The Pressings of God
“Let us know,
let us press on to know Yahweh…”
Hosea 6:3 (LEB)
Within the recesses of the hearts of His own there is a passion to know the unknowable One. There is a mystery that our limited vocabularies and minds cannot explain. This pressing of heart and soul is simply the love of Him within desiring to express the Love of Him without. It is a cry which cannot be articulated; it reaches the heart, not the intellect. but the heart. It is the power of faith uniting the seeker with the ever Seeking One.
We seek Him because He first sought us. His love ever seeks to fill the human heart, His grace seeks to overcome weakness, and His Holy Spirit seeks to fill us with the breath of His Divine Nature. The pressings of which Hosea speaks is reiterated by Paul the Apostle in the Book of Philippians:
“I press toward the mark
for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus”
Philippians 3:14
The pressing is the result of the grace of God moving upon the tender hearts of those whom He has called unto Himself. No man takes this honour upon himself. No fleshly work or religious exercise can produce the cry of the spirit of adoption “whereby we cry, Abba, Father”.
Pursuit is the means by which He is found, hunger is the means by which we are fed, and thirst is the precursor to the drinking of the Living Water. The promises of God are found by asking, seeking and knocking.
“For every one that asketh receiveth;
and he that seeketh findeth;
and to him that knocketh it shall be opened”
Matthew 7:8
Let us read and grasp the words of this promise. Everyone that asks – receives! He that seeks – – finds! Those who knock – shall enter in! While many choose confined and safe places, God beckons His Own into an active pursuit of Him. He is far too vast for us to ever become satisfied with a small portion. The greater our faith, the more fervent the pressing. The greater our love, the more obedience is required to see Him in a fuller and deeper way.
The cross of the disciple, if carried long enough, becomes a source of joy and of power. There is within its bitter workings a freedom to live in the fellowship of His sufferings. It is a fellowship which dims the offerings of former things and brings us into His courts of fire where He alone is magnified.
“As for me… I shall be satisfied,
when I awake, with thy likeness”
Psalm 17:15
Brian Troxel
