Opening illustration: While ministering in the Middle East, my wife, Maureena, and I experienced the heartbeat of God almost every day. We were so blessed to have heard Him speak and guide us along life’s path. As we followed after His heart and heeded His voice, He would bring about many blessings and confirmations by His Spirit. Even in the toughest situations, where we were unsure of the outcome, we listened to His heartbeat and His voice. In allowing Him to lead us, we saw that things would work out for our benefit and God’s purposes.
Introduction: Just as a father thinks good of his children, so God always thinks good of us. His Word says, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope” (Jeremiah 29:11). But lest we’re mistaken, this does not come without us properly playing our role. What is our role and how do we play it properly? you may be wondering. We simply know God’s heartbeat and walk in accordance with it always without straying from the path or getting out of step.
How can we know God’s heartbeat?
1. Knowing God’s Desire (v. 11)
One of God’s greatest desires is to have fellowship with His people, which He expressed to Adam and Eve. He visited them, communed with them, and walked alongside them—each and every day. Adam knew God’s heartbeat but rebelled and did not want to hear Him any longer. He and his wife Eve were therefore separated from God once they disobeyed. Like Adam and Eve, God desires to have an intimate walk of fellowship and oneness with each of us. Throughout the ages, God has never given up on humanity. He has always found faithful people in every generation to have intimacy with Him.
The Bible says that Enoch walked with God, pleased God, and evangelized His generation. Therefore, God took him unto Himself (Genesis 5:24; Hebrews 11:5; Jude 14). Abraham intently knew the heartbeat of God—he made every effort to walk righteously before Him. Because of his perseverance, God called him faithful and His friend. He was given the title of being the father of many nations. At the age of eighty, God poured out His heart to Moses, who contended and argued with Him. But at the end of the day, Moses submitted to the will and plan of God for his life and that of the nation of Israel. After hearing from God, knowing His heart and yielding to it, Moses stirred the entire nation of Egypt and ushered an exodus of more than a million Israelites. It took forty years for the Israelites to travel from Egypt to the Promised Land. And after a long spell of silence, God spoke His heart to a young boy named Samuel, whom He raised as His prophet to speak to Israel on His behalf. He moved not only the heart of Israel but the kings who reigned during his era.
Why are believers so passionate about their faith and why is it so precious to them? We are far too privileged in the West when it comes to our faith and its testing. Those in other parts of the world experience a persecution that is far greater than ours. For them, they have found freedom in Christ that they have not experienced in this world. They have known God on an intimate level because they had nowhere else to turn. They are so passionate in their love for God because they have spent time seeking Him and serving Him.
To have constant fellowship with God means we will immerse ourselves in His Word, spend time with Him in prayer, saturate ourselves in worship, and commune and interact with others in the body of Christ. He doesn’t desire a certain percentage of our being—God desires everything from us. He is a jealous God and cannot have any other person or thing taking His rightful place in our lives. The reason for God’s jealousy is that “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). We should all be encouraged, for “what then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). When God cares so much for us and desires to stand by us, how much more should we pursue Him and seek to know His heartbeat.
When we know God’s heartbeat without even articulating it, we bring a heart of worship to Him, which then develops into a lifestyle of worship. Jesus revealed this secret to the woman at the well in John 4:21–24: Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
David knew God’s heartbeat at its best. He was a worshiper, gifted songwriter, and musician, creating many worshipful moments in the presence of God. He was called a man after God’s own heart. He was truly a God chaser and never left Him, no matter what he went through. God promised him kingly descendants and that the Messiah would come through his lineage. And that promise was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. David knew the heartbeat of God and served Him faithfully in his generation.
2. Listening to God’s Voice (v. 12)
When God speaks, how do you know that you’re hearing from God and not someone else? When you operate in the gifts of the Spirit in the way, the outcome will be right, work to the benefit of others, and fulfill God’s plan. This is exactly how we know that God is speaking and leading us: we see ourselves caring for people the way that God cares for them, witnessing great miracles and healings in their lives.
The New Testament opens up with a voice crying out in the desert. John the Baptist was carrying the torch and preparing the advent of Christ. John knew the heartbeat of God because he knew his assignment and how to execute it. When Jesus showed up, it was evident that He was the Son of God, God incarnate, who would save humanity from sin and eternal damnation. Jesus knew the heartbeat of His Father and carried out His mission with precision. His life on earth stirred up many hearts, and the New Covenant was born through His shed blood.
Likewise, the apostles walked and talked with Jesus during His lifetime. They knew His heartbeat and went to great lengths to accomplish the vision He had set before them. They ushered a revival in the heart of the Middle East. In fact, with just twelve men, Jesus turned the world on its head. Likewise, Saul, who was later named Paul the apostle, stirred up the hearts of many after having a personal encounter with Christ. Today the salvation message of Christ is creating revival in much of the closed and semi-closed nations where Christians are being persecuted.
Before Maureena and I left the Middle East for America, we met up with my mentor and his wife. God had put it upon my heart to tell him that he would soon be leaving the place where our ministry had begun. I shared with him that God would bring him to another place and expand the tent of his ministry. He was reluctant when he heard this and was not ready to accept it. However, the fall of that same year we left for America, God relocated my mentor and his wife to a different location in the Middle East and continued to exponentially multiply their ministry. God did exactly as He had promised.
When we listen to God’s heartbeat, and we share it with others, it is an incredible blessing. Our faith is strengthened as a result. If I had not heard and listened to God’s heartbeat, Maureena and I would not be serving Him in the heartland of the United States today.
Illustration: There was a woman in our congregation in the Middle East, whom God had revealed to me that she was pregnant. I had talked to her and told her of this; however, she was shocked and was completely unaware that she was with child. So I told her exactly what God had laid on my heart for her and the unborn child. I told her that, though she already had one son, this child would also be a boy, and that God wanted this child to be completely His. She heeded my words. Because both of us were aware of God’s heartbeat and took His instructions seriously, that young boy is now being raised as separated for God’s own purposes.
3. Seeking After God (v. 13)
Seeking the Lord means seeking his presence. “Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face.” Literally, we are to seek his “face.” But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence. This happens through “seeking.” Continual seeking. But what does that mean practically? Both the Old and New Testaments say it is a “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.
The fact is, it’s easy to fill your life with things other than God. They may be good things, but they are not God, and God alone can satisfy your soul. For example, many people fill their lives with family and friends. On Sunday, they usually give God an hour, but He isn’t the center of their lives; people are. People are good, and human relationships are a blessing from God. But we should not try to fill the vacuum in our lives with people, but with God.
Others try to fill their lives with possessions or with a successful and satisfying career. Again, those things have their place, but they are not meant to satisfy your soul. God alone can do that. To seek Him means to pursue Him alone to fill that God-shaped vacuum in your life. Thus seeking after God means to have an intimate personal relationship with Him; always to desire more of Him; and, to pursue God alone to fill the vacuum in your life.
How does a person seek after God?
I’m assuming that you already know God personally through Christ. As I already mentioned, you begin a relationship with God when you realize that you have sinned against the holy God and when you flee for refuge to the provision God has made for your sin, the cross of Christ. No one seeks for God unless God first seeks after them (John 6:44; Romans 3:11). Thus no one can boast; we have only received God’s undeserved gift. But once you’ve received it, how do you go on seeking after God? Three things:
(a) You seek God by putting love for God at the center of your relationship with Him.
Seeking after God means keeping your passion for God alive. Christianity is not just a matter of the head, but of the heart. As you think on what God has done for you in Christ, it ought to move you emotionally. As you reflect on His great love and faithfulness toward you over the years, in spite of your failures, you ought to feel love for Him.
(b) You seek God by spending consistent time alone with Him.
If you love God, you’ll make time to spend with Him because you delight to do so. This includes time in His Word, renewing your mind so that you can please Him. It includes time in prayer, bringing your needs and others’ needs before Him. It includes time in praise and worship, expressing your love for Him.
(c) You seek God by integrating Him into every area of your life.
God isn’t just a spoke in the wheel; He’s the hub. God isn’t just a slice of life, who rounds out your other pursuits. Rather, God permeates every area of your life. He’s at the center of every decision you make. He’s the Lord of every relationship you have. You manage your money by considering what His Word says about it. There is no area of your life, be it your business, your family, your education, or whatever, where God is not an integral part. There is no division between sacred and secular; all of life is related to God.
Illustration: How is it with you and God? Perhaps you say, “I’m actively involved in serving Him!” That’s fine, but that’s not what I’m asking. You can be in full time ministry and lose sight of seeking God Himself. I once heard the late godly pastor and author, Alan Redpath, speak. He told how he faced a time in his life when the opportunities for ministry were the greatest he had ever seen. God seemed to be blessing his preaching. It was the kind of thing every pastor prays and longs for.
And then, right in the middle of it, Redpath was laid up with a stroke. As he lay in his hospital bed, he asked, “Lord, why? Why now, when the opportunities to serve You are so great?” I’ll never forget what he said next. He said that the Lord quietly impressed upon him, “Alan, you’ve gotten your work ahead of your worship.” Ouch!
Application: In our culture, there is the common phrase that one is to follow his or her own heart. However, this contends with what Scripture tells us about the human heart: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). A heart such as this is in opposition to the heart of God. We are to be focused on the heart of God, not on the sinful heart with which we were born. Knowing this, and understanding what kind of heart God desires for us to possess, why would we want to follow our own heart?
When we experience God, have an intimate walk with Him, and know Him at a personal level, we will gradually be prepared to be on the road to know His heartbeat. This will stir up our hearts to become passionate for Him and obedient to His Word. If we are going to usher in a revival—not only in our churches but in our community, state, nation, and to the ends of the earth—this is what it is going to take. Do you really want to know God’s heartbeat? Walk and talk with Him today. He is waiting for you to be still and know that He is God.
