Seeing the eyes of a loving Father changes everything. Bill Johnson teaches from 2 Chronicles 7: 14 about the call of God on His people to “Seek My face”. Turning to God and His face automatically means turning away from everything else. It’s in His eyes that we encounter His incredible love and heart towards us, which will affect the way in which we see the circumstances in our lives.
somehow seeing the eyes of a loving
father
recalibrates every value in my soul
if my people who are called by my name
will humble themselves
and pray
and seek my face
the face
of god
is what we are invited to pursue
think about that for a minute
because the scripture gives that warning
anyone who sees his face dies so
it’s a great invitation
[Laughter]
come and die
and i tell you what every time we come
before the face of the lord something
dies that shouldn’t have been alive
the lord invites us into this ongoing
interaction with a countenance of a
perfect father so when he says seek my
face he’s not saying seek my hand i i’ve
i have tried to make a strong point for
the last probably 20 years
that jesus never scolded anyone for
seeking his hand
blind bartimaeus wanted to see
jesus didn’t say or you’re supposed to
seek to know me he didn’t gave him
healing in his eyes
you know the one with the dead relative
they you know jesus brought through his
hands the power of god to establish
kingdom
he’s never scolded anyone
for seeking his hand his blessing i
think it’s a responsibility we have
but forgiveness doesn’t come from his
hand
comes from his face
it’s from the countenance
it’s the father
who welcomes
and that’s what’s needed right now
is a group of people that get
recalibrated
to the face somehow seeing the eyes of a
loving father
recalibrates every value in my soul
things that were important 10 minutes
ago are no longer important
things that plagued me or worried me or
frustrated me
suddenly they don’t have the bite that
they once had why because there’s
something
about the countenance that just absorbs
every offense or distraction that i
carry in my heart it just gets absorbed
in this face of a loving father
and he says if my people
the ones i gave my name to
if they would just humble themselves
seek my face
turn from their wicked ways
there is a picture
given
old and new testament
that to seek the face of god
automatically implies turning from
something i must turn from the inferior
to seek the face of god
you can’t drag
both values
into one
act
he is the all or nothing god he is the
he he is he likes being first
and king i mean he
that’s him
everything
is about putting him first
so here he says
seek my face turn from your wicked ways
in hebrews 6 it says turning from dead
works
faith towards god it’s this turning from
unto
and one of the things that i’m so
thankful for about the lord is he
welcomes us
into his presence regardless of the
condition of our heart you can be bitter
he can be mad you can be indifferent you
can be you know careless it doesn’t
matter where you’re at
he says come
but you can’t leave the same way you
came
that’s that’s the whole deal you can’t
you can’t expect i’m going to bring all
this baggage and i’m going to come in
and then i’m going to leave the same way
that’s not how it works we come in
before him and we just get refined in
the journey that’s part of the whole
process is that i come to seek his face
and things get recalibrated in this in
this journey it may be a five-minute
journey it may be an all-day long
journey but it’s this journey where i
engage once again
to the face of god that reveals
the heart of god
that automatically engages me into my
reason for being
he said if my people
who are called by my name will humble
themselves
and pray
and seek the countenance of this
wonderful father i’ve been reading the
last couple days again psalm 67 which is
personally a favorite
of mine
and uh and
verse one and two
of of that great psalm verse one says
lord bless me which i love that prayer
i’m into that kind of praying anytime
bless me
and
cause your countenance to shine upon me
countenance
is a word for favor it’s the loving
favor of a father
it’s it’s the uh
brian and jen just adopted another
little boy
and uh and we uh
we got to have him at our home again
last night and
and it’s just
you you don’t have you know a a parent
will make faces to an infant that they
would never even make in the mirror to
themselves while they were alone
i mean you say things you make noises
you do all kinds of stuff to this little
tiny infant that that you don’t even
know you’re doing it just seems to come
out of you as you as you and i’ve been
told that children are actually infants
are trained in a lifestyle of joy
through the countenance of their
caregiver and so it’s that face and so
here we are we seek the face of the
almighty god this perfect father who
welcomes us
welcomes us
we come with baggage
we leave clean and powerful
we come with issues
we leave confident
he is settling the issues
and he says
you seek my face you turn from your
wicked ways then i will hear that’s an
amazing statement because the bible
tells us he doesn’t always hear
i don’t know if you know that or not but
the bible says scripture says if i
regard iniquity in my heart
god will not
hear me
if i come conscious of sin and i’m
unwilling to repent
so here he welcomes us he says turn from
your wicked way seek my face
then i will hear from heaven
forgive their sin this is amazing to me
forgive their sin personal blessing
and heal their land corporate influence
the personal breakthrough becomes a
transformational influence
in the lab