Challenging The Comfort Zone!
( 2:8-17 )
2:8; The voice of my Beloved! Behold, He comes. Leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills.
The voice of my Beloved: The Lord is Lord of all. He effortlessly conquers all opposing mountains.
Mountains: Natural and Spiritual governments. Human or demonic obstacles. (Isaiah 2:2).
Hills: Personal difficulties in our lives.
* The Lord effortlessly conquers all the obstacles in our lives. He is creator, God! He can, and will make all His enemies a footstool under His feet. They will be put away!!!
2:9; My Beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag. Behold, He stands behind our wall; He is looking through our windows, gazing through the lattice.
Gazelle: Fast, swift. Effortlessly leaps and runs.
Stag: No fear!
Behind our wall: She thinks He is behind a wall. When the reality is, she is the one behind a confining wall. If we are not meant to be in isolation than it will hurt us.
* The wall of God is meant to train us. The windows are to transform us. Jesus is ready for action; This is a picture of the great commission. When the Lord is standing powerful, Things are about to happen. The Lord has no fear! While we are stuck in isolation and the weakness of the flesh God sends His Holy Spirit to conquer our hearts. Ravishing us in the deep affections of the love of His Son. The Lord will destroy everything that hinders love! ( Revelation 3:20-22 )
2:10; My Beloved spoke, and said to me; Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.
My Beloved spoke: God is looking for a reponsive heart towards the will of His heart.
Rise up: This language is to build up our confidence; Affirmation.
Come away: An invitation to pick up the Cross of Christ. To die daily( 1 Corinthians 15:31 ). To dive into prayer. Our alter before the Lord is our prayer life ( Leviticus 6:8-13 ), ( Isaiah 62:6 ). The Lord has set watchmen on the wall! He is calling His church into this place so that she might be purged from sin. Read Proverbs 31:8-9 and Hebrews 10:19-25. Let God pierce your hearts.
* 2 Corinthians 4:18, 5:7; We walk by faith and not by sight, for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal! God is looking for even one with a responsive heart to share all of his secrets with. He confirms as well He disciplines to build our confidence in Him. So that we may trust Him! WHO WILL LISTEN!!!
2:11; For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
Winter: Dark, hard seasons. Season for building your faith in God.
The rain is over and gone: Now is the time to mature in the faithfulness of God. Before the harvest!
* He is saying; Even though the winter is long and you are weary. I will restore to you all that which was taken. Set your heart on the affections of Jesus. Seek 1st the Kingdom of Heaven! Joel 2:25-26! Trust in the Lord only. He alone can lift you out of the muck and the mire!
2:12; The flowers appear on the earth. the time of singing has come. And the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.
Flowers appear on the earth: Harvest is coming!
Time: Now is the time for Jesus' shepherds to develope a deep history in God. Don't think that you are to insignificant that the Lord is not speaking to you in this passage! Remember, David was a weak little keeper of the sheeps. The Lord picked him over his mighty brothers. David had a history of worshipping and seeking the face of his Lord.
The voice of the turtle dove....: Harvest is near!
* Joel 2:12-17; The Lord is calling us to the place of Holiness! Who will stand in an age that so easily waivers? Harvest is near! John 4:35; Do not say, there is still four months and then comes the harvest. Behold, I say to you, lift up your eye's and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest. We clearly must be ready. We have a mandate from Heaven to be ready!!!
2:13; The fig tree put forth her green figs. And the vines with tender grapes give a good smell. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away!
Figs: The figs have matured through the winter, yet like the grapes they are still immature.
Grapes: immature bride.
* God is calling us out of our comfort zones. He is saying, now that you have made it through the winter, come and ripen maturely. Rise up, come away with Me. I long for you!!!
2:14; O my dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face, let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely.
Dove: Purity, loyalty, innocence; It's devotion is a picture of the Holy Spirit.
Secret places: One on one intiment relationship with the Lord! Everyone need's one. So I plead with you all to get one!
Clefts of the rock: We are brought in by the power of the Cross!
Let me see Your face, let me hear Your voice...: Adoring worship. A cry for help. Our prayers are sweet to the Lord. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation, the Spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak ( Matthew 26:41 ).
* Jesus is the rock! Solid and unmovable! He see's us through the finished work of the Cross. Matthew 16:18; The gates of hades shall not prevail. We have the unique invitation to enter in to the Holiness of God. We are invited in to deep communion with the Holy Spirit, intercession with our beloved Jesus! In return, not only does He redeem us and make us whole, He lets us hear His secrets, as we as we get to partake in the unique power of God's Holy Spirit. We are sincerely lovely to God through the cleansing blood of Christ Jesus!
2:15; Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines. For our grape vines have tender grapes.
Catch us the foxes: These speak of the hard to catch subtle sins in our life; So she is crying out to God for help to destroy them.
Vines: Area's of our life that impact our spiritual life.
Grapes: Immature spiritual life. We need time to be cultivated in the deep things of God.
* The foxes seek out to destroy our relationship with God, with seemingly small sins that we seem to reason with and never really deal with. They are rooted in deception and hold us back from the deep things of God. They feed off our immaturity, any they attack us in ways that impact our walk with God. Ephesians 1:17-19; We must pray and put off these things that aim to destroy us. Romans 8:31; If God is for us, who can be against us?
2:16; My Beloved is mine, and I am His. He feeds His flock among the lilies.
My Beloved is mine, and I am His: Even in stumbling she understands His love for her. Deep convictions lead to the deep knowledge of God. Charles G Finney wrote in his journal on several different cases of the conviction of the Lord compelling the hardest of hearts in to the faith of Christ. There is one recording in Finney's journal that speaks of a man whom was known to be a very stern universal salvationist, his wife prayed fervently for his salvation. When Finney came to town the man had heard of a lot of what had happened in all the surrounding towns and settlements and how the Lord was spreading revival everywhere Finney went. So the first few days as Finney was there in his town the man wouldn't let his wife go to the meetings, but on the third night, after she had been in fervent prayer for him, the man came home and said he would escort his wife to the Finney meeting. The man thought to himself that he could go and find more info to ridicule Finney and God. The end result is that the man had such an intense conviction during the sermon that he fell to his knees, groaning and weeping for repentance and salvation. When the congregation of a few hundred was aware of who it was, one by one everyone at the meeting fell to there knees and revival spread across their community.
He feeds His flocks: Co-operate church seeing God outside of isolation.
Lilies: Pure; Innocence. Glory of God. Matthew 6:28-29.
* We need a deep revelation of who God is and what God feel about us. Ephesians 3:16-19. Let us pray diligently for the affirmation of the Lord's love for us. Knowing the Lord's love for us helps us out of an isolated point of view when relating to the Father. He is pure and innocent. Glory, from everlasting to everlasting. His judgments are all together righteous and true.
2:17; Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away, Turn, My Beloved, and be like a gazelle or a young stag upon the mountains of Bether.
Shadows flee: Grey area's; She wants new light. John 1:5; And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Gazelle: Fast, effortlessly and swift.
Stag: No fear.
Bether: Separation
* She compromises in telling Him to go without her; Out of fear to follow Him. So He does turn away His manifest presence. She has grey area's of sin ( foxes ) that are holding her back from rising up and going with the Lord. So He separates His manifest presence from her, mainly because it will leave her yearning for Him.
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