her lack of intimacy with God. Her complaints against God showed me slackness on her part in becoming intimate with God, slackness on her part in spending quality time with God. One important insight given to me through ministry and interactions with people is that whatever way God is perceived in one’s mind dictates the way that person will interact with Him. When teaching a bible class one day, the Spirit of God led me to draw an illustration for the students to show where God should dwell in our lives. We placed God at the top of this diagram then listed all of our other activities beneath Him. The students and I found that by the time we’d reached the bottom of the chart, God wasn’t there. He was still at the top of the chart. I understand fully what people mean when they say “I place God at the top in my life or God is first in my life.” However, with some of us, this is the literal dwelling place of God. Explaining this to the bible students that day, the Holy Spirit then had me draw a circle and list all of life’s activities around it. We then placed God’s position in our lives smack dab in the middle of this circle. The students got excited! Many of us limit God’s interactions with us to the church building three times a week. We exclude Him from everything that doesn’t deal with church business or church activities. For this cause, the greatest abundant life that many of us experience with God is in the building called church. In the building called church is where God gets to be intimate with many of us—where God is allowed to touch us and to love on us and is able to speak lovingly sweet things to us. It is where we experience what many of us call high times in the Lord. Once the cloud of God’s glory fades away and we say amen though, many leave the building and go on their way—with their ways—and leave God out. The high time they had in the building with God crosses their minds only occasionally while they’re busy with their activities. As they entertain the thoughts of the high time, they’re anticipating the same results taking place again in the building the next Sunday. But something is very wrong with this picture. Because God dwells in temples not made by the hands of man, God is with us wherever we are. He’s surrounded by all of the things that we partake of, yet He isn’t allowed to participate unless we invite Him. Because God is excluded from many areas of our lives, many of us find ourselves struggling with things that we are more than capable of conquering. You see believers, including God in every area of our lives allots Him the continuous privileges of directing, teaching, and training. It allots Him the opportunities to help us to grow and become more like Him. Including him in every area of our lives also allots us the opportunities to know and experience God in a more personal and intimate way. The sharing of my experiences here stem from my intimacy with God, and was done not only show the ways of God and who He is but also to righteously provoke individuals into deeper communion and fellowship with God. The Lord and I have had some awesome times while we were cooking together in the kitchen. We’ve had some awesome times watching movies together. Oh how the Lord cuts up with me on my job. He and I shop together, and we laugh with and tease one another. With the Lord, I am experiencing abundant life. What transpires in my intimate moments with God may not occur in the intimate moments others share with Him; however, one will never know what one can experience unless one gives oneself over to intimacy with Him. During communion with God that day in July, 2008, the Lord impressed upon me His desire to share with others some of the things that happen through intimate fellowship with Him. In sharing His desire, He began to place in my heart and mind this novel A Desire So Strong. Throughout this novel, We’ll see so many incredible things about God and hear the thoughts of His mind. We’ll hear Him speak the depths of His heart and see Him display some of His creative abilities. We’ll see various facets of God unveiled, including God the father, God the friend, God the counselor, and God the teacher. I earnestly pray that each facet and attribute of God unveiled will serve as an incentive to righteously provoke people to seek out and experience a deeper fellowship with the Lord and His word. I sincerely believe that the greatest experience to be had by any individual is the experiencing of God. While working on revisions for this novel in 2009, one of my grandbabies, Khaion, became seriously ill. He underwent four brain surgeries and two eye surgeries. For those of you who are grandparents, you know that grandbabies hold places in our hearts that no one else can penetrate. God, in all of his loving kindness, allows that special place just for the grandchildren—isn’t God sweet? Many earnest prayers flooded heaven for Khaion, and God answered them. But He didn’t answer them only because so many people prayed for Khaion but also because He has a plan for my six year old grandson. I’m excited to see what that plan is. Because Yahweh reigns, I didn’t expect Khaion to be any different after his surgeries than he was before the surgeries. Today, Khaion is his normal happy-go-lucky self. I say thanks to every one of you who prayed so diligently for my beloved. Joyce Watford Montague This book can be purchased on Amazon.
