The Fulfillment of God’s Desires: by Andrew Murray

For the LORD has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling:
 "This is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it-- Psalm 132:13-14

Here you have the one great desire of God that moved Him in the work of redemption. His heart longed for man, to dwell with him and in him.

To Moses He said: “Let them make Me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them.” And just as Israel had to prepare the dwelling for God, even so His children are now called to yield themselves for God to dwell in them and to win others to become His habitation. As the desire of God toward us fills our hearts, it will waken within us the desire to gather others around us to become His dwelling too.

What an honor! What a high calling, to count my worldly business as entirely secondary and to find my life and my delight in winning souls in whom God may find His heart’s delight! “Here will I dwell; for I have desired it.”

And this is what I can above all do through intercession. I can pray to God for those around me, to give them His Holy Spirit. it is God’s great plan that man himself shall build Him a habitation. it is in answer to the unceasing intercession of His children that God will give His power and blessing. As this great desire to God fills us, we shall give ourselves wholly to labor for its fulfillment.

Think of David, when he thought of God’s desire to dwell in Israel, how he said: “I will not give sleep to my eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob.” And shall not we, to whom it has been revealed what that indwelling of God may be, give our lives for the fulfillment of His heart’s desire?

Oh, let us begin as never before to pray for our children, for the souls around us,, and for all the world. And we pray not only because we love them, but especially because God longs for them and gives us the honor of being the channels through whom His blessing is brought down. Children of God, awake to the realization of what it means that God is seeking to train you as intercessors through whom the great desire of His loving heart can be satisfied!

O God who hast said of human hearts, “Here will I dwell for I have desired it,” teach us, we pray Thee, to pray day and night that the desire of Thy heart may be fulfilled. Amen