Rev Dr Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other writings
check the following homepage: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org
The
Bridegroom
What does it feel like to fall in love?
How strong and mad can love be? The Bible is an old book and therefore knows a
thing or two about love. It includes one intense love poem which is called the
Song of Songs. Let me read to you some excerpts. There is no mincing of words Song of Songs 1:2-3: Kiss me full on the
mouth! Yes! For your love is better than wine, headier than your aromatic oils
Song of Songs 1:12-16: When my King-Lover lay down beside me, my
fragrance filled the room. His head resting between my breasts the head of my
lover was a sachet of sweet myrrh
Songs of Songs 1:15:
Youre so
beautiful! And your eyes so beautiful like doves! Song of Songs 2:3-4:
All I want is to
taste and savor his delicious love
Song of
Songs 2:5-6:
Im about to faint with love! His left hand cradles my
head, and his right arm encircles my waist! Song of Songs 2:16-17: My
lover is mine and I am his
Song of Songs 3:1-4: Restless in bed and
sleepless through the night, I longed for my lover. I wanted him desperately.
His absence was painful
Song of Songs 4:1-5: Youre so beautiful
Your lips are jewel red, your mouth elegant and inviting
Your breasts are
like fawns, twins of a gazelle, grazing among the first spring flowers.
Song of Songs 4:6-7: The sweet, fragrant curves of your body, the soft,
spiced contours of your flesh
Youre beautiful from head to toe
beautiful
beyond compare, absolutely flawless. Song of Songs 7:1-9:
Your
limbs are lithe and elegant, the work of a master artist. Your body is a
chalice, wine-filled
Song of Songs 7:9-12:
I am my lovers. Im
all he wants. Im all the world to him
Song of Songs 8:6-8:
Love
is invincible facing danger and death. Passion laughs at the terrors of hell.
The fire of love stops at nothing it sweeps everything before it. Flood
waters cant drown love, torrents of rain cant put it out
There may be some who think that this
kind of language is not appropriate for church. Kiss me full on the mouth this is too sensual too many untamed passions.
This is not measured Sunday preaching.
Yet, here comes the surprise the deep secret of our faith (what we may
take a hold of this morning): The lovers
on the highest level (from the perspective of eternal destiny) are God and his people. Kiss me
full on the mouth is the language
of faith. Restless in bed and sleepless through the night, I longed for
my lover. I wanted him desperately. His absence was painful
this is the yearning of God for us and our
yearning for him. There is no intensity between man and woman that is not also
in our relationship with God.
What do you make of this claim? Is this
your own experience with God? One seminary professor writes [abbreviate and retell in your own words]:
One of the most pleasant tasks I had
was to teach the book of Psalms
[psalms are songs to God using language not unlike the Song of Songs]
As much
as I love the Psalms, however, there were two things that consistently
bothered me whenever I meditated on the Psalms in those days. I felt uneasy
about the psalmists intense pursuit of God. Let me give you a few examples of
the kind of intensity that troubled me. As
the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul
thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?
(42:1-2). O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for
you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water
(63:1). One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in
the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the
Lord and to seek him in his temple (27:4). My eyes stay open through the
watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises (119:148)
The writers of the Psalms had a longing for Gods presence that was
overwhelming and that bothered me
It bothered me because I began my
Christian life with at least some of that longing. When I was seventeen years
old, as a new convert, I remember staying up late at night after everyone else
in my house had gone to bed, so that I could talk with God and have no
interruptions or distractions. I can remember running to the mailbox to receive
my latest packet of Navigator verses to memorize and then staying up till
No one made me do these thing. I did them because I hungered after God.
But by the time I had become a seminar professor and was teaching these things
in the Psalms, I was no longer staying up late at night to memorize the Bible
I could not say with the psalmists that my soul consistently thirsted for
God. I felt a twinge of guilt every time I read or taught one of those passages
like the ones previously quoted. The second thing that bothered me in the
Psalms was the emotion of the psalmists
the Psalms
did not share my view of
emotions. The psalmists seemed to give full vent to their feelings. They were
unashamed in their passionate hunger for God, in the intense joy they felt in
his presence, and in the tears they shed over their sin or his absence. It
bothered me that my experience did not match theirs, and I could not find a
satisfying method to rationalize away my experience. Was their experience
supposed to be normative? Why was mine different?
(Jack Deere: Surprised By
The Power Of The Spirit, Eastbourne: Kingsway Publications 1993, p179-182).
This seminary professor was honest. Passion
and emotions for God bothered him because he did not have them. His body was
not longing for God. Therefore he was feeling a twinge of guilt. What was wrong
with him? Is there anything wrong with us? The Psalms are intense and the Song
of Songs even more so: Kiss me, God full on the mouth! What does this mean?
Some Christians seem to know and they go
to the extreme of saying that the Song of Songs is in fact describing their
relationship with God and even more
unsettling these Christians are not
just weird fanatics on the fringe of respectable religion. They are our fathers
and mothers in the faith. You may recognize some of these names from the
past and the present: Teresa of Avila, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,
Many of these Christians wrote
commentaries on the Song of Songs and made the most radical statements. For
instance, Charles Spurgeon: The true believer who has lived near to his
Master will find this book [Song of Songs] to be a mass
of diamonds sparkling
with brightness; and all things thou canst conceive are not to be compared with
it for its matchless worth. If I must prefer one book above another
let me
prefer this book above all others for fellowship and communion. When
the Christian is nearest to heaven, this
is the book he takes with him (Charles Spurgeon: The
How are we feeling about this? When we
talk about our relationship with God, who among us can say that the language of
the Song of Songs comes as natural to us as breathing? I cannot say this about
my own faith. I love God and there are glimpses of growing intimacy wonderful times but do I enjoy a relationship with God which is on the plain of the
Song of Songs? (Song of Songs 1:12-16: When my King-Lover lay down beside
me, my fragrance filled the room. His head resting between my breasts the
head of my lover was a sachet of sweet myrrh
) No, not yet. At first
in my reading when I came across these
descriptions and experiences of such intense love between God and man (and
woman) breakthroughs in intimacy I
did not know how to process the information. What do you make of these love
encounters when God has not yet come to you in this way?
Are you getting excited? I am. The
witness to love is too strong. There is something beyond my current experience
your current experience. There is MORE and it will be exciting to attain the
secret of our faith which others have discovered before us. [I love
preaching beyond our current experience whether it is a greater infilling of
the Spirit, healings (even of cancer), signs and wonders, intimacy with God,
throne room encounters
We preach the Word of God according to the Bible (not
our current experience) until God does confirm his Word among us.]
And before anyone has a chance to become
negative and feel second-rate in their faith experience, saying: I can give up right now because nothing great
will ever happen to me, please
this morning do not go down that
track. It is not true and like us none
of our fathers and mothers in the faith began their Christian walk with the
Song of Songs. There is always a process. Furthermore, God assures you that he
is as available to you as he is to the next person. No one is a second-rate
child of God. Jesus Christ died on a cross gave so much of himself for
love that no one would miss out on
anything. The Bible says Ephesians 1:3: Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with
every spiritual blessing in Christ. Everything
in God is available to you. Therefore, this is not the time to feel sorry for
ourselves but to go forward with excitement. There is more.
Throughout the entire Bible God is
consumed with love for his people which is the love of a bridegroom for his
bride Hosea 2:19: I will
betroth you to me forever
Isaiah 62:5: As a bridegroom rejoices
over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. Isaiah 54:5-6: Your
Maker is your husband the Lord Almighty is his name
The Lord will call you
back as if you were a wife deserted and distressed in spirit
When Jesus came, he called himself the
bridegroom (Matthew 9:15) and therefore with him the theme of bridal love grew even more
pronounced Ephesians 5:31-32: For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh.
This is a profound mystery but I am talking about Christ and the church.
One church leader described his work as
making sure that the church as the bride of Christ was prepared for him in purity 2 Corinthians 11:2-3:
I
promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure
virgin to him. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpents
cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure
devotion to Christ. [Cf. Ephesians
5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water
through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without
stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.]
Then, our future unending eternity is about enjoying bridal love with our Bridegroom-Saviour Jesus Christ
Revelation 19:7-9: [In heaven] let us rejoice and be glad and give him
glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself
ready
Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!
Revelation 21:9:
Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the
Lamb. The Bible ends with these
words Revelation 22:12-17: Behold I am coming soon!
I, Jesus, have
sent my angel to you this testimony for the churches
The Spirit and the
bride say, Come!
We are the
bride and we say: Come, Jesus. We long for our bridegroom to return and
bring this world to an end. We love you.
The core Bible teaching on bridal love
is not in doubt but ignoring the
biblical witness I used to think that
the Christians who made too much of Jesus as the Bridegroom the Song of
Songs they were just emotional
dreamers not the people of action that we need. Church history even put a label on them calling them mystics.
Would you want that label for yourself
a mystic? I would want more
reality than the label suggests.
Yet to my surprise I discovered
that the mystics of many
centuries ago were the movers and shakers of their time. Teresa of
If this is what mystics do,
then I may want to be one myself. The mystics were not just dreamers but
men and women of action reform and power and these people for whatever reason all celebrated the Song of Songs. Then, the active power of men and
women like Charles Finney (1792-1875 The
highlight of Charles Finney's evangelistic ministry was the nine mighty years
of 1824 to 1832, during which he conducted powerful revival meetings all over
the eastern cities of Goureneur, Rome, Utica, Auburn, Troy, Wilmington,
Philadelphia, Boston, and New York. During his meeting in
When you think about it, (of course) this
makes sense. Even popular songs spell out the most profound truth: I
would do anything for love. When we
are smitten with love for our Bridegroom Saviour, we suffer anything for him
rejection, poverty, persecution anything for him. You leave your country and die in another bringing people to
Jesus who loves them. When visitors
follow Heidi Baker to the garbage dump in
This may now sound like too much theory lofty ideals but
trust the Bible listen to our fathers and mothers in the faith the intense love relationship is grounded
in experience.
Basilea Schlink almost pleads with her
readership in the beginning of her book on bridal love: What these pages contain are not thoughts about the first love, the
bridal love, for Jesus, but rather what I myself have experienced along the
path of love for Jesus. This is a reality. I can and must bear testimony about
the truth of this verse: Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing
upon earth that I desire besides thee (Psalm 73:25). Lord. You are everything
(Basilea Schlink: My All For Him, London: Lakeland 1971, p9). Be open to God this morning. Open your
heart and let the truth of love flow from your understanding in your head to
your heart.
How does this work in practice? Those
that teach best on our union with God in bridal love insist that we do not
produce this union. Prayer the love
language of the Song of Songs is
infused, that is, poured in by God (Thomas Dubay: Fire Within, San
Francisco: Ignatius Press 1989, p59). Jesus
taught us John 6:44: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent
me draws him. And I will raise him up
on the last day. Further, the means
of drawing us close to God and infusing us with the love of God is the Holy
Spirit who is poured out on all Christians. The Bible says 1 Corinthians
2:9-10:
No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what
God has prepared for those who love him but God has revealed it to us by his
Spirit. Therefore, bridal love
the love union with God what no human mind can conceive is revealed to us infused by the
Holy Spirit. One more reference 2
Corinthians 3:8:
the ministry of the Spirit is [original: be] even
more glorious [than the glory which manifested on Moses face when he came into
the presence of God in deep intimacy].
What all of these references mean is
that none of us has to produce the love intimacy with God ourselves. Bridal
love is what God produces in us as
the Holy Spirit ministers to us. However,
there is a condition, that is: absolute surrender to him in everything.
Like any bridegroom God is not going
to share us his bride with
anyone else. He is a most jealous God and will deny us his affections, if we
prefer anything else to him. Many a time for us this creates problems. We get nervous. Like a nervous bride
we fear that the required commitment
is too great. Isnt God asking too much of us? This is not going to end well.
Jesus demonstrated the uncompromising
proposition of God in his encounter with a rich young man. I read from the
Bible Mark
The treasures of heaven Jesus looking at him with love the love language
of the Song of Songs were within the
young mans grasp but he never discovered the secret of what was being offered
to him. He walked away sad and discouraged because he could not give up his money for God. He kept his money and
therefore kept holding on to his unfulfilled misery never entered the joy
and deep satisfaction of love. Hudson
Taylor writes: Could there be a sadder proof of the extent and reality
of the Fall than the deep-seated distrust of our loving LORD and MASTER which
makes us hesitate to give ourselves entirely up to him, which fears that he
might require something beyond our powers, or call for something that we should
find it hard to give or to do? The real secret of an unsatisfied life lies too
often in an unsurrendered will. And yet how foolish
(Union And
Communion, p6).
This is condition applies to everyone
who wants to experience the love of God: Sell everything. Let go of all
attachments that are not God. God may not ask of you to sell your car or your
home or whatever you have but he will make sure that the attachments
to human treasures are cut including human relationships (e.g.: mother
and father, wife or husband, children). This
is not without its challenges and therefore the norm is that the experience of
falling in love with God and receiving from him loving intimacy is a process of
growing in our relationship with him.
For instance, someone prophesied over
Heidi Baker, saying to her: Your
Bible book is the Song of Songs. But
then it took sixteen more years for her to preach the first sermon on the Song
of Songs. It took her sixteen more years to be in the place where the book
meant anything to her.[2]
For most of us absolute
surrender of everything takes time and God in his mercy does not hurry the process. He is leading
us step by step wooing us with his love but then when we get there we
are in for a surprise. The secret unfolds. We thought that we would lose so
much by selling everything by giving everything to God but the opposite is true. We are not losing
anything but gaining everything. In the words of
Years into his work of preaching and bringing people to faith Charles Finney had the following experience
[abbreviate and retell in your own words]:
this winter
my mind was . exercised on the question of personal
holiness
I gave myself to a great deal of prayer
After praying
for weeks
and months, one morning
the thought occurred to me, what if
my heart is not
really subdued
Just before
I had had a great struggle about giving up my
wife to the will of God. She was in very feeble health, and it was very evident
that she could not live long
I had never before seen so clearly what was
implied in laying her and all that I possessed upon the altar of God, and for
hours I struggled upon my knees to give her up unqualifiedly to the will of
God. But I found myself unable to do it. I was so shocked and surprised at this
that I perspired profusely with agony. I struggled and prayed until I was
exhausted, and found myself entirely unable to give her altogether up to Gods
will, in such a way as to make no objection to his disposing of her as he
pleased. This troubled me much
But
I was enabled, after struggling
to
fall back in a deeper sense than I had ever done before upon the infinitely
blessed and perfect will of God. I . told the Lord that I had such confidence
in him that I felt perfectly willing to give myself, my wife and my family, and
all, to be disposed of without any qualification according to his views and
will
I then had a deeper view of what was implied in consecration to God than
I ever had before. I spent a long time upon my knees
giving up everything to
the will of God
the whole of that day
nothing troubled me. I was neither
elated nor depressed; I was neither
joyful nor sorrowful. My confidence in
God was perfect
Just at evening the question arose in my mind: What if God
should send me to hell what then?
my mind . settled. I said, No
hell
could be no hell to me if I accepted Gods perfect will. This sprung a vein of
joy in my mind that kept developing more and more for weeks and months, and
indeed I may say for years.
For years my mind was too full of joy to feel much exercised with
anxiety on any subject
It seemed as if my desires were all met. What I had
been praying for for myself, I had received in a way that I least expected.
Holiness to the Lord seemed to be inscribed on all the exercises of my mind
The language of the Song of Solomon was as natural to me as my breath
I not
only had all the freshness of my first love, but a vast accession to it. Indeed
the Lord lifted me so much above anything that I had experienced before, and
taught me so much of the meaning of the Bible, of Christs relations and power
and willingness, that I often found myself saying to him, I had not known or
conceived that any such thing was true.
I had had no conception of the
length and breadth, and height and depth, and efficiency of his grace
I found
myself exclaiming, Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful!
(Charles Finney: The
Original Memoirs Of Charles Finney, Grand Rapids: Zondervan 1989, p328-332).
When Charles Finney shared this
testimony, he was already more than three hundred pages into his autobiography
which covered his conversion and subsequent church work. This did not happen to
a brandnew Christian but was the fruit of growing maturity. After praying for weeks and months God tested him. Was he able to give up
everything for God his own wife even his own place in heaven? At first
he could not. He struggled and prayed
until he was exhausted. The powerful preacher could not make the sacrifice but
then he came to a place of absolute surrender trusting God and his
intentions completely resting in him with confidence which then came with the surprise experience not of being
deprived of anything but the freshness
of first love. He cried out: Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! The language of the Song of Songs became to
him as natural as his own breath. And one day this is what I want. I dont have it yet in the same overwhelming
measure but I am on the journey. I
hope that this excites you as well. The love relationship with God and the
experience of him can grow.
Another Christian years into her faith journey also made the surprising discovery of bridal love. Here is her
testimony and it is very practical [abbreviate and retell in your own
words]:
Basilea Schlink: My All For Him,
Many voices reached my ears
One view was that as the body of Christ,
we should not concern ourselves with what is happening in our country
I
listened to this but then I discovered that those who held this view lacked joy
At the same time, they were very self-righteous
Then I heard a very different
view
they took their place in the world. It seemed to me, however, that they
had so fully conformed to the world that they did not pay attention to the
warnings of Scripture, e.g., Do not love the world or the things in the world
(1 John 2:15)
Still I wondered. What did God want?
After following first the one
path for several years and then the other, I still did not feel that I had
found His way
He had to make me see the truth about myself before He could
show me the right way. He had to show me that I was a poor sinner. I had to
become so desperate that I could cry over my sins. I could not get on with a
difficult woman with whom I was living
Then the Lord showed me my sin
This
experience drove me into the arms of Jesus
He began to reveal Himself as
Love. It was He Himself not any particular teaching
but rather He Himself
who was the answer
Only one thing was important: I was drawn to love him
He
was the jewel of my heart
He truly is the sweetest
My love for Him helped me to find the answer to my questions. I had
found the key love for Jesus, this first love, bridal love. Through this love
I saw that to tread the path of Jesus does not involve abstention from the
riches of our Fathers world. All at once I noticed the two phrases which Jesus
always added whenever He called someone to uncompromising disicpleship: For My
sake, For My names sake. We are called to tread His path and be close to
Him out of love for Him
After the Lord showed me that the way of uncompromising discipleship is
the way of voluntary love, He let me find the key to Christian freedom. Because
Jesus is Love, He must have enjoyed hours of relaxation with His disciples. He
drew their attention to the beauty of nature: Consider the lilies of the field
(Matt.
Now the gifts of the Creator were no longer strange and foreign to me,
nor were they something to be avoided lest they draw me away from strict
discipleship. Now they were a loving greeting from God the Father
Previously,
too, I scarcely dared to admire religious art. But, now when I saw pictures of
Jesus or of the marvels that God had brought into being in lands where I had
met Him, they aroused deeper thanksgiving and greater love in my heart
No,
now I loved my people and all other peoples, because they shared the radiance
of the Fathers love; they were a creative thought of His heart
Now I was
truly free
because I was completely filled with His love
In the fellowship
of love with Him I now had part in everything that belongs to this earth and to
the whole universe
Like Finney Basilea Schlink
also had to surrender all. In her case it was not the marriage partner or her
place in heaven but the sin of unforgiveness. The awareness of sin came to her
rescue. As God confronts us with our sin, we are humbled and let go of our
pride and control. We repent and seek his forgiveness. We learn to depend on
him his goodness not our efforts.
The pathway to experiencing more of Gods love is a growing awareness of sin in
our lives and letting them all go. And then like many before her Basilea Schlink was also surprised by
love. She turned away from holding a
grudge but the sacrifice (and forgiving someone can be so hard) turned out to be pure joy. God became the
jewel of her heart and more. She found the secret of discipleship which is
neither retreating from the world nor compromising with the world. As long as
she was joined to God in love, she could do anything. As long as she loved God
shared his heart she was free to enjoy
Gods creation, praise him in human culture and feel his compassion in the
everyday affairs of cities and nations.
We come back to the main key for experiencing
more of God: Surrender all. Let God confront you with the question which will
bring on the most important crisis in your life. Can you give up the person
that you love for him? Can you forgive someone? Can you if
so required sell everything for
him? These crisis times are never easy
on anyone. The most mature Christians will struggle and even Finney (he
never expected that this would happen to him) at first could not comply with Gods wishes. Endure the crisis. Face your sin
and distrust of God. Be on the journey of letting more and more of your baggage
go. This may seem hard and right now you may never want to return to this church but persevere and you will
also be surprised. You will according to the promises of the Bible discover the secret of our faith: bridal
love. The Song of Songs will begin to make sense to you: Kiss me full
on the mouth! Yes! For your love is better than wine, headier than your
aromatic oils
(Song of Songs 1:2-3).
I will finish here. There are further
disciplines of guarding the love relationship with God such as praising him for his glory and spending time
in his presence [Basilea Schlink: My All
For Him, London: Lakeland 1971, p98: His way consists of certain stepping
stones: poverty, humiliation, love of the cross, humility, obedience, purity
Your bridal love will be deepened when you put your trust in Jesus your
Bridegroom.] but the most
important discipline is the ongoing surrender of all to his will. We may also
mention that God keeps growing our love relationship according to the principle
that absence makes love grow fonder. At times he seems to withdraw from us [what the mystics call dark
nights (cf. Thomas Dubay: Fire Within, San Francisco: Ignatius Press 1989,
p159-174)] or we withdraw from him in periods of disobedience but these times are meant to make us even
more desperate for him. They strengthen our resolve and conviction that nothing
is as precious as our God. We want him before anything else.
Now this morning are you ready
to be surprised? Are you longing to understand the secret of our faith? Jesus
is looking at you with love. He is your bridegroom. You are his bride. He is
waiting for you. [Does Jesus not make
us look like his bride when over recent weeks out of his glory he makes
gold sparkles manifest on our hands, faces and body?] For him let go of everything. The cost may seem
high at first but his love will
not come to you in any other way. He will not share his bride with anyone else.
Say yes to him. Take the
risk and then discover the secret: LOVE. Jesus will touch your emotions and
give you peace and joy. Song of Songs 7:9-12:
I am my lovers [and
my lover is God]. Im all he wants. Im all the world to him
Amen.
[1] Fred & Sharon Wright: The
Worlds Greatest Revivals, Shippensburg: Destiny Image 2007, p260:
Then he
asked me if I had ever given any thought to what might be the focal truth of
the next tsunami wave [after the focal truth of the Fathers heart through the
outpouring in Toronto 1994]. Suddenly, blurting out of my mouth came the words,
The Bride and the Bridegroom! The Bride and the Bridegroom!
[2] Heidi Baker shared the following:
extravagant lovers of God will take nations I used to believe that I was a slave put your ear down, let God put your stake through preached it for years then, I preached be a servant do anything because you are a servant servants do not get into the inner chambers I was getting so close to Jesus, that I was feeling that I was a friend of God a servant-friend He likes me wonderful place wow come on closer the more I have been laying down (it is a dying thing) if you lay down, then you will be an extravagant lover now (past the slave thing, past the servant thing, past the friend thing) years and years ago, Larry Randolph prophesied over me: Your book is the Song of Songs, the Song of Songs 16 years ago but first time I preached on the book was last book thats the place Im in now mission sermon: here it is. It is all about love the whole thing, the whole thing, the whole thing. It is about extravagant love so close living in this place instead of ear pierced with a stake, you have your head on his breast hearing his heart-beat intimate lover means that you are in union with him means that there is nothing he wouldnt do for you you want power heal the sick reach the poor, then have intimate union with him I am just beginning to walk in this place, never want to leave this place last week out in his presence I am a worshipper first (lover of God first) then mercy person, missionary I couldnt care what anyone thinks you want compassion for the multitude, its about intimacy walking so close with Jesus that nothing else matters you can hardly stand not to hug anyone because they are his children (they are not projects) we used to have missionary stories who has the worst life whoever suffered the most got the prize (missionary plague) I dont have any hot water. I dont have any water. I live in the slums with the poor. I live in a cave in the garbage. That was the deal. Whoever could suffer the most, they got the missionary prize used to preach it ninth floor in the slums with no elevator 1st storey: gang leaders 2nd storey prostitutes 3rd storey you buy grocery by weight so desperate to suffer for him do anything the poor could not get to me because the little old ladies could not climb that high my idea if we can suffer enough, then we can win the lost . The goal is not to see how hard it can be the goal is intimacy some are afraid of this book this is a pornographic book (Song of Songs) seminary professor my favourite book right now let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is more delightful than wine pleasing is the fragrance of your oil. Your name is like oil poured forth. No wonder the maidens love you Madame Guyon: God is all mouth He is the Word let him kiss me my word will be in you start to think what I think Rolland and I couldnt stand each other he cried for a month there in Toronto I cried there we need marriages that are strong I never see the garbage, never smell the smell, never see the maggots only see the child, incredible joy that mushy feeling know what its like your stomach is turning this is how I am feeling about God I dont care if I ever preach again dont care where I go all I want is just be where he is I want my head against his chest I cant do the emails right now I cant have a room-mate cant think straight Im so in love with him when I see people, I see his kids their pain, their joy whats the prophetic so close to the Fathers heart, that you feel everything Im just desperate for him be in this place for ever all the major miracles in my life have come out of major compassion hugging and weeping over them anointing is the wine/oil of his presence churches grow and submit when there is this kind of love started the mission twenty years ago by ourselves because no one wanted us (Sermon 12 October 2000).
Consider also how long it took for Mike Bickle to understand that bridal love underpins everything in our relationship with God. The following is an excerpt from a previous sermon:
The young man from the opening
story later became a pastor and one day [1983] by revelation he clearly
understood that God wanted him to focus on prayer ministry intercession,
spiritual warfare, 24 hour prayer, 21 day fasts,
He became known
internationally for global prayer strategies, books, conferences,
He threw
himself into the work.
However, five years after the initial call into prayer
ministry one morning [1988] he received a wedding card and on the card was
printed the Bible verse of Song of Solomon 8:6: Place me like a seal over your
heart. He thought: What a cool verse. He had never read the book of Song of
Solomon but now he was intrigued and opened up the verse in the Bible. He kept
reading: Place me like a seal over your heart
for love is as strong as
death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like a blazing fire, like
a mighty flame. Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away
The Spirit of God began to move on this pastor. He
began to yearn that God might place him like a seal over his heart. He prayed
that God would release love in him divine fusion, flames of consuming love,
stronger than death. It takes God to love God. He wanted that love that was
supernatural and amazing. He began to weep. Something unusual was happening. He
told the receptionist not to let anyone interrupt him something which he had
not done in 30 years. He had never had an encounter with God like that before.
Something heavy was happening to him weeping feeling the presence of God
giving himself to the Lord
Ten minutes later the phone rang.
The receptionist said: I know that you dont want any
phone calls but Bob Jones is on the line saying that he had just heard audibly
from God. That had happened four or five times in the past and each time the
word was subsequently confirmed.
This time Bob Jones said to the pastor: God is going
to call you and deal with you according to Song of Solomon 8:6-7. Wow! No one
knew that the pastor was reading this very passage at that very moment. Bob
said: Ive just heard this but havent even looked it up yet. This is now at
the very center of your life calling for the rest of your life. Whatever
promise that is God is going to release this promise on the church world-wide.
The pastor was so excited. He called his wife. He was
weeping. He took the rest of the day off. He finally had clarity about his
lifes mandate and purpose but then he began to read the Bible book Song of
Solomon from beginning to end and was no longer impressed: Chapter 1 kisses,
perfume, vineyards,
chapter 2 roses, lilies, flowers,
chapter 3 chapter
4 fawns, lilies, perfume, gardens
chapter 5 chapter 6
Oh my goodness.
When he came home to his wife that night, he didnt
want to talk about it. As far as he understood, he was mandated to prison for
the rest of his life by the audible voice of God. He said: God, give me
anything but this. Dont let me be stuck for life with this book. It took him
a while before he realized that the content of the book did not undermine his
manhood. In time he discovered that he had received a most dynamic calling
revealing the affections of Gods heart for us.
Only he was confused. Five years earlier he had
received a mandate for prayer ministry and now there was this other mandate of
delving into the passionate love of God. What was to be his priority? Another
eight to nine years later [1997] the pastor had another spiritual dream. He was
standing in a crowd of people on a platform and a voice came saying: Tell
them. They are Hephzibah. Tell them that the Lord delights in them. He woke up
and again was so excited. He thought: This is really cool that God gives me
the message for next Sunday. At that time he did not understand that this was
related to his lifes mandate.
Where was the Hephzibah word in the Bible? He knew
that it had to be in the book of Isaiah the prophet and so he began searching
chapter by chapter. Chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3 and so on flicking
through the pages. When he came to chapter 62 of Isaiah he skipped that
particular chapter because that was the chapter he had studied more than any
other in the Bible. Since he was focused on prayer ministry, he had developed a
passion for Isaiah 62:6 which says: I have posted watchmen on your walls
they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord give
yourselves no rest. He had preached more than one hundred sermons on this
particular verse admonishing constant and ceaseless intercession praying to
God about his kingdom to come. The pastors Bible was average looking in good
condition but that one page of Isaiah 62 was worn out used again and again.
So the pastor skipped that particular chapter in his search for Hephzibah and
continued with chapter 63 chapter 64
He didnt find the word in Isaiah
and thus continued to search all the prophets right on to Malachi but he
had missed the reference.
Thus, (since he is a man and does not ask for directions)
he began again with looking through Isaiah chapter 1 chapter 2 chapter 3
and so on. He skipped Isaiah chapter 62 because he knew it so well and then
kept searching once more until the end of all the prophetic books. Where was
that word Hephzibah?
He had wasted another hour, at last broke down,
conceded defeat and used his concordance. He could not believe his eyes. The
concordance must be wrong. He was shocked. There it was right at the centre of
his most favourite Bible passage. He had always preached on Isaiah 62:6 but had
never understood that the entire prayer movement was built on the previous
verse: Isaiah 62:5 and verse 4 where the people of God are called Hephzibah
meaning I, God, delight in them.
The pastor cried out: Lord, did you know that the
bridal paradigm [the love relationship with you] is the key to the prayer
movement? God knew that but it took the pastor years to work out that the
mandate for prayer ministry and the mandate to preach the Song of Solomon were
in fact the same mandate. Intimacy and intercession go together. Unless we are
immersed in the love of God and overflow with his love, there can be no
sustaining power for prayer or anything else. Only he who loves, can handle the
task whatever it may be.
Listen to Isaiah 62:4-7:
you will be called
Hephzibah
for the Lord will take delight in you
as a bridegroom rejoices
over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. I have posted watchmen on
your walls, O Jerusalem [O church]; they will never be silent day or night. You
who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he
establishes
Do we hear this for ourselves?
Hephzibah the Lord delights in you as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride
you are immersed in love overflowing and divine and then as Hephzibah you
take up your post perhaps as watchmen on the walls calling on the Lord and
giving him no rest until he has established his kingdom in eternity.
[3] An excerpt
from Hudson Taylor's Spiritual Secret by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor. J.
Hudson Taylor, M.D. was a missionary to China, and the founder of the China
Inland Mission:
... God made me a new man! God has made me a new
man! Wonderful was the experience that had come in answer to prayer, yet so
simple as almost to baffle description
Do you know, I now think that this
striving, longing, hoping for better days to come is not the true way to
holiness, happiness or usefulness. It is better, no doubt, far better than
being satisfied with poor attainments, but not the best way after all. I have
been struck with a passage from a book... entitled Christ is All. It
says, The Lord Jesus received is holiness begun; the Lord Jesus cherished is
holiness advancing; the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be
holiness complete
He is most holy who has most of Christ within, and joys
most fully in the finished work
To let my loving Savior work in me His
will, my sanctification, is what I would live for by His grace. Abiding, not
striving nor struggling; looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power
resting in the love of an almighty Savior, in the joy of a complete salvation,
from all sin this is not new, and yet tis new to me
Christ literally
all seems to me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only
ground for unchanging joy
How then to have our faith increased? Only by thinking
of all that Jesus is and all He is for us: His life, His death, His work, He
Himself as revealed to us in the Word, to be the subject of our constant
thoughts. Not a striving to have faith
but a looking off to the Faithful One
seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and eternity.
I looked to Jesus, and when I saw --
oh, how joy flowed! It was resting in Jesus now, and letting Him do the work
which makes all the difference. Whenever he spoke in meetings after that, a new
power seemed to flow from him, and in the practical things of life a new peace
possessed him. Troubles did not worry him as before. He cast everything on God
in a new way, and gave more time to prayer.
It was the exchanged life that
had come to him the life that is indeed No longer I
It was a blessed
reality Christ liveth in me. And how great the difference! instead of
bondage, liberty; instead of failure, quiet victories within; instead of fear
and weakness, a restful sense of sufficiency in Another. Perhaps I may make
myself more clear if I go back a little
I prayed, agonized, fasted, strove,
made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for
meditation but all without avail. Every day, almost every hour, the
consciousness sin pressed me. I knew that if only I could abide in Christ all
would be well, but I could not. I would begin the day with prayer, determined
not to take my eye off Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very
trying, and constant interruptions apt to be so wearing, caused me to forget
Him. Then one's nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to
irritability, had thoughts and sometimes unkind words are all the more
difficult to control. Each day brought its register of sin and failure, of lack
of power. To will was indeed present with me, but how to perform I found not.
Then came the questions, is there no
rescue? Must it be thus to the end constant conflict, and too often defeat?
Instead of growing stronger, I seemed to be getting weaker and to have less
power against sin; and no longer, for faith and even hope were getting low. I
hated myself, I hated my sin, yet gained no strength against it. I felt I was
a child of God. His Spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, Abba,
Father. But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless.
I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord
so, and asked Him to give me help and strength. Sometimes I almost believed
that He would keep and uphold me; but on looking back in the evening alas!
There was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God. And yet, never
did Christ seem more precious; a Savior who could and would save such a sinner!
And sometimes there were seasons not only of peace but of joy in the Lord;
but they were transitory, and at best there was a sad lack of power.
All the time I felt assured that there
was in Christ all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out.
He was rich truly, but I was poor; He was strong, but I weak. I knew full well
that there was in the root, the stem, abundant fatness, but how to get it into
my puny little branch was the question. As gradually light dawned, I saw that
faith was the only requisite was the hand to lay hold on His fullness and
make it mine. But I had not this faith.
I strove for faith, but it would not
come; I tried to exercise it, but in vain. Seeing more and more the wondrous
supply of grace laid up in Jesus, the fullness of our precious Savior, my guilt
and helplessness seemed to increase. Sins committed appeared but as trifles
compared with the sin of unbelief which was their cause, which could not or
would not take God at His word
I prayed for faith, but it came not. What was
I to do?
When my agony of soul was at its height,
a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my
eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed to me the truth of our oneness with
Jesus as I had never known it before.
But how to get faith strengthened? Not
by striving after faith, but by resting on the Faithful One. As I read, I saw
it all! If we believe not, he abideth faithful. I looked to Jesus and saw
(and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed)! That He had said, I will never
leave thee.
Ah, there is rest! I thought.
I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more. For has not He
promised to abide with me never to leave me, never to fail me? And
He
never will.
As I thought of the Vine and the
branches, what light the blessed Spirit poured direct into my soul! How great
seemed my mistake in wishing to get the sap, the fullness out of Him! I
saw not only that Jesus will ever leave me, but that I am a member of His body,
of His flesh and of His bones. The vine is not the root merely, but all
root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit. And Jesus is not that
alone He is soil and sunshine, air and showers, and ten thousand times more
than we have ever dreamed, wished for or needed. Oh, the joy of seeing this
truth! I do pray that the eyes of your understanding too may be enlightened,
that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.
It is a wonderful thing to be really
one with a risen and exalted Savior, to be a member of Christ! Think what it
involves. Can Christ be rich and I poor? Can your right hand be rich and your
left poor? Or your head be well fed while your body starves?
No more can your
prayers or mine be discredited if offered in the name of Jesus (i.e., not for
the sake of Jesus merely, but on the ground that we are His, His members) so
long as we keep within the limits of Christ's credit a tolerably wide limit!
The sweetest part
is the rest which
full identification with Christ brings. I am no longer anxious about anything,
as I realize this; for He, I know, is able to carry out His will, and His will
is mine. It makes no matter where He places me, or how. That is rather for Him
to consider than for me; for in the easiest position He must give me His grace,
and in the most difficult His grace is sufficient
So, if God should place me
in serious perplexity, must He not give me much guidance; in positions of great
difficulty, much grace; in circumstances of great pressure and trials, much
strength? No fear that His resources will prove unequal to the emergency! And
His resources are mine, for He is mine, and is with me and dwells in me.
And since Christ has thus dwelt in my heart
by faith, how happy I have been!
I am no better than before. In a
sense, I do not wish to be, nor am I striving to be. But I am dead and buried
with Christ ay, and risen too! And now Christ lives in me, and the life that
I now live in the flesh, I live by faith of the Son of God, who loved me and
gave Himself for me.
Do not let us consider Him as far off,
when God has made us one with Him, members of His very body. Nor should we look
upon this experience, these truths, as for the few. They are the birthright of
every child of God, and no one can dispense with them without dishonoring our
Lord. The only power for deliverance from sin or for true service is Christ.
And it is all so simple and practical! But are you always conscious of this
abiding in Christ? Mr. Taylor was asked many years later. While sleeping last
night, he replied, did I cease to abide in your home because I was
unconscious of the fact? We should never be conscious of not abiding in
Christ. I change, He changes not; The Christ can never die: His truth, not
mine, the resting place; His love, not mine, the tie.