PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (7)

“I will praise you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer” (Psalm 63:4 NLT).

Pursuit of God is a lifelong commitment to cultivate an increasingly intimate relationship with Him. Building a strong and deep relationship with any person is usually a tasking job that demands earnestness, exertion and endurance. The feebleminded cannot seek God. They would lack the patience and fortitude to study the ways of God and understand His operational models.  God does not work with our time frame but with His. He is neither slow nor fast in the ways we understand those terms, but is always on time and in time for what He plans to do. Seeking God demands unflinching dedication to the lifestyle of praise –a habit of praising God at all times, when situations are praise-worthy and when they are not. This is not the way human beings naturally respond to situations but it’s God’s chosen way.  

Praise attracts God and confers on humans the privilege of hosting His Presence.  David underscores this unique power of praise when he declared, “But You are holy, Enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3 NKJV). The Hebrew word interpreted “enthroned” means “to sit down, to dwell, to remain or to settle.” God does not just come when you praise Him; He comes to sit down with you and to settle as He enjoys the sweet aroma of your praise and worship.  Praising God draws Him to us and causes Him to remain with us affording us a unique opportunity to develop intimate relationship with Him. In a nutshell, praise occasions a habitation of God among His worshiping community.

The mystery of praise is demonstrated in the manifold ways God blessed Judah, the son of Jacob.  Judah means praise. “Once again Leah became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She named him Judah, for she said, “Now I will praise the LORD!...” (Genesis 29:35 NLT). Judah was the most favoured son of Jacob by divine election. Left to Jacob, Joseph would have gotten everything but God chose Judah.  Jacob prophesied over Judah with these words:

“Judah, you are he whom your brothers shall praise; your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies; your father’s children shall bow down before you.  Judah is a lion’s whelp; from the prey, my son, you have gone up. He bows down; he lies down as a lion; and as a lion, who shall rouse him? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, or a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes; and to Him shall be the obedience of the people. (Genesis 49:8-10 NKJV)

The mantle for leadership was upon Judah. He was the one his brothers shall praise. Accordingly, the greatest kings of the ancient Israel were descendants of Judah.  David, a grandson of Judah was outstanding as a worshiper of God. He wrote the majority of the psalms and elevated the worship of God to a national status in Israel. Our Lord Jesus was a descendant of Judah, therefore the sceptre did not depart from him or the lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh (Jesus) came. Praise was perfected in Christ. Another descendant of Judah, Solomon had the awesome privilege of building for God a place of habitation (2 Chronicles 6:2), where praises were offered continually to Him.

God’s attraction to praise has not changed. Until today, He still communicates Himself to those who praise Him in every circumstance. God shows up anywhere He is praised.  When Jehoshaphat praised Him in the battlefield, He showed up and granted Him victory without a fight.

And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army and were saying: “Praise the Lord, For His mercy endures forever.” Now when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; and they were defeated. (2 Chronicles 20:21-22 NKJV)

If you are hungry for the manifest Presence of God, praise will bring Him. He enjoys hanging out with people who praise Him. When you lift Him up in praise, He comes in glory to honour you and to bless you. Praise magnifies God and unleashes our faith to trust Him more. Praise emboldens us to pray more effectively. Praise draws His power to meet our need. Stay on your track in pursuit of God but remember that a lifestyle of praise will get you there faster than any other means.   

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (6)

“So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory” (Psalm 63:2 NKJV).

One of the places people expect to find God is in His sanctuary.  The sanctuary is a place of worship –a place where people gather routinely to worship God. The tabernacles of Moses and David, the temple of Solomon, as well as the Jewish Synagogues are examples of sanctuaries mentioned in the Bible.  In those days, people who were hungry for fellowship with God usually go to the sanctuary to do so. “Moses took his tent and pitched it outside the camp, far from the camp, and called it the tabernacle of meeting. And it came to pass that everyone who sought the Lord went out to the tabernacle of meeting which was outside the camp” (Exodus 33:7 NKJV). Thus, it was a biblical tradition for people to go to the sanctuary to seek God.  God honoured those who came to look for Him with His manifest Presence. Here was the testimony of Moses: “And it came to pass, when Moses entered the tabernacle, that the pillar of cloud descended and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the Lord talked with Moses. Therefore, the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle” (Exodus 33:9, 11 NKJV). What glorious encounters Moses and Joshua must have enjoyed as they sought God in the sanctuary!

 Did you realise that while Moses and Joshua enjoyed a face-to-face encounter with God, the rest of the people were satisfied worshiping at a distance from the comfort of their tent doors. “All the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the tabernacle door, and all the people rose and worshiped, each man in his tent door” (Exodus 33:10 NKJV).Here was God, available to all the people, but only two could step out of their comfort zones to seek God in the sanctuary. The mere fact of leaving your shop, office, or house to go to church to spend some personal time with God is a strong enough a signal to yourself  as well as to God that you mean business. While it is okay to pray at your tent doors, it will help greatly to go to church when there is no service going on just to hang out with God in His house.

I recall how I used to go to the church as a small boy to pray.  What motivated me then was the understanding that God was present in the Blessed Sacrament and would readily hear me when I pray.  Granted that I was not born again then, but most of the prayers I prayed then were answered.  Anytime someone takes time out of a busy day to seek God in His sanctuary, great blessings always accrues to such a person. When I came into Owerri newly, I used to go to the Holiness Evangelistic Church auditorium to pray in the afternoons when the noise would be at its peak at my office then at 197 Wetheral Road. Such personal times in the Presence of God in His sanctuary were most invaluable in my spiritual development.  The Psalmist therefore modelled a habit worthy of our emulation –making time to go to the sanctuary for a personal encounter with God’s Presence.

What was the dominant desire of David as he sought God in His sanctuary?  “So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, to see Your power and Your glory” (Psalm 63:2 NKJV). He desired to experience the power and the glory of God. He did not only want to have a right concept of God, but also to experience an encounter with His Person.  He did not want to be counted among those whom Paul described to Timothy as “having a form of godliness but denying the power thereof” (2 Timothy 3:5 KJV).  To experience the power and glory of God in our lives as individuals in our time together in church for corporate worship would demand the manifest Presence of God. Power and glory flows from His Presence and not merely from having accurate principles about God.  Whenever God shows up, power explodes and glory is revealed.  Don’t come to church just for a rehearsal of the principles of God but to experience His manifest Presence. It is only as we encounter His Presence that we will see His power and glory. O God we need more of Your Presence at any cost in Jesus Name. 

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (5)

“My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me” (Psalm 63:8 KJV).

As the prophet Elijah began his last journey on earth, his servant Elisha resolved to inherit his legacy. He determined to cling to Elijah with undivided attention and unclouded focus. On three different occasions, Elijah tried to discourage Elisha from following him, but on those three occasions, his suggestions hit a stone wall in Elisha –“As the Lord lives, and as your soul lives, I will not leave you...”(2 Kings 2:4,6,9 NKJV). The younger prophet was resolute in his determination to inherit the legacy of his master.

Finally, the day came when Elijah was to be translated to heaven by a fiery chariot. He called Elisha to make one final request from him before he was taken up. Elisha, who had been amazed at the intensity of the power of God upon Elijah, asked for a double portion of the anointing on Elijah. By asking for a “double portion” of Elijah’s spirit, Elisha was simply asking to become the heir of Elijah and therefore be favoured to step into his prophetic office and gifts. This request was beyond the powers of Elijah to grant because only God determines who serves as His prophet. Elijah responded that Elisha’s request would be granted on one condition –“if you see me when I am taken up from you, it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so” (2 Kings 2:10 NKJV). On hearing the condition for his request to be met, Elisha clung to Elijah with even firmer determination so as not to miss what God is about to do with him. He followed hard after Elijah! 

To follow hard after a thing is to pursue it with such a resolve as if your whole life depends on getting that thing. In our context, to follow hard after God means to seek and yearn after His intimacy with an ever-increasing intensity. It is to do everything within your power once you find God, to keep Him with you at all cost. For many of us, our quest for God ends with our conversion.  The new birth experience signals the beginning of spiritual relationship with God, which is nurtured for as long as the person has the breath of life. There is so much growing in God that will last forever. Several years ago, I was much troubled by the insatiable desire to know more of God that I asked God about it. He gave me an answer that settles it for me forever. He said, “Maturity in Christ is always a goal for those who are not fools.”  In our relationship with God, the moment you begin to feel that you have arrived, you know you are only beginning. Anytime you feel you are on top, it indicates you are right at the bottom.

Following hard after God means, to pursue Him closely through the thick and thin of life with all the energy at our disposal.  It is being full and being hungry at the same time. In the physical world, the more food we eat, the less hungry we feel. It is the opposite in the spiritual. The more of God we have, the hungrier for Him we become.  God is an infinite mystery, which will forever remain unexplored by our finite mind. Genuine hunger for God drives us to His Presence resulting in increasing waves of encounter as we yearn for more and more of Him. God invites us to dive deeper and deeper into the knowledge of His glory. His invitation is also His assurance that we will never be disappointed.

Our souls follow hard after God simply because He upholds us with His right hand.  None can pursue God unless He bids him to come.  As A.W. Tozer observed in his ever-refreshing classic, The Pursuit of God, “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him. All the time we are pursuing Him, we are already in His hand: “Thy right hand upholdeth me.” What a truth! The desire to follow hard after God is a proof that we are already firmly secure in His hand. At no other time is following hard after God more needful than now. Many are following after mere mirage, which will end in avoidable heart aches. Only God is worthy of our pursuits because only Him truly satisfies. Resolve with the Psalmist to follow hard after Him even as He upholds you in His right hand in Jesus Name.  

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (4)

“O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1 NKJV).

Most people who walked with God sought Him early in the morning. Your waking thought sets the pace for your day and to a large extent dictates the tone of your life. The thought you wake up with reveals what you are truly passionate about.  When you wake thinking about God, you will more easily and consistently seek Him the rest of the day.  This is so because the first thought that grips your heart in the morning is most likely to control it for the rest of the day. The popular saying holds that first impression is the lasting impression. The thought that makes the first strong impression in your heart will be the thought that will linger in your mind most of the day.  It will not be easy to be dislodged and replaced by later ideas because it has become deeply fixed in the mind before other ideas begin to arise. The Psalmist understood this secret therefore he sought God early –“early will I seek You.”  He prayed, “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up” (Psalm 5:3 NKJV). Endeavour to direct your heart to God first thing every morning through prayer.

Here is a powerful incentive to seek God early –“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me” (Proverbs 8:17 KJV). Prayer is the surest way to seek Him.  People who have done the most for God on earth have been men and women who sought God early in prayers and heard His voice early before hearing any other person’s. According to E. M. Bounds, “He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunities and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day.” It is beyond question that only those who are in a hot passionate pursuit after God can break the seductive appeal of early morning sleep to fellowship with God in prayer and meditation on His Word.  Our Lord Jesus modelled for us the uttermost necessity of seeking God early. Mark testified of His life habit, “Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed” (Mark 1:35 NKJV). Adam Clarke provided this insight, “By the morning, is to be understood the whole space of three hours, which finished the fourth watch of the night.” Our Lord spends three hours, from 3am to 6am, in prayer every morning. 

That window of time is when God activates our spiritual senses to receive revelations of His Person, activities, and programs so that we can serve Him better. The Prophet Isaiah reveals what God does with people who pray at the fourth watch:   “The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary.  He awakens me morning by morning, He awakens my ear to hear as the learned” (Isaiah 50: 4 NKJV). Early morning is the time of revelations when God imparts knowledge to us as He opens our spiritual ears to hear and anoints our tongues to speak with His authority.

Seeking God early as the Psalmist exemplified would demand everything in us to do.  It would surely take the longing of the flesh and the thirst of the soul to shatter the smug complacency of the flesh in order to pursue God. E. M. Bounds once more declared, “A desire for God which cannot break the chains of sleep is a weak thing and will do but little good for God after it has indulged itself fully. The desire for God that keeps so far behind the devil and the world at the beginning of the day will never catch up...Our laziness after God is our crying sin...We do not seek God with ardour and diligence. No one gets God who does not follow hard after Him.” Why not consider the example of Jesus and give God the first hours of your day?  This is how to go from glory to glory.

Let us once more pray with the Psalmist, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.”

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (3)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV).

 Spiritual thirst is a good indicator that one is spiritually alive. As the dead craves neither for food nor for drink, so the spiritually dead does not crave for righteousness. To hunger and thirst for righteousness means desiring more and more of God in our lives. It is the loneliness of a soul reaching out for deeper intimacy with God. Spiritual thirst is a nagging awareness that we need a dip dive into the water of life where we loose all control to the Holy Spirit. It is a growing sense that there is something more of God than we are getting at the moment and a resolve to go for the more.  It is a craving of the soul for divine companionship. The intensity of our thirst is a measure of the level of our relationship with God –the higher the intensity, the deeper the relationship.

There are two levels of spiritual thirst. First, the thirst for salvation –“And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17 NKJV).  In this scripture the Holy Spirit, through the church (the bride of Christ), calls on sinners to come and drink of the water of life freely. The thirst is satisfied at no price. All that one is required to do is simply to call on Jesus for salvation.  This thirst is satisfied once and for all the moment one puts his faith in the person and the finished work of Christ. Therefore, our Lord told the woman of Samaria –“If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water... whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:10, 14 NKJV).  Salvation is a once in a life time unrepeatable experience of being born into the family of God that is accomplished in a person by the Holy Spirit when the person accepts Christ as Saviour (John 1:12-14).

The second level of thirst that demands satisfaction is thirsting and hungering for righteousness. Jesus promised, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled” (Matthew 5:6 NKJV). Righteousness means right relationship with God and others that is mediated by Christ. However, the word of God tells us that Jesus is our righteousness ( 1 Corinthians 1:30). Jesus defined Himself as the Bread of Life and the living water that satisfies and refreshes permanently.

“And Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger, and he who believes in Me shall never thirst. Then Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:35, 53-56 NKJV)  

As the body needs daily doses of food and water for sustenance and refreshment, so does our souls need daily deepening   intimacy with Christ to remain healthy. Our continuing quest for deeper intimacy with Christ is the way to hunger and thirst for righteousness. Desiring for deeper intimacy with God is the reason for the restlessness our souls feel from time to time. Nothing that we can achieve on our own can satisfy this, not money, not education, not fame, not power. C. S Lewis explains, “If I find in myself desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” Yes, we are meant for heaven, only God can satisfy the deepest longings of our heart.  The more we know Him, the more we want to know Him. Make the pursuit of God’s glory the main job of your life and you will experience Him in a life-changing encounter.

Let us pray with A. W. Tozer, “O God, I have tasted thy goodness, and it has both satisfied me and made me thirsty for more. I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace. I am ashamed of my lack of desire. O God, the Triune God, I want to want Thee; I long to be filled with longing; I thirst to be made more thirsty still"(The Pursuit of God)

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (2)

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” (Psalm 73:25 NKJV)

The pursuit of glory demands undivided focus on God. We must groom our desire for the Presence of God to overshadow our desire for any other thing in life. The Prophet Haggai described God as the “Desire of All Nations” (Haggai 2:7) because in Him lies the ultimate satisfaction to our quest for fulfillment. My mother used to tell me that a man who attempts to pursue two rabbits at the same time would catch none of them. The same fate awaits any person who tries to pursue God alongside any other interest. We must pursue God to the exclusion of every other thing on earth.  Only with such an exclusive pursuit can we begin to perceive His glory and be drawn closer to His Presence.  God Himself set a standard on how we must seek Him if we really desire to find Him saying; “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV). Seeking God with all our hearts imply two things to me. First, we must seek Him for who He is and not merely for what He gives.  In this, Job was our perfect model. At the height of his suffering, he declared absolute faith and unflagging hope in God saying, “Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him.  Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him” (Job 13:15 NKJV). As far as Job was concerned, God was the only option for better or for worse, in good time and in bad times.  For Job, it was either God or nothing else.

The second implication of seeking God with all our hearts is that we must seek Him at the exclusion of all other interests.  For example, Jesus declared in the Gospels, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV).   This verse certainly did not say you could not experience heavenly glory and earthly glory at the same time.  To imply that would undermine the overarching desire of God for His kingdom to come to us and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.  God’s unflinching desire is that we prosper on earth and be in good health even as our soul prospers, “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Many people find it difficult to understand God’s demand for exclusive pursuit of Him by His children. Much like Nicodemus who did not understand what Christ meant by being born-again, we ask, must we forget every other thing necessary for life in order to encounter His glory? Our dilemma is understandable but the Scripture gives us enough guideline to navigate through this successfully. Paul in Colossians reveals, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16 NKJV). Three prepositions in this verse give us some light on how to pursue God exclusively while remaining functionally relevant on earth. They are, by...through ...and for... As everything was created by Him, through Him, and for Him, so must we do everything by His power, through His means, and for His ends.  Here is the guiding question we must ask in everything we do, by whose power am I doing this, through whose means, to whose end?  Anything you do that is not by God’s power, through God’s means, and for God’s end will take you away from the exclusive pursuit of Him. Hence Paul counsels us, “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:17 Message).

The ultimate value of the kingdom of heaven is the Presence of God.  The ultimate value of every human pursuit on earth will be to attract and retain the Presence of God.  The psalmist understood this so he exclaimed, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.”  Heaven without God is not worth the clamour. Earthly glory without God is mere delusion.  Therefore, let with pray with the Psalmist, “When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”  Do not hide Your face from me...” (Psalm 27: 8 NKJV)

PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (1)

“And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” (Exodus 33:18-20 NKJV)

Every person who is passionate for the glory of God pursues it.  This is also true in every other interest in life. Pursuit is always the proof of passion.  People generally pursue what gives them pleasure, significance, or fortune. For the heavenly minded, knowing and experiencing the glory of God is the best blessing God has for them. Glory has pleasure, significance and fortune but only as by products. Much more than these, glory guarantees friendship with God and eternal relevance in His eternal kingdom.  My favorite definition of glory describes it as an imparted divine essence that enables people to desire and enjoy the manifest Presence of God. When Adam and Eve were in glory, the desired and enjoyed the manifest Presence of God. They looked forward to God’s visits to the garden in the cool of the day. When they fell from glory because of disobedience, they ran from the manifest Presence of God. “Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”(Genesis 3:9-10 NKJV). Disobedience robbed Adam of God’s glory and pursued him from the Presence of God. That became the unfortunate heritage of every human being ever since.

Then the good news! “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16 NKJV). God loves the world and the people He made in His image and likeness and longs to restore them to glory. He sent Jesus to accomplish this and He did so with divine precision.  The Bible records:

⁹But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. ¹⁰For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.(Hebrews 2:9-10 NKJV)

Our Lord having suffered unimaginable humiliation and painful death on the Cross, successfully opened the portal of glory for all who would accept Him by faith. He died to bring many sons to glory and there is no other way anybody can be restored to the glory of God apart from believing Him and accepting His forgiveness. Paul would want us to always remember that Christ is our only hope to glory (Colossians 1:27). In Him and through Him we have unhindered access back into the Throne Room to worship our Father in the beauty of holiness. “So let us come boldly to the very throne of God and stay there to receive his mercy and to find grace to help us in our times of need” (Hebrews 4:16 Living Bible).

The Throne Room is the place of highest concentration of God’s glory. The Father invites us to come up there by faith from time to time to enjoy His glorious company.  The Apostle John had such invitation and accepted it by faith. He shared his testimony –“After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.” Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne” (Revelation 4:1-2 NKJV). As we reflect on His glory, this year, may the Lord bring you to a place of intimate encounter with Him. May He open for you the portals of heavenly glory and give you an experience of His Presence that will transform you from glory to Glory in Jesus Name.