“How To Walk With God”
Session Five
Part A
By Nita Johnson
NOLA Revival Services June, 2011
He says: Seek my face.
In Hebrews it says that holiness is the bottom line for seeing the face of God. We must be holy but we cannot make ourselves that way. Works of holiness become self-righteous works which is why Paul said that his greatest desire is to be free of all self-righteousness and to be filled with the righteousness of God; all of which can only happen through prayer. We must do holy things and live a holy life. However, to live a holy life in your own strength will not cause you to draw close to God, neither will it open the thresholds of His innermost sanctums and bring you close to Him. It takes an inner-transformation, without it you cannot draw near to God. He will honor those who will make themselves holy.
I can remember one time talking to a pastor, He was telling me about the holiness movement back in the 50s. He said: I would get up there and preach and preach against women wearing pants and I would preach so hard those women would get blisters on their legs and they never came to my church again with slacks on. I thought; those poor women!
You cannot make yourself holy, you must do holy things. I do not want to imply that you cannot be governed by the holiness of God. You must live holy, however, true holiness only comes from the inner workings of the Holy Spirit. He alone can make us holy.
For your soul to be forged in holiness you must be forged in prayer and become a person of prayer. This is why the Lord says: Seek My face. Why do we pray? We pray because He says to pray. When we pray, why do we seek His face? We seek it because He says to seek it. The moment He says: Seek My face. Our response should be: Your face I will seek! For those who really want to draw close to God—you must love holiness and it must become the desire of your heart. It must be the very quest of your life. There is no drawing close to God and there is no holiness without prayer. Walking with God starts with prayer.
God is looking for those who will worship Him in Spirit and truth which boils down to: Be ye holy, for God is Holy. We call the Holy Spirit, but really in the original language He is called the Spirit of Holiness. The Spirit of Holiness was given to us to lead us into the way of God and the inner sanctums of His heart, to teach us His way, to empower us, to help us understand His Word and to live for God.
If you have a commandment and a people without the Spirit of Holiness, then you end up with Israel. You have a commandment and you have a people, but there is no empowerment; which is why my people did it wrong so much of the time. We had commandments we needed to obey, but it was all ritualistic. There was little relationship—mostly no relationship, only a handful figured out how to accomplish this. And the Bible says: Because the Spirit of God was not given at that time, so they did not have the Spirit of Holiness which is given to us to empower us; to teach and lead us; to transform us into the image of Christ; to intercede for us. He brews from deep within us to birth the will of God in us. Even when we do not know He is praying, He is praying in us. His prayers strengthen, purify, transform, carry and help nurture us. He is ever doing a deep work in those who seek God’s face. If you are saved and you do not seek God’s face you will die carnal, who knows whether or not you will make heaven. I tell you the truth.
I will never forget one time, the Lord came and took me to hell. I did not ask (I have never asked) to go to hell but I have gone several times. On this particular visit He took me and showed me certain people; revealing why they were there. He took me to three women who appeared to be 45 to 50 years of age and told me about each of their lives. First thing He said was: When they were on earth they were Christians. I looked at Him shocked and wondered why He was showing me this, because I did not want to see it. These women were in anguish, I asked: if they were Christians why are they here? He began to tell me the story of each women, and in every case the reason they were in hell was because they refused to forgive. One of the women seemed like the godliest woman in her congregation, but her heart was filled with bitterness. Since she refused to forgive—what does the Bible say? God will not forgive you. So, she is in hell today.
So many Christians spend much of their time in front of TV, if not there, they are catching what they can on the internet. I saw many actors down there, some of them actors were my favorite actors when I was young, and I was shocked and horrified that they were in hell. He took me to see Marilyn Monroe and I wept. I had hoped that in her final moments she would have given your heart to the Lord. I asked: Lord, why is she here? He replied: Nita, you know when she was young she was Mine. I even took her up and showed her the New Heavenly Jerusalem, but she loved Hollywood. She gave herself over to the spirit of fame and fortune and although I showed her the beautiful city of New Jerusalem she chose to worship at the feet of human virtue and today, she is here.
He says: Seek ye my face. We say: Your face will I seek.
To be continued next week…
In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson
