SEEK YE HIS FACE, NOT HIS HANDS

Christendom today is replete with miracle chasers and prophecy seekers--people who seek the hands of God, HIS POCKETS, and never his face. “ The Lord says, "These people claim to worship me, but their words are meaningless, and their hearts are somewhere else. Their religion is nothing but human rules and traditions, which they have simply memorized” (Isaiah 29:13 GNT). People of this kind come to God not to know him and learn of his ways, but to force open his hands and if possible ‘con him of his stuffs’. Little wonder in the end, they end up being conned themselves by those having the same character as them. Lolz…life is but a game; and people get only what they sow.

Abba Father delights in performing miracles. Often, he uses such extraordinary deeds of power, spiritual occurrences and events when He, Lord God Almighty, suspends His natural laws and bypass physical barriers to make interventions in the affairs of men, which aim we could tell is to reassure us of his mighty power and his constant presence among us. Examples abound in Scripture, both in the Old and New Testaments, where Abba Father performed extraordinary deeds of power through his chosen vessels. For instance, in the OT we find that Abba Father gave the prophet Moses special grace to perform miracles and the reason was to draw the peoples’ attention to him, get them believe in Moses his servant, and that He—Abba Father--may show forth his mighty power among the Egyptians. It was even through a miraculous sign that he caught Moses’ attention to himself. Our Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament performed extraordinary deeds of power, miracles, and the reason for that we could tell was to get the people believe he was who he said he was. The truth is that Father still performs miracles till today and each time he does that through his chosen vessels, the reason is still the same--to draw our attention to Himself and to clear any existing doubts in us that may be hindering us from knowing him as a Father. These accumulated doubts may be due to ill experiences owing to overwhelming sufferings and difficulties in our world today.

When we consider God’s motive for performing miracles among us, each time he does that, which is to draw our attention to himself, we’d realize that he doesn’t just want to draw our attention to him so we could come stare at him as though one who lost his mind. No! Rather, he wants to draw our attention to him so that we may know him and learn of his ways and statutes. And his ways are righteous, and true his statutes, “The LORD is righteous in all his ways and faithful in all he does” (Psalm 145 vs. 17).” Yet you are near, LORD, and all your commands are true.” (Psalm 119:151). From this, we can deduce that every miracle performed by God, whether in Bible era or in our present age, is aimed at bringing us closer to Him, so that we may learn from him the path of righteousness. And this path, when we learn it, helps us become more like God whose true nature is LOVE, JUSTICE AND MERCY. These attributes of Abba Father make us truly human. None of us can be truly human when these attributes of God are lacking in us. That would be like trying to drive a car that has no engine.

Yet, the trend has changed in today’s Christendom, especially here in Nigeria. Miracle has lost its meaning and purpose. It has somewhat become the bane of the Nigerian Church in this 21st century era. Many among the Nigerian Bible preachers and the faithful have all, it seems, misunderstood the term Miracle and why Abba Father performs it in our midst. Sadly, many of these Bible preachers today do a lot of things in the name of performing miracles, just to lure members to their church. And the central focus is increase in revenue generation. The more members there are the more tithes and offerings to be collected. We are not trying to play the judge here; but the truth is there for all to see. Even, these days there are Bible preachers, it doesn’t matter their denomination or what they have as title, who practice voodoo, belong to the occult just to acquire paranormal powers to do exceptional things in order to woo ignorant miracle chasers to their churches. On the part of the faithful, we find that many who throng places of worship today, not minding the kind of bizarre things being practiced in most of these places all in the name of worship of God, go there not because they are seeking the face of God to know him more as a father, but because they are seeking his hands and his pockets to see what they can get out of them.

Miracle chasers don’t understand that Abba Father has ordained a structure for us to live by. They don’t understand that Father wants us to live and walk permanently in his blessings, rather than waiting for his miracles. Miracles as we know often do not occur regularly; but his blessings, which comprise of all the spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, whether they be grace for spiritual growth and wellbeing, grace for sustenance in difficult times, grace for physical and emotional healing, good health and life, spiritual and material prosperity (for the Lord delights in the prosperity of his people, Psalm 35:27; and, all the promises of God, ‘whatever they are and wherever they are written in Scripture’, are yes in Christ, 2Cor 1:20) are meant to be a permanent experience for all of us in Christ Jesus. All of these blessings have been paid for by the sacrificial death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, and all we need to do is to believe this great and Good news and reach out with faith for them.

But one who doesn’t know the Word may never get to know what it says about him or her and how to tap into the blessings therein. Pitifully, this happens to be the problem of many a Nigerian Christians—ignorance of the Word. St. Jerome says, “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ.” And obviously ignorance of Christ is ignorance of the Father. My people perish because they lack knowledge, the Lord says, “my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6 NIV) New Living Translation Puts it finely “My people are being destroyed because they don't know me.” Is it not surprising that the Lord didn’t say His people are being destroyed, perish because they do not pray enough, fast always. So many people pray like a running machine; fast more than the saint from Assisi, yet they haven’t anything to show for it. I bet this is getting interesting, isn’t it?

Knowledge of God is what guarantees us success in everything we do, and not any other thing. The Son of God himself showed how important this is, during his earthly ministry. He spent his entire ministry life teaching about God’s nature and his ways, but took less than twenty-five minutes to teach his disciples about prayer. Does this mean, then, that prayer is not important? Of course not. But prayer, no matter how long one engages in it, without ample knowledge of God and his ways, will be nothing but a waste of precious time and energy. I have seen people who could pray their hearts out, so to say, attend all the Masses there are to attend in a day, yet when you encounter them you would see nothing representing Christ in them. In fact, some of them can kill with their heart. They can sting more wickedly than the black Scorpions do. You would see no traces of Love, Justice, and Mercy in their life; rather they manifest in entirety the opposite of these three major attributes of God. In some instances, you would even prefer to tag along with the so-called traditional religion practitioners, rather than going with such people. It’s as bad as that. Such people practice mere religion and not true Christianity. They are those that go to God because of his hands, what he could offer them, and not because of his face, to know him and to learn from him the path of righteousness; and this is the zenith of self-deception. God Bless You!