It would seem that we automatically receive the fullness of God in us and that we are given everything freely when we get saved. It would therefore appear that we should stop “seeking God”, “pressing in” for God or “hungering for God” after we get saved. Surely only only non-Christians seek God, and when someone gets saved they have “found” God? John 6:35 would seem to indicate that we should not be hungry for God, and hunger seems to indicate a lack of something. But is this true? Acts 17:27 does say that people can seek and find the Lord. Is it true that seeking God and hunger for Him is only in the Old Testament? Yes, seeking God and hunger for God is mentioned throughout the Old Testament, but it is also in the New Testament. Let’s see what the New Testament actually says this. Note carefully that these verses of Scripture are all written to believers, not to non-believers:
Mt 5:6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. If you read Mt 5:1, you will see that Jesus was speaking to his disciples. Then read the rest of the beatitudes in Mt 6 and you will see clearly that they are addressed to believers, not to those who are not yet believers. The rest of the beatitudes are also speaking of ongoing actions such as being meek, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers etc, and are not one time actions which take place only at salvation. The wonderful thing is, Jesus says we shall be filled. The promise is given to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, not to those who refuse to do this.
In the following two verses, Jesus was clearly speaking to his disciples – believers, not unbelievers. Again Jesus says “you shall find” and “all these things will be added.” What wonderful promises, but these promises are to those who seek, not to those who refuse to seek! There is always more of God and His Kingdom to seek and find.
- Mt 6:33, Lk 12:31 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
- Mt 7:7, Lk 11:9 Seek, and ye shall find.
Okay, you might say these words were spoken before Jesus was crucified and before the Holy Spirit was poured out at Pentecost, so they don’t apply after that. But just read the context and you will see that they do apply to us now. If you throw out these words of Jesus and say they don’t apply any more, then you should throw out the rest of the words of Jesus, a large proportion of the New Testament. Let’s not just read certain selected passages of Scripture and ignore others, but consider the whole balance of Scripture.
In fact, Paul clearly shows in Rom 3:11 and 11:7 that unbelievers cannot seek after God.
Now let’s consider some other relevant verses in the New Testament, which some people seem to totally ignore.
- Col 3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Paul is very clearly telling believers to seek the things of heaven! Often the word heaven is used interchangeably for God in the Bible. So this means we are to seek the things of God, and so we should definitely seek God himself.
- In 2 Tim 2:22, Paul spoke of “following righteousness, faith, love and peace.” This again amounts to seeking God, as that is what He is. Again the same people who claim to preach what Paul preached are ignoring some things that Paul taught.
- Heb 10: 21-22 And having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
- Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
- James 4:8 Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you.
So we can see that the New Testament writers clearly encourage us to draw near to God and come to him, and even to “diligently seek Him”. If that is not encouraging believers to seek and press in for God I don’t know what it is. If we do this we will be rewarded and God will “draw near” to us. Of course God is already in us if we are believers and God is omnipresent, but there is still a realisation of the presence of God when we can tangibly feel him as we “draw near” to him.
There are no scriptures we can find anywhere in the Bible that instruct us not to seek God and not to press in for God. It seems to us that the idea that we should not seek God or press in for God is unbiblical, legalistic and can cause people to be lazy and turn away from God, and so is not helpful. Only those who seek him, hunger for him and draw near to him can claim these promises that we find him, we will be filled, rewarded, he draws near to us, all these things shall be added to us.
The main issue here is that we need to understand what “seeking God” means; it does not mean you have not found God or do not know him – that is just a misunderstanding of the meaning of the word “seeking”. Seeking is also not laborious self-effort as some people seem to think. Let’s stick to the Bible and understand the word “seek” in the way it is used in the Bible. Look at no. 2212 in Strong’s Greek dictionary and you will see that the Greek word for “seek” can mean worship, desire, or enquire. That is only one word for “seek” in the Bible, and only one Lexicon’s interpretation, there are others too. Once a person is saved, the seeking and pursuing God and His purposes comes out of knowing Him and abiding in Him, from a love relationship, based on His grace and the finished work of Christ on the cross. It is the Spirit of God dwelling in us that causes us to seek God and hunger after Him, it is nothing of our own making. A good book we recommend on this subject is “The Practice of the Presence of God” by Brother Lawrence. Also, we recommend this article about seeking God, written by John Piper, I don’t think I could put it better than he does.
Some people think we were given everything as a gift at salvation because of the finished work of Christ and anything we do such as seeking God, be hungry or even pray to try to obtain anything else would be works. Clearly according to Rom 9:32 God freely gives us all things, but that scripture does not say we don’t need to ask. Otherwise this would contradict so many other Scripture which tell us clearly to ask God for things and believe (Mark 11:23) – refer to http://word.spiritbodysoul.com/prayer-intimacy/. Salvation was purchased on the cross through the shed blood of Jesus and given freely to us but there is usually something we need to do to receive it (John 1:12) – e.g. repent (Acts 2:38), confess our sin (1 John 1:9), confess the Lord Jesus and believe in His resurrection (Rom 10:9-11). By the stripes of Jesus (when he was whipped before he was crucified) we were healed (1 Peter 2:24), but God does not often automatically heal someone, we usually need to pray for healing and believe in Him in order to receive it. However these are not hard and fast rules or conditions for healing (which would be law) – some people have no faith and yet God sovereignly heals them, and some people receive healing when worshipping, and are not even praying for healing. Also the faith we have is only a gift of God anyway. The fact that we do something to receive any of these things means some works are needed. The simple thing is God wants us to be humble and trust in Him for everything. Prayer, repentance and seeking God are nothing to do with law, but are to do with humility and love for God, and dependence on Him. In fact, by telling us not to do these things, some people are in danger of bringing us back under law! Refer to http://word.spiritbodysoul.com/fruit/ for more information on that subject and why not all works are bad.
It is God Himself that gives us hunger for Him, it is not some religious self-effort to be hungry for him; what an impossible task that would be. Just like with prayer, we realise God lives in us and has freely given us all things, but we are still to ask Him for things in prayer, so the same with hunger; God is in us, but we are still to hunger for Him. Hunger is not a one off experience, you need to eat again when you get hungry. Some people have even become legalistic about not hungering for God, but the point about John 6:35 is that you need never stay hungry, that Jesus keeps feeding you with His living bread. According to this verse, if we always keep coming to Jesus and believing in Him (this is not a one-time thing, we need to keep on believing) and as we do that He satisfies our hunger. We recommend the book “A Hunger for God – Desiring God through Fasting and Prayer” by John Piper: http://cdn.desiringgod.org/pdf/books_hfg/hfg_all.pdf.