“Draw me… Hurry!”, Song 1:4
“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love,“ Hos 11:4
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It can be a delicate dance to live in intimate relationship, whether we are talking physically or spiritually. There are signals we receive in the process – ones that invite, though not always immediately reward. Hopefully with maturity comes a faster response to life-giving signals, and a rejection of the things that lead to dryness. It really does become important to ‘be ready,’ particularly when you want to be impregnated with His life.
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Jay Ferris once wrote,
“Where love and intimacy is concerned, God is the great initiator. It is enough that we as a bride be open to His advances. About all that we are really good at is throwing up barriers to intimacy. Of course we do this with the Devil’s help and at his urging. With deception and accusation as his primary weapons, he is able to keep us far off by confusion and guilt. In no other area of human experience is he more successful than in the area of our sexuality. The culture seems to be rapidly approaching terminal confusion in this area, and our sexuality remains a source of great embarrassment to what’s been calling itself “church.”
And again,
“Tozer encourages us to ‘press on into God, and spend our whole lives there.’ I took a little different position on the subject, sharing that my experience had been rather that, it is the heart of God to press on into me, and I get there much more often by response than initiation.”
.Personally I find this to be a tremendous encouragement to know that God wants to be in me, and in a very real ‘male’ sense is driven far more toward this depth of intimacy than I am. It is His comfort zone to be one with His Woman (the ekklesia), and any division from her, or among her, is a frustration that is pictured in Eve being removed from Adam, Romans 8:20. This is an encouragement to the female part of my spirit that needs Him for completion. I believe He loves me. He came in His Son and proved it when I was at my very worst.
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But sometimes, and I don’t know all the reasons why, it can feel like He is distant and preoccupied. How much is this my own projection onto Him? Busy with all sorts of things that don’t generate the life of Christ, over time we can become unresponsive and disinterested in His signals and wake up in a place of dryness. He is there with us, however, even in the periodic reminders of lifelessness. Sometimes it’s painful, and always not pretty. Spiritual menstruation is as much a male issue as it is a female one.
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At times like this, when we so desperately need Him, a humble recognition of the source of Life and Love can open the floodgates. “No one can come to Me unless my Father draw Him,” John 6:44, is not a push away, but an invitation to acknowledge that He is the sovereign initiator and giver of all good things. The “Draw me!” expression in Song 1:4 is a deep guttural cry that includes the meaning of pulling up and out. The first use of the same word in the Bible is Joseph being lifted out of the pit he found himself in, Gen 37:28.
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This is a prayer that The Lord hears from heaven and comes running to!
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“He that cometh to God must believe that He is. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” ~ Hebrews 11:6
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Listening for His signals,
Pam
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Dear Pamela, this is the great paradox of the soul; seeking Him as He draws us, finding Him with great ecstasy and then, we start seeking Him again for the sheer joy of wanting more and more of our Beloved! How can one explain this!!
Blessings XX
Mia
Intimacy…this beautiful, and mysterious and ever deepening intimacy that is the heart and core of The Triune God, and is being expressed within the body as we learn to “Love one another as I have Loved you”.
Intimacy must begin in the vertical plane (Love the Lord your God) and then be found simultaneously on the horizontal plane within those that share His Life (Love as I have Loved you). As this life giving Love is developed, and expressed we begin to learn the deep value of relationships, this is the enlarging of our heart to know more truly this Love of our Father, and express His Love to our brothers ans sisters. This expression to one another is open, honest, pure, and is found ‘in’ Christ, and is expressed through Christ.
As we begin to marinate on this “As I have loved you, so you must love one another…” we experience the great joy of this intimacy, the beauty of heartfelt communication, the ‘look of Love in their eyes’, the deep honest and open communication is breathtakingly intimate, we are sharing one heart the very heart of Jesus Christ. This is seeing our Lord and Love knit us together with those He had brought into our lives. This is one of the greatest gifts we will experience in this life.
And then…as previously stated we experience this intimacy can experience the ‘dryness’ and when this happens the distance is deeply noticeable, and here we must find our refuge.
“Draw me!” expression in Song 1:4 is a deep guttural cry that includes the meaning of pulling up and out. The first use of the same word in the Bible is Joseph being lifted out of the pit he found himself in, Gen 37:28.
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This is a prayer that The Lord hears from heaven and comes running to!”
Intimacy it is what Life is all about, and it is worth the price of admission…”being past dead”
“Busy with all sorts of things that don’t generate the life of Christ, over time we can become unresponsive and disinterested in His signals and wake up in a place of dryness”. How true. Soon we have replaced our love making with duty. Oh, the sadness of it. What a loss! Look quickly, there goes my love like yesterday’s newspaper blowing down the empty street!
And intimacy is impossible when we’re dry. How we need the Holy Spirit’s ‘lubrication’ oil to bring us to the place of receiving all the love He has for us. May we allow Him to bring us into His secret place (where we feel safe and secure) so that He can accomplish all He wills for us. Ps 133:2-3 – and may we humble ourselves before each other so that we can live in unity so that the oil is poured out…
To know He loves and desires me in such a way is entirely liberating. His love is totally intoxicating and I wish to drink deeply of Him all throughout the day. To think that I am the object of His affection changes the way I think about life itself.
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Whew! Some deeply precious comments from each of you!
I love the way our Lord initiates with love so powerful and magnetic you can barely resist.
Yet as the consummate gentleman He longs and waits for our response.
Love so strong it scares me and barriers come up from past hurts.
I agree with Jay that there is much confusion in this area, and that even among those with a pretty deep revelation of Gods eternal purpose. :-( But I am hopeful that as we exit our Babylons, Egypt’s and wilderness experiences and enter our true living habitat ” Ekklesia” we will learn to live by His indwelling life within us and as our Spirits communicate with each other our soulish self will fall off like the skin a snake sheds that is of no use anymore. Lord haste the day ! :-D
Vinny, you wrote something really insightful. “>>Love so strong it scares me and barriers come up from past hurts.”
This reminds me of something that Lisa Weger recently shared on the Loving Like God blog. It is related to ‘aborting’ relationships, and the lifelessness we are left with. I have been looking for more opportunity to share this comment, as it speaks to a tendency to ‘pull away’ in fear from this very powerful love.
She wrote: (in response to Jay’s post: “The Morning After Pill” http://lovinglikegod.com/2013/10/23/the-morning-after-pill-2/ )
“Jay said: “It can be very difficult to tell the difference between the high or chemistry of the flesh, and the high or chemistry of the Spirit. The former is fleeting – the latter is ever lasting. We are not talking about an earthly romance here, but a heavenly one.”
Part of what I believe Jay is talking about is how discombobulating it is when people experience His Love together. Especially when it crosses gender lines. “Is this okay to feel?” is a huge question that comes up. It is not a situation that is talked about or condoned in “church” circles…. the predominant thinking is that that kind of Passion is only legitimate between married couples. (And yet, there is no gender in Christ.) You can experience this Passion and feel pressured – either from within yourself – and/or from external forces, to “abort”. So what started as a very legitimate Passion that He puts between us – His Love expressed on the horizontal with those that He’s putting together in particular – now becomes aborted, because we don’t have the discernment, revelation and/or commitment to see and live what He is after.
For a new believer, or a believer who is just coming into this realm of understanding and experience, it can be a fleeting experience rather than an eternal one. The problem as I see it – and a question that Jay brought up many times – is what are the alternatives to learning to live in this Passion on the horizontal? If God is calling people into Him, what is a legitimate expression of what He is doing? Isn’t it in these real, passionate relationships? If we cut off these relationships out of uneasiness, what is left as an expression of Him? It seems what’s left is what man calls “church”.
Until we embrace what God is after, and allow God to work in us – teaching us how to Love as He Loves with those He gives us, we are aborting what He calls Church.”
So… I do like that word discombobulate – upset, confuse. I looked for combobulate in the Merriam-Websters and can’t find it. So I’m wondering:if the prefix dis- means to do the opposite or deprive of, such as disease is the opposite of ease or discontinue is the opposite of continue or disgust is the opposite of delight then discombobulate must be the opposite of combobulate. I’m disoriented! Actually, I’m just having a little fun with you all.
A merry heart does good like a medicine……
Love.
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:-) !
Sadly, so much of my past doesnt conform to the intimacy that is being spoken of in this post. If im perfectly honest with myself, intimacy makes me quite uncomfortable, whether it is godly, worldly, real or imagined (mostly bc im not clear on which is which), it all just kinda makes me twitch & a little difficult to even breathe. No longer do i spend hours wishing or dreaming that i couldve grown up differently bc im realizing that my beautiful Lord has no intentions of leaving me this way. Im excited to see how this unfolds. Im ready to comprehend closeness & intimacy in light of our beautiful Lord without lingering doubt, fear of rejection, torment or emptiness having any place in my heart. i believe with all that He is, he will heal this place deep inside me so that i may one day receive all of Him. Thanks, Pamela for leading the way & inviting me along.
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Shelby, when I first met you last year and heard your story of where you’ve been, and then, to ‘see’ the maturity of Christ in you, in the now – it blew me away. Just now something came to me. You know the parable of the workers, the one where some worked all day and got paid the same as those who began working later in the day? It just struck me that this payment is the love of Christ, and that without measure. There are no late comers to something poured out without measure or end. We are entering into a heavenly intimacy not knowing where it begins or ends, because it has no beginning or ending! :)
Great insight…that parable leaves many law-abiding believers very unsettled…LOL. Im so excited to see where we all get to go…individually & corporately. He is so personal & communal. Early on when i was in my first few months of encountering Jesus, i felt i was so ” behind” every other believer & that i just wouldnt ever catch-up… that bc i wasnt raised w/religion i had somehow missed out. i heard Him say in my spirit: “Everything i have for you I still have for you.” That helped me to rest in Him before i ever heard or knew anything about resting. Reminds me of ‘The last shall be first’. What an amazing Lord we have!!
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Awesome indeed:))