God's Requirements For Revival: Seeking God Series

Pastor Rick Flowers

First Baptist Church of Flushing

(Third of a four-part series)

"God’s Requirements For Revival - Seeking God"

2 Chronicles 7:11-15

As we have seen to this point, the first two "Requirements For Genuine Revival" are Humility and Prayer. Today we will consider the need to "Seek God". But what does it mean to seek God? How Do We Go About it and Why? Let’s begin by considering what others have said about "Seeking The Face Of God":

· "We ought to see the face of God every morning before we see the face of man."

D.L. Moody

· "What is your ambition in life today? Is it to get rich? Is it to make a name for yourself? Is it even to do some wonderful thing for God? Listen to me, beloved. The highest desire that can possess any human heart is a longing to see God."

J. Vernon McGee in his book, "Feasting on the Word"

· "Feeling better has become more important to us than finding God."

Larry Crabb - Finding God. (Most people are looking for the church that has the right music, the right programs and the answers for all of their problems… and all of that is more important today than seeking God!)

· "If we yearned after God even as much as a cow yearns for her calf, we would be the worshipping and effective believers God wants us to be. If we longed for God as a bride looks forward to the return of her husband, we would be a far greater force for God than we are now." A. W. Tozer in Men Who Met God.

(Read 1 Chronicles 7:11-14 & Pray)

11Thus Solomon finished the house of the LORD and the king’s house; and Solomon successfully accomplished all that came into his heart to make in the house of the LORD and in his own house. 12Then the LORD appeared to Solomon by night, and said to him: “I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. 13When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, 14if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

I. What Does It Mean To "Seek My Face"?

Word Meanings:

Two Hebrew Words which are translated "Seek" in relation to seeking God:

1. Baqwash - "To seek to find; to seek, to require, to desire, to request."

2. Darwash - "To seek with care, inquire, to frequent a place, tread a place; to seek deity in prayer and worship.

These words imply a yearning, a frequency of inquiry, a desire to enter into the presence of someone!

In the NT there are two root words which are translated "Seek":

1. Zayteo - "To seek for, to seek to understand something, how to do something; to seek or strive after, endeavor, to desire; to require or demand.

Other forms of the word mean "To seek carefully, with difficulty in the effort being implied, to seek out, to search for."

2. Orego - "To reach out, or after."

What Does The Term "Face" Mean?

"Face" in the OT meant two things: 1) The front of the head. 2) A person’s presence ("Before the face of").

Seeking God then is a sincere and persistent effort on the part of the seeker to reach out to God in order to enter into His presence! It may be motivated by the need to ask something of God, to request His intervention, to seek his mercy and forgiveness, to acquire wisdom, but most significantly it should be motivated by a desire to know Him more intimately!

Consider the words of the Apostle Paul - Philippians 3:10: "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,"

Know Him - "To know and understand; to become acquainted with; it is with the thought of the intimacy between a husband and wife." (Not just knowing about Him, but knowing Him!)

Power of His Resurrection - "To share and experience His powerful victory!"

Fellowship of His Sufferings - "To participate with Him in His humility and suffering!"

Conformed to His Death - "To be like Him in humble obedience to the cross (death to self)."

It is an Intimacy that ultimately produces Imitation (Becoming Like Him).

· In this church there is much Bible Knowledge.

· Folks can quote the Scriptures.

· People who can teach the mechanics of knowing and seeking God.

· But I cannot say that I have sensed much of the real intimacy with God in the lives of our people.