If you seek you will find
People are being scattered in their thinking. This is the tactic of the enemy. Throughout the culture of our country we hear the cries of frustration as we see how people are responding to the mental, spiritual and social attacks of the enemy on our ability to be still and focused so that we can find and know our God. God has made Himself very accessible and known for all people so that no one has an excuse for avoiding Him. The problem is we live in a world that sends out the opposite message and then busies us with every imaginable thought and activity so that we are so confused that we don’t seek truth which is what will set us free. We need clarity from God.
Jesus spoke these liberating word in His sermon on the mount:
Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened” (Matt 7:7, 8).
So the first step toward clarity is to seek. No one can look at the night sky and not be amazed at the grandeur of it all and wonder about how it all came to be. God gave us a spirit and created the universe to spark a seeking heart in us all. Some people reject it and some respond to it. Jesus promises that if we seek we will find what we’re looking for. If we knock at God’s door He will answer it and come in to us. If we ask Him a question He will give us a straight answer that leads to truth. He is not hiding but is freely open to coming into our lives and having fellowship with us.
This seeking is difficult in our crazy, fast paced world of scrambling busyness. It will require you to follow the advice of the psalmist, “Be still and know that I am God” (Ps 46:10). The word translated “be still” means in Hebrew to “cease” what you’re doing and pay attention. Every person must come to this special place where they put the cell phone down, cease from their scurrying about and listen for the still, small voice of God. In the quiet stillness He will speak to the seeking heart.
Paul said to the Roman church:
. . . that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened (Rom 1:19–21).
Here Paul makes it clear that God has made Himself known within the hearts of people and through His creation. King Solomon wisely said, “He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end” (Eccl 3:11). God put the awareness of eternity in our hearts so that we will seek after it. He also made it clear that we will not be able to scientifically understand the grandeur of creation because it is beyond the ability of our minds. Yet, we can know that eternity is real and He is real.
Paul, in Romans, was simply agreeing with Solomon that God has fully made Himself knowable and find-able if we are seeking after the truth about Him. If we seek we will find. If we don’t look at creation and since this knowledge of creation in our hearts we will never find God but will be confused by the tactics of the enemy to distract us and keep us from seeking.
After seeking and finding, the next thing to happen is our spiritual ears are opened and we begin to hear what God is saying in creation and in our hearts. God has given us the ability to hear Him even through the clamor of Satan’s world system (Heb 5:11; Rev 2:7f).
The word says “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ” (Rom 10:17). Hearing is simply opening the ears of our hearts to perceive what Christ is saying. Once we hear Him, faith is generated in our hearts.
Time and again in the New Testament Jesus attributed faith to someone who was healed. The woman with the bleeding issue was healed when she touched the hem of His garment. Jesus said to her “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” She was immediately healed (Matt 9:22). Why? Because somewhere along the line she had heard in her heart the words of Jesus and faith came to her heart.
Faith is the God-given ability to see things His way. Spiritual things are revealed to the seeking heart that listens to and hears what God says. Hebrews 11:1 has this definition of faith: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is the God-given ability to see into the spiritual realm, to see things that we hope for and to become convinced of things we cannot see because they are spiritual in nature.
Once we hear what God says, faith comes forth like fruit on a healthy tree. It grows out of God’s word which we have heard because we listened for His voice. No wonder Jesus repeats seven times “He who has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches (Rev 2;7f). Even in His churches Jesus must admonish us to open our ears so that we can hear God and faith can come forth.
True faith will then produce changes in our lives because it connects us to the giver of transforming life. James wrote “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead” (James 2:26). Faith that does not produce works, visible changes to our lives, is dead and is not real faith.
People telling you things may affect your thinking but it will not produce faith in your heart. God’s word is a supernatural seed that when planted in your spirit will produce the life of God within you and that life will produce godly change (1 Peter 1:23). It will produce spiritual fruit like “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, [and] self-control (Gal 5:22, 23). That’s God’s life growing in us.
Of course all of this presupposes that we are in fellowship with others on the same journey of life in Christ. The church is the body of Christ, a spiritual family and quality spiritual growth outside of connection to His body is difficult. By this I’m not talking about simply going to church but becoming part of a genuine spiritual family where growth is encouraged, fostered and sharing is the norm.
So, the process goes like this: if we seek we will find and will be able to hear God which produces His faith in us resulting in His life-changing presence in us. It’s simple yet profound and wonderful. Now seek Him with your whole heart and watch Him do the rest.
