“for he who comes to God must believe that He is”
(Heb. 11:6, NKJV)
Another few important thoughts about the driving force of SEEKING. In the last teaching, it was indicated as the active agent that directs the process of glory coming over the earth. Seeking is the mechanism through which the restoration of the glory is made manifest – it forms the foundation of the mystery of before time! In his revelatory book The Science of God, Gerald L. Schroeder writes that “Millennia passed before humankind discovered that energy is the basis of matter. It may take a few more years before we prove that wisdom and knowledge are the basis of, and can actually create, energy which in turn creates matter.” (Introduction, p. ii).
If one ponders this far-reaching statement, you realise that in Einstein’s famous formula, E=mc², there hides a mystery that entails that invisible energy can be transposed to visible matter! If Christ is “the power and wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24), as well as the “knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5), and is drenched with Spirit energy, it is absolutely possible that this wisdom and knowledge, that exists in secret, was predestined to become physical matter on earth, matter filled with glory! This is exactly what 1 Cor. 2:7 then also makes clear: “But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory …”
To search for what A.W. Tozer beautifully phrases as “the pursuit of God,” is thus of much greater importance than we realised before! Most probably this occurs when “the knowledge … increases” (Dan. 12:4), when we receive “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:17). The search for God is thus perhaps one of the most important misunderstood subjects in the lives of the vast majority of believers.
From Rom. 3:11 we have however learnt this terrifying truth: “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” The necessary question is then, how can man search for God in the first place? To which one could answer: only when the Spirit of God acts as the incubation space in which someone is set apart. Then that becomes the power [= Christ – 1 Cor. 1:24) that works within us.
Many Scriptures spell out this principle of SEEKING, and its dramatic results, in detail. A few texts that illustrate specific information about this Godly process:
- “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will findHim if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deut. 4:29)
- “For because you didnot do it the first time, the Lord our God broke out against us, because we did not consult Him about the proper order.” (1 Chr. 15:13)
- “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!” (1 Chr. 16:11)
- “… but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing” (Ps. 34:10)
- “’Behold, I send My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. And the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His temple, even the Messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,’ says the Lord of hosts.” (Mal. 3:1)
- “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matt. 6:33)
- “… so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us …” (Acts 17:27)
It is thus very important that we make it clear to all people that it IS possible to find Him. It is very interesting that the word grope is used here, which refers to some form of bodily contact. How is it possible for me, as carnal being, to touch Him, a Spiritual being?
In 1 Chr. 28:9 it is confirmed: “If you shall seek Him, He shall be found by you.” (ASV). 2 Chr. 15:15 also makes this clear: “And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the Lord gave them rest all around.” God allows/ensures that He is found!
Yet there is one very specific precondition that underlies this process of seeking: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God [= seeks] must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Heb. 11:6).
Many people feel it is unfair that Jesus notes in John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him …” or as the Amplified Bible suggests, “attracts and draws him and gives him the desire to come to Me” (AMP). What if, they argue, Jesus does NOT draw you to Him?
[All verses in the entire Bible must always be placed in relief of the rest of Scripture. We have a tendency to try and support spiritual arguments with an attitude of chapter-and-verse, and then try to present this Scriptural proof as a self-evident truth. It is important to remember that “all Scripture” (ALTNT) is given by God; not “every Scripture” (ACV); and certainly not: “Everything in the Scriptures is God’s Word.” (CEV). There are clearly sections in the Bible that are not at all God’s will, for instance the admonishments of Job’s friends. In Job. 42:7 we clearly see this: “And so it was, after the Lord had spoken these words to Job, that the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.’” It is important that believers read the book of Ecclesiastes knowing that it was written by a man who had lost his calling and purpose, and that much of what is presented in this Biblical book should be read with this nihilist perspective in mind. Another very good example is this verse in 2 Sam. 24:1: “Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” The exact same event is also presented in 1 Chr. 21:1, and then the following is noted: “Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel.” So, who was it – God or Satan? The Treasure of Scriptural Knowledge righty notes about these parallel verses: “This verse, when read without reference to any other part of the word of God, is very difficult to understand …” From this follows a very important principle with regards to reading and understanding the Bible – it is an open text, not a closed text, and thus we are concerned with the possibilities of interpretation that are opened up. In other words, Scripture is a living construction site, “to recover what has been forgotten, to restore what has been lost, to perpetuate the presence or being of words” (Foucault’s words). The few reading modes that we presented in the teaching of Day 1594-1596 were referred to as discursive text practices, and are ways in which a text is opened up. This is in contrast to theological thought that often wants to close off a Biblical text, and thus narrow the scope of its meaning. We are not so much interested in the Bible as a set of pre-determined moral prescriptions, but rather as a “grace-laden mystery” – Brennan Manning: The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 205).]
If we then need to understand why Jesus notes in John 6:44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him …” and we want to argue about what happens when Jesus does NOT draw you, it is of great importance that we first consider other Scriptures against the grain of this one. For instance, Rom. 2:11: “For there is no partiality with God.” (This specific phrase is frequently repeated in Scripture, in Deut. 10:17; Matt. 22:16; Luke 20:21; Acts 10:34; Gal. 2:6, Eph. 6:9; Col. 3:25; 1 Pet. 1:17, amongst others.) God does not show partiality, in other words He treats everyone on equal terms, and in common parlance, does not have any favourites. Jesus is explicitly called the Just One (Acts 7:52; 22:14; 1 John 2:1), and one of God’s Names is indeed THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS (Jer. 23:6). If God then treats everyone on equal terms, it is impossible for Him to not draw ALL people to Him. We know John 3:16 off by heart: “For God so loved the world …”, not just a special few! God “… did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all …” (Rom. 1:32), and He gave Himself as “ransom for all” (1Tim. 2:6). In His own words Jesus spelled out the following simple truth in John 12:32: “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.”
It is thus absolutely clear: “The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (2 Pet. 3:9). And then this parting shot, which no one can argue against: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.” (Tit. 2:11). He has drawn all people to Him. Period. All people.
This mystery does however deepen, not only in the sense that He calls all people, but also that He became the sacrifice of all people so that they could be fully reconciled with God. 1 Cor. 15:22 makes one of the most dangerous statements in the entire Bible: “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.” This truth causes most of our Reformed and Charismatic truths to crumble. We have no concept of the insatiable love of this God. In Brent Curtis & John Eldredge’s The Sacred Romance (p. 97) they write: “God has pursued us from farther than space and longer ago than time. Our romance is far more ancient … God has had us in mind since before the Foundations of the World. He loved us before the beginning of time, has come for us, and now calls us to journey toward him, with him, for the consummation of our love.” [More on this mystery of 1 Cor. 15:22, later.]
But the question still remains: how does He do this; how does He draw people to Him?
If everything we have described about God in the above paragraphs is true, “because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19), it cannot happen in any other way than through love. We thus return to the immensely important purpose of all things – to be reconciled in God. 1 John 4:16 is so well-known it alas no longer illuminates us: “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” If God IS love, love IS also God. Therefore, the only way in which God can draw ALL people to Him, is not through knowledge of Him, but through love, by knowing “the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19). The Old Testament prophet Hosea (11:4, NIV) holds the key here: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love.”
- Selah: What would the implications of this be, in terms of the last Scripture?
- Read: 2 Tim. 2-4; Tit. 1-3; Phil. 1; Heb. 1-2
- Memorise: 2:11 (what beautiful synchronicity!)
- For a more in-depth understanding: Read one of the books mentioned above.
