Seeking God ('Every One That Seeketh findeth.')

Selected Verses:

Jeremiah 29:13. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 2:8. The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

Daniel 9:3. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.

Opening:

"Every one that seeketh findeth." Now, Jesus said that. And of course, He has reference to finding Him, finding God. "Ye shall seek for Me, and ye shall find Me, in the day when ye shall seek for Me with your whole heart." Finding God: why, that's the very object of our salvation--to be reconciled to God. Salvation consists in knowing God. How many, many people miss it! How very, very few people in the world know God!

You can tell it when you travel through the world and meet with works and ministers. The great complaint is like it was by the prophet Jeremiah: the priests knew not the Lord. How differently they would act and live and minister if they knew the Lord! How different our conventions would turn out if those in charge knew the Lord! But why don't we know Him? Jesus says, "Every one that seeketh findeth." Findeth what? Why, findeth God.

Are we seeking God? Are we really seeking God? Then we shall find Him. God says we shall find Him. The very principle of faith is to start out with that knowledge: why, "God is." When you seek for something that you want very badly, you're not going to give up until you find that thing.

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Selected Quotes:

Oh, how blessed are the people who are not satisfied with anything! Many, many things will come your way that will look like it. That's where most Christians get stuck: they're satisfied with a little tinsel, a little blessing, a little something. And many times God seems to hide Himself purposely from people who seek Him, to find out whether they can be satisfied with something short of Himself.

But "every one that seeketh findeth." How wonderful! God Himself makes that statement that "every one"--man or woman or boy or girl--"that seeketh," He says, "ye shall find Me in the day when ye shall seek for Me with your whole heart." It seems to me that there cannot be any excuse for anything else for me to do. Why, that's my life job: to find God.

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Now, you know, nobody knows what it is to find God until you find Him. You don't know. But when you seek for Him with your whole heart, you'll find the Way. God will draw you. You'll find the Way. Oh, in seeking God, the heart is emptied of everything else: "Why, that isn't God." How many Pentecostal people have gone astray in seeking after God because they had a feeling. Now they rest in their feelings. Why, that isn't God. I'm not going to get stuck there. That isn't going to fool me, nor blessings, nor anything of that nature. That doesn't satisfy me. Only God can satisfy my heart. Only God Himself--only Jesus Himself.

How rare are the souls in comparison who are only satisfied with God, who seek Him with their whole heart. Now, if we look back over our lives, how much time have we spent seeking after the Lord? How much? Maybe you've found Him. But tell me, but how much sooner you could have found Him. How much sooner? Oh, how stupid, how shallow we have been, how easily satisfied!

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What does it mean to Jesus to find a heart in this meeting this morning who seeks Him with his whole heart? I've seen some during the years of my short life that separated themselves from all others to seek the Lord with their whole heart. They were so different. They were like speckled birds, like "lone sparrows upon a housetop"--even in "deep life" conventions.

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But I've seen a few people that sought God with their whole heart, and I've been able to see how God came to them. What a change! How different they are today from everybody else that I know! They've sought God, and God united them to Himself. They're different: their thinking is different, their discernment is different. Nobody understands them. They have the discernment of God. They do things by the will of God and by the power of God. God has come into their lives.

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God wants this body of mine to be a vessel "sanctified and meet for the Master's use." Why can't He do it? Oh, beloved, we don't seek Him with our whole heart. If we did, the twenty-four hours of our day would be occupied looking to Him, paying attention to Him, seeking for Him.

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When you give your heart to Jesus, He will take His great power and He will reign supreme. Oh, the change that comes when you find God, the wonderful change! You become changed. You become transformed. Your natural tendencies are swallowed up by His love and His power and His righteousness and His holiness. And where the flesh reigned and was so strong, Jesus reigns.