Intimacy with GOD, Esher Shoshannah [red queen free ebook .txt] 📗

eye of faith and see her countenance beaming with great delight and hear her voice filled with joy and intensive expectation (hope)! The bride stands before you in His strength, vibrantly testifying of the wonders and beauty of her Beloved, fulfilling in her the words of Neh. 8:10, "For they said to them, 'go...drink of the sweet...for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength."

However, the best is yet to come. In just a moment her faithful Bridegroom will do what He said He would do in John 12:32, "And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself." In times of distress, difficulties, depression and defeat lift Him up. Give Him praise. Speak thanksgivings to His heart. You will feel the intimacy of His arms holding your heart. He will draw you to Himself. So also with this bride, she has lifted Him up and now her spirit will be drawn to Him in 6:2! She will never, ever be the same!

Doesn't this excite your soul dear Christian? She was restored in but a moment of time. There was no waiting, no lengthy process of restoration, no self-inflicted punishment in order to purge the guilt away! Glory to God! "Thy Words were found, and I did eat them; and thy Word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart: for I am called by thy name, O Lord God of hosts." (Jer. 15:16). Her heart was so filled up with Him that her mouth overflowed with His glories, "...for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Mt. 12:34. With what is your heart and mouth filled up dear reader?

The atmosphere is so charged with His presence that a holy silence once again fell upon all. She looks at each one of the daughters and says with all of her heart...

 

"This is my beloved, and this I my friend"

Her heart continues to beat faster and faster. "I know now that He will always love me through any and every circumstance because my Beloved is my Friend (Prov. 17:17)." He is, "...a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." (Prov. 18:24). Could I ever ask for anything better than that? No! In my spirit I see those wounds inflicted upon His body because of my sins. Dear daughters don't you know that 'He was wounded for our transgressions...' (Isa. 53:5)? How could I have forgotten that '..with His stripes we are healed'? O how faithful my Husband has been to me even in my unfaithfulness for 'Faithful are the wounds of a friend....' (Prov.27:6). And I am not only His bride but His friend so that I may know the deep things of His heart! (John 15:13,14). I will never doubt Him again nor delay in obeying His Word again!" The Daughter’s hearts were filled with a holy hunger. They all deeply desired to have Him as their friend and Lord also. Nothing else mattered to them. The daughters themselves began to feel this strange, but wonderful, drawing of their heart to Him.

The Daughters spoke to her in amazement, "Look at you, you are completely changed. When we first saw your condition there seemed to be no hope for you at all. When we came upon you your head was bowed down in shame. Your clothes were torn with bruises all over your body! Yet now we see that your Beloved has truly lifted up your head and made it shine with His glory." (Psa. 3:3 "But You, O LORD, are a shield about me, My glory, and the One who lifts my head.")!

With all of heaven we declare, "BLESSING , AND HONOR, AND GLORY, AND POWER, UNTO HIM THAT SITTETH UPON THE THRONE (of my heart), AND UNTO THE LAMB FOR EVER AND EVER...And (I) ...fell down and worshiped him that liveth for ever and ever." (Rev.5:13,14).

 COME APART AND REST FOR A WHILE. GO TO THE PRAISE LIST AT THE END OF THIS BOOK AND SELECT A FEW WORDS OR PHRASES WITH WHICH TO PRAISE YOUR DEAR BRIDEGROOM. 

CHAPTER 6 – THE DRAWING OF HER HEART BACK TO HIM (continues)

 

AN OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER SIX: So overcome were the daughters of Jerusalem by the description of the Beloved that their hearts were drawn to Him also. Immediately after the bride had gloriously described her Beloved, the Holy Spirit reveals just where He's having fellowship. After finding Him, the bride is filled with shame and guilt. Gazing directly in her eyes, He reassures her that the fervency of His love for her has not changed one iota. The bride declares His lordship over her life. All the ladies in the King's court have a new, deep appreciation for her. Days of joy and blessed fellowship fill all and for the first time she willingly leaves with her Beloved.

 

The Daughters speak:

V.1 "Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Wither is thy beloved turned aside that we may seek him with thee?"

One of the daughters excitedly said, "We have just seen a miracle! She has been transformed into His glorious image before our very eyes! In the past we have seen and known about the King. But now, let us go and give our hearts to Him. He alone has what we have longed for - transforming love. We will surrender wholly to Him because we desperately need to be transformed and He is the only One Who is able to do it."

Whenever Jesus is truly lifted up in our attitudes and actions others will be drawn to Him by the Holy Spirit. The daughters of Jerusalem have come a long way since we met them in 1:5,6. At that time there was jealously in their hearts toward this foreign lady who had been chosen by the King to be His very special bride. By 3:10 the daughters had grown in their appreciation of the Beloved and had lovingly served Him.

These dear ladies showed just how serious they were in finding Him by asking twice, "wither is thy beloved..."? Puzzled, they asked, "How is it that you do not know where He is after that glorious description? Surely with the description you have given to us, you wouldn't leave Him alone for a minute?" The bride paused, her head hung low in shame, "I became self-absorbed (5:3) and insensitive to His work, His ways and His will! O insidious, subtle and spiritually debilitating was my self-will! I am so sorry and I repent of it all. All I want now is to find Him, fall at His feet and allow Him to forever direct my steps." She began to sing, "All to Jesus I surrender all to Him I freely give..."!

What a lesson and rebuke to the bride! The daughters of Jerusalem are ready to drop everything and seek out this wonderful person immediately! Oh dear surrendered bride, may you and I learn a great lesson in attracting people to the Lord Jesus. The bride was totally unaware of the daughters needs. In their hearts was a perpetual emptiness. Nothing they did ever seemed to satisfy or fill up that lonely void. But as the bride was describing her Beloved, something strange took place deep within them. Peace and contentment swept over their souls. There was an unexplainable joy rising up inside of them, ready to burst forth at any moment. With an urgency they said,

 

"...wither is thy beloved turned aside…that we may seek him with thee."

Oh praise God, they know something that so few believers really know! "Seek and ye shall find!" (Matt. 7:7). You shall find the answer to all of life's problems! Seek Him! "Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore." (Psa. 105:4,5)! "...and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." (Heb. 11:6)!

They are spiritually right on track. They will be blessed since God is faithful to His promise about those who seek Him! How utterly marvelous, there is no condemnation from Him. They love the bride so much that these ladies want to seek the Beloved together with her.

What a joy it must have been for her to go from total loneliness and despair to loving, longing fellowship with others truly seeking the One she loves! There is nothing more satisfying than being with those who want Jesus only - to pray with them, praise with them, serve with them, worship with them! Can you imagine what it must have meant to the bride's heart to have them with her? What joy! What peace! What anticipation!

One of the ladies spoke to the bride as they walked. "We are experiencing a love so amazing, so powerful that we are willing to give your Beloved our hearts, our lives, our all!" The bride, now focused on them, said, "I have been so taken up with Him that I did not see what was happening to you. You're not the same either! I am beginning to see my Beloved all over you." They looked at each other and they were astonished! Tears filled their eyes as His holy presence filled their hearts. "When we first met you we were jealous (1:5,6). But now we are blessed in you – you, who had been '...without Christ, being an alien from the commonwealth of Israel, and a stranger from the covenants of promise, having no hope...' (Eph.2:12). But we are one with you! We will go and surely He could find a place in His heart for us too." Little did they know that they were already on His heart!

Oh how I love to be with those who seek to bless the Lord of my heart. There is nothing like fellowshipping with those whose only real joy is to share, sing and praise Jesus, their one and only love. When you meet them the first thing on their lips is something about the Lord and what He is doing. It is Eph. 5:18-21 all over again. In their private devotions and study of the Word they want to see Jesus from Genesis to Revelation. They see Him in the tabernacle! They see Him in the law! They see Him in Joseph, Moses, David, Jonah and so many others (Luke 24:27). Nothing else really fills and thrills them. Whether meeting together in homes or in church fellowship they seek with one heart to love Him there, bring joy to His heart there, to be a true bride and pour out their souls before Him there! Together their souls thirst for God, for the l iving God (Psa. 42:2). Not for salvation but to satisfy His heart. Something very wonderful happens when those of a pure heart meet in one accord to bless Him. A holy presence of the Spirit fills the place. From their hearts flow springs of living water over the feet of their Beloved!

How important is spiritual unity? Read Eph. 4:1-4. He cannot work where the people are not in one accord, but O the glory and power of unity. They who were jealous