So, for those of you who are now following through email, you’ve probably figured out by now that not all my posts will necessarily be all about the specifics of my journey to Jerusalem. Everything I post on here are the things God is showing me and revealing to me (which ultimately lead to my journey in life and contribute to the preparations and walking through) this journey into His Holy Land.
This post is for an update about my time over in Israel though.
First I have to say thank you, thank you, and may the Lord of the Heavens and the Earth bless everyone who is praying for me and the people over in the Middle East! God has really blessed me by answering the prayer requests I posted a week or two ago. Half my funds for the journey have been met, the Visa information is being worked out (as much as it can be at the moment), and I have a plane ticket for Saturday, Dec. 12 to fly half way across the world and into the land of milk and honey!
Not only are those technical details being worked out, but God is really working on my heart as well. He is preparing me for the things to come. The theme lately is that Love is not true Love without suffering. I just finished reading a wonderful book by Dana Candler, Deep Unto Deep: The Journey of His Embrace (which I very highly recommend). In the last chapter she discusses topics like being “consumed in Love’s fire” (Song Sol. 8:6-7) and the “sting of that fire” as well as “the heights and depths of Love’s consumption” and “divine possession” (all in relation to intimacy with Jesus Christ). She walks through those times in our journey where the tops of the mountains have been covered up by the clouds and we dwell within the deep valleys of His love, when our faith is really tested as we reach through the shadows and the dark of night within our spirits for our Beloved Bridegroom.
One thing she talks about in particular is the story between the Lover and the Beloved in Song of Solomon 5, where the Beloved is knocking on the door of His lover in the middle of the night drenched in the dew of twilight. This picture has stood out so vividly in my mind this week. As Dana is describing the story she writes, “. . .we see this kind of powerful possession when Jesus comes as the SUFFERING SERVANT to the bride in the Song of Solomon (5:2)”. She continues by pointing out how the Lover is so possessed by the love of the Bridegroom that even in the middle of the night she goes out to search for Him in the darkness because she is lovesick for Him (Song of Solomon 5:8).
The picture of Christ as the SUFFERING SERVANT standing before me, asking me to come and to follow Him, even thought the dark of the night, has gripped me. It has made my heart melt, knowing that depth of love that forsook everything to have all of me. It went outside the city gates (Hebrews 13:11-13) so He could be a “living sacrifice” (Romans 12:1-2) so that the veil might be pulled back (Matthew 27:51, 2 Corinth. 3:17-18) and so that I may enter into the inner chambers of His heart (Ps. 27:4, Song of Sol. 1:4) and commune with Him (Song of Solomon 2:4).
Oh, how my heart desires to respond in the same way! To forsake everything to have all of Him! To lose my own life to gain life through His own – for there is a love as strong as death, a jealousy unyielding as the grave, and many waters cannot quench this fiery love (Song of Sol. 8:6-7)!!! Oh, to be consumed wholeheartedly within His passionate flame, to surrender all I have to His power and His tenderness, that the words of His mouth (His living word) might kiss the depths of my soul and awaken the sleeping desires within me!!
How I pray that the consuming fire of love would catch a flame within your hearts and burn away all that is dead within you, and awaken the seeds of love between you and the one who is the Bridegroom over all the earth! I pray that the veil would be lifted from your face, like a bride and that you and the Son of Man could just gaze into the eyes of each other. Oh, that He would awaken your heart to the deepest intimacy possible with Him and that when all the world looks upon you they may know that the Lord Almighty, El Shaddai is your King and your beloved and that they may arise and call Him blessed! Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh Ata El Shaddai (Holy, Holy, Holy are You Lord Almighty)!! In the name of the slain Lamb, Yeshua, Amen!
