SEEK that You Might Live

“What are you seeking?,” asks the Father. “My people are seeking everything and everyone but Me. You seek knowledge of Me. You seek tales of Me, but who among longs to seek My face? Who among you is seeking Me, that you may live?”

“My word is true. Seek Me and you shall find Me. I am a jealous God, and you shall have no other gods before me. Yet, you seek so much and neglect Me. Seek Me, My people, that you might live.”


I found myself in a lot of prayer and meditation today. During the time I took to reflect on God and study His Word, the Lord spoke to me about how His people have lost fervency for Him. We have lost the focus of PERSONAL relationship with the Father. God even began to show me how our relationship amongst others is different from our personal experiences. He began to remind me of a time when I told my children, “Just wait until we get home.” They did something that I disapproved of, but because of my surroundings, I remained calm and loving in spite of. Strangely enough, by the time we got home, they still escaped the spanking, because I’d forgotten about the incident.

We are often doing the same with God. In our worship services and when we stand before others in ministry, we take time to praise God and we offer up worship. We pray with fervency and we wait on God, seeking and “experience.” While in the service, we say to ourselves that we will seek God more at home, prayer more, study the Word more, live a holy lifestyle… But by the time we get to our “secret places,” we have forgotten about the breeches in the relationship and continue living as if everything is alright. We fake a healthy relationship until we begin to believe it ourselves.

Saints of God, it’s time for us to know who our Daddy is. Too many times, we are really seeking the approval of men. We want others to think we’re holy. We want others to feel we know the Word. We want others to pat us on the back in ministry. Too often, this becomes the object of our SEEK rather than the Father.

Amos 5:1 HEAR THIS word which I take up concerning you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
Amos 5:2 The Virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall no more rise; she lies cast down {and} forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up.
Amos 5:3 For thus says the Lord God: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.

The prophets of God should be lamenting in the season. There should be travail and an intercession that literally causes the flesh to weaken. God has been forsaken by His own people. We have followed after the gifts of God and the awards of ministry, forsaking our first love for the benefits of acquaintance.

Though Amos prophesied at a different time than ours, the Lord showed me the same season, in our time, taking place again. He showed me that just as Israel (referred to as the Virgin) fell, so has the Church today. There was a time and season of innocence in the Church, just like that of a virgin. Yet, that season has now left us. There is too much knowledge to be in ignorance and too much disobedience to be counted as innocent. There is no turning back, as we are accountable for what we have created. A season of judgment has come upon us, and only a remnant shall survive. Of the many who stand to represent our God, only a small percentage are actually accepted by Him. Only a handful of us who claim to know Him actually have a suitable relationship with the Father.

Amos 5:4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live!

Does your life depend on Him? How much of your life is actually dependent on your RELATIONSHIP with God? I’m not talking about His position as God. If you could keep your house, keep your car and still have a wonderful family, without hearing from the Father, would you survive? If you could get a better job and make more money without praise, worship and prayer, would you survive? Our Father wants a people who need HIM, not just what He provides.

Too many in the Body of Christ have divorced God, but are still collecting alimony and child support in the spirit. Yes, you moved Him out of your house, yet He still provides for the mortgage payment and the food on the table. You no longer speak to Him as you go to work. You know longer take Him on walks or chat with Him in the evenings, yet He is providing. You no longer have intimate time with Him, yet you are still in charge of His business at the local church.

Amos 5:5 But seek not [the golden calf at] Bethel nor enter into [idolatrous] Gilgal, and pass not over to [the idols of] Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity {and} exile, and Bethel [house of God] shall become Beth-aven [house of vanity, emptiness, falsity, and futility] and come to nothing.

The Lord said that HIS HOUSE has become a house of emptiness and vanity. The physical church is no longer a refuge for those who truly desire to seek God. Worship has been hindered in the very houses we once dedicated to our Father. The enemy has been invited in, and idols now fill the buildings in which we praise. Hear the cry of our Father!

Amos 5:6 Seek the Lord [inquire for and of Him and require Him] and you shall live, lest He rush down like fire upon the house of Joseph [representing the ten tribes] and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel [the center of their idol hopes].

The saints of God MUST SEEK THE FATHER. Even the chosen ones are being devoured. The judgment of God is upon many who once stood in His favor. Favor is found in His presence, in the secret place.

Amos 5:7 You who turn justice into [the bitterness of] wormwood and cast righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) down to the ground,
Amos 5:8 Seek Him Who made the [cluster of stars called] Pleiades and [the constellation] Orion, Who turns the shadow of death {or} deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth--the Lord is His name—

So many have disregarded holiness and intimacy with the Father. God’s instruction is to seek Him like never before. One thing I learned about intimacy is that it is private. How many of us have true, private moments with God that no one else has to know about. No one else knows what God said, what He did, or what took place, but they can tell you have been with Him. In the secret place of the Most High (Psalm 91), the Father will share things with us, that we will be strengthened and encouraged on a spiritual level that surpasses the flesh or anything that can be described as words. Prophets, there should be a private prophecy behind every word you proclaim. Preachers, there should be an intimate word behind every word you preach. If everything we hear from God is shared with someone else, more seek needs to take place. The intimate chamber of God has not yet been entered. Intimacy has not been reached.

Amos 5:9 Who causes sudden destruction to flash forth upon the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
Amos 5:10 They hate him who reproves in the [city] gate [holding him as an abomination and rejecting his rebuke], and they abhor him who speaks uprightly.
Amos 5:11 Therefore because you tread upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.

The Lord said that we have hated the word of rebuke, and we have built houses of hewn stone. We have built temples and treasures of the very thing God commanded us to tear down. Yet, they will not provide shelter. They shall not provide protection in the season of God’s wrath. Even now, they will not hide the church from this season of judgment.

Amos 5:12 For I know how manifold are your transgressions and how mighty are your sins--you who afflict the [uncompromisingly] righteous, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the [court of the city] gate from their right.
Amos 5:13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silence in such a time, for it is an evil time.

The Father has seen too many of us persecute those who are living holy as we celebrate those in sin. We have shut the mouth of the righteous prophet and encouraged the world’s representatives to speak – in the church! God said he is causing those who are upright to be silent in certain arenas, because the time is evil. I believe we will see more deaths of spiritual matriarchs and patriarchs very soon, because we have persecuted them. We focused on their minor statements and thoughts rather than their attempts to teach holiness. We focused on one doctrinal difference rather than their teachings on obedience to an Almighty God. We continue to do so with many spiritual leaders in our day.

God said we should not expect to see any large and popular ministries emerging in this season. Those who know His heart and His will cannot be exposed to the world. They will not even be heard by many who claim to know Him. In this season, the pearls of the Gospel and the wisdom of the Spirit are being constricted by the Father, Himself. The only way to live is to seek Him on a personal level.

Amos 5:14 Seek (inquire for and require) good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
Amos 5:15 Hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the [court of the city's] gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph [the northern kingdom].

“Tolerance is not of Me,” says God. The Father has commanded us to HATE some things. Tolerance and political correctness have caused God’s people to forsake Him. When hatred returns to the Body of Christ, violent fervor shall return as well. The will to fight will be restored. Too many of us are simply not appalled by sin anymore. We are no longer offended and enraged when our God is disrespected.

A true SEEK will cause us to live. Not everyone can SEEK Him, because not everyone is drawn unto Him. The word of the Lord today is to seek that you MIGHT live.

Is 55:6 Seek, inquire for, {and} require the Lord while He may be found [claiming Him by necessity and by right]; call upon Him while He is near.
Is 55:7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have love, pity, {and} mercy for him, and to our God, for He will multiply to him His abundant pardon.

Many of us have failed to seek Him in the season while He was near. Now, we must reach, search and touch Him…by any means necessary. Whatever it takes for you to make a connection with God, do it!

Selah.