Introduction
The focus is on pursuing God and addressing hindrances to that pursuit.Philippians 3:7-14 is referenced as an example of Paul’s pursuit of God, despite his accomplishments.Paul counted his former gains as loss for Christ.He suffered the loss of all things to win Christ.Paul pressed toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God.The primary issue hindering the pursuit of God is self.Self ministers to the flesh instead of the spirit.The goal is to identify areas where we need to “strip away” self and allow God to own us.Being Made in His Image
Humans have the capacity to know God, unlike other creatures.Sin separates us from God, causing us to run from Him.Born-again believers have a willingness to go toward God.Matthew 7:8 promises that those who ask, seek, and knock will receive, find, and have doors opened to them.Hebrews 10:19 discusses having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.Jesus opened the way into the holiest of holies, but many remain content in the outer court.Sin separates us from God and hinders our pursuit of Him.John 4 discusses worshipping God in spirit and in truth, as the Father seeks such worshippers.The Blessedness of Nothingness
Before creating man, God prepared the world with useful and pleasant things for man’s use.These “things” were meant to be subservient to man, with God holding the central place in the heart.Problems began when “things” were allowed to enter the human heart, displacing God.Luke 9:23 states that to follow Christ, one must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him daily.Denying self involves removing self (or “things”) from the throne and replacing it with God.The sin nature within us has a fierce passion to possess and control things.Children are naturally selfish and want to possess things.God must be Lord of all or not at all.Abraham’s example: He wasn’t allowed to love Isaac more than God.God tested Abraham to see if Isaac had taken His place in Abraham’s heart.Abraham had to prove he possessed nothing but the Lord.Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac, demonstrating that God was his ultimate priority.The test revealed that Abraham possessed nothing greater in his heart than God.If we are set upon the pursuit of God, He will bring us to this test.The pursuit of God is abandoned when anything other than Christ takes the top spot.Removing the Veil
There often remains a “veil” between us and God, leading to a superficial Christian life.Hebrews 10:19 discusses boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus.The “instant cure” for religious ills is to become aware that we are in God and God is in us.This awareness would lift us out of narrowness and burn away impurities.With the veil removed by Jesus’ flesh, we have every right to enter the holiest place.The reason we don’t pursue God is because of sin.The question is posed: What keeps us from going into the holiest place?The answer is often given that we are cold, but there is something more serious: the veil of flesh.This veil is our fallen nature living on, unjudged, uncrucified, and unrepudiated.There must be a work of God in destruction before we are free.We must invite the cross to do its deadly work within us.A person cannot crucify themselves; it requires God’s help.The crucifixion is a spiritual activity where we open our hearts to God and ask the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do.Many try to do it themselves and end up just “acting it out” without truly being in His presence.The Holy Spirit can crucify the flesh and deal with the veil in our heart.If you are tired of self and need help, the Holy Spirit can do what you can’t.It’s time to deal with the uncrucified self-life and get the veil removed from our heart.After Hitting God
Psalms 34:8 encourages us to “taste and see that the Lord is good.”The Bible assumes we can know God with the same immediacy as we know physical things.The Bible assumes a relationship is possible between man and God.The reason many know so little of habitual communion with God is our chronic unbelief.Faith enables our spiritual sense to function.If we want to pursue Christ, we must do it with faith.Where faith is defective, there will be inward insensibility and numbness towards spiritual things.We have established bad thought habits, thinking of the visible world as real and doubting the reality of the spiritual world.At the root of the Christian life lies belief in the invisible.The great unseen reality is God.We must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.We must avoid pushing the spiritual world into the future; it is present.The spiritual world parallels our familiar physical world, and the doors between the two are open.A person seeking God is going in and out of these two worlds all day long.The soul has eyes and ears with which to see and hear in the spiritual realm.The reality of God is a present reality.The Universal Presence
The pursuit of God requires recognizing that God is everywhere and that He is here.Psalms 139:7 asks, “Whither shall I flee from thy presence?”God dwells in His creation and is everywhere indivisibly present in all His works.While God dwells in His world, He is separated from it by a gulf forever impassable.You cannot physically “get to God” by traveling; He is already here.Because of our spiritual connection with God, we are always able to pursue Him.Adam tried to hide from God after sinning, but could not.David also had thoughts of trying to escape from God’s presence, but realized it was impossible.Paul assured the Athenians that God is not far from any one of us, for in Him we live and move and have our being.If God is present at every point in space, why has that presence not become the one universally celebrated fact of the world?Jacob, in the wilderness, realized, “Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.”The presence and the manifestation of the presence are not the same.There can be one without the other.On our part, there must be surrender to the Spirit of God, for His work is to show us the Father and the Son.If we cooperate with the Spirit of God in loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us.The difference between a nominal Christian life and a radiant life is the manifestation of God’s face.Our pursuit of God is successful because He is forever seeking to manifest Himself to us.All He has ever done for any of His children, He will do for all of His children.The difference lies not with God, but with us.Tozer believed it to be spiritual receptivity or spiritual awareness.Some are simply open to heaven and respond to the Holy Spirit’s urges.The tragic results of lacking this are shallow lives, hollow religious philosophies, and a glorification of men.It will require a determined heart to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways.If you want God, He will come to you.Let any man turn to God in earnest and exercise himself unto godliness.The universal presence is a fact.God is here, and He is always trying to get our attention, to reveal Himself to us, to communicate with us.We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His bidding.This is the Pursuit of God.
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