The Passion and Pursuit of God

I have two passions in life: (1) the presence of God, and (2) unity of the body of Christ. In John Chapter 17, Jesus prayed five times for unity in the body of Christ. (This is the only prayer the church has the ability to answer.) Yet, he prayed only three words to raise Lazarus from the dead. I derived from this that it is easier for God to deal with a dead carcass than with a live ego!

In Romans 12:1, Paul said “I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” That’s a walking dead man! That means you have no agenda but God’s. It also means that your ego is dead while your flesh yet lives, and that is when God can use you.

David was after the heart of God in Psalm 63:1 – “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee; my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is.” Psalm 63:8 says “My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me.” I would like for you to take a look at the word followeth in verse 8. In Hebrew, the word followeth means “to catch by pursuit.” David was going to catch God because he was pursuing God.

Jesus talking to the disciples in Matthew 5:6 said “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled”. The word hunger in the Greek translation is “to crave or to toil for daily.” Jesus was telling the disciples that those who toil for me daily shall be filled with righteousness. In Luke 9:23, Jesus talking again told the disciples “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me”. The Greek word translated for cross is “exposure to death.” We could read Luke 9:23 this way and not take it out of context – “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and let him be exposed to death daily and follow me.”

When a condemned man begins his final walk to the death chamber, just before they close the door of the corridor, the warden or one of the chief guards will often shout through the hall “dead man walking.” Paul was a walking dead man as in I Corinthians 15:31 (Amp.) – “I assure you by the pride which I have in you in your fellowship and union with Christ Jesus our Lord, that I die daily. I face death every day and die to self”. John saw Jesus in Revelation 1:17 -- “And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead...” John tasted death because he had seen life. It takes death to really see Him, and all I can say is “It’s a good day to die.” The more I die, the closer He gets.

John the Baptist knew the secret too. John 3:30 – “He must increase, but I must decrease”. Basically, if there is less of me, then there is room for more of Him. The more of me that dies, the closer He can get. How far can this go? Well, I don’t know, but I can tell you the name of somebody to ask. Check with Enoch.

He showed us that you can literally walk with God, but you will “die” along the way. The greatest blessing doesn’t come from God’s hand; it comes from His face in intimate relationship. When you finally see Him and know Him, you have come to the source of all power.