THE RAVISHED HEART OF THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM. ( 4:9-5:1 )
4:9; You have ravished my heart, My sister, My spouse: You have ravished my heart. With one look of your eyes, with one link of your necklace.
You have ravished my heart: Jesus reveals how lovely we are to Him. He is ravished by us and not by our accomplishments.
My sister: Human relationship ( Matthew 12:49-50 ).
My spouse: Bride; Jesus longs for His bride. He longs for partnership with His love.
With one look of your eyes: Every act of devotion towards Jesus moves His heart. If one glance can move the heart of God, what will a fixed gaze do?
With one link of your necklace: One link ( each individual response ); submission of our free will to God and God alone.
* Jesus relates to us in a human language so that we might understand the context of His heart. Jesus is absolutely ravished by our weak cries and attempts in seeking Him. Jesus longs for a bride and come the end of the age He will have a pure and holy bride, she will cry out to Him in longings and groans ( Revelation 22:17 ). Jesus is forever faithful ( read the book of Hosea ). The most amazing part, one glance moves the Saviors heart to compassion and mercy. ( Psalms 136 ).
4:10; How fair is your love, My sister, My spouse! How much better than wine is your love, and the scent of your perfumes than all spices!
How fair is your love: How beautiful is your love to Me. ( 1st Corinthians ).
My sister, My spouse: Sister identifies the human race. Spouse emphasizes Jesus’ longing for bridal partnership with the human race.
How much better than wine is your love: Jesus’ is affirming to her that her love to Him is far better than the finer things in the earth. She is His desire. Just as she is His desire. ( Songs 1:2 ). He telling her the same things she has spoken to Him. Union between God and man.
Perfumes: Her thought life.
Than all the spices: ( 2nd Corinthians 2:14-16 ). We are all the fragrance of Christ Jesus. And this my friend pleases God more than any other fragrance.
* Our love is beautiful to the Lord! Again, the Lord relates to us as family, even as the future bride. He is truly ravished by our thoughts and devotions unto Him. He chose death by the cross over the finer things and riches of the world, that is a testimony of how much the Lord loves us in itself. The fragrance of our life as a devotion unto Him is the loveliest of all the fragrances to Him. ( Revelation 5:8 ); Our prayers are before the Lord, and their fragrance is always before Him. Again, we are the desire of the Lord, and He will perfect and make holy that which is His ( Psalm 138:8 ).
4:11; Your lips, My spouse, drip as the honeycomb; Honey and milk are under your tongue; and the fragrance of your garments are like the fragrance of Lebanon.
Lips: Communication with Jesus!
Honeycomb: Sweet!
Honey and milk are under your tongue: A healthy balance of her love for God and her knowledge of God. Her agreement between her tongue and her heart ( Colossians 4:6 ).
Garments: Righteousness; Revelation 6:11, Revelation 7:9, Revelation 7:13-14. Her deeds are full of righteousness.
Lebanon: Strong and beautiful; Our love is strong and beautiful to the Lord!
* The Lord hears our thoughts and prayers. Again they are a sweet aroma that He holds dear to Him, this cannot be over emphasized! God looks beyond our failures, He see’s the finished work of the cross, the blood of the Lamb. Through that God see’s all our pure actions, and all that we do is far lovelier and the acts of the perishing ways of our generation ( Psalm 45 ). Revelation 7:9-17, we will be clothed in white robes, pure and holy, seated in heavenly places. And in this case if we are martyred we will have the honor of being apart of the prayer meeting in heaven which is spoken in this chapter.
4:12; A garden enclosed is My sister, My spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Garden: A place of pleasure, solitude and rest. We as the people of God have been set apart as His garden ( 1st Corinthians 3:6-9 ).
Enclosed: She is protecting herself, as well God is also protecting her ( Psalm 61:4 ).
My sister, My spouse: Third time in a row that the Lord speaks in this language to her. Sister identifies with us as the human race. Spouse emphasizes God’s longing with bridal partnership with weak and broken humans.
A fountain sealed up: ( Ephesians 4:30 ); We are very sacred and reserved to be holy unto the Lord. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit, for we are reserved for Christ, and to resist is carnality, and carnality is death ( Romans 8:6 ). ( 1st Corinthians 6:20; 7:23 ).
* ( Isaiah 58:11 ); God promised to make His church a well watered garden, who’s springs would not fail. Just as God created us so that He might have a people His Spirit could rest in, we need to come to God everyday so that we might find joyful rest in Him for our lives everyday! We are pretty simple creatures. We can’t even go more than 24 hours without sleep or we become physically and mentally drained. In the same way that rest restores our bodies to carry on the next day, we need to find rest in Jesus, to put all our problems at the cross. This will strengthen as well it will guide us down straight paths.
"Oh, to see God’s garden flourishing in the darkness of a fallen world!"
Mike Bickel
4:13; Your plants are an orchid of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna with spikenard.
Plants: Fruitful ministry.
Pomegranates: Her ministry is sweet to God.
Pleasant fruits: Her impact on others by the fruit of her ministry to God.
Fragrant henna with spikenard: The fragrance of the precious and costly work of God in her life.
* Jesus’ heart is so easily conquered by those whom sincerely love Him. Weak people capture His heart when they come to Him with a willing spirit. ( Hebrews 6:10 ); He see’s our good and sincere heart and He will not forget those deeds of good faith that we did for Him, the Lord’s heart is burning in love with us in love with Him. Our ministry/devotion to the Lord is a sweet aroma burning before the Lord.
4:14; Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon. With all tree’s of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
Spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon: A continuation of 4:13; The fragrance of the precious and costly work of God in her life.
With all tree’s of frankincense: Her prayer life.
Myrrh and aloes: The cross; Death to self.
With all the chief spices: His grace flowing into our inner man ( Ephesians 3:16-19 ).
* We must again survey that old rugged cross. The cost of discipleship is that of great sacrifice. A life of prayer and fasting ( Joel 2:12-17 ). We were dead in our sins, than Jesus became the atonement, so now, with this revelation, that we are deserving of eternal punishment, we must embrace the cross as if we were not worthy of salvation in any way shape or form, thus thrusting us in to a perpetual desire to cry out to God with fasting and weeping. He will give to us His Spirit, but it requires great sacrifice! A one thing desire ( psalm 27:4 ).
4:15; A fountain of gardens. A well of living waters. And streams from Lebanon.
A fountain of gardens: Christ is a fountain hidden within us.
A well of living waters: Our history and foundation in God.
And streams form Lebanon: Abundance of grace.
* Christ is hidden within each of us. From the beginning we have had the ability to partnership with the Holy Spirit. I forget who says this but it is amazing,
"It’s not when we get saved that we can have access to the Holy Spirit, but rather when we get saved the Holy Spirit can finally have access to us"!!!
Again we need to strive to live a life as though we were already dead to it. Build a foundation worthy of the cross, so that when the day has approached He might find you pure and spotless through the works of the teachings of the cross of Christ.
4:16; Awake, O north wind, and come, O south, blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my Beloved come to His garden, and eat its pleasant fruits.
Awake, O north wind: The difficult things in our lives that come up and try to overcome us; Anger, pride, lust…..etc……
And come, O south: Other personal life and ministry.
Blow upon my garden: The yes in our heart for God to come.
That its spices may flow out: The cry for the groan of God to be in our life.
Let my Beloved come to His garden, and eat its pleasant fruits: The cry for the anointing of God in our lives, as well a cry for the Lord’s consecration over our lives.
* The affirmation of the Lord is what awakens us to the revelation of the love of God in our lives. She is yearning for the Lord to do a mighty work is her life, thus she cries out to Him, she absolutely and utterly longs for the deep emotions of God to come and overtake her. She realizes that the pain and suffering that it will take to get there will all be worth it, her desire for healing and for all of God in her life are the most important.
5:1; I have come to My garden My spouse: I have gathered My myrrh with My spice; I have eaten My honeycomb with My honey. I have drank My wine with My milk. Eat O friends! Drink, yes, drink deeply O beloved ones.
I have come to My garden: He wants full possession of what is rightfully His.
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey: He is partaking in her life.
I have drank my wine with my milk: He is celebrating the love that the bride has for Him.
Eat: Feed off the edification of one another.
Friends: We are the friends of God. ( John 3:29 ).
Drink: Strengthen and nourish one another.
* Jesus I a safe God! The Lord wants to posses a people. He wants a people who long for the righteous attributes of His character. He wants to fully partake in each of our lives. Therefore pick up your cross daily, that you might die to sin and the unclean things of this age, so that you can partake in the goodness of God. And in this He is utterly ravished to the core of His being, come friends of God, partake in the beautiful glory of our God. And in this strengthen and encourage one another, so that we might grow in this together.
* I also would like to emphasize on the issue of holiness unto the Lord. ( Ephesians 5:29 ); The Lord loves and nourishes His church. He is forever faithful and will come and redeem His people. But lest we sleep and take in vein what being a Christian really implies, I fear far to many of us think that we can wade through the ocean, but without realizing we are diving into hurricane per portions.
The following scriptures are all taken from letters to the church, written to believers, so please don’t write yourself out of the equation, also be urgent in your prayers for yourself as well for others, we have all fallen short of the glory of God, and we all rightfully deserving of death for our transgressions.
Hebrews 10:22-25; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together, as in the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching.
Colossians 1:9-12; For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding. That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints of the light.
Romans 8:12-17; Therefore, brethren, we are debtors-not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh, for if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you did not receive the Spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out "Abba Father". the Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs-heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we also may be glorified together
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