Following Judah's Lion

To Seek Him

Ps.63:1-8 - O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips:
6 When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
7 Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
8 My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.

These and other verses expose to us a life experience in the Spirit that is available to believers who will diligently seek Him. I realize the Christian life in the west has little room for time consuming prayer and devotion, and if a believer prays for one hour every so often he must be considered a spiritual giant. Churches watch as their pastor runs to and fro, and counsels all sorts of people, talks on the phone, does lunch with an array of people, studies for his sermons, but rarely do they witness him spend literal hours in prayer and spiritual devotion.

Lk.10:38-42 - Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
39 And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.
40 But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
41 And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
42 But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.

We have equated activity with spiritual devotion. We have imprisoned the Lord Jesus in doctrinal chains, and if we have the right doctrine about Him then we must know Him. But how many believers know Him in the spirit? How many walk with Him and commune with Him and regularly separate themselves into times of worship and prayer? We seem to have a form of godliness that denies His power and presence simply by the obsessive nature of our western lifestyles and the gratuitous nature of our Christian practices.

But oh to see and experience the weight of His glory! It is beyond the imagination of man to behold the glory of Almighty God and His Risen Christ. The greatest and most colossal things on earth are but trifles compared to the eternal expanse of God’s unsearchable glory. It is beyond us. That is why we will have new bodies since our old bodies could never contain an unshielded glimpse of His brilliance.

Do we hunger and thirst for Him, or are we content to let doctrine feed our souls? Of course doctrine has its place, but experiencing the very presence of the Risen Christ is unspeakable and full of glory. Who can know it? If you suspect I speak as a mystic you are correct. We should not discount Biblical doctrine, but we must build upon those truths with prayer and fasting and a relentless pursuit of His person and presence. And if you have no idea what I am referring to then you of all people must cease from your works and recline at His feet until you have seen Him fully with the eyes of the Spirit.

But the church has minimized our spiritual relationship with Christ. Just a five minute pause with Our Daily Bread and that represents quality time with the Redeemer? A convenient prayer spoken while multitasking is supposed to move God? We spend more time gazing into the face of our pet than we do God. How do you think that makes God feel? There is so much of the spirit realm and of Christ that we have yet to explore. It seems so spiritual and so mystical, and so we recoil because we believe we might be straying into the realm of evil or have an appearance of eastern mysticism..

But have no fear, the average believer maintains a dry and predictable religious practice that does not include much time for intercessory prayer and meditative communication with Christ. In fact, most western believers hardly believe there is that kind of spiritual depth to Christianity. Most believe Christianity is a ticket to heaven and until we get there God wants us to be moral standard bearers.

But there is such a realm of glory that is missed by that attitude. Spending time with Christ, real and unhurried time, is not only wonderful, it is life changing. To seek His face and His heart should be what this pilgrimage is all about. Anyone can follow rules and join with others to build buildings and have a political voice during election time, but it takes much more than that to commune with the Heavenly Father on more than just a platonic level. But the appetite, much less the need, for such devotion has long since been snuffed out by the trappings of this fast paced western lifestyle.

Hosea 10:12-13 - Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
13 Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

Is.64:1-3 - Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
2 As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
3 When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.

Do we even believe that God can move with great power today? Can the Spirit openly display a power that so changes lives that even the unbeliever must say “We’ve never seen it like this!” Or is God resigned Himself to wait out the prophetic clock while the only hint of His reality is the scripted theatre within the church doors? Surely there must be more, and if so, it must be found in Him. We have exhausted the activities, the promotions, the skillful music, the slick church slogans, and all the rest of the outward ecclesiastical constructs. If that is what we believe makes up the Christian faith then we have achieved our goal.

But if God’s people have become dissatisfied with a faith that does not dramatically impact them, not to mention the community around them, then they should follow the Spirit’s leading. The psalmist says, “To see thy power and glory!” What power and what glory? Is there not a small part of our hearts that desires more of Christ? Or are we so jaded and so conformed that we remain content with what we have? I mean life goes on, right? I hope some of us will take inventory of our spiritual lives and seek a new and profound reality that does more than maintain a set of Biblical doctrines and is involved in the local gathering.

Over the centuries the church has studied and restudied and restudied the Scriptures until we can serve it up in bite size segments and with a systematic organization that speaks volumes of our cleaver ingenuity. We know the Hebrew, we know the Greek, we’ve studied ancient customs, we know the dates, we know the Ten Commandments, we know John 3:16, and we have hundreds of translations to help us more accurately interpret those Scriptures. Verses on rings and bracelets and refrigerators and mailboxes and bumper stickers, and Bible drills in our Christian schools. And we have used the Scriptures to club sinners who provide a convenient way to exercise our Biblical purity.

We literally have the Bible coming out our ears, and if printing and saying and even wearing those verses is the consummate validation of a life that follows Jesus, then we are on fire! We even have contests for our children that actually reward them for memorizing Scripture. Where to begin at the unscriptural nature of such an event. We have come to worship the Scriptures as a kind of doctrinal museum instead of a glorious written mandate that both reveals the Creator and also visibly transforms our earthly existence.

And seemingly, with our evangelical phylacteries on display, we claim to be the remnant that truly worships Christ in Spirit and truth. Yes, we have the truth, so we can cease searching for it. But we have ceased searching for and sacrificially pursuing the Lord Jesus. And what do you give the Creator of the universe? There is one thing He desires - us. Not just a sinner’s prayer and then a two hour genuflect weekly. God desires to spend time with us, and He knows we need Him. But the Martha-driven church continues to find her religious fix through the well oiled local constructs. But the Spirit beckons us to much more.

Let us seek Him with our whole hearts.