Thy Face Lord, Will I Seek
And to this agree the words of the prophets; as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up:
That the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the Gentiles, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, who doeth all these things.
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world (Act 15:15-18).
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek (Psa 27:8).
The message of the chapter has already been lucidly declared by Hosea the prophet, the son of Beeri. In the tenth chapter of his prophecy he declared: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he shall come and reign righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12). In the Amplified translation of the Bible the verse is rendered as:
“Sow for yourselves according to righteousness—uprightness and right standing with God; reap according to mercy and loving-kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, for it is time to seek the Lord and to require of Him” (Hosea 10:12 Amplified).
This is the Time to Seek the Lord
This is the core of the entire message of this book. The purpose of our calling is first to seek the face of our Creator. This is the time to inquire of the Lord; this is the time to seek His face.
This is the time when true worshippers will worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. These are the days and the hours when men and women, children and the aged, from every tribe and tongue will flock to the Tabernacle of the Most High to worship Him.
This is the day and hour that our God has been waiting for and the generation that His Spirit desires; the generation of them that seek Him.
These indeed agree with the words of the prophets—that this is the day and hour when Spirit of God is being poured out upon all flesh. This is the hour when a generation will begin to seek God in spirit and sincerity.
Hosea in the Spirit said: “Break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD.”
Dear friend, before you continue reading, ask yourself: What do I seek? Whom do I seek? What is my passionate desire? What is my daily pursuit and principal desire?
We know, without the shadow of a doubt, what the world seeks after. The Lord Jesus has already told us in Scriptures what the world seeks after. In the sixth chapter of Matthew, He said: “For after all these things do the heathen seek.” After what do they seek? The heathen seek after things. They seek after stuff and pursue the things of this world with a passion.
Children of God do not seek after things, or, should we say, are not to seek things. They do not spend their lives seeking and pursuing the things of this world with the heathen. They do not join the world in the rat-race and involve themselves in the so-called dog-eat-dog world. When the children of God are in need, they ask their Father and He supplies their needs. The heathen do not know how to ask God, so they push and shove, and scramble to get what they want.
What does the Scripture tells us to seek? Throughout the Scriptures there is only one Person that the people of God are admonished to seek. The Almighty God is the only One the people of God are to seek. To make any other thing our object of desire is to put that object in the place of God. Seeking after God should be our ultimate passion.
The heathen seek things but the Saints of the Most High seek after their God. This is their reason for life; this is their purpose.
As stated above, when the children of God are in need, the most fundamental way they get their needs met is by asking their heavenly Father. They ask the Father for things when they need them and they receive. There is a great provision in Scripture for them; in the sixth chapter of Matthew the Lord said:
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened” (Matt 7:7).
Let’s slow down and examine what the Spirit of God is telling us in this passage. The Lord is telling us in this verse that as God’s children, if we ask we shall receive. This is the first part of this important lesson that He’s teaching us. This is the first realm of this spiritual law. “Ask and it shall be given unto you.”
In this realm, you ask and receive the things; it is like a gift. This is the gift realm, the realm of asking and receiving. Gifts are given based on the goodness and benevolence of the giver and do not depend on the goodness of the receiver. But there is a higher realm. There is a next level that the child of God is expected to move to. Beyond the asking and receiving realm, there is a seeking and finding realm. In the first realm you ask for things and you receive things. In this second realm, you seek and find.
There are different spiritual realms and each realm has its laws. The lower realms have their laws and so do the higher realms. The laws of the higher realms supercede and incorporate the laws of the lower realms, but not vice-versa. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus is above all physical laws and sets us free from the law of sin and death.
In the first realm, we ask and we receive. In the second realm, which is a higher realm, we seek God and thus find Him, and when we find Him, He becomes our rewarder. The law of this realm is that as we seek the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things become ours as well. These things include divine health, provision, and prosperity. This is the realm where God undertakes for us: a realm where all needs are met, a realm of divine health and divine provision, a realm of union with the El-Shaddai One. Seek the Lord and you enter into a realm of zero lack where all your needs are met by His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
There is a great difference between asking and seeking. There is a big difference also between receiving and finding. Seeking is more involving on the side of the recipient than asking. In this realm, the seeker is more absorbed in the pursuit than the one that just asks. The heathen seek after worldly treasures with a passion, but the children of God are to be consumed by the passion of seeking after their Father God. The Lord is the treasure that they seek and their all in all.
How dear are your Tents, O Lord of Armies! The passion of my soul’s desire is for the house of the Lord; my heart and my flesh are crying out for the living God (Psa 84:2).
In Scriptures, the word “seek” is always used in relation to the Almighty God. The Scriptures tells us to “Seek the Lord.” But this is only for those that are alive in Christ Jesus. The dead cannot seek Him. Only the living can seek Him, for they are the ones that can hear His voice. David sang these words in his song in the 27th Psalm, saying: “When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek” (Psa 27:8).
Here in the book of Matthew, the Lord told us that the heathen seeks after things but that His people are to seek the kingdom of God. He said: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you (Matt 6:33).
Children of God are not to seek things, but instead they are to seek the Kingdom of God and its righteousness. They seek after the Lord as the deer seeks after the brooks of water. As they pursue the kingdom of God and its righteousness, God makes sure their needs are met. As they seek after God and His kingdom, He makes sure the things they need follow them as well. They seek God and good things follow them. God is a rewarder of them that seek Him.
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him (Heb 11:6 ).
God rewards those that seek Him. This message from our Lord also assures us that if we seek Him, we’ll find Him and we’ll be rewarded with whatever things that we need because He knows what we need before we ask Him.
There is a generation at this end-time whose desire is to seek after God. These are the ones of whom the Scripture in Psalm 24 says “shall receive blessings from the Lord and righteousness from the God of their salvation.”
This is the generation of those who seek Him, who inquire of and for Him, and require Him, who seek Your face, O God of Jacob. Selah [pause and think of that] (Psalm 24:6).
Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness
This is the generation of those who are alive in Christ Jesus, who hunger and thirst after righteousness. These ones, like David, have a fervent desire to dwell in the Presence of the Lord all the days of their lives–a desire to behold His face, to inquire of and seek Him. These are His beloved ones, His chosen, and the apple of His eyes.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy (1Pe 2:9 -10).
These ones have a passion for the House of the Lord. At dawn they seek Him, their souls thirst for Him and their bodies long for His Presence.
What does it mean to seek someone or something? It is to pursue relentlessly, to chase, to follow after unceasingly as a thirsty deer seeks for the water brook.
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. Because thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in thy name.
My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches.
Because thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice. My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me (Psa 63:1-8).
To follow after Him is to mind the things of the Spirit. We ought to follow and seek the Lord in our work, in our attitude, in our thoughts.
Our greatest desire should be to seek the face of Christ fervently like a night watchman seeks the morning. Children of God who seek His Presence with such burning desire will find Him and be found ready to be changed into the image of Christ by the Spirit of the Lord.
With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness (Isa 26:9).
