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Why is God So Hard to Find?
by David A. DePra
 
     Is God hard to find? The answer is "yes!" In fact, God is
absolutely impossible to find. Unless that is true, we don't need
the grace of God. We don't need God to take the initiative. God
could leave it up to us to find Him.
     Now, having said that, it is nevertheless a fact that God HAS
found us. He HAS taken the initiative to seek us out. Therefore,
the question, "Why is God so hard to find?," becomes something
more than a question. It becomes an admission. I am admitting
that I am needy and helpless without God. HE must take the
initiative to seek me and find me, or I am lost.
     This not only applies to my condition before salvation, but
also after I am saved. Even then I cannot find God everytime I
want to find Him. I may have not yet have the ears to hear and
eyes to see Him. God has to initiate the process which will
develope these in me.
 
Ears to Hear, Eyes to See

     If you own a dog or a cat you have probably been amazed  

from time to time as to how they can hear things you can't hear,
and see things you cannot see. A dog's smell, for instance, is
about one-hundred times more powerful than that of a human
being. Add to that the ability of dogs to hear sounds which are
out of the range we can hear, and you have an animal which has
far more access to this physical realm than does an average
human being.
     Now notice: A dog can hear sounds and smell odors which
we cannot hear or smell. In fact, we don't even know they are
there TO hear or smell. They are, as it were, OUTSIDE of the
range of our perspective. We do not have a point of reference
for them.
     Now ask: Does the fact we have no access to certain smells,
sounds, or objects in this physical realm mean that they are not
there? Of course not. The dog hears them. The dog sees them.
They ARE there. And they are just as real as those things which
we CAN hear, see, and smell. They are simply outside of OUR
ability to access them.
     Notice what all of this means: Reality exists completely
independent of our ability to perceive it. There is much more to
reality than we can perceive. And that part we CAN'T perceive is
just as real as the part we CAN. In effect, our perception is not
the basis for physical reality at all.
 
The Spiritual Realm
 
     Now, all of that is physical. But how much more is the
spiritual! Just as this physical realm includes vast regions and
ranges which exist far beyond the ability of our senses, so does
the spiritual realm. There is a spiritual realm -- the realm or
kingdom of God -- which is far more real than even the
physical realm. But as a human being born in Adam, we have
nothing about us which is able to access it. We cannot see it, or
have any possibility of sensing it, unless we are born again.
     The reason that we cannot see the kingdom of God unless we
are born again is that through sin Adam lost that ability. In the
original design God had for man, Adam was equipped with
physical senses which enabled him to access all of this physical
realm. We might even guess that his physical senses exceeded
all of God's other creatures -- for he was given dominion over
them. But that was only the beginning. Adam was also
equipped with the spiritual senses which enabled him to walk
and talk with God. It was as natural for Adam to live in the spirit
as it was for him to live in the natural. Indeed, it is most probable
that before the sin, the two were ONE. There was not the kind of
distinction between spiritual and physical which we have today.
Not even close.
     When Adam sinned, he essentially walked away from God.
He said, "I declare my independence. I will now live for myself."
And God let him. But in doing so, Adam not handed over the
physical realm to Satan, but he knowingly forfeited all access to
the spiritual. He therefore entered into the realm of death. He
became a sadly diminished version of his former self. He lost
many of his God-given abilities. Corruption set in. Adam had
BECOME something other than God intended.
     In the final analysis, THAT is why "God is so hard to find!"
Why? Because, by natural birth, we are a creature with no
capacity to find Him. All of that is lost. We can no more see the
kingdom of God -- spiritually -- than we can physically smell
what a dog smells. There just isn't anything of God in us to give
us that ability. So unless God initiates revealing Himself to us,
we will never see. Unless He puts us through trials of faith which
will expand our spiritual senses, and set us free from the
incumberances of the old creation, we cannot know Him.
 
Born Again
 
     If we are born again, then we can see the kingdom of God.
But we aren't going to see all of it, all at once. We are going to
be as a baby who has all of the sensory skills inbred, and in
place, but who must develope them by growing and learning.
God Himself will bring us through the experiences necessary to
cause us to grow.
     Actually, this is great news. It means that it is not up to me to
find God. It means I don't have to fret and worry because I don't
understand. It means that I simply need to believe without
seeing, and to fall into the hands of the Living God.
 
The "Cost" of Grace
 
     There is infinitely more to God than I can perceive -- even
on my best spiritual day. We are all in the process of growth,
and it will take a lifetime. But let's ask: If God HAS found me,
and is in the process of forming in me ears to hear and eyes to
see, then how does He do that? What is my part in all of it?
I do have a part in it. In fact, there is a great price I must pay
in order to see, and enter, into the kingdom of God. A very great
price.
     A great price? How can this be? Isn't grace free? How could
there be a cost attached to anything which God gives to us
through Jesus Christ?
     Everything God gives us in Christ is totally free. And He gives
us ALL THINGS in Christ. Therefore, ALL THINGS are free. We
can't earn, merit, or do anything at all to obtain the things of God.
Not by works or by service. Not by a good attitude or by much
prayer. ALL THINGS are by grace alone.
     So what is this "price?" The price is that we must let go of
that which is totally worthless and dead -- the old creation. We
must "lose" that -- lose our life. And from the perspective of
the old creation, and from the perspective of the way we live and
operate, this is a very great price. It is the loss of our life as we
know it.
     Here we see the great trade-off. It is a trade-off which
applies to every aspect of God's grace in Jesus Christ. It is really
nothing more than death and resurrection. For every new
avenue of freedom and Truth into which I move, I must let go of
that which had occupied it's place in the old creation. I must
"drive out the inhabitants" of my old "land" and take possession
of what God has freely given.
     The reason there is alway a "trade-off" is that we are not
born on neutral ground. Rather, we are born in bondage to sin
and death. Therefore, to move out of that, into freedom and
Truth, we must discard the old. We must make that choice.
     This is the "cost" of grace. But it is NOT the price I must pay
to receive grace. No. It is the price I will pay if I HAVE received it!
In effect, there is no price FOR grace. But there is a great price
BECAUSE of it -- from the perspective of the old creation.
Again we see how simple are the things of God. God freely
gives us all things in Jesus Christ. All we have to do is believe
and receive them. But as we do, death will come to the old
creation. Why? Because we must leave it behind to enter into a
new realm.
 
Refusing God
 
     Because all things are freely given, it is possible to refuse all
or any part of them. This possibility exists not only because God
will not violate free will, but because it is the only way things
could work when everything is absolutely free. Freedom, if it is
real, must include the right to refuse.
     Why would a Christian refuse God? Never think that when
Christians refuse God that they are standing there merely
refusing what is good. No. Christians who refuse God ALWAYS
refuse Him because they want something else instead. ALWAYS.
It is always a matter of refusing Truth and freedom in favor of
something temporal.
     Don't limit these temporal things, however, to merely that
which is material in this world. Certainly some do refuse God in
favor or riches or material things. But there is a more common
reason why Christians refuse God: They hold to spiritual things.
     What kind of spiritual things? Self-righteousness. Their
ministry. Spiritual pride. Their security in their own spiritual
status. Some Christians cannot bear the thought of being
exposed for what they are before God. They cannot bear to
become nothing; as a little child. No. They demand that they are
a spiritual giant. Anything else seems unthinkable.
     The reason for such a condition is unbelief. God will be
faithful to continually expose us as needy sinners, who are totally
bankrupt and in need of His grace. But it is possible for us to
continually pass through these exposures and come out "in tact."
We can harden our hearts and salvage our self-righteousness.
May God deliver us from such a terrible plague.
 
God IS Hard to Find
 
     God IS hard to find. Impossible to find. But wonderfully, WE
are not hard to find. Despite the fact that we are LOST, God has
indeed found us. He has us in His hand. And even though we
may not know where He is leading us, we can rest in the fact that
He IS leading!
     Jesus Christ did not come into this world to give us a mandate
to find God. He said, "The Son of Man comes to seek that which
lost." God is seeking us. God is finding us. And God is taking us
on to His eternal purposes. Our part is to let Him, by letting go
of those things which cannot enter the kingdom of God.

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