Come Away With ME
The Prerequisite for Holy Readiness
“When Thou saidst, ‘seek ye My face,...”
“Come Away With Me” is not just a wonderful Jesus Culture song. It is the call of God to every man, woman, and child on earth. The Creator of the Universe desires intimacy with us, and every day He issues the invitation from Psalm 27:8: “seek ye My face.” Abba never intended for our relationship with Him to be one sided: Him knowing us completely and us knowing things about Him but not knowing Him at all. Today, if you will hear His voice, He is saying, “seek ye My face.” Ok, so perhaps you don’t like how King James this invitation sounds. Let me say it in a different way:
“Seek His face” NIV
“Seek My face” ESV & TPT
“Come worship Me” GNT
“Come and talk with Me” NLT
“Seek God” MSG
“Go worship Him” NCV
However you mix and mingle the words, the meaning is the same. God is saying to us in this season, and in every season of life, “I am a knowable and approachable Father so come and approach Me so that you can know Me.”
What should our response by to this amazing invitation from He who is, was, and always will be? Psalm 27:8 not only issues the invitation from God, but it gives us a ready-made reply: ”my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’”
So, what does it mean to “seek His face?”
To seek means to desire something to such a degree that you make a request to have it or you diligently search it out. Seeking His face starts with desire (passionate desire and a desire of the will). Do you want to know Him (passionately or with your will)? Be honest. If the answer is no, then your only prayer until the answer is yes, should be, “Father, forgive me and please fuel my desire for You!” If your answer is yes, then action is required; a turning must take place.
The face of God is His presence. To seek His presence is to say, “Lord, I am turning away from everything that hinders love and I am turning toward You. There is nothing in my past or in my future that is more important than knowing You and being known by You.
Seeking His face is a matter of the heart. Psalm 27:8 says that God was answered with the heart (” my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.’” ). Our heart is our inner man, our understanding, our mind our will. The heart is where our determination and resolutions and inclinations are rooted. Our appetites and passions and emotions come from our heart.
Do we hunger and thirst for God? Is He our passion? If our heart answers “yes” then we are in a position to seek His face.
However, the heart isn’t just what we feel. The heart encompasses our understanding and our will. We can seek His face even if we don’t feel like doing it. It’s ok to seek His face if you are just doing it with your mind and your will. I believe that if we make the effort, God meets us where we are, and wets our appetites for more of Him. Pretty soon, the invitation to seek His face is answered with a response of passion rather a matter of the will.
The title of this short study is “Come Away With ME” The Pre-Requisite for Holy Readiness. I don’t believe you can be ready with a holy response to life if you have not spent time in the presence of the Lord.
When you are living on the mountain top and everything is right with your life, the danger is that we lose zeal when it comes to our prayers and time spent with the Lord. When this happens, it becomes easier to respond to life from a stand point of compromise rather than holiness.
When you are living in the valley and everything that can go wrong in your life, does go wrong, the danger is that we become depressed and oppressed to a point where we choose to wallow in despair and self-pity rather than go into our secret closet to pray and seek His face. When this happens, we become passive in our Christianity and allow things to happen to us and around us that are not holy.
No matter what you are going through in life, you cannot serve God in holiness if you are not spending time in the Holy Place, which is His presence. Right now, I want you to close your eyes and physical ears to what is going on around you and open the ears of your heart.
Do you hear Him? “Come away with Me, beloved!” Now, answer Him: “here I am Abba!”