"A Thirst For God" -2

"As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God." (Psalms 42:1) I guess what I am trying to say, is that if the Spirit of God is not dwelling within you, then you really don't know where to find God, even though He is easy to be found, if you know the right source of water. As Jesus told the woman at the well, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship; for salvation is of the Jews"; so it was for me before Jesus Christ; I had no clue who God was, or how to worship Him; I knew that God was there, but I did not know what He looked like. Jesus Christ came to show us the Father, and as He told the Jews that asked Him, Where is thy Father?, Jesus said, "Ye neither know Me, nor my Father: if ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also" (John 8:19). If we think that we can just go to the Father, we have can't without first going to the Son, as Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me" (John 14:6). And as to seeing God, Jesus follows that statement up with a revelation of what God looks like, by saying, "If ye had known Me, ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him" (John 14:7). It really comes down to knowing Jesus, because without knowing Jesus, we really can't even know who God is, nor can we come to Him; and if we can't come to Him or know who He is, then we really will not have a thirst for Him; not the True Living God, but rather a god that we have made in our own minds, and one that is more of this earth and fashioned after the things of man, or the things of this world; much as the woman at the well, who thought that the mountain where the well was dug, was the place which God was to be worshipped (John 4:20). True worship of God is not conditional upon a place or a particular action, but is conditional upon knowing who God is, and entering in through the heart of worship, which is that heart where Jesus Christ dwells... "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a Chief Cornerstone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded." (1 Peter 2:1-6)