Christ responds in extraordinary fashion to desperate, hungry, passionate souls. Conversely, He is saddened by self-sufficient, apathetic hearts. So, do we feel desperate today? If not, can we?

We can get desperate either through crisis or cultivation. God is in charge of the crisis. It is always interesting to analyze the signs of the times—economic indicators and political developments—to assess how this might be unfolding. But ultimately, God can step in at any moment to create desperation in the hearts of His people through extraordinary and difficult circumstances.

But I also believe Christ calls us to cultivate desperation. In a sense, this is the key to all attempts to see revival in America—helping to cultivate a heart of spiritual desperation in the American church.

The Bible is full of urgings to repent, acknowledge our needs, seek His face, and endure to the end. One of the best New Testament pictures of desperation is seen in Philippians 3.

This chapter is marked by emotionally packed words describing Paul's cultivated desperation. Expressions from verses 12-14 like "press on," "lay hold," "apprehended," "reaching forward," "press toward the goal," and the "upward call" highlight this potent description of Paul's spiritual quest. This is a great snapshot of the vocabulary and vision of a desperate heart.

So what can we learn from Paul if we are to experience the blessing of spiritual desperation? How can we cultivate this necessary attitude on a daily basis? The components of Paul's commitment are found in the daily calculations he made and the core understanding he embraced.

The Calculations of a Desperate Man

Using familiar accounting terms, Paul describes the accounting system of his heart. The profit and loss columns were very clear in his mind. I believe it would be safe to label the profit column with the word "delight." Over the loss column, you could place the word "dung." (Yes, a provocative word, but accurate to the biblical text.)

On a constant basis, Paul populated the "dung" column with ideas like "religious works," "self-reliant righteousness," and any human-originated systems of "goodness" that competed with the sufficiency of the person and work of Christ.

In the often quoted epicenter of this passage, Paul declares his resolve to pursue and profit from the "excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." He speaks openly of his longing to "gain Christ and be found in Him." He declares his determination to "know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, [he might] attain to the resurrection from the dead."

These words from Philippians 3:7-11 are the expressions of a spiritually desperate and determined heart with a clearly defined "profit" column. This regular discipline of spiritual accounting kept Paul desperate, focused, and useful in the Master's hand.

The Core of a Desperate Man

Using some of his most colorful language, Paul begins this chapter by contrasting the core of spiritual desperation with the dangerous complacency of religious self-reliance. He writes, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation! For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:2-3 NKJV).

Circumcision was not a bad thing in the Scriptures. It was an outward, distinctive trait of God's covenant people, the Jews. But the great enemies of Christ-centered, spiritual desperation are the replacements of respectable religion.

Referring to those who traded spiritual passion for religious observances as the essence of their faith, Paul called them dogs, evil workers, and mutilators. That is strong language. Dogs were scavengers, a menace and a symbol of uncleanness.

Religious devotion is seldom viewed as "evil," but Paul describes it this way because anything that displaces a passion for the centrality of Christ is a great evil to the soul. Mutilation seems extreme to describe circumcision—but if it takes away from a passion for Jesus, it amounts to meaningless bodily torture.

The great threat to the integrity of our monetary system is not Monopoly money but counterfeit bills. The lurking danger to a marriage is not the beautiful actress in the magazine but the overly friendly co-worker at the office.

In the same way, spiritual revival is not threatened by radical Islam but by the easy alternatives of religious systems that we substitute for a passion for Christ. Paul's point is that religious observances that displace a Christ-centered spiritual desperation (especially when they are imposed on us with a legalistic spirit) are a menace, and ultimately an evil replacement.

Today, the threat of "circumcision" could be identified with church attendance, philanthropic works, and a whole list of religious rules that are imposed in a legalistic way as marks of spirituality. They seem good but are ultimately dangerous and evil if elevated above a pure passion for Christ. They can become extinguishers of our desperation because they give us a false sense of spiritual devotion.

So here now is the core of Paul's heart of spiritual desperation. He calls it the real circumcision because it defines a devoted heart, not just an adapted anatomy. He lists three things that drive him away from the superficial replacements, and deeper into a genuine and burning spiritual pursuit.

1. Worshiping God in the Spirit. Paul echoes the heart of Jesus' words from John 4:24, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." We know that real worship is not a matter of rules and religious forms; but we can easily drift into a drowsy routine of going through the motions. Paul puts forth the priority of Spirit-guided, Spirit-empowered, Spirit-sensitive worship—not just on Sundays, but every day.

2. Rejoicing in Christ Jesus.
Paul is declaring here that all his joy, his focus, his bragging, and his glory are in Jesus, and Jesus alone.

3. Rejecting self-sufficiency.
Here is a complete turning away from any Christ-replacements. All human efforts, religious duties, or manmade systems that would in any way justify self or elevate our works are flatly rejected. This daily, perhaps minute-by-minute vote of "no confidence" in himself helped Paul keep a desperate heart.

Cultivating Desperation

Having considered all of this, what are our applications for this day?

1. We must keep our sights high. We must speak and think regularly of pressing onward and upward, engaged in the call and finishing our race with passion.

2. We must conduct a daily accounting of our hearts, with correct entries in the "dung" and "delight" columns.

3. We must stay free of the trap of legalistic, heartless religion, and pursue a consistent, Spirit-empowered life of genuine worship.

4. We must focus our hearts on Christ alone so that the love and language of all we do is about Him.

5. We must recognize the ever-present reality of the flesh, and cast an instinctive, decisive vote of "no confidence" every time it raises its ugly head to take credit for anything good in our lives.

Perhaps these things will help us toward a cultivated desperation for Christ. In that position we will find blessing, power, joy, and supernatural impact on our culture. Anything less will miss the mark.



Daniel Henderson has a prayer summit ministry and is a friend of Life Action Ministries.