Seek His Face Series

Message 3: Seek His Face

2nd Chronicles 7:14

We are studying this portion of scripture that, when applied, will bring about great victory in your life.

· Some need relationships restored

· Others need spiritual healing

· Maybe some here need salvation

· While others need healing

While you have to have the right attitude in living your victorious Christian life, God’s word provides us with the things we must do to achieve our goals.

1. Humble ourselves – get rid of pride and turn in your resignation

2. Pray – not just “cute” prayers but those were you have to get alone and put everything you have into the prayer.

Today we talk about the third element of victory.

Read 2nd Chronicles 7:14

Seek His Face – Seeking out God and understanding His will for our lives.

Whatever we “seek” first, represents what has authority in our lives. WHO and WHAT will control the decision-making process in our daily walk.

Before we jump into the proper way to “seek His face”, let’s first talk about the things that have been causing us to make bad choices in our lives.

- Why do I continue to give in to temptation?

- Why does it seem that I continue to make bad decisions?

- Why do I not know what God wants me to do with my life?

You have to understand, the world presents us with a number of options when it comes to answering the question of “who” and “what” will be our authority.

While the world has been presenting these options, we have bought into them and have proclaimed these as a way of life.

When it comes to whom we seek first – Some of us fall into the trap of:

1. Rationalism (reasoning)

These people say their minds are the ultimate foundation for life’s choices.

I have my own mind and I can make my own decisions.

My mind is in place to tell me what I am to do.

The job of your mind:

· To tell your legs when to take a step

· To tell your hand it is sitting on a hot stove

· To tell your eyes to look and focus

But your mind is not equipped to be the authority for your decision making process.

Two reasons why your mind is not qualified for this particular job:

a. Your mind is finite – it is subject to limitations.

Nobody knows everything (even though some act like it). There are lots of things we don’t even suspect much less know.

Before you can make decisions with your mind, it must be a mind that knows all things or you will end up in trouble.

*That is why we end up in trouble after thinking we had made a good decision. We have no way of knowing what is around the curve. That’s one reason why our minds cannot be the ultimate source of our decision making process. We must seek a higher authority.

Another reason on why you cannot use your mind for reasoning:

b. Your mind is sinful – You cannot depend on your mind to give you accurate information.

You prove that everyday when you give into temptation

· Someone does you wrong – your mind tells you to get back at them and double it

· Someone hits you – your mind says to hit them back

· Someone goes off on you – your mind tells you to fire back

The mind is unstable – you cannot use it as your authority. For some, that is why you are in the trouble you are in today. You have allowed your mind to dictate how you are going to live.

While some depend on their minds, others depend on their own:

2. Feelings – They are moved only by emotions

Why is this a bad thing?

Your emotions are unreliable because they change regularly.

In fact, for some, emotions change from moment to moment.

· When things are up – we are up

· When things are down – we are down

But if it is something that God wants His people to do, shouldn’t it affect all of us in the same way?

We are people who get emotionally attached to things. Things that we shouldn’t get attached to. And once we are attached, it’s hard to pull away.

- We get attached

- We get emotion involved

- We fall in love

- We are stuck

So we already see that we cannot allow our emotions to be our authority in our decision making process.

3. Conscience – relying on moral instincts, their senses of right and wrong.

You know, this sounds good on the surface but on the surface only.

Your conscience can only reflect what it has been fed.