Occupied With God

From the Pastor:  Dr. M. J. Seymour, Sr.



“…I arose up from my heaviness; and having rent my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees, and spread out my hands unto the LORD my God, And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: …” (Ezra 9:5-6) 

Worldly societies by nature occupy themselves with day to day distractions of fleshly lust and wicked imaginations.  Of this they also were condemned of in the days of Noah.  Honest students of the Scriptures are not shocked at the realities of this fact.  The saints acknowledge it and seek to sound the alarm to all who would believe in God, Jesus, and the eternal abode to seek the things from above and not hold to the filth of this world.  Occupy thyself with God!!! 

Ezra reveals for us a crucial key to becoming effectively engaged in a right and holy intimacy with the Father.  It begins with a sincere affliction of the spirit and builds to a tormented spirit that is so agonizing that the mind and heart become consumed with every association with sin.  Humanly speaking, every minute speck of sin is understood to be as a great mountain of hindrance hiding the face of the Father’s favor.  Next, we witness the weight of humility bringing Ezra to his knees, the direction of His hope as he spreads his pleading arms toward the heavenly Almighty, then he cries out from his unbearable shame and wounded conscience.  To bring all into perspective Ezra gives knowledge of the lordship of GOD. 

Brethren, God is the King of kings, the Lord of lord, and the Creator of all things for the purpose of His own good pleasure.  If we are indeed the sons of God, where are the evidences of shame and blushing over sin?  Where is the crushing humility that forces us to our knees?  Where is the earnest wide-open-arm pleading to the Father?  Where is the conceding to His sovereign lordship?  Where is the true worship from the sons of a Holy God?  When Isaiah was occupied with God he saw “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.”  If we were occupied with God where would see Him?