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“For the Lord your God is a merciful God.” Deuteronomy 4:31a

Our God loves mercy.  There are so many verses about mercy in the Bible.  But for now, I am just going to write on God’s mercy in judgment.  It is impossible to imagine God in His complete glory, majesty and splendor.  But many people don’t see him as anything but an angry God who sees our every wrong act.  I can assure you that God is not a God who is always angry with you.  Actually, I can tell you He is a God who delights in you with dancing, singing, shouting, spinning, and mercy.

“The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save.  He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Zephaniah 3:17                     

The Lord takes great delight in you.  He rejoices over you.  He is NOT a grumpy, mean figure that sits in heaven releasing wrath on the planet because he had decaf coffee, is tired, and isn’t in the mood for kindness.  I don’t know if you have ever pictured Him that way, but it’s the picture we’ll use for now.  So with that picture I have 5 problems.

1.   God is not ever grumpy.  He is God.  Even though He has lived since before time and will live forever and ever, He’s not bored and grumpy, He is the most joyful One there is and in His presence is fullness of joy.  He is a happy God!  (Psalm 45:7, Psalm 16:11, Zeph. 3:17)

2.  He is not mean.  We need to get that idea out of our heads.  The Lord is GRACIOUS and COMPASSIONATE; SLOW to anger and RICH in LOVE.  He also takes great delight in you.  (Psa 86:15)

3.  He is not a God who releases wrath for the fun of it. Many other non-believers have a problem with their counterfeit gods. The gods they worship are hard to please. With God, you don’t have to earn love.  God will release the seals, trumpets, and bowls because he wants to awaken the earth to love.  (Isa 26:9, John 15:9) 

4.   I don’t think God needs coffee in the morning. Even though he spends all day dancing and singing over us, I’m pretty sure He doesn’t need caffeinated coffee to help him stay awake.   (Psa 121:3)

5.  God is always in the mood for kindness! Like I said before, the Lord is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love.  (Jer. 9:24)

God is merciful. There is no other as merciful as Him. It’s true that the Father sent His Son to die for us even as we were sinners.  (John 3:16)   Even as we cursed God, he sent his Son to die for us. Can you think of how hard it would be to die for someone who was just plain mean to you? His mercy and love led Him to die for a planet of people who had turned from Him.

“Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

James 2:13b

Mercy is victorious over judgment. So it is always okay to cry out for mercy. God is always listening to us and hears our prayers. God shows His mercy to us every day. Let us remind ourselves again that without His mercy, we wouldn’t live or breathe. God is so good to us. In everything, God shows His mercy. He is surrounded by an emerald rainbow, a symbol of the covenant of mercy He has for us. (Revelation 4:3)  From everlasting to everlasting, God is always the same, meaning He is always merciful.

Father,

Help us to be merciful as You are. Let us see that all Your ways are merciful, even if we don’t understand them. I ask that You would remind us every day that You are our sustainer. I ask You to help us repent for our wrongs and run back into Your arms of mercy. Open our eyes to see You not as an angry Judge, but a merciful God.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

Recently I had the opportunity to teach the interns here at the International House of Prayer-Atlanta on the Father Heart of God. So many times we teach what the Lord has been speaking to us and this time was no different. As the Lord talks with me on how I view Him as a Father, it has brought healing to my heart. 

I believe this generation is perhaps the most fractured and broken generation in American History.  Inner issues such as insecurity, feelings of rejection, loneliness, isolation and pain have manifested in external ways such as sexual perversion, violence, hatred, rebellion and immoral indulgence. Many of the problems that this generation manifests have at their root a father issue.

A wrong knowledge of God will cause us to live aloof and distant from our loving Father and in turn, we will live as spiritual orphans.  God fully answered the orphan mentality through the sacrifice of His own Son.  He so longed for fellowship with people, that He freely offered Jesus in order to restore fellowship, which had been broken between Himself and us.

The orphan mentality is not something you can simply cast out because it is ungodly beliefs and/or attitudes of our flesh that have been developing over a lifetime.  Over time, these attitudes and mentalities have become part of our personality and character. The orphan mentality must be displaced or put to death by revelation of the heart of the Father, personal experiences in the Father’s love and a revelation of the spirit of sonship.  This will require a re-positioning of our life and continual meditation and consideration of the word of God regarding this topic.

I have been repositioning my heart to receive His love as a Father and it has been really powerful.  The Lord has been speaking to me Mark 1:11 over and over again for at least the last 6 months and I wanted to share this verse with you.  It reads, “And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” These words are so powerful if we can set our hearts to receive them.  First, it is essential to understand how much the Father loves Jesus, in order to understand the Eternal Father’s affections for you.  In John 17:20 and 23 Jesus prays, “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; “I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”  The stunning revelation of the reality of the Father’s love for Jesus is that the eternal Father loves you the very same way that He loves Jesus.  The same measure or amount of love that He feels for Jesus is the same amount of love He feels for you.  The same passion and zeal He has for Jesus is the same passion and zeal He feels for you.  The same delight and pleasure the Jesus brings to His heart is the same delight and pleasure that you bring to His heart! 

The Father loves you like He loves Jesus!  Your identity is this; that you are His son, and therefore you are well pleasing to Him.  Our Father in Heaven calls us His Sons!  You are His Son, whom He loves.  He is not mostly mad at you, He is not mostly displeased with you, but rather He declares;  “I am well pleased with you.” The Father spoke this to Jesus before He did any ministry!  Before you do anything for God, He is well pleased with you because you are His son!  Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. Because we are holy, blameless and above reproach before Him, we don’t have to be afraid that He’ll be disappointed in us (Col. 1:22). As we begin to get a revelation of this truth, it will keep us from striving before our Father.  We will no longer run around frantically looking to prove our worth to God and to others.   You have nothing to prove to God.  He loves you and delights in you.  He is well pleased in you because you are His son.  He is never disappointed!

Sample prayer:  Abba, Father I love you and I receive your love for me.  Fill me with the width, length, depth and height of your love.  I want to know your love in my heart and not just in my head, fill me with your affections and emotions for me, that I might be your Son with full confidence in your love and delight in me! 

Over the last month I have been asking the Lord to give me confidence in prayer as a son.  Correspondingly, He has begun to open up Hebrews 10 to me, and it has been powerful for my heart. 

The chapter starts out showing us our depravity on our own and that our sins cannot be taken away by sacrifices performed over and over again.  The writer of Hebrews goes on to describe to us that it has always been the Father’s desire to have fellowship with us and to do so by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all.  So the Father wants fellowship with us, and He wants it so much that He graciously gives us His Son. Behold what manner of love the Father has lavished on us that we would be called children of God!  The writer continues, saying that priests repeatedly offer sacrifices that cannot take away sins, and then he goes on to tell us that we have been perfected forever by one offering (Heb. 10:14).  Have you ever wanted to be perfect? Well by faith in the blood of Jesus, you are.  We stand perfect before God by the one sacrifice of Jesus right now as He makes us holy. 
As the writer continues, we find out that our sins and our lawless deeds God remembers no more (Heb. 10:17, Psa. 103 :12).  Our sins are no longer remembered, and He has perfected us forever.  Therefore let us come and pray with boldness and confidence.  Let us draw near with true hearts in full assurance of faith that the Father wants us near to Him. He says our voice is sweet and our face is lovely (Song of Solomon 2:14).  Oh the joy of praying to God who is seeking us, of praying to Jesus who is longing for us!  God enjoys it when we worship Him and when we pray to Him, for He has desired this from before the foundation of the earth (Eph. 1:3).  So let us pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without anger or disputing, for the Father is seeking us to come and worship before Him in spirit and in truth (1 Tim 2:8, John 4:23-24).

“Listen, o daughter, consider and give ear. Forget the people of your father’s house. The king is enthralled by Your beauty. Honor him, for he is your lord.” -Psalm 45:10-11

We have a not-so-secret admirer. But, not just any admirer. This admirer is the King! Jesus is madly in love with us. And our lover’s love towards us is better than life. We have a lover that will never forsake us. One that we can share our deepest thoughts with. He desires to be with us. He longs to bring us into the wilderness where it’s just him and us. This is our beloved. But, our beloved is not just a nice guy, he’s the kindest one of all. If a king falls in love with a girl, he will do anything to have her as a bride. He will not let the enemy get in the way of love. He is jealous for us.

But why is he jealous for us? We are poor, blind and lowly. We are all sinners. God could create a perfect bride, but he chose us to be the bride. Revelation 19 states that His eyes are like a flame of fire. He burns with passion for us. Still, what does he see when he looks at us? I believe he doesn’t look on the outside, he looks on the inside. He doesn’t look at our needy state, but he looks where no one else sees. The deepest parts of us is where he sees us. Some may seem to be saying “yes” to God on the outside, but that is not what He is after. By on the outside, I mean that we may feed the poor and help the homeless and heal the sick, but we can do all of that without loving God and without intimacy with him. (1Cor. 13:2-3 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.) He looks for the “yes” in the inside, the “yes” that says that we don’t want to do anything but sit before Him and listen to His voice.

It’s like Mary and Martha. John 12:2-3 says, “Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Martha wanted to cook and clean for Jesus, but Mary just sat at His feet. Mary had true intimacy with Jesus. Jesus also loved Martha, but Mary had captured Jesus’ heart with her affections. Jesus loved Martha, too. But he would rather be with you than watch you do work for him. He doesn’t want us to think we are his slaves. He wants us to know we are his bride. He wants us to be alive in love in every word and deed.

The Shulamite (a shepherdess) in Song of Solomon is a great picture of the bride, and Solomon is a picture of the Bridegroom, Jesus. King Solomon was in love with a shepherdess. I believe it’s a faint representation of Jesus’ love for us. It seems unusual that a king falls in love with a sheep herder. It’s amazing that Jesus would fall in love with someone like us. In Song of Solomon, King Solomon falls in love with the Shulamite, and the Shulamite returns his love. They are both in love with each other. Song of Solomon 2:14 says, “My dove in the clefts of the rock, in the hiding places on the mountainside, show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely.” He wants to see her. He calls her out of hiding. He can’t stand not seeing her. He doesn’t want to be without hearing her voice. In the same way Jesus loves us and desires to hear our voice and see our face.

Father, cause us to listen to your voice, to fulfill your desire to see our faces. Lock us into your gaze. Help us understand your love is incomparable and your pursuit of us is unstoppable. We honor you, for you are our Lord.

In Jesus Name,

Amen

A river of living water flows from beneath the throne of God. A tree bearing the fruit of an indestructible life stands by that river. There is a city with massive gates of pearl and streets of translucent gold, it is an eternal dwelling place not made by human hands. This city will rest upon a mountain that will stand above all the other mountains of the earth, Zion. The patriarchs of old sought this city, living out all their days on this earth with holy dissatisfaction – longing for the age to come.

            In that coming age, Jesus will stand in the authority of His Father as the ruler of the kingdoms of earth and the kingdom of Heaven. This is our eternity; the time of perfect communion with the Son of Man, who is the Son of God. Heavenly Jerusalem is the city we were made to live in. We will dwell there with the Lamb, which is the purpose we were created to fulfill. We are made to be the focus of a divine beings unyielding affections. I was made to walk with Him.

            Therefore, the true meaning of a human life cannot even be fully realized in this age. That is why Paul exhorts the church of Collasae “Col 3:2  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” Our lives, eternal lives, have been hidden in Christ to be revealed on the day of his coming. It is that day, which the Spirit yearns for with earnest expectation and all creations groans to see. When we see him, we will be transformed and made as He is, we will be revealed as the Children of God. Hallelujah! The King of Kings will then reward the Saints of light for their loving obedience in this evil present age.

            Do we believe that this is a real day in our future? Do I believe that Zion described with such marvelous detail in the Holy Scriptures is really a city I will one day see and live in? Have I set my gaze on the age to come? These questions are important, because the revelation of the age to come imparts grace to live a sanctified life today. If we cultivate perception in our Spirits of the highest realities of eternity, then we will not be allured by the passing pleasure of this life. I will be drawn close to God by the satisfaction of the dream he has for our future and the love he has for me that shall not ever pass away - though heaven and earth pass away. In fixing our eyes on eternity, we will be empowered to live filled with real hope, even in the worst time of trouble the world has ever seen.

            Jesus primary message when he walked the earth was that, “The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand.” The understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven was the teaching he shared to provoke the hearts of Israel to return to God. We became citizens of this Kingdom when we were born again of the Spirit of God. It is through seeing this Heavenly Kingdom that exists in the unseen realm, through eyes of faith, that we appropriate the power to overcome the kingdom of this world. So we must pursue by revelation a vision of the Kingdom of Heaven that has come and is coming.

            It is by setting our minds on the reality of this Kingdom and its King that we will have divine might imparted to our Spirits to manifest the powers of the age to come – prophecy, apostolic preaching, healing, deliverance, creative miracles, and above all else the virtues of Christ - right now! Jesus said, in John 7:37 “He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will Flow Rivers of living water.” There is a river of Life, it flows from beneath the throne, and will flow out of you - today. For the Kingdom of Heaven, is neither here nor there, but is within you.

Lately I have been pondering over my heritage and my identity. As a young adult, I have been contending for my destiny alongside many other young adults in the house of prayer. At least daily I converse with the Lord, asking him to tell me who I am again. “Who am I?” is the question that I have been asking. Well, this past February I found myself overwhelmingly interested in African- American History - and the timing was perfect because February has been deemed black history month. So, I started reading about Martin Luther King and his views on justice in the 1950s – 1960s. Soon after I found myself spending hours intrigued by the documentaries on African slavery during colonial times. I have always been sort of a history buff so at first I thought it was just me being interested in history, my history. But after being struck one evening by a segment of a particular documentary, I realized maybe that this new found interest in black history was less of my inclination to learn cool facts but actually the Holy Spirit leading me to understand that He wants to call a large group of people to prayer and intimacy in Atlanta.

Let me explain – I have grown up in the outskirts of the city of Atlanta. I am twenty-four years old and I am bi –racial (½ African – American and ½ Puerto Rican). Identity tends to be an issue with many in their twenties – but I have realized this has been a lifelong question for me as well as many other minorities. While watching this documentary a professor from Harvard was performing DNA tests and searching for the genealogy of a group of African Americans who decided they wanted to discover their own family history; in almost every attempt he was unsuccessful. Basically many African – Americans, because of slavery, do not have recorded family lineage. During slavery the slaves were considered property, so just like anything else that was owned; they had to take the name of their master. For instance, my last name is McIntyre, which is a name derived from Scottish heritage. I have virtually no Scottish heritage in me – the reason my last name is McIntyre is because the family that bought the slaves on my fathers side were Scottish. In turn, I as well as many others of African – American decent, do not know where their ancestors are from or what their real name is. Identity and family was ripped away causing pain and wounds for generations. I believe this loss of identity in the African – American community has been detrimental to an entire people group. This loss of identity has taken the hand of many in the country and lead us down paths of fatherlessness, abortion (African – Americans have the highest rate of abortion per capita in America), and poverty. These issues are perpetual cycles that need to be broken in the Spirit first, so that freedom will overflow in the natural. Though these issues are controversial, we must face them head on without fear. We must face them together and not as separate races, but as the body of Christ.

This is not just about governmental and political reforms or social justice, this is about a radical racial mending and a coming together of the Bride of Jesus as a family of affection, so that God may be glorified and we (the Body of Christ) may be healed.

Personally, I have found healing, identity, and destiny within the house of prayer. God will use and is using the house of prayer in our city and the prayer movement at large to release destiny and identity to many African – Americans. You see- this is where I found my identity as a daughter of the Father of Glory and as the Bride of His beautiful Son. I believe God is choosing many in the African- American community to be set as watchman on the wall and priests to give the Lord a pure offering in worship and devotion.

Isaiah 62:6 I have set watchman on your walls, O Jerusalem; They shall never hold their peace day or night. You who make mention of the Lord, do not keep silent, and give him no rest until He makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.

There is no doubt that God is bubbling up a prayer movement all over the earth and African- Americans have an inheritance from the Father in it. We also have an essential portion to offer as the Bride of Christ steps into her identity as a praying church. We, as a church and as the prayer movement are lacking without the African American prophetic voice going forth. The house of prayer is said to be a green house for forerunners; this is a place that they will grow, flourish, and then be launched into their destiny. And as they flourish in the courts of the Lord they will fall in love with Jesus, never wanting to depart from the place of pure devotion and intimacy with Him.

God is jealous for this reality to come to fullness and so am I. I want so many others to recover what has been stolen from them in regard to their destiny and identity just as I have. This is my hope for other young African – Americans, that each will be given a double portion by the Father in heaven. I pray that our voices, which have been held back for so long, would be released. As the Body of Christ and an International House of Prayer we are incomplete without the African – American voice. May we see our need in this hour and open our hearts and our churches to embracing unity of the spirit that transcends culture or skin color. My prayer is that the voice of the fathers and prophets would arise from the African – American community and that this new breed of leaders would find themselves pursuing the Lord through lifestyles of prayer and fasting in the house of prayer.

Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, you who have not borne! Break forth into singing, and cry aloud.

Sometimes my heart overflows with love when I think of those God has put around me. Sometimes He gives me little glimpses of what He sees in a few of His, and my heart can’t seem to hold it. The phrase, “my cup overflows”, becomes so real to me when I think about how He loves me through earthen vessels. He’s put a desire in my heart to learn to love others deeply. Not superficially or conveniently, but deeply. As I walk in the prayer room, He sweetly lays out plans for me to demonstrate His love and I just smile, knowing His plans are so good and prosperous. They give others hope and a future. He has worked plans for our lives before we were even here. How intricately those plans are woven into our lives! Only He knows the value and life-saving qualities He gives when we obey His sweet plans. He has made preparations IN ADVANCE for us to do. Are we running after His plans for our moments here during this short earthly internship He’s given us? Are we asking for His specific plans for us to accomplish blessing His chosen ones? Here is the picture that I’m seeing as I write: In hotels, there is a map on each and every room door that is an emergency plan of escape. There is usually a red line with directions instructing where you are (YOU ARE HERE) and moving towards the outside safe place in the event of a fire or other emergency. Now, there may not be an emergency that we’re escaping, but maybe to someone else, He’s using you to rescue them. He has plans for us showing exactly where we are in Him and directing us to where He wants us to go. Every day, in His new mercies, He lays out a plan of obedience for us. Turns out that it’s also a plan of attack on His enemy - He’s good at that kind of thing- dual purposes. His plan of attack rockets through our lives as we love each other deeply. We EXtinguish one fiery dart after another when we choose to love deeply. When we choose to love unselfishly and when it’s inconvenient to our own schedules, we put out the flames of His enemies. In Paul’s first letter to Timothy, Paul lays out commands and charges to him. He commands Timothy to put his hope in God, to do good, to be rich in good deeds, generous and willing to share. “In this way you will lay up treasure for yourself as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that you may take hold of the life that is truly life.” What are God’s plans for you today? Who will He lead you to love deeply today? In another place, Peter clearly spells it out for us. In chapter 4 of his first letter, he is writing about the nearness of the end of all things. He admonishes us that ABOVE ALL, love each other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. He instructs us to offer hospitality to others, without grumbling! He goes so far as to say to serve one another with whatever gifts we’ve received and by doing so, we’re faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. Imagine that, we can give out God’s grace through our loving service to others. Does He have plans for us or what? Our only fitting response to Him is to love His own DEEPLY! Let’s practice on each other! Go, get busy loving! Love deeply!

Recently at the House of Prayer, the Lord has been showing me the importance of “waiting on Him.” This seems like such a waste of time to the world and to our souls. Why would I just sit with Jesus when there are tons of other things I could do for Him or study about Him?

This reality baffled Martha, but Jesus tried to help her and make it clear that what Mary was doing was more profitable when He said “only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Even as I read Luke 10:38-42 at this moment, I am encouraged to continue cultivating the discipline of simply sitting with Jesus and listening to Him. In our lives we can get worried and bothered by many things, but only one thing is needed. It is this place of intimacy with Je-sus that true life is imparted. His words are full of grace and truth, and they are spirit and life to us (John 1:14, 6:63, Psalm 45:2). We must learn the simplicity of sitting with our Beloved just to be with Him. Our spirit longs to rest, and many times in the word we are exhorted to rest in the Lord or wait on the Lord, for He is our strength (Psalm 46:10, Is. 8:7, 40:31).

Learning to wait is so hard, and yet, so rewarding. I am becoming more and more convinced about what Paul says in Galatians 6:8 that “He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life.” I am seeing that in all that we do in God, whether it is meditating, reading the word, singing the word, praying, or waiting on the Lord, we are sowing into our spiritual garden. Many times I don’t perceive what is happening in my spirit, but I continually set myself before the Lord in these disciplines, knowing that even if I don’t feel or see any results at the time of the activity, I am setting myself up for future encounter. There is such beauty in the principal of sowing and reaping. I sow a little now and I reap a lot later, much in this life and even more in the ages to come.

With this in mind, the place of waiting is also a place of weakness. Many times I will sit with Jesus, but nothing seems to happen. Neither do I hear His voice (the word doesn’t connect with me), nor do I feel Him at all (my emotions are not stirred). I feel very weak in this place of waiting, but each time I sit with Him I believe that He is changing me from the inside out, even when I cannot perceive anything to be happening. But then at a future time, His presence becomes so close, so that all the times of what seemed to be barrenness were worth it when He comes. Thus, whether I can sense His presence or not, I believe that He is changing me from glory to glory as I gaze on Him and sit with Him (2 Cor 3:18).

I have learned over time that He wants to meet with me so much more than I want to meet with Him. We have to begin to believe that He wants to come and touch us more than we want Him to touch us, for He first loved us, and because of His love we now love Him (1 Jn 4:19). An evangelist I know named Graham Cooke once said, “We in the western world get so caught up in our evangelical mindset of reaching out to God, when all the time God wants us to rest in His word and wait on Him so that He can touch us.” As we believe that He first loved us and gave Himself for us, we will be freed up to just sit with Him, be with Him, and not do all of the things we think we have to get done in our time of devotion with the Lord. Jesus declares His longing for us to be with Him when He prayed “Father, I desire that those you have given me may be with me where I am” (Jn 17:24). It is His desire for us that will strengthen us and give us peace to simply wait on Him and find the peace that He left for us (Jn 16:33).

From the place of intimacy with Jesus, we will be able to do all that we do in this life better! As He loves us, we are able to love Him back and fulfill the first commandment of loving God! His love also opens up our hearts to then do the second commandment well. Loving our neighbors is so much easier when we daily encounter His everlasting, unfailing, and perfect love. Let us get back to the simplicity of sitting with and waiting on Jesus just to be with Him, for He has everlasting pleasures (Psalm 16:11)

One of the challenges to living a life of continuous prayer is staying vigilant and alert. The rhythm of the world system is geared to subtly lull us into complacency and lethargy. I believe that right now there is a fight to stay awake and not be lulled into a state of spiritual slumber. Everywhere we turn something tries to grab our attention and steal our affections from the one that we love most, Jesus . The realization that God is what we are hungry for is what will make every ache in our hearts make sense to our mind. The Body of Christ at large is in desperate need of an enlightening to the things of the Spirit.

The journey of the young Shulamite woman in Song of Solomon chapter 5 explains the emotions of a newly-wed Bride whose Bridegroom is not with her. We can understand what she is feeling because, like the Shulamite, our Beloved Bridegroom is not with us in the natural realm. Even though He dwells inside of us, we still feel like there is something missing; and when we do encounter God, often times we are satisfied for a moment but left yearning for more. In Song of Solomon chapter 5, the Shulamite’s displays her own fight to stay awake and in love with her bridegroom.

Song of Solomon 5:2 I sleep but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister my love, my dove, and my perfect one”.

Ohhh-that we would here the voice of our Beloved calling us out of our delusions and wanderings. Often, being filled with all the pleasures of this life, we cannot hear the voice of our Bridegroom and therefore we continually feel empty in our satiations with the spirit of this age. These things, though not always bad, in abundance can put us to sleep and keep us further from what our souls are actually longing for.

In my own journey I am continually feeling the pull and the draw that the world has even on a heart that is in love with the man Christ Jesus. The pain of not being with JESUS has been overwhelming at some points and my fainting heart wants to wander to some other pleasure that will make the pain cease to exist. But it never fails, every momentary pleasure leaves me unsatisfied and longing for the His love. The One touch from God that left me yearning for more is far better than anything this life has to offer (SOS 1:2). I have realized that it is not God who does not want to be near, but it is I that cannot hear him calling for me. By doing this very thing, we exhaust ourselves in the fight to stay awake and most likely we will lose the battle. The Shulamite experiences this same thing in verse six, “ I opened for my Beloved, but my beloved, had turned away and gone.” We must recognize our own propensity to go for other things and how easily distracted and fickle the human heart is. It is through lovesickness with Jesus that we will truly be able to stay awake in this most urgent hour of history and give ourselves with abandon in serving our God on a daily basis.

Song of Solomon 5: 8 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if You see Him, if you find my Beloved, tell Him I am lovesick.

The lovesickness of the young maiden in chapter 5 is actually what calls her into an awakened state. The missing and the yearning that she feels causes her to arise and pursue him. Prior to chapter 5, the Shulamite had repeatedly settled for sin and compromise, but soon after , she decides to follow her bridegroom even to the mountain of myrrh. (Myrrh was one of the spices used for death and burial). We can learn a lot from this young shepherd girl in the Song of Solomon, for our own journeys and our own battles to stay alert in what we are facing in the coming days. If we are longing for our Beloved Jesus, we will be able to face anything and even the most soothing lullaby to our aching souls will not be able to capture our hearts. The Sound of the trumpet will come from our hearts screaming louder than the spirit of this age, saying,” Tell Him I am Love sick.” There is no crisis, trial, or tribulation that will hinder the Bride from seeking the one that she loves. Lovesickness and encounter with God will be our anecdote to the deadly lullaby that is putting us to sleep in this most crucial time period.

Recently I was in a worship leader meeting where we discussed the future of the prayer movement and specifically how it pertained to worship leaders. I realized that God is calling us as worship leaders to be ones who are alive in revelation of the Word of God. He wants worship leaders to live in awe of His Word, fascinated with the Scriptures. It’s not enough that we know a few Scriptures, we must be ones who continually feed on the Word.

Usually most people who have artistic gifts, “minor” on the word of God and “major” on their gift. When we do this we miss the main reason we were given the gift in the first place. He doesn’t want us to solely focus on our gifting while neglecting His Word. God gives us gifts to evoke love, intimacy, and strength in our own hearts and in the hearts of others.

As the meeting progressed, I realized that it is essential for me to continue to pursue a spirit of wisdom and revelation in my life. The next day as I read Revelation 4, verse 8 grabbed my attention. The four living creatures, who worship God day and night, are worshiping in response to the revelation they see as they gaze on the God of heaven. In a perfect realm, the worshipers are still seeking Him out for revelation, which in turn produces the worship they give.

If this is the case in the perfect realm of the throne room, how much more should I gaze upon Him and seek revelation so that my heart can soar in worship! In my heart I began to ask the Lord to make me “full of eyes,” like the four living creatures, that I might have all my revelatory senses open to Him. I want to be full of revelation so that my heart can soar to new levels of worship that I have never experienced.

I want to write songs from this place of revelation. I want all that I play and sing to come from the place of revelation and a true understanding of the beauty of the Lord. If you are a worship leader, I want to encourage you to continuously gaze upon the throne so that we may proclaim, with a spirit of wisdom and revelation, the beauty of the Lord in song.