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SEEKING GOD’S FACE Based on II Chron. 7:11-22By Pastor Glenn PeaseI heard a pastor tell of his experience on a plane. The stewardess wasexplaining that the parents were to be sure and put on their oxygen mask beforethey put them on their children. This seemed so selfish, and there was a naturalresistance to the idea. It went against the grain of a mother’s instinct to keep herchild in danger. The stewardess explained that if the parent delays and passesout the child will be helpless to come to their aid, but if the child passes out thereis no danger because the parents have protected themselves and will be able tocome to the rescue of the child. The point is, there are situations where the mostloving 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 torescue someone who is drowning. If you haven’t developed self-esteem bylearning 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 beingprepared for meeting other people’s needs. The doctor, the lawyer, teacher,pastor, or any other professional person who does not develop their ownknowledge 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 andenergy to their own preparation. The selfish person is one who does not botherto develop themselves and work toward self-excellence because they don’t careabout other people enough to be prepared to meet their needs.It is people who care about others who strive for excellence that they mightbe an instrument to be used for others. Jesus spent 30 years in preparationbefore He began His public ministry of serving and teaching. God’srequirements 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 turnfrom your sin. We would much prefer to humble somebody else and crusadeagainst their sin, but God demands that we deal with ourselves first. Even whenwe pray, which seems God-centered, we saw in our last message that a majorpart of prayer is to struggle with the self to be prepared to receive what Godwants to give. Even answered prayer, when you are not ready, can be aproblem. Like the 5 year old boy who let out with a whistle while the pastor waspraying. His mother was so embarrassed, but the little guy explained later thathe had been praying that God would help him to learn to whistle, and that’swhen God answered his prayer.F. W. Robertson, the great English preacher, told of the time he was takenwith 9 other boys to be disciplined by the master of the school. He prayed toescape the shame of it all, and to his surprise the master excused him, and he wasnot flogged with the others. He says it was the most harmful answer to prayerhe ever had, for it lead him to think of prayer as a magic charm. He fancied thathe had a secret weapon he could whip out to get him through any jam. It madehim 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 meanproper 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 tobe an instrument prepared to be useful for God’s purpose. Prayer is not justasking God for what He can do for us, but it is asking God to help us beprepared 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 onlyone of the 4 requirements with what seems to be a totally God-focusedperspective, and that is the one we want to examine. The third requirement, andthe 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 perpetualpreparation. Psa. 105:4 says, “Look to the Lord and His strength, seek His facealways.” David says in Psa. 27:8-9, “Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hideyour face from me.” The implication is that God’s face is not always easy tofind, for it is often hidden. Numerous are the texts which described thefrustration of God hiding His face so that it cannot be found. Psa. 30:7 says, “OLord, when you favored me, you made my mountain stand firm, but when youhid your face I was dismayed.”The heart of depression is when God’s face is hidden, and the heart of joy iswhen God’s face is shining upon you. God Himself told Moses how to bless thepeople 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 youand 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. Tohave 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 unfailinglove.” 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 shineupon us.” One could answer the question, what is the purpose of life byresponding: To seek the face of God.Man began his conscious existence in the presence of God face to face. Godtalked with and walked with Adam and Eve. The fall led, not only to Adam andEve 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 toget back into the presence of God to see His face, then man is lost forever. Theeverlasting absence of God’s face is hell. On the other hand, if man can get backinto the presence of God, that is what salvation is, and that is what heaven is. Itis the everlasting presence of God. Jesus died on the cross that we might havethe 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 seekingHis face is the key to everything. It is the key to every gift and blessing of whichyou can conceive. What this means is that this, one of the 4 requirements thatseems so God-focused, is in reality also a very self-focused activity, just like therest. In fact, being humble, praying, and turning from sin are all directlyinvolved in seeking God’s face. Psa. 24 makes it clear that self-preparation isvital to the success of seeking God’s face. Verses 2 thru 6 say, “Who may ascendthe hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean handsand a pure heart; who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what isfalse. He will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God hisSavior. Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O Godof Jacob.” Seeking the face of God covers just about everything you can imaginedoing 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 toGod’s plan and purpose in life, then I read it for myself alone. If, however, I amconscious of the presence of God, and in the awareness of His presence seek towrestle with the ideas of the book, and strive to get the mind of God, and knowHis application of them, then I am seeking the face of God as I read. Godconsciousness and God awareness is what we are talking about here. We can gofor hours and never even think of God and the relevance of His presence in ourlives. That does not mean we are being bad or out of His will. It just means thatwe are not seeking His face, and by not seeking His face we are not being open torevival, 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 thepresence of God. This is not limited to prayer and times of meditation. We areto seek God’s face in the marketplace, on the job, and in our going in andcoming out, and in all of our social activities. We are to do everything we do inthe consciousness of God’s presence. This is hard, and it is terribly hard, andthat is why it is another big if. This explains why revival is so rare. None of the4 requirements is easy. Just to fulfill these 4 things takes a life of commitmentfar greater than most Christians ever reach.I remember Frank Laubach, who tried to be conscious of God at least onceevery 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 4requirements 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 beperfect, 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
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