October 22 I Tuesday

Isaiah 65-66

1 Timothy 2

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”    —Jeremiah 29:13

Whenever we try to fit Jesus into our own expectations of how He will work in our lives, we can be sure He will break out of it. We sometimes do this with evangelism, by requesting people to go through a certain procedure that requires reciting a particular prayer or engaging in a particular methodology or tradition of that church. These people will comply, but they will fail to enter into a living, active relationship with Jesus Christ. Why? It may be because these things are imposed upon them, as though an intermediary was necessary to make one a Christian.

Some time ago, I was in Queensland, Australia, conducting a week of meetings. On the first night, two young ladies came to speak with me. They said they were confused about Christianity and could not get it to work. I recognized they were genuinely seeking, and told them the Christian life is a relationship with Jesus and with God. Jesus said, “Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). I explained the Christian life is about knowing God, which means experiencing God. It is not just information, but a real, living relationship. What they needed to do is seek Jesus and ask Him to reveal Himself in such a way that they would embrace Him, love Him and experience Him.

Towards the end of the week one of the ladies came back, and told me that a while ago, she went to a pastor of a church and said she wanted to become a Christian. Apparently, they were having an evangelistic meeting and people were invited to come forward at the end of the service. She came forward that evening and someone prayed for her, but she said nothing was different, nothing happened. Eventually, she stopped going to that church and went to another one. The pastor at that church prayed for her and asked her to repeat certain words after him––which she did––and again, nothing changed. She tried a different church and went with a group of about six other people into a room where they stood around her, laid hands on her and got very excited and loud, but like before, nothing happened.

She then said to me, “Nobody ever told me to look for Jesus.” It is not reciting a particular prayer or the laying on of hands or any methodology that makes one a Christian. It is earnestly seeking Jesus and dealing with Him directly that lights our hearts on fire for Christ, because it then becomes all about a living, personal relationship with Him.

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I pray for everyone who is genuinely seeking, to be drawn into a living, active relationship with You where they come to know and experience You. Thank You, Lord.