2 Chronicles 7:14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
- Humble
To be humble is to be someone that is not prideful or arrogant. Someone that knows their strengths and their limits. Someone that know they can and do make mistakes.
When I was a teenager and singing groups would come to our church to sing it was hard to find the one that were humble and were more about seeking God rather than how good they were at their instrument or singing and or sometimes preaching.
The first part of this scripture says to humble yourselves. I have seen people in churches that have sat on their hands and did not want to raise their hands and worship because they didn't want people to see them praise. Yet they will go to a concert of the world and raise their hand and yell for hours. First of all they should not be at that kind of concert that is not worshiping God and second the Bible says in Exodus 20:3.
Exodus 20:3
You shall have no other gods before Me.
So the first thing is to Humble yourself before God.
- Pray
Prayer is a conversation with God. It is a worship, of gratitude, needs, and even our struggles. God is not a Jennie in a bottle however, He is the only God that can help us with our daily struggle and deserves to be praised for what He has already done for us.
Prayer helps us to grow closer with God and builds our relationship with Him. If we don't talk to our spouse then how will we ever have a great relationship? How will we ever grow closer together and have a deeper love if we don't talk to each other?
Psalm 145:8
The Lord is near to all who call upon Him,
To all who call upon Him in truth.
- Seek His Face
To seek His face means to seek who He is - character, His Love, and Presence. We must want God more passionately then anything in this world. That is a love that is more than anyone could ever want.
- Turn From Your Wicked Ways
That means that we need a huge change in our lives. That means that we make everything different in our lives. We must get away from bad influences, bad language, our old life of sins and seek God.
I had a conversation with my sister yesterday and we were talking about how that church has changed so much since we were kids. I remember as a teenager that Sunday's were the best time for us and yes they were long.
We would go to church on Sunday Morning and have Sunday School and then our Praise and Worship service then get out at about 12:30PM and go to eat lunch go home and rest for about 2 hours and then back to church at 6:00PM. Our Sunday Night services were better than Sunday Morning usually. That is when we would have those good Holy Ghost services and see people saved, filled with the Holy Ghost and people healed often times on the spot. We would not usually get out until around 10:PM or later.
Where have we gone with our power that God promised us back in the new testament. We have lost that because we have lost our deep relationship with God. It's not to say that you are not a Christian but, that we have lost that constant prayer time and worship time with God.
Most church's have went to a Sunday Morning only service and a mid-week service because, people go to busy for God and want to get away from the worship. We have now spent more time on a production of God's presence with the flashing lights, smoke, and dressed down attire to the point of almost me naked and got away from the holiness of God.
We used to praise and worship God on Sunday Morning, Sunday Night, and Wednesday Night services. And if most of us would be honest we don't pray at all or very little during the week in our own time and I don't just mean pray over a meal.
I read a story of a minister named Tommy that went to Houston to preach at a friends church. He walked into a building that Sunday morning where the Holy Spirit was so thick that everyone was sleepy and the musicians and praise team were struggling to play because they were tearing up from the prescience of the Holy Spirit.
He said he was sitting on the front row and the Pastor friend said Tommy are you ready and Tommy said Pastor I am about half-afraid to step up there because he sensed that God is about to do something.
He said that he kept thinking that he wanted to move away from the front of the church because something was about to happen. So, he got up and walked to the back of the building where the sound booth was at and stood by it.
The pastor visibly shaky grabbed the edge of each side of the pulpit and quietly read the passage that we read at the beginning.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Then he closed his Bible, gripped the edges of the pulpit with trembling hands, and said, "The word of the Lord to us is to stop seeking His benefits and seek Him. We are not to seek His hands any longer, but seek His face."
In that instant, Tommy said he heard a sound like a thunderclap echo through the building and the pastor was literally picked up and thrown backward about ten feet, effectively separating him from the pulpit. When he went backward, the pulpit fell forward. The beautiful flower arrangement positioned in front of it fell to the ground, but by the time the pulpit hit the ground, it was already spit in two pieces. It had split into two pieces almost as if lightning had hit it! At that instant the presence of God filled that room.
The presence of God was so strong that people began to run to the altar. They were in such a hurry that they were pushing people out of the way. Several men ran up to check on the pastor and carried him out cold to his office and sat him in a chair. Then Tommy walked up to the pulpit and people were getting saved and asking him to be baptized. Because, he was just the minister he did not want to baptize without the pastors permission.
Tommy ask a man to go back and check on pastor and ask him if it was ok to baptize the people in which after several minutes never returned. So Tommy sent a couple of more people and they also never came back. Finally he ask the Assistant Pastor to check and see if it was ok and why the other men never returned. A few minutes later the Assistant Pastor came back and said I opened the door barely and looked in and all the men you sent and the pastor our out in the floor. He said I can go back and ask but I may not come back either.
Tommy decided with the Assistant Pastor to go ahead and baptize. He said that finally at 4:00PM that he went to eat and come back to the church with everyone still there and more. The baseball field next to the church was full of cars and they were even parked on the grass and when people got out of their cars they were imiadetly drawn to get out of their cars and come inside and did not even stop at a chair they were going straight to the alter and confessing and asking for forgiveness.
That service he said lasted until Monday at 1:00AM.
Are you really giving God everything that you have?
Are you seeking Him like you should?