Seeking God's Face

God has directed me over the last six weeks to lead my faith family through a study of revival. The purpose was not to just learn about revival, but to let God put us as His people in a position to receive revival. Revival is a sovereign act of God so you cannot make it happen. You can get your life in a surrendered and repentant condition so that, when God does pour out His Spirit in revival, you can be ready.

One of the verses that God has been using is 2 Chronicles 7:14. It says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins and heal their land.”

I want to focus on one phrase in that verse that God has impressed on me. It is a phrase that I had overlooked as I thought about the verse and even as I prayed it for my faith family.

The phrase “seek His face.”

We many times pray for God to bless us or thank Him when we perceived He has blessed us. But seeking God’s face and seeking God’s blessings are, I have come to understand, two very different things.

When I seek God’s blessings I am seeking God’s hand. I am seeking what He can DO for me. I believe seeking God’s blessings please God. God wants us to acknowledge our dependence on Him and seeking God’s blessings does that.

Seeking God’s face means I am seeking God presence. I am seeking God’s heart. I want to know and experience God as He is. I am not just interested in what God can do for me, I want to know WHO GOD IS.

I believe that seeking God’s face, His presence makes God smile. I really believe that it makes God laugh with great joy.

When we go to see our children and grandchildren, our grandchildren usually come running with arms open wide shouting “Grammy and Pops.” They don’t do that because we have gifts for them. They do it because they genuinely are glad to see us, to have us with them.

Well, God is overjoyed when His kids are genuinely glad to see Him and are excited about hanging out with Him.

So, from a practical aspect, what does it mean to seek God’s face?

I see in Scripture six things that will allow us to seek God’s face, to hang out with God if we will practice them.

Psalm 139:23-24
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there is any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

We invite God to know us.
We invite God to examine us.
We invite God to rebuke us.
We invite God to correct us.

If God is going to do that, we have to be TRANSPARENT with Him. We cannot invite Him in and close off areas of our life. We have to let Him go anywhere He wants in our lives.

Mark 12:30-31
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

We are to love. Love God with all we are. Love others like we love ourselves.

If we are going to love God like that we have to be PASSIONATE.
If we are going to love others like that we have to be GRACIOUS.

Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

If we are going to seek God’s kingdom and righteousness above all else (that is what “seek first” means), we have to be OBESSED with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, beloved let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.

If we are to do that, we have to possess two things:

A Holy Humble Fear of God (awe)
A Holy Humble Courage

When I think of God, two thoughts come to my mind. First is fear or awe. This is the All-Mighty, All-Knowing, Ever-Present God we are talking about. The second is comfort. This same awesomely fearful God loves me and is on my side.

For us to have both fear and courage we have to be DEVOTED to God. Devoted means to cling to something. It means we have to have it or our life will not be right or good.

John 15:4-5
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the Vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in Me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.

Abide means to remain as one.

If we are to abide, remain as one with Jesus, we have to be completely DEPENDENT on Him.

Joel 2:12-13
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; He relents over disaster.

If we are to repent and return to God we have to be HUMBLE. We have to admit our wrongness and our sin. We then have to come back to where God wants us.

Revelation 2:4
But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

I remember when I was dating Jan. I would spend a long time getting ready. I would pick out the clothes I thought she liked. I would spend time making my hair look good (yes, I had hair at one time). I wanted to show her that she was special, that she was The One I cared for above all others.

Jesus wants to know that He is our first love.

If we are to truly return to our first love, we have to be HONEST. We cannot tell Jesus we love Him and go live in direct opposition to His word and character. We cannot tell Him we love Him above everything and have anything else as the focus of our lives.

Seeking God’s face means we are to be:
Transparent
Passionate
Gracious
Obsessed
Devoted
Dependent
Humble
Honest

If I were really clever I would spell a word using the first letter of those words, but I not so I am not going to try. If you can come up with one, please let me know.

Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls is about seeking God’s face.

Seeking God’s face will not always be fun or pleasant, but it will be necessary and a blessing.

You see the real blessing that God wants to pour out on us His children is - HIMSELF.

God is the blessing.

Seeking His Face Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls

Joe