Who Seeks God?

The question in mind is who seeks after God, a believer or an unbeliever?

Another question is how many times we have heard christians say, "So and so is not a christian, but he is searching?". This, I believe is a common belief among christians. Many christians have the notion that there are people all over the world who are not christians yet, but they are searching for God. Their problem is that they just haven't been able to find Him. He is playing hide and seek. He is elusive. If what they think is correct, we can assume that God is running away from men!

In the Garden of Eden when sin come into the world, who went hiding? Adam and Eve and all sinners after them became fugitive and kept on running away from God. They turn their backs to God. The Scripture declares that the wicked flee when no one pursues (Proverbs 28:1). The uniform teaching of the Scripture is that fallen men are fleeing from God. The dead spirit of the natural man would not help him to find God and relate to God the creator. Should he claims to have found god, it would certainly be a fake god!

Paul, looking at man's fallenness said, "There is none who understand; there is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; they have together become unprofitable; there is none who does good, no, not one" (Romans 3:10,11,12, NKJV, emphasis added).

I believe most christians confuse the two similar yet different natural human's motives or actions. We see people searching desperately for peace of mind, relief from guilt, and for the meaning and purpose to their lives and loving acceptance. We know that ultimately these things can only be found in God. Therefore, we conclude that since people are seeking these things they must be seeking after God!

The fact is, natural men do not seek God. They seek after the benefits that only God can give them. The major sin of the fallen man is this: he seeks the benefits of God while at the same time fleeing from God Himself. Men, by nature, are fugitives.

But, you may say this is very confusing because the Bible tells us repeatedly to seek after God. In fact, "seek the Lord" appears in 32 verses of the Old Testament Scripture according to the NKJV. For example, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near" (Isaish 55:6). Notice that it is the chosen people of Israel who are called to seek the Lord. God had given them a new heart and a new Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26) . Without them being God's choice, even Israel would not seek the Lord!

What about the people in New Testament?

Jesus spoke to his disciples, "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

Jesus also said, "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you" (Matthew 7:7).

The fact that they were the disciples of Jesus, their heart (their spirit) was "quicken" by the Spirit of God to help them to relate to God. They were not born-again yet, but they have been given a new heart and a new spirit.

In the New Testment it is the believers who are called to seek God and the Kingdom of God.

Jesus speaks to the Church of Laodiceans, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Rev. 3:20).

In other word, Jesus says, His people, who seek Him will hear His voice and will have a personal relationship with Him.

In conclusion, seeking God is something that the unbelievers do not do on their own initiative. The unbelievers will not seek God. The unbeliever will not knock. Seeking God is the business of the believers.

Seeking God is the result of faith of the believers, not the cause of it.