In past weeks we have been looking at what it will take for the professing church to be turned from seeking itself in activities, buildings, and outward religion to seeking the face of God. God has turned His face from us and we are under a spiritual judgment. Yet we continue to think that if we can keep busy, obtain great buildings, and have forms of outward religion that we are being blessed of God. We must understand that in a spiritual judgment God can give people many outward things and yet give them leanness of soul. The Israelites thought that they were blessed of God at times when they were actually under judgment, but it is true that He sent physical judgment on them as well. We must remember that the greatest judgment upon anyone is a spiritual judgment (Amos 8:11).
In modern America we have many expensive and great buildings for people to attend, but we have no spiritual depth and are without spiritual understanding. We have institutions of academic excellence, yet we have little spiritual understanding. We have many Denominations, but little true Christianity. We have evangelism programs, but true evangelism is lost. We have programs to increase water baptisms, but our theology is shallow. We have many ways of communicating self-help to people, but we don’t teach that men must deny self to follow Christ. We have multiplied programs to keep people busy in religion, but not busy seeking God. His face has turned and we have become very busy in our religion, but we are not really seeking God. While ministers and teachers are telling people that the building programs and being involved in academia or various programs is seeking God, we are sinking deeper into darkness and judgment. Those things have a form of godliness, but they have denied its power.
The professing Church in America is consumed in busyness just like the world. We have taken the name of God and have attached it to worldly things. Constantine “Christianized” many pagan celebrations by attaching Christian names to them, but America does this too. It is easier to have “Christian” candy than it is to taste the sweetness of God. It is easier to have a “Christian” gym than it is to exercise ourselves to godliness. It is easier to give money or stuff to a ministry that deals with the physical “needs” of others than it is to want to submit our hearts to God. It is easier to “minister” to the “needs” of people while they smile than it is to speak to a real need, which makes them frown. It is easier to Christianize sports and call that ministry than it is to buffet our bodies in submission to Christ. It is easier to make money as a part of a Christian business organization than it is to actually run a business for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. It is easier to run a “church” by following business principles than it is to follow Christ. It is easier to go on missions trips (glorified vacations?) than it is to seek the Lord in our own locations all year. It is easier to go to camps and be entertained than it is to seek the Lord while fasting and mourning. It is easier to watch a “Christian movie” than it is to be moved by the Holy Spirit. It is easier to listen to “Christian music” than it is to make music in our hearts to the Lord. It is easier to pursue self-esteem than it is to seek to die to self and to take up the cross and follow Christ. It is easier to give presents to people in December than it is to be like Christ and be a burnt offering to God. It is easier to stand against the immorality of our day than it is to love God and our neighbor. It is easier to “Christianize” things and activities than it is to be a real Christian.
While many of the things above may be good, if we are not seeking the face of the Lord in truth and in spirit those things can be deceitful. When God has turned His face away, all of those things will do nothing to turn the face of the Lord back to us. The professing Church must wake up and understand that it must seek the Lord from the heart. Jesus taught that worship must be in spirit and in truth. Do we now think that we can pray words while our hearts are taken with our Christianized things? “Oh,” one might argue, “I am Reformed in my theology.” Okay, but where is your heart? Theology can be a thing of pride and Christianized as well. There is nothing that a heart will not seek in the place of God and be deceived by it. The spirit of the Pharisees spirit is alive in our day. A form of morality and doctrine has been set up that the Pharisees would approve of. But where are those seeking God for God?
We simply must see and understand that a true seeking of God is from the heart and from the heart alone. We will not seek the Lord until we come to Him in our helplessness of self and ask Him to make us a people with broken hearts that truly seek Him from the heart. We can even desire God to do many things for us and mistake that for seeking God when in fact we only seek Him for ourselves. That is nothing but self-seeking. We seek the Lord to bless our plans and ministries but again that can be nothing but self-seeking. While we rightly knock many so-called ministries for their extravagance and pleas for money, those ministries testify to us that self-seeking in any ministry is idolatry. The really extravagant ones are indeed worse, but can we say we are much different in heart? Isn’t it true that they simply have more opportunity to express their hearts by the circumstances that they are in? If those ministries are wrong because of their extravagance, then any ministry or ministry that seeks itself (though hidden down deep) is condemned. All self-seeking is idolatry and all those who do it are idolaters regardless of the extent to which they do it. As Matthew 7:1-2 teaches us, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.” When we judge others for their seeking of self while taking His name on their lips, we condemn ourselves when we do it, though it may be to a much lesser degree. We must seek God for Himself and His name’s sake or we are not seeking Him but self.
A vital principle is given in II Chronicles 7:14: “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.” This text teaches us that what it will take for God to turn His face back and hear the prayers of His people is for people to seek His face. God was not pleased when people tried to do things for Him and do all of the external things He had commanded. God wants the hearts of the people and He will have them to seek His presence rather than His physical gifts. God wants people to seek His presence out of love for and joy in Himself rather than trying to seek Him to give them something. This is also true in the churches. God is sought in order that He might grant people a building or some money or greater numbers, but where is God being truly sought just to be in His presence? Where are the people who desire to be truly humbled rather than the appearance of it so that they might seek the face of the Lord? Until the hearts of the people are broken, there will be no seeking of the Lord in truth and spirit and so there will be no finding of Him and there will be no true revival in our land.
Until we are seeking the face of the Lord in prayer, we will not be truly praying. We can utter words into the air and call it praying or whatever we wish, but until we are seeking the face of the Lord from the heart in truth we will not truly be praying. Perhaps it will be a type of prayer much like the Pharisee was said to pray to himself when he prayed (Luke 18:11). Can we imagine what it is like to be an angel in the heavens and watch as millions pray to themselves while hardly anyone is praying in such a way as to seek the face of the Lord? If the Lord would be pleased to open our hearts to us and show how much we are praying to ourselves rather than to Him it might bring a great mourning upon our souls. It is also true that according to II Chronicles 7:14 that until a people are humbled and seeking the face of the Lord, true repentance has not happened. This makes sense because people will not see their sin until they see their sin in the light of His glory. So if we are not seeking the face of the Lord in our prayers and in all that we are doing, we are not repenting of our sin which is enmity with God and still weighs upon our souls and all we do. When the professing church in America is caught up with its so-called ministries, programs, business, and all of the Christianizing things that it has done instead of seeking the face of God, it demonstrates that it is under the judgment of God and needs to repent of its most religious activity.
Individuals and churches must learn what seeking self in the name of God really is so that they may turn from that and humble themselves before God in order that He might grant them the grace to seek His face. It is not that we must turn from one way of doing things to another way of doing things, but instead we must be turned from our wicked hearts and the wickedness of self-seeking to truly seek His face. This only happens by grace alone. We must see that we are the modern Pharisees and the modern Constantine and we are attempting to do things for God and attach His name to our own desires and pleasures in order to do what we want using the name of religion. We must realize that apart from Jesus we can do nothing (John 15:5). We are totally dependant on Him for the grace to seek Him. We must be broken from our own wisdom, strength, and our own way of doing things in order that the life that flows from Christ our vine will work in us a true seeking of the living God. After all, Scripture does teach us that Christ is the only way to the Father. Perhaps it means more than we usually think. We will only seek the Father when His grace comes to us through Christ and the fruit of love by the Spirit. Humility is the emptiness of self, not the efforts of self. We must be broken from everything but His grace in Christ in order to seek His face.
We live in an age of great spiritual deception because we are under the spiritual judgment of God. While we don’t know how long this judgment has been upon us, we must be very careful. If this judgment came upon us in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, then what happened in the mid part of the twentieth century is not the standard of Christianity that we must have. If we continue to seek God in ways that He gave us as judgment, we will never seek His face. We must go back to the Word of God. We will continue in our Christianized ways until we see that those ways are not seeking God and are in fact part of His judgment upon us. Only then will we begin to see the deception of our ways and loathe ourselves for being at enmity with God while saying we were seeking Him.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment