June 1, 2010 How to Light Up the King's Face

"In the light of the king’s face is life, and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain." Proverbs 16:15  The promises in this proverb are great, and they induce me to want to "light up the king's face."  So, how to do this??  I want God's life and favor.  I'm getting a picture of the glory cloud in the day of the latter rain!  I think I would like to walk in His glorious presence in this time.  Don't you?

Jesus' response to Thomas, after His resurrection, gives us a wonderful clue as to how to excel in pleasing Him: Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” John 20: 29  When we believe His Word, even when it comes through others, we please Him.  He can work through faith.  Jesus didn't condemn Thomas for needing to have proof, He just indicated that he wasn't going to be as blessed as those who believed without seeing. 

The Apostle John was one of the disciples who believed Jesus had risen without first seeing Him in the body.  Later on in his life, he was given heavenly visions that showed Christ in His kingly glory, as well as many things about the future.  This is a kind of blessing that I would like to receive!  When we only believe what we see with our eyes, we certainly limit our spiritual vision.

When we love Jesus enough to obey Him, this is when our faith can work  (Gal. 5:6).  We don't get proofs of His Word, most of the time, until after we have carried out His Word.  We just have to obey.  If our faith doesn't operate without signs or proofs, then our love is small and we will end up being  disobedient.  This, of course, is a way to NOT please the Lord, and then we don't have the flow of favor we are hoping for.

I realize that some of what I'm saying here could be taken as if God shows favoritism: but giving favor and practicing favoritism is not the same thing.  God doesn't have "favorite children."  He gives reward and disciplines us depending on what we need at any given time.  Really, His discipline is favor, it just doesn't feel like it at the time it's happening.  All His children have His favor (and this means His "born-again" children, not just His human creation).  He still blesses everyone with His overflowing goodness, even unbelievers-- "He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good." (Matthew 5:45)

Here's a verse that makes it clear that there is a way to "light up the king's face": "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him." Hebrews 11:6  There's reward!  Who doesn't like reward?

In order to diligently seek the Lord, we have to believe there is more than what we can see, and that God is desiring to give it.  "Seeking" is looking for something we haven't found yet.  If I were "seeking employment" or "seeking a soulmate," that means I believe there is a job out there that I could do, or a person with whom I could  happily spend my life.  I don't seek for things I don't believe exist.

The more I know God, the more I seek for Him, because He keeps telling me about things I haven't seen yet, things that are in Him.  When I believe His Word-- whether I read it in the Bible, I hear it in a sermon, or the Holy Spirit whispers it in my heart-- I begin to "ask, seek and knock" for the thing I heard about.  This is when I can receive.  This is when I am blessed with that favor that was waiting right there in heaven with Christ.

The disciples were wonderfully blessed by having the opportunity to walk around with Jesus, see His miracles, and hear God's Word straight from His mouth.  But we are even more blessed!  Why? Since we don't have evidence of constant "seeing" and "touching," we have a greater opportunity to believe by pure faith (which is itself the "evidence of things not seen" Hebrews 11:1).  Therefore, WE have the opportunity to "light up the king's face" with our faith in Him and His Word.  This opens the door to greater blessings and favor than you or I can even imagine.