SEEKING HIS FACE

 

One thing have I desired of the Lord, That will I seek after.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life

To behold the beauty of the Lord And to inquire in His temple.

 

When thou saidst, "Seek ye my face," My heart said unto thee,

"Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

 

We're all aware of the tremendous amount of work to be done. We're surrounded by a sea of humanity which needs to hear what we have heard and to see what we have seen. We have to get the Word out. We have to get our fellowships into God's order. We have to find the way to bring healing to the earth as a manifestation of the truth of our message. In all this we are hardly scratching the surface.

 

Yet the most urgent thing that needs to be done by us at this hour does not lie in any of these areas. The most urgent need in our personal lives, and in the life of our fellowships,

 

is to seek the face of God.

 

"0, but we've already seen something of God. And now that we've seen, how can we indulge in the luxury of seeing more when there's a lost world out there, hungry souls to be fed? Aren't there already enough of these zombies who are forever praising God and going through the motions of worship, blind to human need, deaf to the cries of the lost?"

 

True, there are people who seem to be barricaded in an endless "prayer meeting" which is not a prayer meeting at all. They're caught up in a dream. They're in love with their own emotions, not with God. And the proof that it is not of God is that nothing ever comes of it. They produce no good, no lasting fruit.

 

But 0 how many more are chasing around, doing a thousand things in the name of something religious, but producing no life. Busy, but no life. Because they have lost their vision of the face of God.

 

They are no longer beholding the beauty of the Lord.... they are no longer inquiring in His temple.

 

Their eyes are on their own kingdom,

    their plan,

                           their scheme,

                           their gospel blimp, or on the cares and riches and pleasures of this life.

 

"In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple."

 

We would never have had the burning prophecies of Isaiah if Isaiah had not first seen the Lord.

 

"Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, the fourth month, the fifth day of the month as I was among the captives by the River Chepar that the heavens opened and I saw visions of God."

 

.....thus began the prophetic ministry of Ezekiel.

 

I am convinced of two things:

 

1. These prophets, and others like them, would never have had anything to say to the world unless they had first seen the face of God.

 

We can be entertained and even held spellbound by men who claim to speak for God. But anyone can tell the difference between these spellbinders and those who have really seen God. The difference between Jesus and the scribes was that Jesus dwelt in the bosom of the Father. He who was God in the flesh saw God in the Spirit. And the difference be­tween Paul and other Pharisees was that Paul had seen God and continued somehow to behold God's glory.

 

- Unless we ascend into the hill of the Lord,

- Unless we stand in His holy place,

- Unless we behold His glory,

- Unless we see His face,

 

- we have nothing to offer those perishing multitudes.

 

And don't be deceived .... those multitudes, even in their disdain for the things of God, know the difference between religious parasites and those men and women whose faces reflect the face of God. Only when the brightness of God's glory is still fresh on our minds and bodies do we have anything to offer.

 

2. It was not coincidence that those prophets saw God's face. Isaiah saw the Lord on His throne, high and lifted up, because he sought the Lord.

 

Ezekiel saw the glory in the wheels, and above them, because his heart surely was lifted up for who knows how many days or years in prayer.

 

You may get a jolt from God any time, without seeking.

 

You may hear a voice calling you to turn and repent without any warning or preparation on your part.

 

But to see glory,

      to see God,

you have to seek.

 

One thing have I desired of the Lord, That will I seek after.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life

To behold the beauty of the Lord And to inquire in His temple.

 

When thou saidst, "Seek ye my face," My heart said unto thee,

"Thy face, Lord, will I seek."

 

When our Lord says, "Ask and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you," He's not talking about roller skates and gum drops.

 

He's talking about God's face,

      God's presence,

      God's Spirit,

      God's life,

      God's glory.

 

What has happened with many of us is that we've become taken up with our spiritual experiences, our knowledge of spiritual things,

                    our work ....

                    our ministries,

                    our gospel blimps and the cares, riches, and pleasures of our lives, and we have neglected the one thing needful: to seek God's face.

 

Hence our joy is so often attached to "results," "growth," "numbers," "impact," things----no wonder we become dis­couraged! Our joy has to be God alone. "One thing have I desired of the Lord....."

 

Of course we cannot see God with these eyes. Yet we can, even while we are still in these bodies of flesh and blood, come to the place where we know we are be­holding His face---we know we are beholding His beauty. We are seeing Jesus whom these eyes have never seen. Yet there He is, manifesting Himself to us. And as He manifests Himself, He is manifesting God. For He is the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His person.

 

If you seek God's face, you will find it.

 

l. Seek God's face alone, by yourself.

 

If the only place where you seek God's face is in company with brothers and sisters at prayer meetings, bible studies, etc., you are not seeking. The starting point is alone, by yourself. In the morning, or whenever it is that you take time to seek, don't just rattle off prayers, seek God's face. You have to break through the barrier that stands between earth and heaven. You have to hush the noise of your own heart that drowns out God's voice. You have to take this flesh down into death once more that you may rise up alive in the Spirit of God.

 

Our primary purpose in these daily prayers is not to cover a list, but to seek the  face of God. How can we lift the souls we pray for into the presence of God if we ourselves haven't taken the trouble to come into that presence?

 

All through the day, beneath the surface of all that you do, seek God's face. And as you do, how trivial and empty will become the vast majority of things which have consumed your heart.

 

2. Seek God's face in the congregation.

 

After we have been seeking alone, then it becomes a joy to seek God's face also in the congregation. That's what we ought to be doing as we gather for worship week by

week. What a change will come over our worship, and every­thing that goes on in our fellowships, when we lay aside our own thoughts and seek God's face.

 

"Praise him 0 ye servants of the Lord, Ye that stand in the house of the Lord,

In the courts of the house of our God."

 

3. Seek God's face in the person of Jesus

 

He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.

 

And to see Jesus, the heart has to be detached from all its distractions and fixed on Him.

 

If you really want to walk with Him, He'll be at your side.

If you really want to do His will, He'll make his presence known ...... And when we're in communion with Jesus, we are in the presence of God. For He is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person.

 

The longer we live, the more convinced we ought to be that there is nothing else worth pursuing but Him.

 

4. _Seek God's face in the words that proceed from His mouth.

 

If you're having trouble seeing God, start with those gracious words already planted in your heart which you know are His. Bring them out. Consider them. Take words from the Lord which are already familiar and say them aloud. Listen to their sound. Somehow the source of those words will come into view.

 

5. Seek God's face in the promise of the Holy Spirit.

 

Do we ever stop asking God to pour out His Spirit upon us? Do we ever stop seeking more? And when we ask for the Spirit, we are not seeking an experience. We are seeking the face of God.

6. Seek God's face in the face of Jesus' brethren.

 

"Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of

the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me."

 

So when we visit the sick, write to the prisoner, feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, we are not seeking to "do good." We are seeking the face of God. When we do these things to be "doing good" we soon wear out. When we do these things as a way of pursuing our blessed Saviour's face, we go from strength to strength.

 

7. Seek God's face in the night watches.

 

You wake up in the middle of the night and can't sleep. Or perhaps you are passing through a NIGHT in your circum­stances. Don't just lie there and feel sorry for yourself. Seek the face of God!

 

When I remember thee upon my bed,

And meditate on thee in the night watches.

 

There are doubtless many changes which are going to have to be made in our way of living and thinking in the coming days. But the root change on which everything else must be built is that we reject forever our contentment with a distant God, and our second-hand visions of Him, and seek His face.

 

One thing have I desired of the Lord,

That will I seek after.

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord

All the days of my life

To behold the beauty of the Lord

And to inquire in His temple.

 

When thou saidst, "Seek ye my face,"

My heart said unto thee,

''Thy face, Lord, will I seek."