THE REWARD FOR SEEKING GOD
Most people who believe that God exists like to think that they connect with God through religious activities such as reading the Bible, music, worship, fellowship with others, prayer, reading books, etc. Their hope is that, if they do these things, make a confession of faith, and do their best to avoid sin, they will be rewarded with eternal life with God and their loved ones in heaven. This all sounds so reasonable and doable. Sadly, none of this is what God wants or expects them to do — except reading the Bible.

The disconnect between what God wants and what people believe is a matter of disobedience to one of his commands that is usually overlooked: Listen to his voice.

Jews and Christians have many religious rules, but listening to God’s voice is not one of those rules. Instead of listening to God’s voice, religion teaches people to listen to religious leaders and trust that because of a special calling (i.e. gift) from God, religious leaders know how to hear God’s voice and will sacrificially, reliably and dutifully serve them by reporting what God says. This kind of serving is called ministry, and religious people are willing to  pay religious leaders to tell them what God says. This kind of fee-for-service relationship seems reasonable and right because it can be found in the Bible, and it has been a standard of religion forever. Sadly, this is only religious commerce and is not what God wants.

STUDY TIP: See Servants and Shepherds for more about serving.

Religious people tend to think that the privilege of hearing God’s spoken voice is reserved for religious leaders who have special callings to preach, teach and evangelize. These “called ones” expound on their ideas of what scripture means with a “hear the word of the Lord” authority. This all sounds good in the world of religion, but, if the people who preach/teach/evangelize also make names for themselves as religious leaders, and if they receive income from their preaching/teaching/evangelism, they are False Prophets. The fine-sounding things false prophets say are only lies and false visions, and the religious things that they do are religious deceptions. Their followers pay good money for this teaching and eat it all up without realizing that what they are eating is evil, soulish food — not God’s spoken word.

The command to listen to God’s spoken voice is there to obey for everyone — not just for religious leaders with special callings — who has faith that believes that God exists and rewards those who seek him. But, how does God reward those who seek him?

Religious people tend to think in natural terms. Therefore, when they think about rewards, they think that God’s rewards will be something they can see, hear and touch. They forget, or ignore, that God, being spiritual and unseen, moves and works exclusively in the unseen, spiritual world of the heart. He does not work in the seen, material world, or in the world of religion.

Because of this powerful tendency to think in natural terms, when anything good happens to religious people, they think God has rewarded them for being religious. And, ignorant of what the Bible says about God allowing the wicked to prosper, think that they are under attack by demons and the devil when bad things happen.

Natural, material rewards that religious people assume to have come from God generally occur when there is a good conclusion to a natural circumstance that is beyond their control, or when they experience some kind of good fortune. Here are a few examples:

It is true that these and many other good things happen to religious and non-religious people. It is not true, however, that these good things are rewards from God. God and his ways are unsearchable. His rewards exist only in the heart — not in the natural, physical world where they can be observed with natural eyes and ears.

In general terms, the reward for seeking God is finding him when hearing his spoken voice. But, where do you find God and how do you know when you have found him?

The only place to find God is in his home: In clean, pure hearts of New Covenant disciples. And the only way to know if you have found him is when you hear his spoken voice. In general, these are the rewards for seeking God.

In particular, the rewards for seeking God include the following:

These are all rewards or gifts from God.