Beyond What We Seek

Rev Albert Kang

Beyond What We Seek

 Psalm 27:8

When Thou didst say, “Seek My face,” my heart said to Thee, “Thy face, O Lord, I shall seek”

 There are times when the Lord calls us to enter into a special season with Him. He would allow the Holy Spirit to prompt our hearts with his command to seek His face. He has something precious and vitally important for us. He wants us to get out of our familiar bondages and patterns of our daily lives. During such time of confrontation with the Lord, his glory consumes us. We discover that we are able to break free from our sins that might have plagued us for years. It might become a turning point in our lives. Many others who experience such glory of God also discover a deeper life in Him, a deeper experience in touching the invisible. They find greater effectiveness in their ministries and prayers. Some others see a breakthrough in their families and are used by God to see their loved ones brought into the Kingdom. The result is always astounding if we allowed it to affect us.

Shallow Faith

The sad truth is that most of us have very shallow faith. We have the habit of seeking God with an agenda from our own selfish desires. We ask Him to give us things, jobs, houses, cars and life partner etc. We sometime pray because we are fearful. Like superstitious people, we kowtow to a God whom we have no close relationship. We are no better than idol-worshippers.

It is nothing wrong to ask God to meet our needs but if that is the only time we would talk to God then, something is wrong with our faith. To those who are a little more spiritual, they seek God to empower them so that they can get so-and-so saved or to reach out to such-and-such community. However, even that alone is wrong. We cannot always be asking God for this and that. Every time we pray, instead of seeking His face, we have made it a bad habit of only seeking His hands. God has become like an ATM machine. We put in our “cards” and expect the cash to jump out. If the cash does not appear, we would be upset and might even kick the machine. God becomes an object to be used and once He is “useless”, we dump Him.

This “utility-based” approach is robbing us of the true pleasure of having fellowship with God. It is not the right way to establish a strong relationship with the Lord. It is of little wonder why many Christians have become very weak in their faith. Their understanding of the value in praying and meeting with the Lord is distorted.

Crucifying The Lord

Jesus had the same problem with the early believers. They flocked to Him because of His miracles and what He could give them. They thought that with such miraculous power, He would be their political deliverer. They wanted political freedom from the Roman rulers but not spiritual freedom from their sins. When they learned that Jesus was not what they thought he was, they got rid of Him. They crucified God’s ideal so as to pursue after their own ideal. 

Sadly, many modern Christians today are still crucifying the Lord. Every time, when they cannot get what they want from the Lord, they nail Him back up on the cross. A rich woman, who used to attend my former church, was upset with her husband. She felt that God had given her the wrong man. The fact was that, years ago, she by her own freewill, chose to marry him. It was not an arranged marriage. Nobody forced her, not even her parents. Now, when her marriage was not doing well she could not blame herself for it. (During the counseling sessions with the couple, I learned that she despised her husband’s social status and her constant nagging became the primary source of the marital problem). She had to find someone to fix this blame on and so the Lord became a convenient target. In her effort to be defiant, she returned to her habit of smoking, drinking and nightclubbing. She stopped coming to church and soon cut off all contacts with Christians. Before she left church completely, she told me that her newfound homosexual friends were much better than all the Christians. Guess who got hurt at the end? You know the answer. 

Person of Holiness?

We must learn to come to God with no agenda except to seek His face. We must seek God because we love Him and not just His miracles and gifts. Maturity in Christ begins when we break the habit of seeking God only in the time of needs and hardship. Holiness begins the moment we seek God for Himself. How does one become a person of holiness? If you expect to see a person glowing with a special halo above his head, then you do not understand holiness. A person in his natural self is not holy. He becomes holy when in spite of falling and failing again and again, he gets up again and again, relentlessly pursuing after the presence of God. That was the experience of King David. In today’s context, David would be condemned both as an adulterer and a murderer. Some in the church would probably avoid him. Others may whisper among themselves, “Here comes the peeping Tom who killed his own soldier and took his wife. He is bad, bad, bad.” We love to sit on the judges’ bench, don’t we? However, before God judges us He would first grant us mercy. That is the reason why Jesus is first the Messiah before He is the Judge.

This “adulterer and murderer” who would stand no chance with us, found mercy with God. He took the path of repentance and pursued after the forgiveness and presence of his God. He had even allowed his shame and sins to be officially recorded and shared as spiritual lessons with future generations. David was indeed a man after God’s own heart because he had learned to rest his weaknesses and weariness within the embrace of his God.

Peter the Apostle fumbled, denied Christ and fell but he got up again and pursue after Christ. Like David, Peter would not receive much welcome from some modern Christians. Who want to mix with a man who publicly denied Christ? However, it is through people like David and Peter - people who are not are not complete in themselves that the glory of God could shine through. We should be like David and Peter and go in pursuit of more than just an experience, more than the feeling the goose bumps and tears. We must seek the ABIDING PRESENCE OF CHRIST and commune with Him face to face. Didn’t the Lord commend Mary for choosing the right choice when she sat at His feet to learn? Wasn’t Martha chided for being busy with work alone? So watch out!  I have learned that being BUSY-NESS is bad when it takes me away from the presence of God. Let’s seek His face today and be continually aware of His fullness inside us, where His Presence dwells within us in glory.