Psalms 42:1-2 NKJV says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?”. The Psalmist isn’t just talking of himself here, but this is for all of us, for all believers. Thirst is an earnest (genuine) need, a fervent (intense) need, that rises up within us whenever we are dehydrated, it is a state of being, a need that is undeniable. A soul that thirsts for GOD will be a soul that genuinely needs and searches for GOD in a way that is so intense that it is undeniable. And right there, in this Scripture, there is a conviction upon you and me. In there we are asked— How passionate are we for GOD, about GOD and about the things of GOD? Christianity is about having a relationship with the living GOD. It is about earnestly, fervently and persistently following after GOD’s heart. This is what and who David was, from a tender age and right through his adulthood. David sincerely and passionately sought after (pursued) GOD.
GOD Himself approved and endorsed David’s pursuits and efforts to create, establish, and maintain a relationship with Him when GOD Himself declared that He found David to be a man after His own heart [Acts 13:22]. GOD gives testimony of the relationship that David had with Him because this is the relationship that GOD is looking for in us, from us. GOD is not interested in the mechanical, automated, cosmetic, superficial relationship that most of us are giving Him in the name of the Lord while we call ourselves Christians. Scripture tells us that GOD wants us to be like the deer panting for water, like our lives depend on it; He wants us to be like David, when we pursue a relationship with Him. Everything that David did for and in the name of GOD was done full of passion, with a heartfelt sincerity and a deep seated willingness. David was consumed with the desire to know and walk with GOD intimately. Is there anything that we are consumed by where GOD is concerned or where the things of GOD are concerned? Or are we just lukewarm and perhaps even just down right cold?
The two key traits of Christianity that we see in Psalms 42:1-2 and Acts 13:22 are these—(1) That Christianity is a relationship with GOD, an obsession with GOD, a true living relationship with the living GOD [—an obsession that grips you and grabs you, and you want nothing else but the thing or person that you are obsessing over]; and (2) That Christianity is to know GOD intimately and to walk with GOD intimately for yourself [—when you know and walk with GOD, it will be you talking of the One that you know and have experienced]. This is the reason why Mary sat (rested) at the feet of Jesus listening to the Word (His teaching), while Martha was overtaken with serving [Luke 10:39-40a]. Mary was fascinated with Jesus and she obsessed over Jesus’ teaching. The clock stopped for Mary in that moment, and she had no other priority other than resting at the feet of the Lord. Everything else that put a demand on her paled in comparison.
It was clear to all and sundry how much Mary and David loved the Lord, how much Mary and David loved spending time being in the presence of the Lord. These Christians of old were smitten with GOD and increasingly wanted to spend more and more time with Him. Can the same thing be said about us? When you love Someone (GOD), you eagerly await the next time you get to be with Your Love (GOD), the time could not pass fast enough until your next encounter. How do we show the love that we claim to have for GOD? Do we show up for church out of a sense of duty or do we go because of our love for GOD and we want to be in the presence of the Lord, in the house of the Lord? Do we serve in church because we are looking to score Brownie Points or do we do it out of a genuine intense love for the things of GOD? In Psalms 27:4 it is written that we should have an all-consuming desire (wish or need) and actively seek a life where we perpetually live in GOD’s presence, gazing upon His beauty and meditating in His temple. Psalms 27:8 takes it further, tasking us to actively chase after The Face of GOD.
‘Seeking the face of GOD’ [Psalms 27:8] means seeking to know Him, to be where He is, to be seen by Him, to be noticed by HIM. It is seeking to woo HIM as one would an affianced, seeking His attention. It means to seek, pursue and actively chase after a relationship with GOD. In Matthews 7:22-23 NKJV/TPT the Lord says that on judgment day He will publicly declare that ‘I never knew you’ to so many of us so-called Christians because instead of getting to know Him intimately and resting on His Word, we would have been practicing lawlessness, being lawless rebels who were never joined to GOD. This passage pointedly tell us that Christianity that lacks a relationship with GOD is not Christianity at all, it is dangerous, and is tantamount to lawlessness. Despite what Scripture says on the issue, we still find many Christians loudly and proudly admitting that they do not know GOD. What they fail to appreciate is that if you do not know GOD then you are not His, you are not a Christian—you are an ungodly person, an unbeliever—and you are playing a very dangerous game, risking your own life and soul, playing with fire.
When we look at all that David did for GOD, in the name of GOD, we see that it was done with a heartfelt enthusiasm to please GOD because of his relationship with GOD. To serve Jesus without a relationship with Him is not Christianity, regardless of how faithful we are with our serving and our acts of service. When we do anything in the name of the Lord, but do not have a relationship with Him, we are actually practicing lawlessness. The people that Jesus speak of in Matthew 7:23 are called ‘lawless rebels’ [TPT] and ‘evildoers’ [NIV] not because they were sinful or practising sin, but because they never had a relationship with GOD. We can end up like these people when we focus on the side issues and forget to work on having a living relationship with GOD. The drinking, smoking, adultery and fornication are side issues that should not become our focal point. These things will take care of themselves the moment we walk into a relationship with GOD because it is in the relationship with Him where His grace will locate you. We need the relationship for this very reason.
The day and the moment that we realise that we need GOD and we need a relationship with GOD, far much more than the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, that habit that we have (whether it be smoking, fornicating or drinking alcohol), then our lives will take a turn for the better. And yet there are those among us who are foolish enough to think we do GOD a favour by reading the Word, praying, coming to church, serving in church, offering, when it is GOD who does us favour, doing us a solid. It is written that ‘His mercies, compassions and favours to us are new every morning’ [Lamentations 3:22-23] and that ‘He awakens me morning by morning’ [Isaiah 50:4]. All of us alive today are awakened by GOD each morning. This includes those who serve Him and those who do not, those who know Him and those who do not, those who are pleasing to Him and those who are not. It is GOD who awakens man and awakens the human soul. You and I get to open our eyes and take a breath each day because of GOD. We need GOD more than we can ever imagine. And David understood this.
The Lord gives testimony about a mere mortal man in whom GOD was very pleased [Acts 13:22]. GOD knows whom of us pursue Him for Him, and whatever we do for GOD and in the name of GOD must flow from the relationship that we have with Him. A man who is after GOD’s own heart will do everything that GOD wants him to do. But a man without GOD, without a living relationship with GOD, is nothing, can do nothing and can achieve nothing. What we do for GOD comes from our relationship with GOD. Service flows from the relationship that we have with GOD. Man was made by the spirit of GOD and cannot exist without GOD [Job 33:4]. David was Matthew 6:33 personified. David never gave up on GOD, even when he was on the run from Saul. Even when the throne, power, glory and riches he was anointed for seemed intangible, David remained devoted to GOD. David’s genuine passion for GOD won him the protection of the Lord over the attempts on his life, and because he was seeking for GOD and for the righteousness of GOD (the face) and not for worldly things (the back), all things were given unto him.
Christianity is not a religion, it is a love story for ‘GOD so loved the world’. It is a love story about GOD pursuing hard after His people, pursuing hard after the people that He loves, pursuing hard after the people that He made. Christianity is a love story from beginning to end, a marriage covenant relationship with the lamb of GOD, and we are in a marriage covenant with GOD. This is why James called Israel adulterers and adulteresses when they missed this mark [James 4:4]. And like Israel, when Christians chase anything other than faithfulness to our marriage covenant relationship with GOD, we are the adulterers in the marriage. How do we reciprocate the endless love that GOD keeps showing us daily? After everything that GOD has done for us, He says ‘I want you to give yourself to Me as a living sacrifice’. This is all He asks. This is what it costs. Of all the people that have perished, you are still alive because GOD is keeping you, because He knows you by name. Christianity Without A Relationship is playing religion, fast-tracking us to lose a bet in the game of life and death over our own lives. So don’t do it.
Christianity Without A Relationship with GOD is not Christianity at all. Christianity is a love story from beginning to end—it is about GOD pursuing hard after His people, the people that He made, the people that He loves.
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