Are you running after the Lord?
By Anita Alexander
I hear a question from the Lord to His people resounding in the spirit: “Who are you running after?”
I sense the Lord is releasing His compass over the hearts of His people in this season. Firstly, to reveal to them the alignment of their direction (the positioning of their heart and the direction in which they are running), and secondly, if they are found to be off course, to extend an invitation to return to True North.
True North
Metaphorically, True North is a navigational focal point that enables one to travel on the right path no matter where the destination may be. Whether or not our destination is north, south east or west, if we “know” our True North, we are well able to arrive and “HIT” our destination smoothly and without confusing, frustrating, and time-wasting detours.
Obviously we all aren't called to travel in the same direction, for the harvest field is vast and wide and spans a great multitude of fields. Some are called to arts, media, law, government, education, business, social justice, ministry, missions, and some are called to great wealth to finance the Kingdom. However, we all need True North in order to keep and maintain our correct navigation on our set, God-given course.
I feel the Lord is saying many are running toward their destination—or shall we call it “destiny”—which is commendable and pleasing to the Lord. Yet, what I am also sensing is that while many may be running toward their destiny or destination, there is a warning to not lose “True North” along the way. This subsequently results in course deflection off the plotted route. Any navigator will know that it only takes an initial deflection of a couple of degrees off your plotted route for you to inevitably find yourself vastly off course. Hence, why I hear the Lord is calling His people back to True North.
What is True North you may ask? True North is keeping the position of one's heart to RUN AFTER HIM. True North is what Paul described in Philippians 3 as the journey of the high calling to KNOW HIM—to be true pursuers of His heart and His WAYS.
Pursuers Over Perfection
David was a man described of the Lord as “a man after His own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14). If you read his psalms, David always asked the Lord to show him His paths and His ways. The Lord desires ones who will pursue Him, rather than ones who are perfect. David was a pursuer of the Lord, a man who desired to do things God's way. As we know, David wasn't perfect. He made many mistakes, but perfection never qualifies you for making your destination. It is not ones who demonstrate perfection, but rather purity that Jesus Himself said would “SEE GOD” (Matt 5:8).
What does “see” God mean? To see according to Strong's Concordance, can be interpreted as: to gaze with eyes wide open or to appear, or show one's self—“show up” (my emphasis). Therefore, those who are pure in heart are ones who pursue His will and His ways with purity of motive. They are the ones who are aligned with True North and will see God. They will see and gaze with eyes wide open as the Lord performs His promises and “shows up” in their lives as only He can.
Abraham “saw God” in that he saw the fulfillment of the promise in Isaac. I am sure he stood and “gazed with eyes wide open” as he saw 90-year-old Sarah's belly growing with the promise inside of her womb. I'm sure he stood and “gazed with eyes wide open” as Isaac, the seed of the promise of God to Abraham, came forth and was born. God's promises were fulfilled as Isaac “appeared and showed up in the flesh” and no longer just remained a spoken promise but a natural reality.
Abraham pursued God. He followed God wherever He said to go, and left everything behind. Abraham knew his True North and in turn, arrived at his destination. Along the way he forgot True North and pursued the destination outside of the compass. He thought for a moment that he could arrive at his destination of what God had promised in his own natural reasoning and ability. The outcome was strife, grief, contention, jealousy and a sibling rivalry that continues to this very day. When we deviate from True North and pursue our destination in our own ability, we end up with “wisdom of the flesh”—which Romans 8 explains as death, decay and corruption.
Navigation Course Check
The compass of the Lord that is being released over His people's hearts in this season is acting like a navigation course check. It, in actuality, exposes heart motives. Not for the purpose to condemn but for the purpose to reveal the “flesh course”. The compass of the Lord is released in order that His people will embrace the invitation to repent from trying to fulfill and arrive at their destiny outside of the compass of the Lord, but then surrender to the plotted map of the Lord.
I feel the Lord is saying: Embrace and invite the compass of the Lord to be released over your heart and align your direction with True North.
True Seekers – Purity of Motive
The Word says in Matthew 6 when we seek the Kingdom first of all, those “other things” are added besides. Jesus actually defined those “other things” as what the heathen seek after (Matt. 6:28-32). So in other words, He was clearly noting it's actually a worldly way, not the way of His people, to seek after those “other things” (Matt. 6:32-34).
The Lord is calling His people to do things His way. He's calling them to be pursuers of the Kingdom—which is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Rom. 14:17). In other words, righteousness = doing things God's way in purity of heart and having the right motive. Then, peace and joy are a direct result from that.
I know Believers that, on the outside, look successful but are filled with debilitating insecurity and anxiety. Others may pride themselves on their “successful achievements” (whether wealth or recognition or fame), but are controlling, sow discord, and are embittered with competitive jealousy and rivalry. They are, in essence, void of the “peace and joy” that flow from the pursuit of the Kingdom. When we give birth to the promise by the arm of the flesh, like Abraham did with Ishmael, we are void of peace and joy.
True North is Intimacy
True North is intimacy. When intimacy is pursued, we give birth to destiny enveloped in peace and joy that only the Kingdom offers and the world cannot take away. I've said this many times in this season, but I will say it once again: The Lord is aligning His people's hearts in this hour, making them ready for what is to come. And so I repeat the question of the Lord to His people: “Who are you running after?”
Are we running after our own ambitious pursuits, masked under the banner of “my calling” or are we simply running after Him: to know Him and to obey Him? Like Abraham, not knowing the full end from the beginning, are we pursuing God's heart—our true destination—to be a friend of God? Oh to be known as a friend of God! That should be our pursuit. He is my famous one, He is the most influential person in the universe, and I have a direct line to HIM. Oh how privileged I am!
My friends, if HE is our pursuit, who we do know or don't know is not an issue. By making the Lord our focus, we don't get caught up in seeking to climb any ladder on our own. It is not who you know here on this earth that will get you to your destiny, but Who you know in Heaven. It is the Lord who will offer you the endurance and strength, in all seasons and ability, to arrive at the desired place of hearing announced in your ears: “Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into thy rest” (Jude 1:24, Matt. 25:23).
A Great Snare to Those Called to Run with the Mandates of Heaven
I heard the Lord say to my spirit recently, “The greatest snare in these coming days will be the need for fame, recognition, approval, acceptance and praise of man.” If this is a foundational pursuit in the hearts of God's people, it could abort Kingdom assignments that have potential to change nations in a day. Embrace the wilderness seasons where the Lord may be preparing you in this hour and know that it is causing your roots to go down deep in your desire for His approval alone.
Receive the compass in this hour. Allow the Lord to reconfigure your navigated course and return to True North! When we are running True North, the confession of our mouth is: “He is truly my portion. All my days I will relentlessly run after Him!”
Anita Alexander is a prophetic revivalist who has a heart for revival, healing and transformation. Motivated by an intense love for the Body of Christ, Anita's passion and compassion is to see the Church forsake religion and tradition, awaken to the Father's love and arise and walk in the overcoming identity as sons and daughters of the Kingdom. Anita and her husband Dr. Sasha Alexander travel nationally and internationally ministering in revival fire that brings resurrection life, healing and awakening to the Body of Christ. Together their passion is to impart, raise up and release a generation of sons and daughters who manifest the glorious victory of the finished work of the Cross and demonstrate their true overcoming identity. They are co-founders and senior ministers of Revival Flame Ministries, Golden City Church, and University of the Spirit Ministry Training School and reside in Gold Coast, Astralia.
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