I heard a pastor tell of his experience on a plane. The stewardess
was explaining that the parents were to be sure and put on their oxygen
mask before they put them on their children. This seemed so selfish,
and there was a natural resistance to the idea. It went against the
grain of a mother's instinct to keep her child in danger. The
stewardess explained that if the parent delays and passes out the child
will be helpless to come to their aid, but if the child passes out there is
no danger because the parents have protected themselves and will be
able to come to the rescue of the child. The point is, there are
situations where the most loving thing you can do for another is to take
care of yourself first.
If you haven't prepared yourself by learning to swim, you will not
be able to rescue someone who is drowning. If you haven't developed
self-esteem by learning to love yourself, you will have a hard time
loving others as you ought. There are many illustrations of how a
self-centered focus is the key to being prepared for meeting other
people's needs. The doctor, the lawyer, teacher, pastor, or any other
professional person who does not develop their own knowledge and
skills are not going to be very helpful to the people they serve. The
selfish person is not the person who devotes a great deal of their time
and energy to their own preparation. The selfish person is one who
does not bother to develop themselves and work toward self-excellence
because they don't care about other people enough to be prepared to
meet their needs.
It is people who care about others who strive for excellence that
they might be an instrument to be used for others. Jesus spent 30years
in preparation before He began His public ministry of serving
and teaching. God's requirements for us to be prepared for revival
are really quite self-centered. The first and last are clearly focused on
the self. Humble yourselves and turn from your sin. We would much
prefer to humble somebody else and crusade against their sin, but God
demands that we deal with ourselves first. Even when we pray, which
seems God-centered, we saw in our last message that a major part of
prayer is to struggle with the self to be prepared to receive what God
wants to give. Even answered prayer, when you are not ready, can be
a problem. Like the 5 year old boy who let out with a whistle while the
pastor was praying. His mother was so embarrassed, but the little guy
explained later that he had been praying that God would help him to
learn to whistle, and that's when God answered his prayer.
F. W. Robertson, the great English preacher, told of the time he
was taken with 9 other boys to be disciplined by the master of the
school. He prayed to escape the shame of it all, and to his surprise the
master excused him, and he was not flogged with the others. He says it
was the most harmful answer to prayer he ever had, for it lead him to
think of prayer as a magic charm. He fancied that he had a secret
weapon he could whip out to get him through any jam. It made him
proud and not humble. It did not change his behavior, for why sin less
when by prayer you can escape the consequences?
This illustrates the really self-centered use of prayer. But this does
not mean proper prayer, which is acceptable to God, is not also
focused on the self. Robertson came to see the folly of his ways, and he
learned to pray for himself to be an instrument prepared to be useful
for God's purpose. Prayer is not just asking God for what He can do
for us, but it is asking God to help us be prepared to do for Him what
He wills. Paul's first prayer to Christ was, "Lord, what will you have
me to do?" Prayer has a self focus, and so that leaves only one of the 4
requirements with what seems to be a totally God-focused perspective,
and that is the one we want to examine.
The third requirement, and the third big if is, "If my people will seek my face."
The first thing I want to observe about this is that it is also a
perpetual preparation. Psa. 105:4 says, "Look to the Lord and His
strength, seek His face always." David says in Psa. 27:8-9, "Your face,
Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me." The implication is
that God's face is not always easy to find, for it is often hidden.
Numerous are the texts which described the frustration of God hiding
His face so that it cannot be found. Psa. 30:7 says, "O Lord, when you
favored me, you made my mountain stand firm, but when you hid your
face I was dismayed."
The heart of depression is when God's face is hidden, and the heart
of joy is when God's face is shining upon you. God Himself told Moses
how to bless the people of Israel by saying this benediction over them,
as recorded in Num. 6:24-26: "The Lord bless you and keep you. The
Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord
turn His face toward you and give you peace." In a very real sense the
goal of the believer's life is to see the face of God. To have His face
shine on you is another way of being saved in the Old Testament. Psa.
31:16 says, "Let your face shine on your servant. Save me in your
unfailing love." All of God's blessings are summed up in His face
shining on you. Psa. 67:1 says, "May God be gracious to us and bless
us, and make His face shine upon us." One could answer the question,
what is the purpose of life by responding: To seek the face of God.
Man began his conscious existence in the presence of God face to
face. God talked with and walked with Adam and Eve. The fall led,
not only to Adam and Eve hiding from God, it led to God hiding His
face from man. The sense of God's absence is the primary
consequence of sin. If man does not find a way to get back into the
presence of God to see His face, then man is lost forever. The
everlasting absence of God's face is hell. On the other hand, if man can
get back into the presence of God, that is what salvation is, and that is
what heaven is. It is the everlasting presence of God. Jesus died on the
cross that we might have the right to enter God's presence and see Him
face to face.
In the last chapter of the Bible where the blessings of eternity are
described, we read in Rev. 22:4, "They will see His face." Man has
reached his highest destiny when he is face to face with God.
For God to require us to seek His face for revival makes sense, for
seeking His face is the key to everything. It is the key to every gift and
blessing of which you can conceive. What this means is that this, one of
the 4 requirements that seems so God-focused, is in reality also a very
self-focused activity, just like the rest. In fact, being humble, praying,
and turning from sin are all directly involved in seeking God's face.
Psa. 24 makes it clear that self-preparation is vital to the success of
seeking God's face. Verses 2 thru 6 say, "Who may ascend the hill of
the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands
and a pure heart; who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by
what is false. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication
from God his Savior. Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob." Seeking the face of God covers
just about everything you can imagine doing to prepare yourself for
coming into God's presence.
If I read a book with no thought of how the content of the book
relates to God's plan and purpose in life, then I read it for myself
alone. If, however, I am conscious of the presence of God, and in the
awareness of His presence seek to wrestle with the ideas of the book,
and strive to get the mind of God, and know His application of them,
then I am seeking the face of God as I read. God consciousness and
God awareness is what we are talking about here. We can go for hours
and never even think of God and the relevance of His presence in our
lives. That does not mean we are being bad or out of His will. It just
means that we are not seeking His face, and by not seeking His face we
are not being open to revival, nor any of the other blessings He may be
desiring to give us.
Seeking God's face is another way of saying that we are practicing
the presence of God. This is not limited to prayer and times of
meditation. We are to seek God's face in the marketplace, on the job,
and in our going in and coming out, and in all of our social activities.
We are to do everything we do in the consciousness of God's presence.
This is hard, and it is terribly hard, and that is why it is another big if.
This explains why revival is so rare. None of the 4 requirements is
easy. Just to fulfill these 4 things takes a life of commitment far
greater than most Christians ever reach.
I remember Frank Laubach, who tried to be conscious of God at
least once every minute. That was really seeking the face of God. He
worked at it hard, but he still failed. I don't know of anyone else who
has even tried. Fortunately, God gives us a break here, and He does
not demand that any of these 4 requirements be absolute. He does not
demand that we be as humble as can be; that we pray as persistently as
possible; turn from sin so absolutely as to be perfect, or that we seek
His face every minute or second before He will bless us. He just
demands that we be a people who are working on our consciousness of
His presence.
This is the key to being available to God to accomplish His will.
When we go through life conscious only of ourselves and our own will
we will miss opportunities to do the will of God. They will stare us in
the face and we will not see them, for we are not seeking the face of
God. If we were seeking His face, we would see that which God wants
us to see. All of these requirements are tied together, for the only way
to get to the place where we will seek God's face is to first of all humble
ourselves, pray that God will help us to keep self off the throne, and
Christ on the throne.
Luis Palou, the Billy Graham of Latin America, had to be
humbled by God before he could be used. But he also had to become
aware of the presence of God before he could be used. He tells of his
own burning bush experience when Major Ian Thomas was preaching
on Moses at the burning bush. He said, "Any old bush will do, as long
as God is in the bush." That is what Moses needed to learn. He made
excuses to God for why he could not go back to Pharaoh. Moses
needed to learn that the power of God to get His will done is not in the
beauty of the bush, or the eloquence of the bush, but in God's presence
in the bush. God said to Moses, "I will be with you." It is God's
presence that is the key. When Palou realized this, he too was
available, and God used him mightily. It was not his gifts that God
needed, but his awareness of God's presence. When he sought the face
of God the blessings of God were poured out through him.
The presence of God is the sunlight that brings forth the flowers
and fruitfulness in our lives. The fruits of the Spirit are just that. They
are the fruits of the Spirit, and not just the fruits of your labor and
effort. You don't produce the fruit. The Spirit does, and He does it
when you allow His presence to dominate your consciousness. The
Prodigal was a great and foolish sinner, but what he had going for him
was his awareness of his father's presence. He longed to be back home
restored to that presence. The elder brother was already there, but he
did not treasure that presence. He missed what he already had, but the
Prodigal gained what he had lost. It all revolved around the value they
placed on the father's presence.
The shepherd goes after his sheep, but there is another side we
seldom see. The sheep are expected to seek the shepherd. The father
didn't go after the Prodigal. That son had to come home to his father
on his own. God asks His people to seek His face, and to pursue His
presence. It is our responsibility and obligation. God says that He is
not always going to come after you. You have to come home on your
own and seek His face. Even when we do, however, we sometimes feel
He is hidden, and we cannot find Him. We cry out with Job, "Oh that I
might know where I might find Him!" Sometimes it is the sheep
looking for the shepherd, and it is the shepherd that seems to be lost.
We are often like the fish and the birds in this poem, and we are
looking for and longing for that which is ever present.
Oh where is the sea, the fishes cried,
As they swam the crystal clearness through.
We have heard of old of the ocean's tide,
And we long to look on the water's blue.
The wise ones speak of the infinite sea,
Oh who can tell us if such there be?
The lark flew up on the morning bright,
And sang and balanced on sunny wings,
And this was its song: I see the light,
I look on the world of beautiful things,
But flying and searching everywhere
In vain have I sought to find the air.
Can it be that fish feel the absence of water, and birds feel the
absence of air? Why not? Man feels the absence of God even though it
is in Him that we live and move and have our being. Jesus said, "Low I
am with you always." And, "I will never leave you or forsake you."
But the fact is, we can go through life and often be more aware of His
absence than of His presence. Sometimes we see through a glass
darkly, and sometimes we do not see at all. We are like the young man
in the Old Testament who could not see the vast host of God all around
him. All he could see was the enemy. So we are often more problem
conscious and enemy conscious than we are conscious of the presence
of God. An unknown poet wrote,
I gaze aloof at the vaulted roof
Where time and space are warp and woof,
Which the King of kings, like a curtain, flings
O'er the dreadfulness of eternal things;
I should lightly hold this tissued fold
But if I could see, as indeed they be
The glories that encircle me
This marvelous curtain of blue and gold,
For soon the whole, like a parched scroll
Shall before my amazed eyes unroll,
And without a screen, at one burst be seen
The Presence in which I have always been.
We do not have to wear our shoes out looking for a holy place, for
where you are, you can take your shoes off, for the place you stand on
is holy ground, and from there you can see the face of God. "Earth is
crammed with heaven, and every common bush aflame with God."
Jacob experienced the presence of God in the wilderness, and Jacob's
ladder, with angels ascending and descending, is a symbol of the
constant contact of heaven with earth. Where you seek God He can be
found, for He is ever present. The problem is not His absence, but our
lack of consciousness of His presence.
Back in 1952 a jeweler on 49th street in New York lost a one and a
half caret diamond, which he was mounting. It was very expensive and
he had to pay the company 60 dollars a week because he was
responsible for losing it. About half a year later a telephone
repairman found the diamond instead the telephone on his desk.
Somehow it had shot from the vice on his bench into the tiny hole
where the cable went into the phone. There it lay for months right in
his presence, but hidden. Deity is ever close like that diamond, yet he
is often hidden, and we sense his absence more than his presence. We
are like the little boy who prayed one Sunday after going to church
with his parents: "Dear Lord, we had a good time in church. I wish
you could have been there."
Adults are a little more sophisticated in their ignorance. They
know God is everywhere, but they still think they have to go
somewhere to seek His face. They have to go to the Holy Land and
walk where Jesus walked. They have to go to a crusade or a rally of
some kind. They are constantly hoping for some high to bring them
into the presence of God. They ignore the good news of the New
Testament that God has come to dwell, not just with man, but within
them so that we are the dwelling place of God. We are the dwelling of
deity, the guest house of God, the sanctuary of the Spirit, the
tabernacle of the Trinity, and the house of Him whom the world cannot
hold. You don't have to go anywhere to seek the face of God. You
need only to work at making Him subjectively present by seeking His
face within.
The whole idea of revival is to get restored to an awareness of
God's presence. When Israel lost the sense of God's presence they
began to worship other gods. Whenever a Christian loses the sense of
God's presence he will begin to backslide, and other values besides the
will of God will begin to dominate his life. The constant call to get into
the Word of God is to help prevent the loss of the sense of God's
presence. We are urged to pray without ceasing so that we do not lose
that sense. The life of faith is a constant struggle to keep aware of the
presence of God. Spurgeon said, "This we should pray for
continually-the presence of God in the midst of His people." This is
seeking God's face. This is prayer that wants more than something
God can give-it wants God Himself. It is a longing for the peace and
power of His presence. The solution to every human problem begins
with the awareness of God's presence.
It is seeking God's face that enables us to fulfill the last
requirement of turning from our sin. The presence of God is the only
power that can make sin unappealing. We can feel free to speed, and
even enjoy it, but when we see the presence of a patrol car the pleasure
fades and the desire to speed vanishes. We long for nothing better than
that the car will quickly return to the speed limit. Such is the power of
presence. The students can be throwing erasers and paper planes, and
doing all sorts of things not proper, but when the teacher enters the
room her presence stifles all of these rule-breaking urges. Young
people have many temptations to indulge their appetites, but the
presence of chaperons helps them keep their drives under control.
Alone they fall, but in the presence of others they are able to stand.
Adults need it as well. Man a mate would not have taken the steps that
led to their sin had they kept their partner present with them. The
presence of a mate or a friend will protect you from many a
temptation.
If all of these lesser presences can have such a power to protect us
from sin and folly, how much more can the presence of God do so? We
can't always guarantee the presence of others, but God is ever present,
and so if we seek His face we have a built in safety belt that will keep us
from being thrown out of the will of God when we are confronted with
a head on temptation to do so. In Lloyd Douglas's novel The Robe
Justus is explaining to Marcellus that Jesus is alive and ever with us.
He says, "It keeps you honest...you have no temptation to cheat
anyone, or lie to anyone, or hurt anyone-when Jesus is standing beside
you." Marcellus is not a Christian and he says, "I'm afraid I should
feel very uncomfortable being perpetually watched by some invisible
presence." Justus replies, "Not if that Presence helped you to defend
yourself against yourself, Marcellus. It is a great satisfaction to have
someone standing by to keep you at your best."
That is what seeking God's face is all about. It is so living in the
presence of God that you can be your best. Practicing the presence of
God is the key to excellence in all that we do. Practicing the absence of
God is the cause of all our mediocrity and failure in the Christian life.
It is the wise who keep God before their eyes, for this consciousness of
God's presence will help win more battles than all the sermons you will
ever hear, and all the books you will ever read. So many of the
negative things we do are hard to practice when you are conscious of
God's presence. In the light of His face you feel a reverence and a fear
that keeps you at your best.
D. L. Moody said that everything is changed in the presence of
God, and that is why it is the key to revival. His prayer was, "May He
empty us of self and fill us with His presence." To be in love is to long
to be in the presence of the one you love. To be revived is to long for
the presence of God. The reason we know we are not in a revival is
that we can be perfectly comfortable in the absence of God. We do not
miss Him when we lose a consciousness of His presence. Many years
ago Walter Rauschenbusch wrote,
In the castle of my soul
Is a little postern gate,
Whereat, when I enter,
I am in the presence of God.
In a moment, in the turning of a thought
This is a fact.
When I enter into God
All life has meaning,
Without asking I know,
My desires are even now fulfilled.
My fear is goneIn the great quiet of God.
My troubles are but pebbles on the road,
My joys are like the everlasting hills.
So it is when my soul steps through the postern gate
Into the presence of God.
Big things become small, and small things become great.
This is what revival is all about, and this is what the victorious life is
all about. May God help us to be more than just impressed with this
truth. May His Spirit never let us rest until we include in our lives the
conscious practice of seeking God's face.
