heart_of_seeker

Heart of a Seeker, by Randall D. Kittle

“Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the Lord! Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!” — Psalm 105:3–4

Talking to a friend who had just returned from a Christian conference, I was excited to hear his report of how the Lord had specially touched him there. It seems this is often the case for those who go to a conference or take part in a spiritual retreat. Why is it the Lord seems to move more strongly at these times? Is He giving special favor only to certain geographic locations or to specific speakers? Perhaps there are special anointings involved, but more importantly those whom God touches have shown the desire He loves to reward … the heart of a seeker. The efforts they take to sign up, rearrange their lives to make the time, pay the cost, and prepare their hearts to arrive with expectancy demonstrate that they are seeking after God. Similarly, if we truly desire to come into God’s presence, we must have hearts that seek after Him, “… for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Seeking with a Whole Heart
Despite his failures and his shortcomings, God said of King David, “I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart” (Acts 13:22). David had his own agenda. He was after something … God. David sought God wholeheartedly. Despite the fact that he was the king and had great power and authority, David sought the Lord and worshiped Him with no reservations. From this heart, abandoned to God, came streams of worshipful songs, many recorded in the Scriptures.

Nowhere is David’s abandoned heart pictured more clearly than when he danced before the Lord as the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to Israel. “Then David danced before the Lord with all his might; and David was wearing a linen ephod. So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet. Now as the ark of the Lord came into the City of David, Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked through a window and saw King David leaping and whirling before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart” (2 Samuel 6:14–16). Here, David abandoned himself to worship the Lord with all that was within him: with all his heart, and soul, and mind, and strength. As David danced before the Lord, he wasn’t doing the “Pentecostal two-step.” He was leaping and whirling … dancing with all his might.

His freedom and abandonment offended some onlookers, including his wife Michal. “She despised him in her heart.” Like those who are jealous, legalistic, or threatened by our zeal and passion for God, her contempt did not stay hidden in her heart very long. “How the king of Israel distinguished himself today! He uncovered himself today in the eyes of his servants’ maids as one of the foolish ones shamelessly uncovers himself!” (2 Samuel 6:20). Michal mocked her husband, calling him a shameless fool for his ignoble actions. We, too, may face ridicule or persecution if we seek the Lord wholeheartedly — abandonly holding back nothing.

God … Above His Wisdom
Although David was a man after God’s own heart, he was also a man of bloodshed. It was because of this that Solomon, not David, built the Temple. Solomon, as his father David, did many wrong and evil things. But what does the Bible say he did that was evil in the sight of the Lord? “Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as did his father David” (1 King 11:6). Worse than his lascivious living and his puffed up pride, he “did not fully follow the Lord.” The Bible does not say Solomon did not follow the Lord, it says that he did not fully follow the Lord. God is not looking for disciples who merely follow Him, but disciples who will fully follow Him. The Lord is looking for those, like David, who will follow Him without reservation and seek Him wholeheartedly.

The difference between David and Solomon was this: David sought God — “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life” (Psalms 27:4), and Solomon sought wisdom — “I applied my heart to know, to search and seek out wisdom and the reason of things” (Ecclesiastes 7:25). Solomon chose to follow after wisdom, instead of choosing to fully pursue God.

If we choose to trust in knowledge or wisdom (even the very wisdom of God) and honor it above seeking Him and His presence, we will fail to seek after God with our whole heart. It is this failure that causes most of the Church to miss out on not only the presence of the Lord, but His revelation that comes with it. Let us learn from David’s example and “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near” (Isaiah 55:6).

Revelation Follows Those Who Seek
Revelation comes to those who seek after God. For example, after Jesus was born, the wise men sought to worship this newborn King of the Jews. God rewarded them by allowing them to experience His presence, and following His presence came divine revelation. “And having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed for their own country by another way” (Matthew 2:12).

The wise men were not searching after revelation, but pursuing the One who is the Great Revelation. The wise men were seekers of God first, and then became seers as God chose to give them revelation. Remember, God is “a rewarder” of those who seek after Him.

Seeking Him Continually
Imagine the anticipation and expectation of the wise men when week after week, month after month they followed the star, seeking the Lord. The wise men were seekers, not just seeking one day but continually seeking — persevering in the pursuit.

As they traveled hundreds of miles on a journey that took many months, it would have been easy to become discouraged. Over each hill was the hope for the fulfillment of the promise. Each new valley brought the truth that the journey was further still. How natural it would have been to grow weary … to lose heart … to give up. But God has promised that if we will not faint, we will reap the rewards. “And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9).

The wise men followed and continued following the star until finally after a very long and tiring journey they were able to look into the face of Jesus. The Lord expects no less of us today. We are still to seek the Lord, following after Him and worshiping Him unceasingly.

The Bible tells us that when the wise men came to Jesus they bowed down and worshiped Him. This word “worship” means “to kiss toward, and involves prostrating oneself in homage, reverence, and adoration.” But the wise men’s humble worship of the Lord didn’t end there. They laid down their gifts before Jesus. These gifts represent not only Jesus’ worthiness, but also the wise men’s willingness to give of themselves.

The wise men showed us what it means to have the heart of a seeker: a sold out heart, willing to unswervingly seek the Lord and open to giving all to God, holding back nothing. When they finally found Jesus, they responded with joy, worship, and gifts. What a contrast to so many today who expect God to come looking for them, to explain Himself, prove to them who He is, and then give them gifts.

God does desire to give us many precious and wonderful gifts: gifts of revelation, power, healing, and so much more, but He wants to give these to those who are seeking after Him. If we will diligently seek Him with hearts filled with anticipation and expectation, we will find Him — we will come into His glorious presence. As our focus becomes the Lord, and our hearts’ desire becomes worshiping Him and giving Him our all, God will reward us by manifesting His presence and granting us supernatural revelation.

Unquenchable Seeking
God wants us to seek Him … and keep on seeking. The apostle Paul had seen the physical manifestation of the Lord and was blessed by Him with many spiritual gifts. In spite of the Lord’s bountiful blessings when he was younger, Paul continued to press on to lay hold of more of Jesus as he got older. “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13–14).

Those who yearn after the Lord, by the action itself, admit they have not yet “taken hold of it.” There is a humility found in the heart of those who seek after the Lord. The cry of their heart is, “I need more of God, and I want Him to have more of me!” They have a thirst for the living water of Jesus Christ, which is as unquenchable as He is infinite and eternal. Paul could never be satisfied with anything less than all of Jesus. He had learned that we please God most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves better, nor serving Him in a thousand different ways, but by throwing ourselves, our all, into His arms of love. Paul knew the goal he sought wasn’t to know God or serve God. It was to be God’s!

Pressing On
Those pursuing the Lord will not deny their past, even though it may be filled with failure. They would also admit they “haven’t arrived,” that the Lord still has much work to do in their lives. Despite their many shortcomings, those seeking after God focus neither upon their past failures nor their present shortcomings. Their eyes are fixed upon that which they seek — Jesus.

Paul chose to forget what was behind as he pressed on, straining toward what was ahead. His eyes were fixed upon the goal and nothing else. It was a solitary focus — “this one thing I do.” Like David who said “One thing I have desired, that will I seek after,” there was a singularity of purpose. Christ was not just something Paul was seeking; He was the one thing he was seeking! “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen” (2 Corinthians 4:18). If we are to reach the goal, we need to know where we are going and fix our eyes on the prize.

Reaching Out with Expectation
Those who are pursuing God must be seeking Him with expectation — looking for Him to come and meet them. Zacchaeus was a man small in stature, and smaller yet in the popular opinion of his day. Yet, his heart had been stirred with what he had been told of Jesus. The One he had heard so much about was making a visitation to his very area. He had to see Jesus for himself. The crowd got in his way. His pride said, “How ridiculous you would look hanging in a tree.” But his heart said, “Now is the day of my visitation, I must see this Jesus!” And there, in that tree, Jesus called Zacchaeus down and ate with him so he could come to know the Lord.

Similarly, now is the time for us to seek the presence of the Lord in our lives as never before. To see Him and understand His ways; to not only learn more of Him, but to have more relationship with Him. If we pursue the Lord with a seeking heart, we will actively press in, reaching for God.

The woman who was healed of the issue of blood (see Mark 5) had spent years of effort and energy trying to be freed from her infirmity. Despite the years of delay and disappointments when Jesus was making a visit to her town, she did not wait for an invitation. Pressing close to Jesus with expectancy in her heart, she knocked once more at the door of hope and her healing was received.

In like manner, let me encourage you to press into the Lord, desiring to touch Him. You may not have a “special invitation,” but none is needed for all are invited. Now is the time for us to ceaselessly knock at the door of heaven petitioning for the desire of our heart. As we come to God with the heart of a seeker, He will give us the desire of our heart — because He will be the desire of our heart.

Do we truly believe the Lord is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him? If so, let us learn to zealously press on to receive all that Jesus has for us in this hour, until we come into the very fullness of Christ. It is not comfort, contentment, or complacency that allows us to press on after God. It is having an expectancy that He will meet us and a willingness to make the effort to seek Him.

With what effort and expectancy have you pursued the Lord lately? Let us be yearning worshipers, unquenchably seeking after our glorious Lord, for the living God of the universe will delight to reveal Himself to our seeking hearts.