When I was much younger, my mom shared a brilliant analogy with me and my siblings. She said God is like an ocean; if you came to Him with a cup, you would get a cup full. If you came to him with a massive drum, you would get a drum full. If you came with a water truck, as huge as it is, you would still get it filled. The point is, that you get what you ask for. In essence, when we are dissatisfied with our results, an excellent place to review would be what we are asking for. Many times, our expectations are truck-sized, but we approach God with cups and wonder why we never feel satisfied. The ocean is clearly sufficient to fill any vessel, yet every person gets the amount of water they make space for, regardless of their intention.

Many times, our expectations are truck-sized, but we approach God with cups and wonder why we never feel satisfied.

An iconic part of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount reads thus:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened.
Matthew 7:7-8 (NKJV)

In reading this, it is easy to focus on the instruction rather than the implication of the promise. Especially in the 8th verse, Jesus makes a definitive statement that when we do our part, we are guaranteed an answer: The one who asks will receive, the one who seeks will find, and the one who knocks will be opened unto. In a sense, Jesus is saying that in cases where your results don’t satisfy, God is not the person to look at. You should review what you are asking for.

In the following verses, Jesus challenged his audience, asking if they were better fathers than God. His argument was, “If you would not give your children what they did not request, why do you think God will operate like that?” This is also the main proposition of this article: with God, when we ask, seek, and knock, we will receive, find, and be opened to, but we can remain unsatisfied with the result if the request is not right.

Among the three actions Jesus listed – ask, seek, and knock – I find seeking to be the easiest way to make this point, so for this article, I will place a specific emphasis on seeking even though it applies to all three. Jesus promises us that whatever we seek, we will find. Therefore, more often than not, our dissatisfaction comes from what we find. The flipside of Jesus’ promise is that you won’t find what you are not seeking. Essentially, our only hope of finding the right thing is to make sure that we are seeking the right thing. We must critique our seeking to ensure we find the things that are truly valuable to us.

Seeking in Nigerian colloquial English is “looking for something”. This establishes that the act comes loaded with two presumptions: there is an absence of something, and that thing has a value that necessitates the search. Therefore, to truly ascertain that we are seeking the right thing, we should define what we lack and the value that is inherent in the thing sought. For example, if I am seeking food, the presumptions that validate my endeavour are that I am hungry and, secondly, that the food I am after can satisfy my hunger. If I were seeking diamonds when dealing with a hunger problem, I would be setting myself up for gross disappointment.

Essentially, our only hope of finding the right thing is to make sure that we are seeking the right thing. We must critique our seeking to ensure we find the things that are truly valuable to us.

These two presumptions further establish how we can establish what we are seeking. This is necessary because oftentimes we claim to be seeking things that we are clearly not going after, and then we are genuinely shocked at what we find. To avoid this happening to you, make sure to use these presumptions to judge yourself. The first thing to ask is, “What do I lack?” The answer might seem too obvious and overwhelming, as human wants are insatiable; therefore, human lack is constant.

Our limited nature places us in a perpetual state of lack, but we do not seek after everything we lack. The second factor of seeking – value that necessitates the search – helps reveal where we invest our limited efforts. Anything that is valuable enough to make you move defines what you are seeking. Simply put, your lack may be evident and varied, but the things that you value are what eventually lead you into the adventure of seeking.

Many Christians can testify that their search for Jesus started because there was a significant lack in their lives. Many have come to the foot of the cross because of a lack of good health, peace of mind, prosperity, answers, and identity, among other needs. Fortunately, like the woman with an issue of blood in Luke 8:43–48, after trying everything else, we end up trying Jesus.

So, we identify our lack and cast our eyes on the capacity of Jesus, so we go seeking. Just like that woman, many have testified that what they could not get anywhere else, they found in Jesus. These types of stories usually bring tears of joy to our eyes and put big smiles on our faces. The problem with this is that oftentimes, the lack remains in some other part of their lives, or in some cases, some people actually don’t get what they want, and that can be hard to make sense of. Ideally, this should raise an important query:

Is Jesus incapable of meeting our needs, or are we seeking Jesus for something less than what He promises?

When we look at our anchor scripture from the gospel of Luke, it reads thus:

“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened. If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Luke 11:9–13 (NKJV)

In Luke’s account, we see that when Jesus was talking about how we can get anything from God the Father, He directly stated that the good thing we should seek from God is the Holy Spirit. This implies that while God would give us many things, His greatest desire is for us to have the Holy Spirit. The emphasis placed on the Holy Spirit can be understood by looking at the following scriptures:

“But he who is joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him.”
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJV)

“For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.”
1 Corinthians 2:11–12 (NKJV)

These verses make a very important claim: to have the Spirit of God is to share a level of intimacy with God that is unattainable by any other means. It is to know God intimately and, consequently, to be known by God. Hence, in Luke, Jesus was essentially saying the best thing you can ask from God is to share His Spirit, to be intimate with Him, to know Him, and to be known by Him.

Everyone who comes into the Christian Faith should essentially be seeking this relationship of spiritual oneness with God, galvanised through the person and sacrifice of Jesus.

You see, at the very core of what Christianity is, we find a relationship between the Creator and His creation. This relationship (and all its sides) is essentially the focus of the Bible. By the standards we have previously set, we can make the claim that Christianity is focused on this relationship because man’s greatest lack is a relationship with His Creator, and the only possible way of getting that back is through Jesus. During His time on earth, Jesus repeatedly uttered the command, “Follow Me”. We can see that He does this because He knows man’s greatest need is not for the things we are focused on; rather, it is Him, a physical representative of the Godhead, that should be sought after. He presents Himself as what is lacking in this world (John 8:12) and as valuable enough to lose everything else in a bid to seek (Luke 9:23).

Therefore, everyone who comes into the Christian Faith should essentially be seeking this relationship of spiritual oneness with God, galvanised through the person and sacrifice of Jesus. This implies that a Christian is a person who recognises the lack of God in their life and seeks Jesus as a worthy answer to satisfy that lack. The seeker considers a relationship with God to be of infinite value but also recognises that that relationship is only possible through the sacrifice of Jesus and expressed through living like Jesus. So, the seeker maintains an intentional desire to know Jesus and live like Him. This does not mean the one who seeks Jesus does not have normal human needs; it just means his priority places the knowledge of Jesus as foremost and of utmost worth.

It is important to note that the depth of need and/or the value of what is sought after can be discerned by paying close attention to how the seeker goes about seeking. The intensity, care, and support required to find something can tell a lot about what is being sought after and the value that it holds. For Christians, this is so true because the way we seek shows whether we understand the value of what we are seeking or if we are even seeking the right things. The seeker who prioritises their relationship with God understands two things: it requires the help of the Holy Spirit, and it is not a quick fix. This should help you understand that your seeking as a Christian may be flawed if you think it can be entirely achieved in your strength and/or if your fulfilment can be achieved with one quick fix.

This truth can be derived from Jesus’ iconic command, “Follow me”. The first word implies that this is not quick. In fact, it suggests a walk without an end because the one who follows just keeps on moving until the other stops. The second word in the command is “me.” This squarely places the responsibility for how things go on Jesus’ shoulders. Simply put, Jesus tells us that seeking Him is a long process that He alone can sponsor. The one who seeks Jesus settles in for the long ride and has no trust in human effort. This is where the Holy Spirit mentioned in Luke comes in. Jesus admonishes us to desire the Holy Spirit, as He holds the power to sponsor our seeking.

The seeker who prioritises their relationship with God understands two things: it requires the help of the Holy Spirit, and it is not a quick fix.

“These things I have spoken to you while being present with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
John 14:25–26 (NKJV)

Therefore, seeking Jesus looks a lot like depending on the Holy Spirit. In practical terms, it is an incessant desire to know Jesus and a complete dependence on the Holy Spirit to have that desire fulfilled. So, the seeker engages in Bible Study but does so with a desire to know Jesus and prays earnestly for the Holy Spirit to facilitate that process. The seeker prays as a means of building and enjoying a relationship with God, but completely trusts the Holy Spirit to empower that process.

With this established, our seeking enterprise is only fully maximised when we set our sights on Jesus and completely depend on the Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, this is not a given among Christians. Just like in the days when Jesus was on earth, many seek after what He can do for them rather than who He is and the power He desires to give us. These Christians have a hard time making sense of their lives because they are standing in front of an ocean and have only cups of experience to show for it.

Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”
John 6:26–27 (NKJV)

To seek Jesus for anything less than Him through the Holy Spirit, which is the seal of our salvation, is to cut yourself short of an infinite blessing. In Philippians 3, Paul declared with ultimate certainty that there is nothing we need more and nothing more worthy of our time than knowing Jesus. You might temporarily meet your immediate needs by asking God for one thing or another, but if you are seeking just that, you will eventually be frustrated. It has to be Jesus we seek. Gratefully, Jesus has already promised us that He is not far from us, and if we can set our minds to seek Him, He will surely be found. So if you feel like you have not sought him truly, there is still hope for you. Like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11–24, you can turn around now and seek the right thing, or, better put, the right one.

Therefore, when we orient ourselves to seek Him not for what He can do but for Himself, we open the door of our hearts to divine intimacy.

To conclude, I want to show you an endearing picture from the last book of the Bible:

“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.”
Revelations 3:20 (NKJV)

Throughout this article, the rhetoric has been that we are seeking after God. In certain applications, this works, but I think it is beautiful that the Bible clearly establishes that we are not seeking a passive God who grants us access to do a good job. Rather, our Father seeks us as intensely as He admonishes us to seek Him. He comes into our lives not seeking what we can do for Him but for the fullness of who we are. Therefore, when we orient ourselves to seek Him not for what He can do but for Himself, we open the door of our hearts to divine intimacy. There are not enough words in the world to describe the beauty of that intimacy. It is so rapturous that men died for it, and God gave His Son, Jesus, for it. If you seek it, if you seek after Him, you will not be disappointed.

EZEONYEKA GODSWILL