The Sequence of Seeking God
Christians can get confused, even those who are well meaning, but the Word lays out several conditions and principles for letting God be God, and leading us as He wills.
God said He would be a refining fire, fuller’s soap, and would thoroughly clean us out of who we were as fallen beings and form us into the image of His Son Jesus – if we do not squirm out.
Assuming you, dear reader, wish to take this covenant with the Lord as seriously as He hopes we will, there are things to keep in mind, and have faith for.
First, it’s vital to understand that God’s redemption of His people is His free-will love offering in good faith. It is up to our will to respond in kind – or learn to do so after trial and error. God loved us, and we must learn to love Him. When born anew, we tend not to naturally love God more than as a baby, and our Father wants us to unlearn our carnal ways and means of life. We need God 100 percent to really do this, and life is one of sole dependence on the Savior.
Understand this too: Any motive not backed by love, real love, not a “feeling” or some other facsimile, is missing something. This is not about “self-actualization.” This is about dying to one’s self, and carrying the cross!
There is much to this, and ultimately there is NO formula. The title calls it a “sequence,” but one might also call it a series of actions and conditions of heart and understanding. The theological term is “sanctification.” The Spirit of God is given unto us to bring us around, but we also are commanded to present our bodies a living sacrifice and submit all of our being – spirit, mind, body – to Jesus’ Lordship.
Following are some if not all principles to follow, not a cookie cutter recipe. These principles are valuable in so far as they go, and can keep us from error, and heading in the right direction, but God is sovereign, and does according to His perfect light, not what we think should happen necessarily.
We must understand that as “saved sinners,” we yet have a sin nature in us alongside the new nature implanted to make us holy, and like the Lord Jesus Christ. In our life until now, we have learned how to be independently minded, and are enculturated according to who we have been in the world.
We are NOT self-righting tops! We fall right over if God does not hold us up by His own Spirit! With man these things are impossible; with God all things are possible.
Indeed, walking in the Spirit is to defy the law of nature – that is, our individual personal nature as those with the blood of Adam.
Sin is deceptive! It is sneaky, and treacherous too.
Once saved, and in Christ, we must seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. We must learn the ways and laws of Jesus’ kingdom, and this spiritual existence on an earthly plane. And, we must learn to guard against sin as defined by God’s laws, and this is God’s doing, but we must submit and hear His leading.
1) We must will to do His will. No other agenda. If we are deceived and have wrong motives, that can stop God from enabling or enlightening us more, until we see clear of this deception, repent, and are freed. (We must come to the light.)
2) We must understand that we may slip and fall at any time. (“He who thinks that he stands, let him take heed lest he fall.”)
3) We must understand that we may yet have complete blindness to certain truths that shape who we are, our faith, and what we do. Yes, we may be oblivious. Worse — a natural tendency of brutish man can even be to be passionate in the wrong direction – over burdens God has NOT put in us.
4) We must realize that iniquity (ingrained sinful patterns deep in the soul) may leave us in denial. (As defensive beings in the world, it was not in our best interest to be discovered as “wrong.” We like to cover up just as Adam and Eve first did in the garden).
5) Also: All humans by nature are self-focused, self-pleasing, and warped and corrupted — to one degree or another. It is not inherently evil to meet one’s needs, but we are slanted, skewed, biased; even perverse and twisted. We were marred by an inherent tendency to do evil inherited from Adam. So how we in the flesh go about meeting our needs, and conducting ourselves is not as Jesus would do it – thus by nature, not pleasing to God, and thus in the final analysis, sinful.
6) Self knowledge is ultimately something the Refining Fire shows us, if we are willing to be shown. It is as those who are not accustomed to walking in the way of the Lord that we must come to the Light, seek the Lord in daily continual prayer, so that He may make us able. A set-aside prayer time every morning is so vital and sets the tone for the day first thing. Then, giving the day to the Lord and having it in mind that He is our God and guide is vital as we learn what it means to abide in Christ – not in imagination, but per chance if we enter by the narrow gate, in truth.
This does not deny grace, or that God has us covered with the Blood, or that we are forgiven. No! Not at all. It assumes we are covered in grace but full grace is for the salvation of our soul, to be made spiritually useful as Jesus’ disciples; to learn to fulfill the Royal Law.
7) We must be weaned from all our private agendas, pet peeves, unique idiosyncrasies that defy the Spirit of God. We are not God, He is! We do NOT know how to live a life pleasing to God without Him every step of the way.
8) We must decrease that He must increase.
9) We must trust that God is working in all things, even if they go wrong in our eyes.
10) We must feed on the Word, and understand this is our rule of faith and practice in life.
11) We must want this life hidden with Christ in God the apostle Paul spoke of. We must hunger and thirst after righteousness.
12) We must be ready to repent always.
13) We must say with David, and have as a standing request: “Search me try me, see if there be any wicked way in me.”
This is NOT to be confused with soul searching or introspection. It is opening ourselves up freely to the Lord. He is well able to put His finger on things that we must see, forsake, and ask deliverance and freedom from. It is His agenda we are seeking, not our own.
14) In as much as it depends on us, we must be at peace with all people. We must seek to do good, and understand self is no longer on the throne of our hearts. If the Lord Jesus is not truly our center, and we are not “hot” (as opposed to lukewarm) we are yet deceived.
15) We must not be complacent. On the contrary a sense of urgency is needed. Our tendency may be to slack off. True faith believes God has made us victorious in this life.
16) We must come to realize life is at stake, eternal consequences are at stake, and we have an enemy who never sleeps.
17) The Christian must know he is at war all his life. We may only put down the sword when the Lord returns.
18) We must exercise our faith and stand, trust the Lord, and real faith (not self-deceived) does believe in this as truly as the air we breath.
19) There is a circular process to this: If we stumble, the Lord is willing to forgive, and wants us to come to Him with all our issues.
20) We are commanded to persevere, to have endurance, to not let discouragement, depression, or laziness creep in. If we are prone to these, or any other iniquity (there’s a laundry list – pride, anger, frustration, lust …) we must realize these are sin.
As noted above, sin is deceitful. We are called to cross the Jordan and live in the promised land. This is impossible without the Guide; and this is a way barred to the natural man. It is a way no son or daughter in Adam has gone before, and never will. It is for Jesus’ own.
What do you want? According to your faith, so be in unto you, said the Lord.
