"Finding the LORD" is the visceral cry of an aching umbilical yearning for reconnection.

     If you have ever wondered why finding the LORD our God is so remarkably paramount, it's because when we DO find Him, we finally connect not only with "who He REALLY is", but we connect with "who we REALLY are" too. We connect with "the joy" that overwhelms a loving Father when his prodigal son finally "comes home". We connect with "where we belong" in the same way that the prodigal son finally comes home to where he "truly belongs". We finally connect with "the one Person" who sees us fully, and whose love will "never, ever fail".

     To "find the LORD" is to come face-to-face with "the love" that bequeathed the very first breath that still fills our lungs. It is to come into "the living presence" of the open arms of the Father who longingly seeks to have us forever under the shadow and intimacy of His Almighty wing. And ultimately, it is to eventually find that green pasture of "real rest", as well as that unspeakable "peace that surpasses all understanding".

     "But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul." - DEUTERONOMY 4:29

     So finding the "LORD our God" is a truly JOYFUL thing. And we know this even more, for He who we seek says this Himself, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be IN you, and that your joy may be FULL." - JOHN 15:11. And we have this assurance that if we "seek", we SHALL find. "Ask and it shall be given you; seek AND YE SHALL find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." - MATTHEW 7:7.

   "Finding the LORD" is the visceral cry of an aching umbilical yearning for reconnection. And when that connection finally happens, it is the most defining moment available for both the heart as well as the soul of man. And for this reason, along with the Father who is overwhelmed with true joy, ALL OF HEAVEN celebrates, when that long lost connection is finally re-established, and a son finally comes home. "I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance." - LUKE 15:7.

     Deuteronomy tells us that if we seek the LORD our God, we will find Him. And that if we seek Him, that we will find Him in TWO WAYS. One, if we seek Him "with all our heart". And, two, if we seek Him "with all our soul". Firstly, when it comes to seeking Him with all our heart, we will find Him when we respond to that visceral and umbilical call unto "communion with the Father." This call represents the call unto "fellowship". It speaks of "relationship". And relationship is the matter of "the heart". At the same time, the answered call to "communion with the Father" fulfils the first and greatest commandment, which is to "love the LORD your God with all your heart and soul and strength". And the fruit of this relationship is experienced as the very real and precious "Presence of the LORD".

     When it comes to the joy that is "finding" the Presence of the LORD, Moses said that he would rather forgo entering into the much desired and sought-after "promised land", than have the LORD his God withdraw His Presence from him. In other words, the principle joy is RELATIONSHIP, not "blessings". And this is what MATTHEW 6:33 refers to when He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." This is the big travesty of the "the prosperity gospel". It either chases blessings, not relationship. Or it chases blessings BEFORE relationship.

     To seek Him with all our heart speaks to the joy of never taking "our eyes off Him." It is through fellowship, and relationship, and abiding in His presence, that we are able to "keep our eyes forever on Him". It's through the "fellowship of relationship" that we are able to "pray without ceasing". To seek Him "with all our heart" is to want THAT relationship "more than anything else". Which is why Moses and David valued the relationship with the Father "above all things". "Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me." - PSALMS 51:11.

     The second way we will find the LORD our God is if we seek Him "with all our soul". Our soul is the entire confluence and substance of our mind, our emotions and our will. Jesus lived His entire life with the single-minded objective of fulfilling the will of His Father in heaven. He did this with all of His mind, with all of His emotions, and with all of His will. EVERYTHING Jesus did, converged and culminated into His final demonstration of "seeking His Father with all His soul", which was when Jesus first uttered the words, and then followed through, with: "Nevertheless, not MY will, but the WILL of He who sent me."

     Jesus, as the Son of Man, denied His own personal will, which was expressed with the words He uttered unto the Father to "take this cup from Me". Jesus, however, denied His own will, which is representative of dying to Himself, in order that He instead "work out" His Father's will through His life. Jesus "poured out" His soul to fulfill the will of His Father in heaven. And he did this to respond to the calling of love unto "community with man". Which is to fulfill the second greatest commandment, being "to love your neighbour as yourself".

     Since all scripture is given by inspiration of God (2 TIMOTHY 3:16), the spirit of Christ, and the mind of Jesus, said through Nehemiah: "Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” NEHEMIAH 8:10. This scripture summarises everything that the Cross represents, and everything that the two greatest commandments set as our highest imperative. To "eat the fat and drink the sweet" is to commune with the Father "through relationship". To "send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared" is to thereafter "relate to" our neighbour with the same love we have for ourselves through community with man.

     Someone somewhere added the two words "true love" to what Charles Spurgeon once said, "True love and hope are often like a star - less seen in the sunshine of prosperity, and brightest in the night of adversity." I am not sure who added "true love", but true love really does shine brightest in the night of adversity. Adversity is the "litmus test" of who truly loves another.

     "The world" shows the opposite version of this. When those who are in the world are in the sunshine of prosperity, the world rallies to their side in "the name of love". When those very same people find themselves in the night of adversity, those same people who once rallied to their side in the name of love, scatter and fall away. So in this context, the statement that true love is less seen in the sunshine of prosperity is equally true. And it speaks to the kind of love that is the love "of the world". The world is nothing more than the value system that promotes a version of love that is "to seek first the blessings". It's about self love and morbid self gain. It's not about the love of community with man. It is the antithesis of Matthew 6:33. Its focus is entirely and exclusively on the love of self. It defines love by what one can accumulate and TAKE, not by what one can multiply by GIVING. Instead of feeding 5,000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, it's about feeding one person with the same, and then leaving the 5,000 naked, cold, alone and hungry.

     The church, on the other hand, is called to show another way. And that is the way of the One that is "the way, and the truth, and the life." The world is peppered with fields of those in "the dark of adversity". The world is a catalogue of scores upon scores of "dead men walking". For those who are in "the long night of adversity" which is the "dark of friendship with the world", and for those who are in the night of adversity that is "umbilical separation from the love of the Father in heaven", a severed relationship from a Father who thoroughly adores each and every prodigal son and daughter, it is for this reason THAT we are called to love our neighbour as ourself. It is for THIS reason that we are to express the will and the love of our Father in heaven through community with man.

     And this is where the often misunderstood scripture of Philippians 2:12 interlocks seamlessly with Deuteronomy 4:29. "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;" - PHILIPPIANS 2:12. We will FIND the LORD our God, when we seek to work out the joy and the glory that is to "pursue love" (1 CORINTHIANS 14:1) through "community with man." The pursuit of love is accomplished when we first "commune with the Father", and then when we, secondly, express the Father's will ahead of our own through "loving our neighbour as ourselves."

     What is often misinterpreted with this scripture is that man cannot earn salvation. We cannot earn it "through good works". But we "work out our salvation" when we DEMONSTRATE (work out) the joy of our salvation through "community with man." When we share "the good news of the Gospel" through responding to the CALL OF LOVE that is to "love our neighbour as ourselves", we work out our salvation for the benefit and blessing of our communities. When we put the talents that He has given us "to work" in our communities (MATTHEW 25), those who have not yet found Him are drawn to the power that is the love of the Father expressed through His gifts. The gifts have always been for the benefit of others. Which is why they are called gifts. For they are for the benefit of others. And in much the same way that gifts in the natural express love, the gifts of God are His calling card of love through community with man.

     We are called to WORK OUT our salvation, and to also do so "with fear and trembling." And of fear, God says that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". He also says that "he who saves a soul is wise." So the fear of the Lord is nothing more than "the compass of love" that is the conscience of man come alive to the Spirit and conscience of the Father. The fear of the Lord is not wanting to deviate from that good conscience. It's about not wanting to grieve the Holy Spirit. Grieving is related to love. You cannot grieve if you do not love. And likewise, any man who has a good conscience, once he has found the love of the LORD his God, he will surely be compelled by his conscience to respond to that love by sharing that love by "loving his neighbour as himself".

    And of "the trembling" as we work out our salvation, Nehemiah says, "Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength." As we confront darkness, and the strongholds of the world, and in love approach our neighbours who have yet to find Him too, many may initially tremble. But we need not, for the joy of the LORD is our strength. Many may fear and tremble for the world teaches us to be afraid of being despised. Many tremble at the prospect of being a "fool for the LORD". Jesus says "you will be hated because of Me" - MATTHEW 10:22. Paul says, "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." - 2 TIMOTHY 3:12. Jeremiah said, “I have become the ridicule of all my people— Their taunting song all the day.”‭‭ - LAMENTATIONS‬ ‭3:14‬. But Paul says in Philippians, "So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;" - PHILIPPIANS 2:12. We are to love our neighbour as ourselves (work out our salvation; exercise our love; exercise His gifts), regardless of fear and trembling, just like the Son of God did when He went to the Cross on behalf of the Father for all men. "They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar And His sons will come trembling from the west." - HOSEA 11:10

     Only when we have first found our image in the Father, and then His likeness through the operation of love, and the operation of the gifts, especially prophecy, will the individual "sleeping giants" that are those men and woman who have not yet learned how to love their neighbour as themselves stand up. And only when they begin to stand up will the church that is the "ultimate sleeping giant", being a united assembly of all those individual giants, then stand up unto the growing and prospering of the community of God, and the family of love that is known as the Bride and the Church of Christ. Sleeping giants are not they who sleep "for rest", but those who sleep "in spiritual passivity or laziness", and in laziness when it comes to community with man. They are those who are just like the worker in the parable of the talents who buried his talent.

     However, the LORD our God says greater things than these shall you do. And of those who do this, He is referring to those who live and walk "loving their neighbour as themselves", regardless of fear and trembling. When you find the LORD your God through, first, communion and fellowship with the Father (seeking Him with all your heart), and then through seeking His will for community with man (seeking Him with all your soul), you shall awake the sleeping giants, and become they who do greater works than Jesus for the glory of the Father and love.

     "Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it." - LUKE 17:33. In presenting your life as a living sacrifice, by renouncing your own will and the desires of your own soul for what is right and true, for what is the will of the Father, for what is the way and the truth and the life, you shall progress from a sleeping giant to a "living and walking giant".

     Whilst we are not saved by our works, we express the legitimacy of our salvation, and the authenticity of our love, through our works towards others and to God. And we do so, so that they, too, may come to know His salvation and His love. It is for this reason that the Lord says no greater love is there than those who lay their lives down for a friend (JOHN 15:13). We lay our lives down by disowning our own will for our lives for the sake of fulfilling the Father's will towards loving our neighbour as ourselves, which is that none should perish, but all should be raised in the last day (JOHN 6:40). "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." - EPHESIANS 5:14

     It begins with first becoming in "His image", which is a "light unto the world", which we apprehend through fellowship and communion with the Father, and then with living and walking in "His likeness" through loving the community of our neighbours as we love ourself. And when the community of man wakes up, and becomes a living torch-bearing church, the real sleeping giant that is the Church of the Most High, El Elyon, will awake and stand up.

"Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible,the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen" - 1 TIMOTHY 1:17.

God bless, Wayne Biehn.