To Enjoy Him Forever
by Malcolm Webber
Chapter Five
The Pursuit of Fellowship
O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; To see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. (Ps. 63:1-2)
The fellowship of God is the most precious thing in the universe. Do not think God gives it lightly! By this we do not mean He requires us to work in some way and earn His fellowship, because it is certainly given by grace, and we could never do anything to deserve it anyway. In ourselves we will never merit anything before God. All that He gives us is on the grounds of Jesus’ blood alone and is imparted as a totally free gift. But while God grants His fellowship freely, yet the fact is, He only gives His fellowship – His deep intimate fellowship – to those who desire it, who desire Him.
Each of these complementary truths is expressed in the same verse by the prophet Isaiah:
Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. (Is. 55:1)
In the realm of human relationships, while you give your fellowship freely, yet you only fellowship with those who desire your fellowship, don’t you? Or do you force the deepest expressions of your innermost thoughts and feelings on those who have absolutely no desire to know anything about you? In the same way, God reveals Himself only to those few, that “little flock”, who truly desire Him. And the depth to which He will reveal Himself to you will be determined by the depth of your passion to pursue Him.
Desire is the appetite of the soul. The greater our desire to know Him, the more we will turn from everything that would steal our attention from Him, the greater will be the space we make in our hearts for Him to come and fill, and the greater will be His response of fellowship. This does not mean He loves us any more, but simply that we experience and enjoy Him more.
God wants to reveal Himself to all His children in a deep and profound way. None will be left out if they are willing to yield to Him. Few, however, desire Him enough to sufficiently empty themselves for Him to come and fill.
Those who will know God, will first have desired Him. They will first have hungered for Him. They will first have thirsted after Him. Their souls will first have broken for the longing they have for Him.
As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God? (Ps. 42:1-2)
This Cry is Within You
If you have been born of God, if you have His seed – His life – within you, then this cry is already deep within your heart. And it is calling to the deep within His heart. “Deep calleth unto deep”. Do not try to find this cry somewhere. Just resist it no longer. It is there. Simply allow it full expression. Give it full throat. Yield to it. Quench not the Spirit. Cry after God. He will draw near to those who cry after Him. He will fill those who hunger for Him. He will give Himself to those who desire Him.
My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God. (Ps. 84:2)
This cry is within you. It is not only a cry to God: it is a cry for God. “My heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.” Your heart longs and cries for God; and, if you will yield to your heart then your flesh will cry for God – that is, you will actually physically do it. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”
“My flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is”. This is the greatness of the cry of those who desire God. This is the extremity of their longing. In a land where no water is, what would be the response of your body? Very soon, after less than a single day, it will begin to demand water. Then, if this demand is not quickly met, your body will begin to seek for water. If this search is not soon concluded it will begin to call for water. If this call is not quickly answered, it will begin to shout for water; and if this shout is not quickly responded to, your body will begin to scream for water.
What acuteness of agony will be yours, what desperation! This cry will not come merely because you feel you should cry for water, but it will arise naturally and spontaneously, unsolicited from the depths of your being. You do not have to try to thirst for water if you have been in a hot land of drought and have not drunk anything for several days! Your thirst and your cry are not things you have learned to do. You were born with these responses. They are innate. They are natural. They are uncontrived and unfeigned.
God made you to thirst, because your body’s first, most basic and most important need is for water. Without water you will die. If your body is denied water it will begin a response of self-preservation: it will begin to cry. Because of the requirements of dignity and decorum you may be able to contain this cry for a while, but if your thirst is left unquenched, eventually you will scream. Eventually nothing else will matter – not your dignity, nor your self-respect, nor others’ opinions of you. Neither will you be concerned about the “pose” you strike as you go about it. Your single all-consuming obsession will be your need for water. You must have water. You must have water or you will die.
Even so, religious propriety is abandoned when the soul realizes – truly realizes – its deep need of God. When confronted with its true state of lack and spiritual drought, the heart’s cry for God becomes more than a polite and mannerly response to religious instruction: it becomes real.
I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land… (Ps. 143:6)
This cry is a cry for God; it is a cry for life. It is not just a cry for knowledge. In a desert would knowledge about the chemical nature of water be of any use to you whatsoever? Even so, the cry within you is a cry for God Himself. For God to come to you. For God to reveal Himself to you. For God to draw you into His Presence. For God to satisfy the longing of your heart with the only thing that can satisfy the heart of man – Himself. Man’s religion will not satisfy. Scholarly pursuits will not satisfy. Self-deception will not satisfy. The praise and acclaim of men will not satisfy. You must have God.
You were born with this cry within your heart. You must have God. You must have God, or else your life in this world will be one of living death: “thou hast a name that thou livest, (yet thou) art dead”.
God has made you with the faculty of spiritual thirst, because your pre-eminent need is for Him. He made you to thirst, for without Him you will die. You must have Him. “My soul thirsteth for thee”. He alone can satisfy. He alone can fulfill your deepest need, because your deepest and most basic need, whether or not you fully understand it, is for Him – to know Him, to love Him, to obey Him, to fellowship with Him, to enjoy Him, to worship Him.
Cry After God!
This is the cry that you know is deep within you. The enemy of your soul has used religious pride and your own self-sufficiency to stifle it, but allow him to do this no longer. If the thirst is ignored, the desire will remain yet unsatisfied. If the cry is permitted to be smothered, the need will remain yet unmet. If the root is not allowed water, the plant will not only fail to bring forth fruit – it will die!
To the inevitable charge of “emotionalism” we reply that a man dying of thirst in a desert is not so much concerned with decency and acceptability in the eyes of others as he is with finding water for his life. His scream for water is his scream for his life.
So cry after God! You must have God! Set Him before your face. Cry that He would rend the heavens and come down. Seek the Lord fervently. Pour out your heart like water before Him! Lift up your soul unto Him. Cry to see Him. Cry to know Him. Cry to have Him. Cry to possess Him in all His fullness. Cry after God! Cry after God! Cry after God! “Your heart shall live that seek God.”
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