Topic : Drawing Near To God
By Rev John Mwakio
Date: Sunday 06th Nov 2022

Amos 5:4 – 8 
4 This is what the LORD says to Israel: “Seek me and live;
5 do not seek Bethel, do not go to Gilgal, do not journey to Beersheba. For Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will be reduced to nothing. ”
6 Seek the LORD and live, or he will sweep through the tribes of Joseph like a fire; it will devour them, and Bethel will have no one to quench it.
7  There are those who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground.
8  He who made the Pleiades and Orion, who turns midnight into dawn and darkens day into night, who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out over the face of the land— the LORD is his name.

James 4: 8  Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

Jesus said that he is the truth and the light, no one reaches the Father except through him.
We don’t just come to God for healing and finishing our problems but that we may be together with God.

That when we be with God, when we go out, signs and wonders shall accompany you.

Acts 17:27  God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.

When the Bible says seek the Lord, it means seek the covenant with Him.  That whatever you need in life, you shall receive, even that what was eaten by the locusts shall be restored.
Whatever health issue we have, it shall be healed.

Bethel means the house of the Lord. It is a place where Abraham laid an altar for the Lord.
It also means religious activities. So to stop going to Bethel is to stop religious activities.
Being religious is being too familiar with the things of God.

Gilgal represented victory, miracles and testimony.

Beersheba symbolizes that God is able to do something different and new in your life, not just doing the same way over and over.

The agenda of God is that we may be found with a sound relationship with God.
Seeking the Lord begins by continuously acknowledging God in your life.
When you are in trouble or happiness, you need to acknowledge God.

When you seek the Lord:
1. It establishes a close relationship with God
2. The Lord shall also seek you.  John 4:24
3. We receive favor from Him.  Proverbs 8:17
4. The Lord must be sought, not because He is far but it is the character of God to seem hiding and see who is willing to seek Him.
5. He rewards those who seek him. Hebrew 11:6
6. Keep your tongue from evil. Psalms 34
7. Learn to live a clean life. Psalms 24
8. It is through seeking God that we save the nation.

Shalom!