Post by MIRIAM JACOB on Feb 17, 2008 23:08:50 GMT -5
Passionate Pursuers
You and I are called to be passionate pursuers of His heart. We are
called to know Jesus in such an intimate way; He desires deep fellowship with us. To be a Passionate Pursuer is to be someone who seeks His presence all the time, no matter what they are doing through the day, always being aware of His presence.
I know for myself, it's often hard when I'm at work to pursue Him
because it's so busy and you are so run off your feet you don't have time to do anything but hope that soon the wave of craziness is going to end. I kept asking Jesus how I was to be a passionate pursuer all the time even while I am at work. All I heard Jesus say was "keep inviting me in". So I continually trained myself to invite His presence into my current situation and circumstance no matter where I was.
Alan Fleece put it this way: "The knowledge that God is present is
blessed, but to feel and experience his Presence is nothing less than sheer joy."
William Law said, "Intimacy with God is not the spice but the essence of Christian existence."
Intimacy with Jesus Christ is the essence of your Christian existence. It is all about you and I growing deeper as passionate pursuer's of His heart, knowing who He is and walking in His presence that propels us into greater levels of joy.
As you and I learn to cultivate an attitude of inviting His presence
into all our situations every day, it is then that we see that it is HIS
Presence that can change everything about us, the way we serve and the way we treat others.
God is calling you and I to be desperate to be in His presence. I want to look at someone now who was desperate to be in the presence of Jesus, because she knew exactly who He was.
Turn with me to the story of the woman with a haemorrhage.
Here we see a lady that was not only cast out by society because of her illness, but someone who had determination and desperation. These are the two things that are needed to be a passionate pursuer of Christ and His Presence.
1. Determination
You and I must determine in our hearts DAILY that Jesus is our passion, He is our life, we live, move and breathe in Him, and we must determine to seek Him above all else.
It is the determination to set our faces towards God like a flint and to walk in deeper intimacy with Him. Sure we see people like Charles Spurgeon, or Smith Wigglesworth who spent hours upon hours in prayer seeking God, and that's fabulous, but sometimes that is not a 'do-able' thing for some of us with our lifestyles, or we simply find it hard sitting still for so long, our mind wanders etc.
What God wants of us as His people is to determine to be people of
PRIORITY!!! God is calling you and I to prioritise Him in our daily
lives. What does prioritising Jesus mean to you? Do you know how the dictionary defines to "prioritise" I thought it was so rich in meaning:
1. To choose what is most important to you
2. To arrange or do in order of importance; give all of yourself to this 'cause'
3. To organize or deal with something according to its importance.
So something that is our priority we will invest all of our time, our
effort, our money and our lives into, because it is the most important thing to us.
As we all know Jesus Christ is to our priority, the most important. How do you prioritise Jesus in your life? Are you passionately pursuing Jesus by placing Him at the top of your list no matter what you are doing?
It's interesting when you think of life like this, you know..because
Jesus was speaking to me about putting Him as number one in all things, and I said confidently "Of course Lord I put you first, above all" and then He said to me "even above your sleep". I responded "Of course Lord, you are more important to me than sleep" (at this point did I know what I was getting myself into...NOPE!!! ) and then the Lord said "Okay Lana, so I want you to get up every morning at 5am and spend time with Me, just seeking Me".
Here is the part where I thought I would have responded with "Of course Lord, I will happily do that", even though my response was one of obedience, let me tell you, that there was a part of me that almost died.... "Nooooo, Lord, I need my sleep", I don't do well in the mornings."
At that moment, I felt the Lord pose the question to my heart: "How desperate are you for Me? How determined are you to pursue Me"
That was a question that has forever changed my life. That is a question that has changed my thinking, governed much of my decision making, and has opened my eyes to see how much God wants us to grow in desperation to know Him more.
Like the woman with the issue of blood, she prioritised Jesus. She
forsook everything else, what people thought, how she would look, and she just moved forward in desperation towards the One who mattered most to her. Yes, she wanted healing, but I believe it's more the fact that she knew that it was in encountering Jesus that she would be changed. She was desperate.
As Christians, we are called to set aside all other "loves". Anything
we put above Jesus, we prioritise above Jesus, is an idol, and is a sin. That is not what God wants for us. God wants us to prioritise Him in everything.
God is calling you and I to be determined to spend more time in His
presence. How are your quiet times going? How is your personal time of reading the Word going? Or spending time in worship? How is your intimacy with Jesus going? Are you prioritising your time with Him above all else?
It's a constant challenge for you and I to walk in this depth of
intimacy. Do you know that the world is not going to be attracted to Christians that just "go to church" on Sunday, they are going to be attracted to those who have a dynamic and authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, because the deeper you walk in intimacy with Jesus, the more His Spirit will flow into you unhindered and out of you.
Is there a circumstance in your life or a decision where you need to
prioritise Jesus? Or to say something to someone despite the response?
Jesus is calling us to be passionate pursuers by determining to choose HIM and HIS WAYS above ALL else. He is our passion and our priority!!!!
The second way to be a passionate pursuer is to be:
DESPERATE
You know what desperation entails? Desperation entails the "S" word.
SACRIFICE
You cannot be desperate for something without being willing to
sacrifice all you have for it. Desperation and sacrifice go hand in hand.
© LANA VAWSER
You and I are called to be passionate pursuers of His heart. We are
called to know Jesus in such an intimate way; He desires deep fellowship with us. To be a Passionate Pursuer is to be someone who seeks His presence all the time, no matter what they are doing through the day, always being aware of His presence.
I know for myself, it's often hard when I'm at work to pursue Him
because it's so busy and you are so run off your feet you don't have time to do anything but hope that soon the wave of craziness is going to end. I kept asking Jesus how I was to be a passionate pursuer all the time even while I am at work. All I heard Jesus say was "keep inviting me in". So I continually trained myself to invite His presence into my current situation and circumstance no matter where I was.
Alan Fleece put it this way: "The knowledge that God is present is
blessed, but to feel and experience his Presence is nothing less than sheer joy."
William Law said, "Intimacy with God is not the spice but the essence of Christian existence."
Intimacy with Jesus Christ is the essence of your Christian existence. It is all about you and I growing deeper as passionate pursuer's of His heart, knowing who He is and walking in His presence that propels us into greater levels of joy.
As you and I learn to cultivate an attitude of inviting His presence
into all our situations every day, it is then that we see that it is HIS
Presence that can change everything about us, the way we serve and the way we treat others.
God is calling you and I to be desperate to be in His presence. I want to look at someone now who was desperate to be in the presence of Jesus, because she knew exactly who He was.
Turn with me to the story of the woman with a haemorrhage.
Here we see a lady that was not only cast out by society because of her illness, but someone who had determination and desperation. These are the two things that are needed to be a passionate pursuer of Christ and His Presence.
1. Determination
You and I must determine in our hearts DAILY that Jesus is our passion, He is our life, we live, move and breathe in Him, and we must determine to seek Him above all else.
It is the determination to set our faces towards God like a flint and to walk in deeper intimacy with Him. Sure we see people like Charles Spurgeon, or Smith Wigglesworth who spent hours upon hours in prayer seeking God, and that's fabulous, but sometimes that is not a 'do-able' thing for some of us with our lifestyles, or we simply find it hard sitting still for so long, our mind wanders etc.
What God wants of us as His people is to determine to be people of
PRIORITY!!! God is calling you and I to prioritise Him in our daily
lives. What does prioritising Jesus mean to you? Do you know how the dictionary defines to "prioritise" I thought it was so rich in meaning:
1. To choose what is most important to you
2. To arrange or do in order of importance; give all of yourself to this 'cause'
3. To organize or deal with something according to its importance.
So something that is our priority we will invest all of our time, our
effort, our money and our lives into, because it is the most important thing to us.
As we all know Jesus Christ is to our priority, the most important. How do you prioritise Jesus in your life? Are you passionately pursuing Jesus by placing Him at the top of your list no matter what you are doing?
It's interesting when you think of life like this, you know..because
Jesus was speaking to me about putting Him as number one in all things, and I said confidently "Of course Lord I put you first, above all" and then He said to me "even above your sleep". I responded "Of course Lord, you are more important to me than sleep" (at this point did I know what I was getting myself into...NOPE!!! ) and then the Lord said "Okay Lana, so I want you to get up every morning at 5am and spend time with Me, just seeking Me".
Here is the part where I thought I would have responded with "Of course Lord, I will happily do that", even though my response was one of obedience, let me tell you, that there was a part of me that almost died.... "Nooooo, Lord, I need my sleep", I don't do well in the mornings."
At that moment, I felt the Lord pose the question to my heart: "How desperate are you for Me? How determined are you to pursue Me"
That was a question that has forever changed my life. That is a question that has changed my thinking, governed much of my decision making, and has opened my eyes to see how much God wants us to grow in desperation to know Him more.
Like the woman with the issue of blood, she prioritised Jesus. She
forsook everything else, what people thought, how she would look, and she just moved forward in desperation towards the One who mattered most to her. Yes, she wanted healing, but I believe it's more the fact that she knew that it was in encountering Jesus that she would be changed. She was desperate.
As Christians, we are called to set aside all other "loves". Anything
we put above Jesus, we prioritise above Jesus, is an idol, and is a sin. That is not what God wants for us. God wants us to prioritise Him in everything.
God is calling you and I to be determined to spend more time in His
presence. How are your quiet times going? How is your personal time of reading the Word going? Or spending time in worship? How is your intimacy with Jesus going? Are you prioritising your time with Him above all else?
It's a constant challenge for you and I to walk in this depth of
intimacy. Do you know that the world is not going to be attracted to Christians that just "go to church" on Sunday, they are going to be attracted to those who have a dynamic and authentic relationship with Jesus Christ, because the deeper you walk in intimacy with Jesus, the more His Spirit will flow into you unhindered and out of you.
Is there a circumstance in your life or a decision where you need to
prioritise Jesus? Or to say something to someone despite the response?
Jesus is calling us to be passionate pursuers by determining to choose HIM and HIS WAYS above ALL else. He is our passion and our priority!!!!
The second way to be a passionate pursuer is to be:
DESPERATE
You know what desperation entails? Desperation entails the "S" word.
SACRIFICE
You cannot be desperate for something without being willing to
sacrifice all you have for it. Desperation and sacrifice go hand in hand.
© LANA VAWSER