SEEKING GOD

PART 5 of 8
SEEKING GOD’S HEART: The Courtship of God

The evening was a typically beautiful and peaceful night. A small breeze was blowing and seemed to be chasing a previous gust that had already passed through. David sat leaning against a tree trunk playing his harp and singing psalms to God and to his father’s sleeping sheep. His eyelids were getting a little heavy in the tranquility of the moment and he could probably drift off himself if not for the fact that the sheep were in his charge.

As David sang and played, he kept a vigorous lookout toward the surrounding area. Besides his playing and the sounds of the night, the only other thing he could hear was an occasional bleating from either side of the flock by a few sheep that struggled to sleep but nonetheless were quietly confirming the contentment of their status.

Minutes passed, when amid song, a lone lamb raised its head and began checking his periphery. David stopped playing. He could no longer hear the sounds of the night and it was like someone had turned off the switch to his hearing.

Something was wrong.

He put down his harp and looked about him. There was a rustling in the nearby brush. David stood and reached for his sling.

By this time, all the sheep were standing and huddling together waiting for someone to lead them to safety. The bleating was deafening. David prepared himself for any eventuality.

Then David saw him: a lion crouching low and stalking the perimeter. Should I do anything? he thought. The lion would only take one animal. Should I risk my own life for one lamb?

The Holy Spirit brought David to his spiritual senses and told him that David’s father was not willing that one of his sheep should perish[1] and that He would deliver the lamb out of the lion’s mouth. Hearing that and without a second thought, David loaded a good size rock into the leather pouch and prepared for an open and clear shot.

Without any warning, the lion sprung and as quickly as he had leapt, he had a lamb in his mouth and was confidently trotting toward the thickets. David would only have one try and he’d have to be quick and accurate, otherwise, a lamb would die, either from the jaws of death or by a misplaced stone. He began to twirl and at the precise moment, known only to him, he released the rock. It found its mark and the lion dropped to the ground. David removed the terrified lamb from the jaws of certain death and released it back to the flock.

Shaken and recomposed, the lion arose to recapture his dinner and perhaps an extra tid-bit for dessert by killing David. However, the Lord delivered David out of the paw of the lion and allowed him to grab the lion by the beard and slay him[2].

Like David, when we are in the center of God’s will and His presence, we too can slay the lions in our lives.


David Slays Goliath

Not only did David slay the lion and the bear but he slew Goliath as well[3]. Although God delivered him from Goliath and the Philistines, David only acted after he heard from the Lord[4]. (This is very important.)

It seems a little foolhardy that David would so quickly step up to fight the 9ft tall giant laden down with impenetrable armor and he with none[5], until we read 1 Samuel 17:36. This passage tells us that for David to boast as he did (in the natural), would not have been prudent. It is evident that the Lord had already told him what he should do. The will of God had sanctioned this battle and guaranteed David’s victory[6]. David immediately acted upon it and ran toward Goliath. Yes. . .ran. This was the proper response.

At one time or the other, waiting on the Lord is where most of us fall short because we all deal from presumption instead of hearing directly from the Lord before any of our battles, prayers, and supplications. We try and get ahead of God by speaking His Word and then expecting Him to jump and honor it. This is backward.

The Word of God is logos to us ‘all,' but the rhema word is to us ‘individually’ according to the will of God. As soon as we learn this truth, the easier, and the more victorious our lives will be. Although His Word will not return to Him void[7], God is not called to do our will but we are called to do His.


David, a man after god’s own heart

The secret to David’s[8] longevity and success was because he was in the center of God’s will. He had an intimate relationship with the Lord and he did nothing without the leading of the Holy Spirit. He knew that it could possibly mean his death if he did otherwise, as witnessed by the previous stories. David was, indeed, a man after God’s own heart[9], which begs the question, “How was he ‘a man after God’s own heart?’”

One only has to read the Psalms to know the answer to that question. David did not only love the Lord and depend upon Him solely but in every way he was agreeable to the will of God. He paid strict attention to, and never tried to change, any part of the Law. As David led Israel in the public arena, he acted according to God’s righteous mind, and fulfilled the will of God.

When David slew the lion, the bear, and Goliath, he was more than confident in his immediate actions because he had the leading of the Holy Spirit. He acted out of a condition response and there was no hesitation when the Lord told him to. . .go, that He would deliver him.

Today, when I look back on David’s harrowing exploits, I shudder. I shudder because I know the lineage from where Jesus came. What if the lion, the bear, or Goliath had killed David? There would be no Jesus. This may have been the last ditch effort by Satan to stop the lineage of Christ.

Therefore, as long as we have the faith and Spirit of God in us, and be men and women after His heart, nothing will be impossible[10] for us to accomplish. We too will act without hesitation. . .as long as we wait on the Spirit of God[11] and not act presumptuously.

Peter acted presumptuously when, just before Christ’s Crucifixion, he told Jesus that He would surely not die[12]. I am wondering how many of us would have probably told Jesus the same thing. I fear that I would have said something similar. However, as the Bible indicates, the Lord’s physical survival was not in God’s plan[13]. Christ came to pay for His Bride with His own Blood.

This is why it is so important to be in the center of God’s will and to know His Word, so we don’t get ahead of the Holy Spirit. In the natural, I can understand why Peter said what he did but knowing what we know today aren’t we glad that Jesus saw through Satan’s charade.


Courtship of God’s Heart

When we seek the heart of God, we are in a “courtship” phase of relationship. Our wooing leads to romance and that creates a relationship. In turn, this produces intimacy and puts us right in the center of God’s will.

When we are in the center of God’s will and desires, we are looking to fulfill the desires of God’s heart, not ours.

During our courtship, we reciprocate God’s love by giving Him our devotion, our obedience, our worship, and our love. Just the simple act alone of giving to God and others benefit us because those acts themselves automatically bounce blessing back to us and builds our character. We (should) do this with a personal decision and without any prompting of the Holy Spirit. Then God blesses us again because we unselfishly gave unsolicited help to Him and to others.


Seeking God’s Heart

When we seek the heart of God, it is going to Him and asking, “What can I do for you today Lord? What’s on your heart today? You know where I am going and who I am going to run across today Lord, so is there something that you want to do in my life today to touch and reach those who will cross my path? Is there something that you’d like to say Lord? What would you like Father, or do you just want me to sit with you today God?”

Approaching God like this we become a man[14] after God’s own heart and depending on our relationship with Him, we will go into His presence. Getting into the center of God’s will and in His presence provides revelation, healing, deliverance, sanctification, victory, and supernatural power. Going into His presence with any pretense and the pretense will find you out.

Seeking God’s heart is when we live for God’s purpose and is where we exchange all of our plans, our hopes, and our dreams for the dreams, the heart, and the longing of God. He so saturates us that we will become the heart of God. His heart will so birth in us that we will literally cry when traveling down the street wondering how many of these people do not have the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

If people called by His name will not only seek His face[15] but seek His heart, our hearts will come together and beat as one. This will be the heart of the Bride and it will be beating loudly for all to hear.

The Bride’s heart will beat so loudly that our relationship with God will emanate from out of us and begin to change the atmosphere one heart at a time. People around us will sense and feel our commingled heart and the power of the Holy Spirit and will say, “I want some of that.”

In essence and in the final analysis, seeking God’s heart is the simple act of literally giving Him ours!

The number one purpose and desire of God’s heart is that we know Him and make Him known to others. It is what He longs for us to do. Let’s go a little deeper still by Seeking God’s Purpose.

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[1] Matthew 18:14 Obviously, I took some license here with this Scripture but is not God the same yesterday, today, and forever. It is just my interpretation of the event.
[2] 1 Samuel 17:37; David, the lion, and bear story 1 Samuel 17:34-37
[3] 1 Samuel 17:49, 50
[4] 1 Samuel 17:36; 1Samuel 17:45
[5] David removed the armor that Saul gave him because he knew that the battle was the Lords and that Saul’s armor (unbelief) would not defeat the giant. David had the armor of the God of Israel, which were His Word and the leading of the Holy Spirit. David didn’t need any armor protection because the Lord had told him that He would deliver him from Goliath and the Philistines. If all David had in his pouch was 5 olives, he still would have gone mano a mano with Goliath and God would have still delivered him. David was so sure of the outcome that he ran toward Goliath and the Philistines.
[6] 1 Samuel 17:37
[7] Isaiah 55:11
[8] Other than Jesus, the longest biography in the Bible is that of King David. 1 Samuel 16:13b all the way through 1 Kings 2:10. 1 Chronicles 12-29. David even wrote at least eighty-five of the one hundred and fifty songs in the Psalms.
[9] 1 Samuel 13:14
[10] Luke 1:37
[11] Psalms 27:14; Psalms 37:34; Proverb 3:5, 6
[12] Matthew 16:22
[13] Mark 15:25
[14] Man is a generic term for mankind and means man AND woman.
[15] 2Chronicles 7:14