Finding Jesus (Surface Slush Won't Do, but 'They That Seek Me Early Shall Find me.')

Selected Verses:

Proverbs 8:17. I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.

Opening:

I attended a Holy Ghost meeting. It was a real Holy Ghost meeting, very much like the meetings we've had these weeks--very, very strange, very strange--to me, very wonderful. I think three times a day or at least twice a day I attended those meetings, long meetings, and for the best part of the meetings I was prostrate, just like dead. Many times I would be prostrate on the floor (in that place it was permitted), and so greatly prostrated that nothing passed in my mind at all, but the life of Jesus Christ was circulating through my body. We have sat here for hours in silence, and yet, nobody was bored--at least those who were here with Jesus.

It's like sister Henning says, "Something happened." You know, "In these silent hours God's miracles are wrought." At that time, one day the Lord said to me, "Now, when you open the Bible, things will be much clearer to you." And it was. What had happened? How can you explain that? Well like this: "Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard, neither have entered into the heart of man..." "None of the princes of this world knew..." It's the "hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory." It is knowing Jesus.

Now, we could go to conventions and hear a lot of preachments about Jesus. Why, you can read books; you can look at King of Kings and weep. Most people weep when they see that film. And you can read books; you can read Ben Hur, or Quo Vadis, or Titus: a Comrade of the Cross, and you can weep crocodile tears. It's just surface slush. It's the same stuff that a snowman weeps with when the sun shines.

But it is a very, very different thing when God Almighty reveals His Son to your heart.

...

Selected Quotes:

The Lord at that time used to speak to us from high heaven. And one time He said, "Won't you go on seeking Me until you find Me? I desire greatly to manifest Myself to you. I want you to be My friend." And then He made this statement, "If you had any idea what glories are awaiting those that receive a larger vision of Me, you would cry day and night to know Me." I took that to heart.

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"It's pleased the Father to reveal these things unto babes." What? Why, His Son!

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When God gave that message 35 years ago, there were many that heard it, but they didn't hear it. There were very, very few that took it. I knew some folks that boasted for years having heard the Lord speak, but they never acted upon it. They lost their way; they're like people with their eyes put out today. They don't know where they're at, spiritually. But I know some who went to action, who went to seeking God, and they found Him. "Every one that seeketh, findeth." Findeth what? Why, "They that seek Me early shall find ME!"

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Paul cried. He said, "I'm weeping, weeping because their god is their belly. They mind earthly things." How many people--even in this work--mind earthly things more than heavenly things? You'll never get the hang of it. It'll never bother you. God'll never bother you. You can mind earthly things, and you can have a good time just the same, and you can boast of being Pentecostal and being spiritual, and beloved, I'm afraid the day will come when we'll find ourselves outside the locked door, and He'll say, "I never knew you."

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Oh, beloved, there's but one call, just one call. It's Jesus. And there's but one way to find Him, and that is to "forsake all" to find Him. Forsake your dunghill.

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speaker icon People talk about the rapture. And, goodness! If the trumpet sounded, they'd have a thousand and one things to hang onto.

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Illustrations:

A story of how unwelcome is the coming of Lord. "After the meeting she says, 'Oh, I'm so sorry He's coming so soon.' She had a little baby girl, and she loved that baby girl so much. And she said, 'I want to spend a little time enjoying Marion.' ...What are you wanting to enjoy a little while yet?" (from 10:12)

An illustration of "the world knoweth us not." "Some folks had a party not far from here. Somebody said, 'Are you going to invite Uncle Hans?' 'Nah, He'll spoil it for us.' I was glad for that testimony. What are you? Are you a good mixer? Can you join in all the merriment of the world and all the tomfoolery?" (from 12:09)

References:

The Sabbath Year

by Gerhard Tersteegen (translated by Frances Bevan)

(Hebrews 4:10)

Oft comes to me a blessed hour,

A wondrous hour and still--

With empty hands I lay me down,

No more to work or will.

An hour when weary thought has ceased,

The eyes are closed in rest;

And, hushed in Heaven's untroubled peace,

I lie upon Thy breast.

Erewile I reasoned of Thy truth,

I searched with toil and care;

From morn to night I tilled my field,

And yet my field was bare.

Now, fed with corn from fields of Heaven

The fruit of Hands Divine,

I pray no prayer, for all is given,

The Bread of God is mine.

There lie my books--for all I sought

My heart possesses now.

The words are sweet that tell Thy love,

The love itself art Thou.

One line I read--and then no more--

I close the book to see

No more the symbol and the sign,

But Christ revealed to me.

And thus my worship is, delight--

My work, to see His Face,

With folded hands and silent lips

Within His Holy place.

Thus oft to busy men I seem

A cumberer of the soil;

The dreamer of an empty dream,

Whilst others delve and toil.

O brothers! in these silent hours

God's miracles are wrought;

He giveth His beloved in sleep

A treasure all unsought.

I sit an infant at His feet

Where moments teach me more

Than all the toil, and all the books

Of all the ages hoar.

I sought the truth, and found but doubt--

I wandered far abroad;

I hail the truth already found

Within the heart of God.