“The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them” (A. W. Tozer).
II Chronicles 7:14 is used a lot for people who write on seeking revival. While I am not arguing against that at all, the context is still very much in line with a nation that is under the judgment of God and is a prescription of how to seek the face of God. Since the Church is now “A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION” (I Peter 2:9), certainly this can and should be applied to the Church and the churches. This does not negate revival at all since revival is in one sense simply the power of God and His glory coming among His people. “And My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land” (II Chronicles 7:14). First, we must notice that it is the people of God who are to humble themselves. Certainly it is the Church that is to be considered the people of God now. So it is the real Church, those who are born from above, who are to seek the face of God.
Second, the text tells us that the people of God should humble themselves. The very first thing that people who are seeking a rediscovery of the majesty of God and His face are to do is to humble themselves. Wow, that sounds like a different approach than the modern self-esteem movement within the Church. To seek God, then, the issue at hand is to humble self instead of exalt self in order to seek God. The order that the text gives is that God’s people are to humble themselves and pray in order to seek His face. If this is a chronological or logical order then humility is necessary to pray which is obviously necessary to seek the face of God. But here we see what God does in the souls of people that He is working in. He humbles them. Now we should not think that humility is like a magic pill which a person swallows in order to obtain whatever he desires. Humility is the work of God in the soul of man which is the life of Christ in man. Humility is not something that can be worked up by man at his own power and desire; it has to come from Christ working Himself in a person through the work of the Spirit.
But, it is said, man is told to humble himself. The Scripture does not tell us that we must wait for God to do the work. This is true, but we must make a careful distinction at this point. In one sense man does humble himself in that he must give up his efforts of trying to humble himself. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS” (Mat 11:29). It is when man goes to Christ that man learns what meekness (gentleness) and humility are. The very life of humility is something divine and so it is the life of Christ in the believer that works humility. So man must humble himself in one sense in order to submit to the workings of God in the soul to bring the life of Christ to man which includes humility. We can look at humility, then, as having two aspects. One is man humbling himself in order for the second aspect of humility to happen which only happens when God works it in the soul.
We can look at the nature of pride and understand that only the hand of God can cast pride out and make the soul humble. Pride is the exalting of self and is really the god-self. The proud man wants to do all things for his own honor, even serve God. Some people are very proud of how they serve God. Who alone can soften proud hearts and cast the nature of the devil which is pride out? Can man in his pride cast pride out? No, man cannot. Pride must be cast out by God’s opening the eyes of man to reality. Pride will not be cast out by anything but the work of God in opening man’s eyes to see His glory and man as a creature and therefore utter dependence. This goes on even more when man sees just how sinful he really is in the eyes of a holy, holy, holy God.
There is no seeking of the face of God apart from humility because man’s pride can never take him into the presence of the one and only God who hates pride. The Church, therefore, is a stench in the nostrils of God to the degree that She is proud of who She is and what She does. No pride is brought into the presence of God since He will not give or share His glory with another. God will not come down to the Church as long as it serves itself and anything else other than Him. God will not come to the Church and give it a sense of reality in the sense of His majesty until it gives up trying to serve Him in its own wisdom and power. The Church can do many religion things and activities in pride, but it will not rediscover the majesty of God until it humbles itself and is humbled.
God Loves... Himself 
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