It is by the intense, persistent pursuit of Christ we come into the call
and anointing to heal, prophecy, and raise the dead; not by our incessant surrounding ourselves with people who have something we want. Christ alone is our source, not men. No mere man or woman ever has the power to deliver, save, heal, or change not one hair of their head or yours. Christ alone is the beginning and end, the sole source of power and authority. Christ alone. Anointing is not gotten by holding my mouth right, not by eating the right food or saying the right words like an incantation of sorts, or by much speaking; it’s not gotten by cavorting with the dead like laying on someone’s grave to absorb the attributes of a dead man, or dreaming ourselves into a position of authority; we can’t sneak our way to anointing, cheat our way to it, sublime or smooth talk it into our possession. The anointing to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead are by the power of Christ alone. If your getting your spiritual power somewhere else by another means, it’s the wrong place friends. Christ alone and none other is our source of power, authority, hope, and redemption. It is by the intense, persistent pursuit of Christ that we come into power and anointing.
Psalm 63:8, “My soul follows hard after You Lord: Your right hand upholds me.”
My soul follows hard after Jesus, which, for me, that speaks of a very earnest desire and a serious, vigorous endeavor to keep up my communion with God. If i can’t always have God in an encircling grip, at the very least i’ve got to always have him in close eyesight, my hands always reaching towards Him as my prize.
Are you hard after the Lord, or do you just float along, attending church, listening with half an ear and making sure the kids are occupied? Sometimes maybe you briefly greet a few recognized faces, but maybe the truth is you’re more generally just staying busy with something that’s not bad for you or your house, but really, you’re not involved? Get up off your sick bed and pursue the Lord with all your heart …. you’ll never be bored again, yea, that’s the word, bored, just occupying space waiting for something else to happen.
Come let us go, let’s talk about what we spend our time thinking about, and what it looks like to “be in pursuit of God”.
To “press hard after God” is to follow him closely, like someone who is afraid of losing sight of something very valuable, following Him in season and out, whether it’s convenient or not. To “press hard after God” means we’re hot on His trail, we’ve got our nose to the ground, ears fully engaged, looking near and far for the indications of His presence and direction.
When David was in the wilderness of Judah, Psalm63 reveals a man who thirsted after the Lord. Psalm63:1, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” i believe David was speaking of more than just a physical desert place. He had a choice, he could just lay down and die letting Saul kill him and be done with all that chasing around, or he could set his eyes on the Lord and call to the only one who could actually help. Jesus knows how to help you find your second wind!
If you have stepped, purposefully or mistakenly, if you have stepped into a situation which wounds your conscience and causes you to lose your relish for righteous things, don’t hide yourself away. Run, i said, run to Jesus and tell it all to Him. It’s not like He doesn’t know and can’t see, He’s just waiting on you to bring it all to His healing place. Don’t think for a minute you can just hide it away in your heart … as if in the long run you think it doesn’t make any difference. Everything matters. Hidden sin will eat your lunch…maybe not today, but undealt with junk is just that, undealt with junk. Run to Jesus and tell Him all about it, never let it hide. Reconciling and resolving our wounded conscience and bad choosings should be to God’s glory and our testimony of His delivering power, not a shame to us which drives us indoors to shut our blinds, drawing our curtains, becoming isolated and alone in the dark. i can say from experience, when left to ourselves, alone with secrets, isolated and in the dark with shame to keep us company… we are in bad company.
When vicious circumstances occur in our lives, and they will occur, that is not the time to hide away, that is the time to turn up the heat, pedal to the metal, being in hot pursuit of the Lord, calmly, methodically, with focus and all power… run to Jesus.
What do we really throw ourselves into with passion and zeal? What really makes you fly? What is it, or who is it, we find ourselves able to be a real blood hound about with an incessant persistent pursuit? Is it making money? Now there’s a passion most of corporate America and it’s investors can relate to, making money, lots of money, more and more money. Gotta have it, can’t get it, work harder to find it, manipulate and twist things for more… more money. It is the passion and obsession of many, and if they don’t have any, they dream of getting some, and what they’re going to do once they get it. Money, money, money.
Let’s take the case of the riot in Ephesus in Acts 19. As the story opens, we are presented with a fellow named Demetrius, (Acts 19:24) “A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought in no little business for the craftsmen.” In other words, the craftsmen were making r-e-a-l-l-y good money by making idols for people. It was a very good business. They had prestige, recognition, and money. Demetrius and the craftsman were all about the short-term profit goals. According to Acts19:25-27, Demetrius called a meeting, “He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: “Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited, and the goddess herself, who is worshiped throughout the province of Asia and the world, will be robbed of her divine majesty.”
The craftsmen were all about money, it was the intense pursuit of their lives. That day, the devil inspired men to rally against God, and due to their intense, and persistent pursuit of money and prestige, with all their heart, they set out to protect their so-called, interests. They created chaos in an effort to regain the possible loss of market shares. They drew the crowds of people into a riot against the Gospel of God. They were furious and started shouting, soon the entire city was in an uproar. Afterall, they had to protect their income, even to the destruction of their own souls.
Who is your god? You know, we can tell alot about people by what they love and what the hate. Who or what is your persistent pursuit? Proverbs 15:9, “The LORD detests the way of the wicked but he loves those who pursue righteousness.”
Is there a persistent pursuit of the Lord in your life? We say we go to church, we say we go to conferences, we say we read Christian books, but how do you live your life when no one can see? We all have our daily face we wear, the visible outward things of our personal presentation, but where is your heart about three inches below the surface of your presentation face?
Many years ago the Lord posed me a question which pierced me through and through. He asked me, “You know those things you do in the dark when you think no one sees you, do you do those things because you don’t CARE if I see you, or because you don’t BELIEVE I see you?” The Lord was confronting me, directly, about the things i spent my time thinking about, plotting over, penciling out to make a plan on how to get what i, yes I, yes the great and mighty me wanted. He was asking me who or what was the real focus of my life?
Like i said, we can tell a lot about people by what they love and what they hate, and what we love and what we hate are indicators of what or who comprises our most intense and persistent pursuits. There is a difference between someone who says they “Love their family” and someone who says they “Love winning at all costs.” The song says, “All you need is love” right? i say love is great and good, but it’s also about who, what and how you love. Most would say the word hate is a bad word. God says there is such thing as righteous hate. Proverbs 8:12-13, “I, wisdom, dwell together with prudence; I possess knowledge and discretion. To fear the LORD is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech.” There is a difference between saying, “I hate my brother.” and saying “I hate evil.” My immune system hates invading and harmful bacteria, so much so, that when the harmful bacteria try to get in, my immune system immediately attacks, quarantines and kills the bad stuff. Crisis averted. Loving the truth and hating lies is righteous. Making a plan for yourself to be honest because you love honesty, and to never let yourself lie or participate in lies again because you hate evil is an intense, persistent pursuit. We can tell a lot about someone by what they love and what they hate. Amos 5:15, “Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts.”
If we think we can just sit in our comfortable lawn chairs, drink our mint juleps and wait on someone or God to show up and dig our wells for us, we are wrong. Is that a picture of someone in hot pursuit of Christ, or is that the appearance of someone who basically wants something for nothing? An intense, persistent pursuit is to exert our strength continually and firmly following after someone or something.
The Lord will help us, but He bids us to dig our own well. Take action and be unswerving to apprehend Christ. He is life, the only life, and there is no other life to be had except Christ. If we do not have Christ, we do not have life, which means, without Christ we are the walking dead. Just because we breath and move doesn’t mean we are alive. To be alive means we are animated. To be dead means to be inanimate. Without Christ we are inanimate and have no other means of life but through Christ.
Jesus is findable and apprehendable. He is not hidden. Jesus is there for those who are willing to reach out a trembling hand in need of rescue. He is ready to save! Are you willing?
Jesus said in Matt13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” The gospel is the field in which the treasure is hidden, hidden in the word of the gospel, both Old and New. We must be interested in apprehending Christ enough to take the time of our lives and do something, go dig it up. If you look for Jesus, He will find you. Here’s a parable: It is hidden, not in a dead man’s grave, not in the universe or stars, not in wealth or pomp and circumstance, but in a field, an open field; whoever will, let him come, and search the scriptures; let him dig in this field, and whatever royal treasure in the treasure vaults of God we find, they are all our own. There my friends is one of several likely answers to what Matt13:44 is about, but i’ve put it in a parable so you will have to ask God to reveal it to you.
Proverbs 2:3-5, “If you call to the Lord for discernment, And pray and chase after God for understanding, If you look for Jesus like some look for silver and gold, And search for Him who is the treasure of Heaven; 5 Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And will find the knowledge of God.” Think about it.
Luke 11:9, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Heaven can do the work without the earth, but the earth cannot do the work without heaven. God, who has the key of the clouds, opened the doors of heaven to all that by faith and prayer ask, seek, and knock. To those who persistently pursue the Lord, the windows and doors of Heaven will at any time be opened. The Lord our God is rich in mercy to all that call upon him.
i’ll say it again, if you look for Him, He will find you. Set your house in order, set Jesus as your main pursuit, above all things, above all people. Who or what is your intense, persistent pursuit? Think about what you spend your time thinking about.
Do more than just go to church. Do more than just give money. Be involved with God day in and day out. It is a great thing of unspeakable value to discover Jesus hidden in plain sight, in the field, right before your very eyes! God is here!
Be strong and courageous this week, talk to Jesus and He will talk to you. Drive carefully and watch out for your neighbor. Be responsible and hold the line! And a big amen on the end.