The church secretary brought a rather excited young man to me. After a dizzying and hurried introduction on his part he asked for prayer because he was having a very important meeting with some people that could drastically change his life in funding a project he had proposed to them. He said he was from Seattle and I originally from Seattle asked him if he knew my hometown. It was clear by his answer that even though he might have come from Seattle he did not know where my hometown was which was a bit odd but we continued in our discussion. He then quickly told me about all these “important” people he knew which I didn’t know -which he took as a shock as I calmly shook my shoulders. We prayed over the jittery young man. I prayed for God’s will to be done in his life and that he be himself and have peace during the meeting. I also prayed that he depend on God’s grace. He prayed for wisdom and the our church secretary prayed that he live for God but after it was all said and done a thought came, “That young man is depending on “who” he knows not the one who knows his purpose and plan for his life.”
To seek God in counsel is to know God. You cannot know God unless you seek him. In fact when you look up the definitions of “seek” and “know” in the bible concordance you will find the same definition. (Qal and Niphal)
This young man wasn’t seeking God out of the right motives. He was seeking God out because he wanted God to give him something that he desired for his own life. “He desired” … was not the same thing as “what God desired” for his life.
Understanding this principle is very important. Your destiny was planned long ago by God -but we as humans so often ignore that destiny and find ourselves in the endless search to be satisfied. God knows what will satisfy us because he created us for a specific purpose.
Sometimes we even complain until we get what we want and then when we get what we want we become sick or tired of it.
Take these records into account.
“And tell the people to purify themselves, for tomorrow they will have meat to eat. Tell them, ‘The Lord has heard your whining and complaints: “If only we had meat to eat! Sure were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will have to eat it. And it won’t be just a day or two, or for five or ten or even twenty. You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and have complained to him, “Why did we ever leave Egypt.” But Moses said, “There are 600,000 foot soldiers here with me, and yet you promise them meat for a whole month! Even if we butchered all our flocks and herds, would that satisfy them? Even if we caught all the fish in the sea, would that be enough?” Then the LORD said to Moses, “Is there any limit to my power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!” Numbers 11:18-23
"Look," they told him, "you are now old, and your sons are not like you. Give us a king to judge us like all the other nations have."
Samuel was displeased with their request and went to the LORD for guidance.
"Do everything they say to you," the LORD replied, "for it is me they are rejecting, not you. They don't want me to be their king any longer. Ever since I brought them from Egypt they have continually abandoned me and followed other gods. And now they are giving you the same treatment.
Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them."
So Samuel passed on the LORD's warning to the people who were asking him for a king. "This is how a king will reign over you," Samuel said. "The king will draft your sons and assign them to his chariots and his charioteers, making them run before his chariots. Some will be generals and captains in his army, some will be forced to plow in his fields and harvest his crops, and some will make his weapons and chariot equipment. The king will take your daughters from you and force them to cook and bake and make perfumes for him. He will take away the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his own officials. He will take a tenth of your grain and your grape harvest and distribute it among his officers and attendants. He will take your male and female slaves and demand the finest of your cattle and donkeys for his own use.
He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you will be his slaves.
When that day comes, you will beg for relief from this king you are demanding, but then the LORD will not help you."
But the people refused to listen to Samuel's warning. "Even so, we still want a king," they said.
"We want to be like the nations around us. Our king will judge us and lead us into battle."
So Samuel repeated to the LORD what the people had said, and the LORD replied, "Do as they say, and give them a king." Then Samuel agreed and sent the people home. 1 Samuel 8:5-22
They gave up God’s prophet and judge Samuel for a human king because he was old and they wanted to be just like everyone else who had a king so they weren’t the oddity. Appearances…. Hum?
I rather be an oddity. I rather be the oddity that serves God then mold myself to a society that decides what is good, bad and crazy.
I rather know God than know who is who and what is what in a society that rejects God. I rather seek God and be different and make a difference in the soul God has created.
Jeremiah 2:13” For my people have done two evil things: They have forsaken me- the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!”
Jeremiah 2:17 says “And you have brought this on yourselves by rebelling against the Lord your God when He wanted to lead you and show you the way!”
Yes I rather seek and turn to God then be lost in something that doesn’t matter at all. I don't want to gain the world and lose my soul. I rather walk a straight line then run in circles and never get to the destiny God has for me.
“There is a path before each person that seems right, but it ends in death.” Proverbs 14:12
God wants to empower his creation, his vessels, his beloved, his forgiven by his mercy and grace- so they can touch and set others free but that can not happen until they seek and walk and know Him -even though God is so great we will never stop learning to know about Him and His ways.
We all know there is a God but do we really take the effort to know him? Our culture and society pushes Him out of the way. We forget about God and His values and principles. We instinctively know right from wrong- for God has put those in us but we choose to ignore because we don't want to look prejudiced and out of place from society's practices. We push God out of the way and disasters fall upon us and we ask where is God? We wonder why there is such a moral decay in society and why justice seems slanted and bias and we ask where is God? And God says, "Right were you left me." You see we leave God, God doesn't leave us. We are to turn and draw God - And God empowers and individual, a people and a nation but without Him we are wasting our breath and time.
"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being being. As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring" Acts 17:24-28
For just as we learn from our human fathers we are to learn from our heavenly Father as well but how can we learn from our heavenly Father if we don't take the time to seek and get to know him and know him better?
No one can walk in the glorious power of God unless they surrender and obey him. Our soul is at stake when we don't obey and surrender to him.
Isaiah wrote, "Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near. Let the people turn from their wicked deeds. Let them banish from their minds the very thought of doing wrong! Let them turn to the LORD that he may have mercy on them. Yes, turn to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."
"My thoughts are completely different from yours," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher then your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts." 55:6-9
Many religious people know there is a God but do they really know HIM? We all must understand God is the one who created us (who knit us together in our mother's womb) Psalm 139:13 and He created us for a God given purpose and destiny. And to walk in that purpose and destiny we must seek and get to know God daily so He can direct us.
You weren't meant to gain the whole world and lose your soul in the process. You were meant to seek and know God and in doing so he would truly show you direction and your God given destiny.
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