“It is time to seek the Lord” Hos 10:12

In one sense, we are all responsive to the call to seek the Lord. If we get a message about some important event on the horizon, or a gathering or need that piques our interests, we are inclined towards dedicating some time to pray and give it our support. This is true because the Holy Spirit in us draws us and burdens us with things that pertain to His Kingdom’s advance.

That is not what this verse is about. Hosea is not suggesting something happened that we ought to be concerned about, or pray about. God was speaking through His servant to prophesy a decree of supreme importance. Trust me, there is a world of difference in saying it is a good time to seek the Lord and this is God’s appointed hour to seek Him. It is one thing for a friend or trusted co-worker to highlight important dates to us on his or her calendar. But what if God Himself is calling our attention to dates He has circled in red, penned with ink obtained from Calvary’s spill?

Consider the verse, “Seek the Lord while He may be found” (Is 55:6). Now, as a preacher I would never tell people that the Father is tied up with other things, so it would be better that they check back next month to see if He is available then. No church would hire me to be their pastor, that’s for sure! So what did Isaiah mean exactly? What does it mean to say God can’t be found? Does He wander off some times?

Of course we know God is available 24/7. We know He does not get distracted or overtaxed by the enormity and complexity of problems that arise in your life or mine…or on our planet…or in a hundred billion galaxies. And yet, like the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do (1 Chr 12:32), we have to grasp this truth: Not every day is the same with the Lord. It is not that He is sometimes not available; it is that there are some times when He is more available. There are seasons when He leaves the door ajar. There are times when He has set the table of plenty before us and not just assured us with the promise that He will provide.

There are many ways scripture identifies this: there is the fullness of time (Gal 4:4), a set time (Mt 24:36), and an appointed time (Hab 2:3). Greek even has a word that distinguishes between calendar time (chronos) and a designated and special time (kairos). So the question that follows is: What kind of a time is this? Are we in one of those appointed times, a season when God is unusually and tangibly available to us?

Obviously, I cannot prove to you that this is a day of visitation. But I can appeal to you. I have spoken with several of God’s servants in recent weeks who have said that we have entered such a time as this (Es 4:14). They have exhorted me to press in and stay vigilant so as not to miss this moment in eternity. These words have strongly resonated with me because I feel a divine pull, a drawing—or to put it more colloquially, a suctioning. If Spurgeon, who coined the famous “hound of heaven” phrase, lived today, he might speak of the turning on of “the Dyson of Heaven” or of a “Kirby moment”.

These men have also admonished me to get clean. The follow up to Isaiah’s while He may be found prophesy is: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts” (Is 55:7). Wouldn’t you know, I got a message from my pastor this week telling me he had a dream about me. I was surrounded by filth, standing in line to take a bath. Ha! Not a very subtle message here!

That brings me back to where we started, in Hosea. The whole verse reads:

Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you. (v. 10:12)


Unlike precipitation in nature, where rain falls indiscriminately on the ground, God reveals a distinction in the Spirit. In the natural, the earth merely responds to the falling of rain. But in the Spirit, the ground attracts rain. In one, the condition of the soil is a non-factor. Dirt is passive. But in the other, what comes down out of Heaven is in direct response and proportion to the ground’s need and cry. The more we sow righteousness in our day to day affairs, the more righteousness will on that day be showered down upon us. The more we break up the hardened conditions of our hearts, the more a deluge of the grace and mercy of God will be abundantly poured out over us.

Beloved, if there has ever been a time to seek the Lord, it’s now.