God Sent Leanness in Their Souls

by Janice J. Bowman

And God gave them what they asked for... but he sent leanness in their souls. This, my friend, is what I have seen in many of the people of God. They get what they want but they persist in perusing less than what God wants for them. Their vision is shallow and it cannot satisfy the heart of God in what He wants for them. The price paid is getting what is asked for while missing His will. Many times there is a tendency to believe if things feel good and comfortable, and all our wants and needs are being met, then surely God has His stamp of approval on it. Many of the people of God come to the conclusion if it doesnt feel good then it cant be God. The manna that God gave to His people was purposely designed to keep them full for short periods of time because God wanted them to keep coming back for more. It was symbolic of God in His son, who later said unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you. When God sent the meat they demanded, it came to them at hip height. All they had to do was reach out and grab it; a vast contrast to stooping low for the manna. They had lost their humility. God warned us not to follow the bad examples of the children of Israel who He was leading out of bondage, but far too many of Gods people have cried before God that its not enough! We want to look like the world, act like the world and be like the world. Let us have what we want God! He said OK and then stood back and watched a people eat what they demanded but become lean in their souls as a result. Today I see many lean souls among the people of God. They dont want manna, they dont want deeper revelation. They want what feels good and cost them nothing. Once you get a taste of the deeper things of God and that hidden manna, that hidden revelation, you always want more and it is God that keeps you hungry for more. But there are a people among us who dont want the deeper truths of God. They want it all to be easy and they dont want to stoop low to gather the deeper things of God. Humility is something God delights in seeing in His people and He purposely puts us in positions that He knows will help us stay in that position. The Israelites lost their humility and wanted it all to be easy and didnt want to sweat for a thing. You have to be hungry and humble today to get hidden revelation and you have to work for it: waiting on God by praying and studying and opening up the scriptures while you eat his flesh and drink his blood. It takes your time, your humility and the

right priorities, and most of all; it takes an insatiable hunger that cries out even after you partake. The giftings and callings of God are much like the quail the people demanded. They come without repentance. In these last hours during the greatest battle of all the ages, God is crying out to His true bride asking her to hear what the Spirit is saying to the church. God is creating a people and getting them ready for the next move of the Spirit which will take them far beyond giftings and callings. He is not preparing them to take a hunk of real estate as the children in the wilderness were to inherit, but God is preparing a people for transformation. Many have forgotten to seek the deep heart of God, forgetting gifts and callings are just a means to an expected end: the next and best and final move of God. His desired end is the fullness of His character in us, the full measure of His agape love which goes far beyond gifts and callings. God is looking for one thing and one thing only in these last hours we are living in. When the Gardener comes into His garden He is looking for full ripe fruit. This sought after fruit is the full measure of the full stature of Christ Jesus. The spirit of the living God is seeking out visionary people who have eyes like the eagle because the Holy Spirit will not rest until the Son has a resting place in a people He will fill with His full measure of glory! Christ in you, the hope of glory unto full measure! It is certainly time to cry unto Gods people to position themselves to seek things beyond giftings and callings, and He has a people crying out now. They are the eagle flyers. They are visionaries. They are often laughed at even as Israel laughed at Joshua and Caleb because camping on the back side of the Jordan just wasnt good enough for them. They must go in and take the land. God has a people in this day and in this hour and in this generation who know giftings and callings are not the end and are not enough. An eagle flying at an altitude of 1000 feet over open country can spot prey over an area of almost 3 square miles from a fixed position. God has a people who see into the full plan of God for this day and this hour. We are called upon to cry out to those who can hear what the Spirit is saying to the church! God is preparing a people in these last days for a full transformation experience. God, the Father seeks nothing less for his Son than a bride that delights His heart and has come into the full stature of the mind of Christ, being transformed into His very likeness and image. This bride, through the inward workings of the cross, will not settle for 30 fold or 60 fold fruitfulness. Gods Word tells us to seek those things which accompany salvation and many stop at that place and believe that salvation is all God wants them to have. Others believe God wants them to have more; the infilling of the Holy Spirit but they choose to stop there. But some are willing to lay down their lives a

living sacrifice, acceptable unto God because they considered their moving beyond the normal Christian experience reasonable service unto God. These are the ones not conformed unto this world but transformed by the renewing of their minds. Many of Gods people say they want this 100 fold fruitfulness but when they see what it will cost them, they walk away. The full measure now becomes an offence to them and some create empty, phony messages that tell Gods people there is no price to pay for coming into the full mind of Christ. But God is already marking a people that are paying that price and they are already becoming a terrifying thing to the principalities in the high places. Becoming the full ripe fruit terrifies Satan far more than gifts and callings. The full measure will bring the kingdom of God into the earth. When God has a people that have become totally broken and emptied out of their own desires, plots, and schemes, God is able to put Himself in that empty, broken place and shine forth inside with the glory of His presence. This is representative of the 300 men Gideon was allowed to keep to fight against Israels enemies. God has a people who dont drink just anything that is tossed their way. They examine what is being offered them and test it by the Word. They dont care how much anointing is present, how many signs, wonders and miracles are present. They examine what is being said by the Word regardless of all those things because Satan can reproduce gifts and he can produce a false anointing. God has a people who know these things and know how to try the spirits to see whether they are of God and they know how to examine fruit and look for character. When will the people of God cease to labor mobilizing their own armies to fight against the enemy when Gods way is to demobilize? Those soldiers of Gideons putting their faces into the water to lap it up like a dog are symbolic of people who did none of the things I just spoke of. It isnt enough to be fearless and believe; those are good qualities but alone are not enough. God sent those soldiers home, too. God kept the men who looked at what they were drinking, while looking all around them for the enemy. We cannot be asleep in this day and hour we live in nor can we just accept any doctrine. We must test it by the Word and we must see what is coming out of it. God will have a pure move of the Spirit inside of His people, not just among His people. There is a huge difference of what takes place among the people of God and what takes place inside of them.

God intends transformation while many are just waiting for transfiguration. God has a church within the church that is willing to identify with the cross, not trying to find a way to escape it! God needs broken people in this battle, not gifted people. A people that know they simply have nothing in their own strength and power that can win this battle and that only Gods divine intervention can save them now. That and that alone will bring the victory in these last days. Transformation doesnt happen because you have giftings and callings. It happens when you have gone completely down with Him in death by identifying with His sufferings and come up on the other side with Him in resurrection life. Joseph was a type and shadow of Jesus Christ. He went down in death inside a pit and prison and came up in glory right next to the king, and was given the entire store house of riches to govern. Try to imagine Joseph in prison if he chose to blame God for his discomfort instead of finding the highest position in that prison. He would have simply shut down and settled for the lot He supposed God had given him. It would have been impossible, under those circumstances of attitude, for God to create that gold He was looking for in Joseph in that place of testing. Joseph fed the world by being in a place of authority only because he suffered first. Saints, when will His people fully understand all God has wanted from the beginning of man is a place He can dwell in His full measure? It isnt the things we desire to build for Him but it is He who wants to build us. He wants to be the carpenter. He wants to do the work and many times He first has to tear down what we have built ourselves. As the word says, the Word of the Lord tried Joseph. So lets stop calling all suffering God asks us to endure Satans doing. God custom makes many of our tests and trials so He can create that gold He needs; sons and daughters in His likeness and image. Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered. Are we then more obedient than the Son of God was when He endured the cross for the joy that was set before Him? This is the desire of God in this last hour and it will cost you everything to have what is most important to the heart of God.