KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES
"Teaching the things concerning
the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 32
THE CHURCH IN EPHESUS
(continued)
“Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left
thy first love” (Rev. 2:4).
Some believe that the messages to the seven churches have no
relevance to the sons of God because they describe the conditions in the
old-order church realm, not the state of the overcoming elect. These
believe that only the promises to the overcomers relate to those called
to sonship who have already come out of the church age. But I would be
remiss if I did not remind you, my beloved, that each promise to the
overcomer begins with the phrase, “To him that overcometh will I
give…” The question follows: To him that overcometh what? And
while it is true that we are called to overcome everything that
would dominate our lives to the detriment of our spiritual walk, yet the
thrust of these messages to the churches is not about overcoming
cussing, smoking, and drinking, but overcoming the very spiritual
conditions that are revealed in the seven churches, that is, among
the Lord’s people!
While
we might like to pride ourselves that we have already fully and
forever overcome all these things, and no longer pertain in any sense to
the old-order church realm, I do not hesitate to tell you that I know
many who treasure the beautiful hope of sonship and are following on to
know the Lord who are still in the process of overcoming in many
of these areas. If the work of overcoming would now be complete in each
of us, would we not already have received all the promises?
Therefore, until we have all attained the absolute fullness of
everything the Father has apprehended us to, the messages to the
churches are still relevant to our present walk. Nothing can be clearer
than this! Otherwise, how could we know and understand where and what
it is that we still must overcome?
The saints in Ephesus had left their first love, and the One
who walked in the midst was unrecognized and only dimly known. What is
that first love which is here described as outweighing all their
wonderful works? Think of it! Labor — steadfastness of toiling on and
on for His name’s sake; patience — the endurance to bear up under
testing; uncompromising — the refusal to fellowship evil; discernment —
they had tried the false apostles and found them liars — not a bad
record at all! “Nevertheless…”
This is one of the most mis-understood passages of scripture
in all the Bible. Most teachers have looked at this departure from the
first love in the sense of having left something we once had. The idea
usually expounded is that there was a quality of love that we possessed
in the beginning of our walk with the Lord which we have departed from.
That is certainly true in a great many cases! But the understanding I
have received from the Spirit is that there has at times been an
experience in our walk wherein we have left or departed from that which
should have first place in our lives, we have neglected that
which we should love and esteem preeminently. What do we love
the most? What are our priorities? What is it that grabs our attention
and gains our affection most readily? What is it that consumes most of
our thoughts, time, and emotion? That is indeed our first love,
although not the first love the Spirit has in mind! If steadfastly
trusting and praising God in all things, walking out the nature of God,
and doing all the Father’s will in every situation is down the line in
priority in our lives, then we have fallen short of that which must have
first place in the life of every son of God.
It is interesting to note the precise meaning of the word
“first” in the original as used in the phrase “your first love.”
“First” is from the Greek protos meaning “foremost, best, chief,
principle, prime, paramount, cardinal, main, supreme, crowning, supreme,
number one.” Your first love is therefore your paramount
love! Your supreme love! Your crowning love! Your
most important and most imperative love! What a message that
is!
Christians spend a lifetime trying to recapture early
experiences with the Lord. They mistakenly believe that the immature,
romantic love they first experienced when they came to Christ is the
greatest quality of love — the first love. But think about it,
my friend, does not true love grow, develop, increase, intensify and
deepen through the years? I know I loved my wife when we got married —
Lorain was eighteen years old and I was nineteen. She was so sweet, so
innocent, so pure, so pretty, so very desirable! Oh, how “in love” we
were! That was young love. But is young love the best
love? In those early days, should Lorain have left me or been killed in
some horrible accident, almost certainly I would have gotten over it in
a few months or in a few years, married again, and gotten on with my
life. But after 48 years together, raising three children together,
passing through the hard times and the good times together, standing by
each other, truly getting to know each other, trust each other, and
depend upon one another, there is now a bonding, a depth, intensity,
quality, and power of love that our “young love” knew absolutely nothing
about!
Today, I would gladly do anything, pay any price, spend my
last dime and suffer the loss of all my world’s goods to save her life
or care for her — so deep does our love go. Young love, childish love,
untried love, immature love, romantic love is not the greatest love
and that is not the love the Lord rebuked the Ephesian church for having
left! Christians mistakenly assume that going back to the first love is
returning to the zeal, fervor, and excitement of their early
relationship with Christ. They grieve over having lost some kind of
youthful enthusiasm for the Lord. It’s true, many believers have grown
cold and dry — but going back to a more innocent time is not enough and
does not express the deeper truth of this text.
WE SHOULD NEVER GO BACK TO WHAT WE WERE AT FIRST! Who wants
to return to the cradle, the bottle, the nursery, kindergarten, or to
the distresses of adolescence? Some get saved out of selfish interests
— to escape hell, to get blessed or healed, or simply because they want
peace of mind. None of us really knew the Lord, nor did we
understand who He truly is, His ways, His truth, or His great plan and
purpose in our lives and in creation. We knew so little! I have no
desire to go back to my early days either naturally or spiritually! Our
understanding was deficient, our experience limited, our wisdom
incomplete, our zeal without knowledge, our works were, for the most
part, the dead works of religion, and our love for Christ was more
emotion than devotion! I would not want to return to anything LESS THAN
I NOW HAVE ATTAINED!
When Jesus uses the words “first love” He speaks not of the
childish and immature love we experienced when first we met the Lord.
He’s referring to exclusive love — first place in our
hearts above all other things! The Christians in the religious
systems today are satisfied with merely an entrance into the
family of God where as children they can enjoy the many blessings and
wonderful benefits of God’s mercy, kindness, and goodness. Their eyes
are blind to the higher purposes of God, and any efforts to lead them on
to higher ground are rebuffed and resisted by a human reasoning that
asks why one should waste time on “deep things” when they are already
saved and “on their way to heaven.” But the new birth, while it is the
most astounding miracle of the ages, is, nevertheless, but the birth of
a mere spiritual infant. There are many further steps that must follow
this birth if one is to come into all the glories and the full heritage
which is prepared for those who follow on to know the Lord.
The
life of God is a free gift of unmerited mercy and favor. But there is a
vast kingdom of spiritual heavenly wealth and power and glory and
usefulness that is given to those who grow up into the fullness of
Christ! In the wonderful family of God we can give ourselves to become
either spiritual paupers or heavenly billionaires! We can remain
thumb-sucking children or mature in wisdom and stature to become kings
and priests upon the throne of the universe! Once we see by the Spirit
the high purposes of our heavenly Father in calling us to sonship, there
is no more desire to return to any stage of spiritual development or any
hope that we ever had before! THE WILL OF THE FATHER IS OUR FIRST
LOVE! THE HIGH CALLING OF GOD IN CHRIST JESUS IS OUR FIRST LOVE! THE
FULLNESS OF GOD HIMSELF IS OUR FIRST LOVE! Here is the test, my
beloved, here is where those in THE EPHESIAN CONDITION must overcome —
we cling to the Lord of our first love, our chief love,
our best love, our paramount love! The overcoming ones do
not neglect to yield themselves to the purpose and calling of sonship to
God! Their priority is not in doing all kinds of religious works,
getting all kinds of worldly blessings, or in trying to convert the
world by the antiquated methods of the old church order. The fullness
of the righteousness and power and glory of God’s heavenly kingdom on
earth, the image and likeness of Christ within, and our full stature and
inheritance in Christ Jesus, is the supreme quest, the first
and highest love of our life! We cannot, dare not, leave our
first love! We cannot, dare not, will not settle for less!
The elect of God are true worshippers, for by supreme
love they worship the Father in spirit and in truth. One can only fully
and maturely love God when he loves also His ways, His will, His word,
and His purposes. There is a second word that goes with worship. It is
the word adoration. It is a term of endearment. There is
passion in that word! “O, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”
(Ps. 96:9). Worship is a love affair; it is making love to God. You
know, according to the Jewish sages, it was David who wrote this Psalm
on the day he brought the ark into Jerusalem. His first wife, Michal,
the daughter of Saul, who represents the rule of the flesh, witnessed
David bringing the ark into the city as he danced in the Spirit and sang
before the Lord, and the scripture says that as she watched from her
balcony she despised him in her heart. Sure she did! She discovered
that David loved God more than he loved her, more than he loved the
fleshly ways of the soul and the carnal mind, and that he was making
love to God in the spirit. Is that not the same reason why the
fleshly religious folks in the church systems of man often despise the
called-out elect of God? Worship without love is like a flame without
heat; it is like a rainbow without color; it is like a flower without
perfume. There is spontaneity and intensity in love. It has a
tenderness, an eagerness, and an expectancy in it. God is bringing His
elect into that place of the intensity and expectation of love by which
we anticipate the full fruit and inheritance of our union with Him! In
the union of love we are being made one with His mind, His will, His
nature, His glory and His purpose. The overcomer will never
leave this first and highest love!
In
union with God there is rest that’s complete,
There
is joy, and there’s peace without measure.
In
union with God we can sit at His feet,
And
enjoy this wonderful treasure.
He’s
coming to us as our hearts yearn for Him
And
we’re changed in the light of His glory;
The
Father is pleased as with gladness He sees
His
likeness brought forth in this union of love!
Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will
soon feel the heat of their desire after God. They mourned for Him,
they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and
out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the
long seeking. Moses used the fact that He knew God as an argument for
knowing Him better. “Now, therefore, I pray Thee, if I have found grace
in Thy sight, show me now Thy way, that I may know Thee.” From
there he rose to make the daring request, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy
glory!”
God
was pleased with this intensity of desire, and the next day called Moses
into the mount, and there in solemn procession made all His glory pass
before him. In meekness Moses sought nothing for himself, but all for
the glory of God. Through faithful communion with God Moses became
acquainted with God’s intentions. He was able to see far into the
future and understand what the Lord purposed to do in distant ages. His
wise heart knew what would evolve from the confusion and disorder of the
day. He knew that from among the stiff-necked people he led the Lord
would raise up a prophet like himself, and that prophet would be God’s
Christ who would, as a Son, do all the will of the Father and only those
things that pleased the Father. He saw, furthermore, that by the
transforming power of the Holy Spirit the Lord would raise up other sons
of God who would be manifest out of the church age in the fullness of
HIS LIFE. Out of his love relationship with God he received the
revelation of the Father’s purpose; out of our love relationship
with the Father we are blessed to be made glad partakers of the
reality of what Moses saw!
David’s life was a torrent of spiritual desire, and his
psalms ring with the cry of the seeker and the glad shout of the
finder. Paul confessed the mainspring of his life to be his burning
desire after Christ. “That I may know Him!” was the goal of his
heart, and to this he sacrificed everything, if by any means he might
apprehend that for which he was apprehended by Christ Jesus, for Christ
in all His glory, wisdom, righteousness, and power was Paul’s first
love. He never left his first, his supreme love! The
church world for the most part is content to know about Christ,
but the heart of every apprehended member of God’s called and chosen
elect will never be satisfied until we fully and completely KNOW HIM!
Any man can come to know something of the acts and
the ways of God, but only those who walk with Christ in the
heavenly places of the Spirit can ever come to know Him in the
most wonderfully personal and intimate manner. This depth of “knowing”
Him is like the intimate relationship of a man with his beloved wife, in
which love he seeks to reproduce after his kind. In fact this is
precisely the way in which the scriptures in a number of cases make use
of the word “know” — to declare the giving and receiving of human seed
in the act of love. We read that “Adam knew Eve his wife; and
she conceived, and bare Cain” (Gen. 4:1). This statement does not mean
that Adam was able to recognize his wife as she walked about the
house! “Knowing,” in the sense of recognition, does not beget
children! When Adam “knew” his wife he intimately and fully explored
her physical and emotional being, and she “knew” him in return in a
personal, familiar, and private way that words could never communicate.
Only by the experience of the sexual relationship does man know woman in
this sense, and she him.
In like manner, it is only in that exquisite relationship
where the believer completely yields himself to the spirit, presence,
mind, will and desires of the Lord, and proves by his wholehearted
response that he totally and truly loves the Lord, that he knows
and is known of God. A husband and wife, by means of the act of
“knowing,” become ONE FLESH; so Christ and the believer, by the
spiritual act of “knowing,” become ONE SPIRIT. “Know ye not that he
which is joined to an harlot is one body? But he that is joined
to the Lord is one spirit” (I Cor. 6:16-17). As we truly come to
know the Lord in the ecstasy of spiritual union, His seed is
raised up in us and His image and likeness is reproduced within us as
the son of God. This truly is the first love — the foremost, the
crowning, the chiefest of all!
From the earliest years of my memory there stirred deep
within my bosom an insatiable longing after reality. Though only a
child, I wanted to know Him who redeemed me, who made me His own,
who came as the pattern and forerunner of all that we are called to in
God. I wanted to intimately know the Christ; oh, how I wanted to KNOW
HIM! At the tender age of twelve the Lord revealed Himself to me in a
remarkable manner, flooding my life with billows of His presence, power,
and glory. I had found the Christ and my heart was filled with joy
because of the love I had for Him. I wanted to be near Him, and become
like Him. I wanted to be conformed to His image and be the
expression of Himself in the earth to humanity. He was to me the Center
of all things and the most important Reality in the universe! From that
moment Christ was the ONLY REALITY. He filled the skies. He filled the
earth. He filled heaven and hell and all realms above and beneath. He
filled my life and flooded my heart with love, hope, and expectation of
the glory of God. He spoke mysteries into my spirit. He enlightened my
understanding concerning His great plan and purpose to restore all
things and all men unto Himself. He raised up in my heart the hope of
His kingdom coming in earth as it is in heaven. He showed me the throne
of His dominion and our call to sit with Christ upon the throne of His
power over all things. He unfolded within the depths of my being the
wonders of His awesome holiness, His ineffable glory, His fearful
majesty, His inscrutable wisdom, His unsearchable ways, and His
merciful, wise, glorious, and all-encompassing plan for creation.
Christ in me in all His glory is truly my FIRST LOVE! Can we not now
understand what a sin, what a tragedy, what a failure, what a loss
it would be to leave our first, supreme, transcendent love! Not
the immature love of our beginning in Christ, but that love above all
loves, the greatest, highest love, the love of loves — Christ
Himself!
The most important thing for any person who has received the
call to sonship is to have a relationship with the Father — not
merely an experience, not a creed or doctrine or religious program and
activity — but relationship, a real presence in your life that you know
and that is made unto you strength, wisdom, understanding, faith, life,
love, and power. By way of illustration, the earth has a relationship
to the sun, all things in our solar system and on earth have a
relationship to one another, and only this perfect relationship
makes life possible on earth!
An
example of this is to be found in the unique position and size of the
earth in relation to the sun and the other planets of the solar system.
Were the earth only a few miles closer to the sun, we would all be
burned to a crisp and our tombstone could read, “Well done, thou
good and faithful servant!” On the other hand, were the earth only a
little farther from the sun we would all be blocks of ice. Were the
earth smaller than it is — as the moon, for instance — the power of
gravitation would be too weak to retain sufficient atmosphere for the
needs of life forms. Were the earth as large as Jupiter, or even Saturn
or Uranus, the power of gravity would be so strong as to render man’s
movements difficult. Were the earth as near the sun as Venus its
burning heat would be unbearable; were it as remote as Mars there would
be scarcely a night, even in its warmest zones, that would be free from
snow and ice. Then look, too, at the perfect proportion of the earth’s
land and water. If the ocean had only one half of its present area the
earth would receive only one-fourth its present rainfall. But, on the
other hand, if the area of the ocean should be increased one-eighth the
rainfall would be increased four times, and the earth would become a
vast swamp. Truly these wonderful relationships display the
marvelous intelligence of the Creator!
In the spiritual world our relationship to Christ, the Sun
of Righteousness, is altogether as vital as the earth’s relationship to
the sun! It is by relationship that we learn to respect Him, draw from
Him, depend upon Him, love Him, and live by Him. Spiritual relationship
is not cosmic law. Many people have the idea that they can learn
certain facts about God and then walk with Him. That’s not
relationship! That’s not how you have a relationship with your
husband, your wife, your children, or your best friend. You don’t
search out a certain law that they live by and then relate to them on
the basis of that law. That’s not relationship! Yet that’s how vast
multitudes of Christians think about the Lord today! They think they
have His doctrines in their head, and His rituals, ceremonies, and
ordinances in the church, and by believing the doctrines, attending
meetings, singing songs, saying prayers, going through the motions of
worship, doing religious works, and observing the ordinances they
suppose that they have a relationship with God. But that’s not
relationship!
You say, “Then, what is?” INTIMACY OF FELLOWSHIP AND VITAL
UNION! First of all, you have to communicate to relate. That’s where
prayer, praise, and worship come in. Prayer is not designed primarily
for asking or petitioning God for things — prayer is
communication and communion with God! Prayer is seeking
after the presence of God, the voice of God, the knowledge of God. This
brings us near enough to experience God in the spirit, and by the
spirit exploring intimately the very personality, mind, heart, and being
of God. Relationship is the key! We are being saved, changed, matured,
and transformed by relationship, not by knowledge or laws or
observances. I have seen hundreds and thousands of people who sat in
pews listening to doctrines of salvation, doctrines of sanctification,
doctrines of the Holy Spirit, doctrines of the kingdom, doctrines of
perfection, doctrines of sonship, doctrines of the feast of tabernacles,
doctrines of the most holy place, doctrines of the third day, doctrines
of life and immortality, and they are no closer to the reality of any of
those things today than they were when they first heard them. Doctrine,
teaching, and understanding don’t make anything happen! You’ve got to
have a relationship.
God is causing His true elect to seek this, pursue this,
extend themselves to this, and make it personal in their lives at all
times and in all circumstances. Intimacy of fellowship and vital union
— that's where it is! That is how truth becomes experiential, that is
how sonship becomes life, that is how the purposes of God become power
and reality within our lives. God is raising up and maturing a seed in
the earth. Those who walk with Him and live with Him in this
significant hour are becoming that seed and are being made a harvest of
salvation and righteousness unto all the ends of the earth. God gave
His firstborn Son thirty years to mature in the life of the Father
within Him. And now many sons are growing up into the fullness of
Christ!
Relationship with God is a Song. It’s a song in your heart,
it’s a melody in your spirit — joy unspeakable and full of glory! It’s
like when two people fall in love — they are like two songbirds. As
soon as the arrow of love pierces the heart all things are transformed;
in that exhilarating moment nothing else matters anymore. All that
matters is that loving song that has occurred between two individuals
who are now lost in one another. And that is what relationship with God
is like! It’s a love song. The message of the inner chamber, the Holy
of holies within our spirit, is the message of those who have been
brought into union with Christ. The Holiest of all is the conception
chamber, the place of union. It is not a place outside of us, it is not
an experience, it is not found in some church or group or meeting, or in
heaven someday. It is that place in the deepest part of our being,
right within our spirit, where the life of God ravishes our heart, and
we are made one in love.
The
Song of Solomon is the reflections of king Solomon and is a revelation
of love and union. In the Song of Solomon the king purposed to bring
the Shulamite maiden into his conception chamber, into the most intimate
part of his life. The Shulamite is not just any woman, she is not
merely a little illiterate, unkempt, desert girl with dirt underneath
her fingernails and needing a bath. Oh, no! She is undoubtedly from
the tent of the leader of the tribe, the wealthiest family among the
Bedouin. She is a princess — a royal natured person of exquisite beauty
and enchanting personality. She is unusual, unique, special and
unsurpassed in poise, grace, mental adeptness, ability, and loveliness.
The significance of the Song of Solomon is found in the
distinctions that come forth between the various characters. There are
four main characters, two male and two female, although one female is a
group — the daughters of Jerusalem. The interplay between these four
characters is the key to the book and the secret lies in
identifying the voice — the one speaking. The importance of this
drama is rooted in the fact that in the beginning God created man, male
and female. And within each of us are the characteristics of both male
and female — spirit and soul. Anyone who has read the
Song of Solomon knows that it is very sexual in content, it’s about the
intimacy of love, about coming together, about the union of two people,
male and female. It is not about something you do out in the world, in
public, but it’s private and personal. And that’s how our relationship
with Christ is — it’s not something we do in church — it’s a secret love
within ourselves.
Christ is in your spirit, dear one, and He seeks to come
into your soul fully. He wants to affect the way you feel, the way you
think about things, the way you act and react, your deepest desires and
all of your will. That’s how it is in relationship! Over time a
couple start to think like each other, act alike, and even look
like each other because they are knowing each other through each other.
And that’s how it is between the spirit and the soul, between us and the
Lord! In relationship we no longer keep rules, believe doctrines,
observe ordinances, or do works to please God. We simply begin to
think like the Lord, desire like the Lord, act like
the Lord, talk like the Lord, walk like the Lord, and
look like the Lord! We are not conformed to a law, but now share
His life at the most intimate, deepest, and powerful level of our
being!
Every one of God’s called and chosen elect is brought to the
place of accepting the Lord into our soul. I’m not talking about
raising your hand or going forward in a revival meeting, I am speaking
of entering into a relationship with the Lover of your soul. It
is not a matter of receiving a gift from the Lord — union is far
beyond gifts! The Lord invites us to the deepest and most
intimate and exhilarating relationship that can exist between two
people — the relationship of love! Love is a power greater than
anything we can imagine, for God is love. As infinite as God, so
is the depth and height of all that the Lord expresses in love. This is
the first and foremost love we must realize as we enter
into relationship with God. This is the supreme, first love!
The meaning of the message of the Song of Solomon is just
this — a song. Singing is one of the major themes of scripture. In the
book of Revelation, when the elect of the Lord move into a higher place
in the Spirit, they sing a new song. The songs of the Bible came
by revelation of the Holy Spirit, indeed, they were revelations
of the Holy Spirit. Moses revelated by song. David revelated by song.
The Psalms are songs. They are music. They are singing. They are a
symphony. David ordained a whole realm of ministry just for songs.
Paul spoke of “singing and making melody in your heart unto the Lord.”
The Bible is full of songs! But of all the songs that have ever been
sung, Solomon’s is the song of all songs. It is called “The song of
songs, which is Solomon’s” (S. of S. 1:1). “Song of songs”
is a term like “King of kings” or the “Day of days.” It
denotes that which is higher, finer, supreme, superlative, unexcelled!
A song in scripture means a message. Thus, the “song of songs”
is truly the MESSAGE OF MESSAGES — the greatest and highest message of
all!
It is the message of love. It is a song of love-making. It
is a song of intimacy. It is a song of union. You know what happens
when you fall in love, everything else sinks into the shadows, and you
are consumed by this one fixation of your life. The grass appears
greener, the sun shines brighter, the air smells fresher, the birds sing
sweeter, your step is quicker, and all creation is alive, vibrating
harmoniously to the melody of your awakened soul. This is the song of
creation — the eternal song of love! That is why the Song of Solomon is
in the Bible. It is a book of love — in the very Book of God! It’s not
a poem. It’s not a theatrical drama. It’s not a novel. Its not a
sex-education manual. It’s a REVELATION! It’s about who we are, why
we are who we are, and how the relationship between Christ and the
church, the relationship between our spirit and our soul, works.
I view the story of the Song of Solomon differently than I
did in the past. I once saw the male character in Solomon’s Song as
king Solomon himself, and the female character was a little desert girl
whose beauty Solomon had discovered in the wilderness and brought her
into his harem. The king fell in love with the Bedouin maiden, and in
return she fell in love with the king. That is how the story is usually
taught. As you carefully read this story, however, you find something
else altogether. It seems that this exquisite Shulamite girl was sent
out to work in the vineyards in the hill country north of Jerusalem
where the blazing sun had turned her olive complexion black. How
beautiful she must have been when one day king Solomon, traveling
through his kingdom, upon passing the vineyard, found her so comely that
his heart melted within him. Exercising his right of authority he
ordered that she be escorted to his court and made ready for his
pleasure.
Once there, Solomon sought, by every means in his power, to
woo and win the lovely Shulamite girl. At the palace she was surrounded
by the many careful attentions of the attending ladies, king Solomon’s
servants, the “daughters of Jerusalem.” Her sun-burnt skin was
carefully rubbed with precious aromatic oils and spices. She was also
bedecked with ornaments and chains of gold to please the king. Solomon
wooed her as he praised her beauty and lavished affection upon her. He
told her of his desire for her; the women of the court told her about
the splendid life she would enjoy as Solomon’s wife. The mightiest and
wealthiest king of that day offered every inducement at his disposal to
accomplish his ends.
The great king Solomon, however, was in for a surprise, for
the girl loved a shepherd boy from her home region and the little
maiden’s heart was faithfully fixed upon her first love, her
true love, her only love — her Beloved! She would not
be tempted nor intimidated by all the gold and glitter lavished upon
her, nor by the urgings of the women who attended her. She refused to
be moved by all the king’s enticing advances and intense flatteries.
She was desperately in love with her one and only Shepherd and her mind
and heart were stayed on him. Throughout all her trying ordeal, she
remained faithful to her lover. She adamantly said, “I am my beloved’s,
and my beloved is mine. I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward
me.” Not once did she deviate from that loyalty. Nothing that the king
could offer her could change her mind. Nor could his threats make her
yield. She blotted out the enticements of Solomon’s glittering palace
with the recollection of her beloved. How tenderly she spoke of him!
How often she whispered the words, “My beloved!” While her body
might be held captive by Solomon, her heart went winging its way to the
hills to relive over and over again the tender moments she had shared
with him whom she loved so much. As she roamed about the city she was
constantly looking and listening for the One whom her soul loved. In
the end Solomon was forced to let her go because she stayed true to the
love of her heart. Joyfully she returned to the shepherd whom her soul
loved.
In former days we have used king Solomon as a type of Christ
wooing his bride, the church. Let me tell you something about king
Solomon. When Solomon became king he married the daughter of Egypt’s
Pharaoh. It is in the record that though he “loved the Lord,” he
practiced idolatry (I Kings 3:3), a strange mixture. Then there
follows the story of his wisdom and prosperity, and the houses he built,
one for the Lord, one for his Egyptian bride, and one for himself (I
Kings 3:7-8). But he also “loved many strange women,” a union
prohibited by the Lord to His people. Some twenty years or so after his
accession to the throne of Israel, he had “seven hundred wives and three
hundred concubines” (I Kings 11:3) and, “his wives turned away his
heart…after other gods…and he did evil in the sight of the Lord,” and
slipped into terrible idolatry. Jerusalem became filled with temples
and shrines and altars built to the strange gods of his many foreign
wives.
SOLOMON IS NOT A TYPE OF CHRIST! He is a type of the world,
especially of the religious world of the harlot systems of man.
He is a type of Mystery Babylon the Great, of whom it is written,
“Babylon is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils,
and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and
hateful bird. For all nations have drunk the wine of the wrath of her
fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with
her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance
of her delicacies” (Rev. 18:2-3). And to the lovely little Shulamite
held captive within the clutches of this glittering religious enticement
the call goes out, “Come out of her, my people!” (Rev. 18:4).
In its spiritual application the bride of Christ is the
Shulamite, Christ Himself is the Beloved, and Solomon represents the
world, the realm of the carnal mind, the exalted and powerful religious
realm, the distraction that once took all of us captive, and which seeks
to woo our hearts away from that precious Shepherd lover who dwells
right within the spirit of each of us. But in the end, as we, the elect
of God, learned by the spirit of life within us what it means to remain
firm in our first love, our supreme and true love,
keeping our hearts pure and our passions reserved, Solomon in all of his
glory has been forced to loose us to go to the One we love! That is the
Song of songs! That is the Message of messages!
A dear friend of ours, Jackie Caporaso, has shared some
precious insights into this. She writes, “God’s precious sheep are as
this little Shulamite. They have been taken captive to a lustful and
ruthless system which thinks nothing of stripping and using them to
appease their voracious appetite for fame fortune, and rulership. The
young maiden knew that her heart did not belong to the king, and that
none of his carefully planned enticing tactics could possibly separate
her from the love of her true beloved. Many of God’s precious sheep
have been in the king’s court, the powerful religious systems of our
day. Their spiritual beauty and abilities have been exploited. They
have been made to give themselves to programs which keep carnal
organizations going strong. They have been pressured to build the
king’s desire for bigger and better harems — congregations — that he
might satisfy his greedy appetites. This is a time of severe testing
for the sheep. The Voice of the Shepherd is calling unto them! ‘My
sheep hear my voice,’ Jesus said, ‘and another they will not follow.’
He will deliver and heal them!”
The love of the Beloved is a special one. The Shulamite is
not a concubine, she’s not a queen, and she’s not a virgin — one of the
daughters of Jerusalem. She is the only one of her mother, she’s a
unique reality, a special soul. That is what God is after — a
special soul. You cannot have a relationship with someone and be
intimate with them, and not spend time with them, care for them, and
know them. Love is not casual, love is not sex, love is not
infatuation, love is not a one-night stand, love is not a mistress, love
is not a clandestine affair. There is a deep mystery between Christ and
the church! The word “church” is from the Greek word ekklesia
meaning “the out-called.” God’s elect, chosen ones have been called
out both from something and unto something. If you have been called
out of anything, out from any realm, you are the church on some
level! That’s what constitutes who we are. We are the “called out.”
We are called out of the world, we are called out of the flesh, we are
called out of our own desires, hopes, plans, and ambitions, we are
called out of the worldly, harlot church systems of man, and we are
called out unto the Lord. We are called out to a special relationship
with God! We are called to walk with Him, to follow hard after Him, to
pant after Him as the hart pants after the waterbrooks, to keep
ourselves unto Him and unto Him alone. We are called to
experience Him and know Him in the deepest measure and most intimate
expression of being.
The message of the Song of Songs represents that element of
our experience of Christ into which we shall move more fully as we enter
into the feast of tabernacles, into the third day, into the Holiest of
all. The significance of the Song of Songs is that there is an
awakening of the feminine side within each of us, and the church is His
bride. The reason we are collectively His church, or His bride, is
because the feminine side of being, our soul, has been awakened
within each of us individually by the Christ in our spirit.
There are two compartments within the life of every person — there is a
male and there is a female reality within each one. Within every
regenerated person there is the consciousness of Spirit, the Beloved,
the Bridegroom, the Great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls; and there is
the Soul, the part of us that is wooed by Christ in our Spirit.
Christ is not just in some far-off heaven somewhere, for He
truly dwells within each of us! “Christ liveth in me”
(Gal. 2:20). “For He abideth with you, and shall be in you” (Jn.
14:17). In these simple words our Lord announces that wonderful mystery
of His indwelling which is the fruit and crown of His redeeming work.
It was for this that man was created! It was for this, God’s mastery
within the heart, that Christ came to bring us to the Father. It was
for this that Christ returned as the Holy Spirit on the day of
Pentecost. Dwelling consciously within us He would prepare us to
receive Him as our Lord — as Bridegroom. We will never understand the
deep mystery of the Bridegroom and the bride until we know that Christ
is the Bridegroom and that Christ lives in our spirit. If you give
godly consideration to these simple truths, you cannot avoid the
conclusion that THE BRIDEGROOM IS WITHIN YOU! There is a place within
you, in the bridal chamber of your life, in the Holy of holies of your
very being, where the Bridegroom dwells and comes out of that place and
woos you into a relationship with Himself.
The reverent heart is made to wonder at the unmistakable
simplicity of the ways of God. Long centuries ago the apostle penned
these meaningful words, “We have had fathers of our flesh which
corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in
subjection unto the FATHER OF SPIRITS, and live?” (Heb. 12:9). All of
God’s elect know now by the spirit of wisdom and revelation that GOD is
the FATHER OF OUR SPIRITS! He is not the Father of religious rituals or
static creeds; He is not the Father of man-made religious organizations;
He is not the Father of your flesh; He is not the Father of your carnal
mind, your self-will, your fleshly desires, or your soulish emotions.
You can never know God in any of those realms! He is not there!
God
is the God of your spirit, and you must be in your spirit to be with God
and touch God. Today I am sitting in my office in El Paso, Texas. If
you go to Dallas you will miss me! If you go on any other street, you
will miss me. If you stand outside my house on the street corner, you
will miss me. You must come to the door and enter my dwelling to be
where I am and know me. And you must enter in to where God is to know
Him. God is the God of our spirits! We all need to turn to the
spirit. From thence is the fountain of all life! It is a blessed day
for any man when he makes the amazing discovery that Christ Himself is
the Bridegroom; that this Christ is in our spirit; that the Bridegroom
is thus in our spirit; when our soul pants after God the soul
turns to Christ in our spirit, and it is there that we know union with
God!
The natural mind, the human will, our carnal emotions and
fleshly desires are all aspects of the soul. The soul is our
natural, human consciousness! Regardless of whether a man is walking in
the mind, after his own will, or his natural emotions and desires, he
is soulish. Every man that lives by these senses apart from the
life of the spirit is a soulish man. Therefore it is very easy to
discern whether a man is soulish! I would be remiss if I failed to
point out that the soul can be moved upon to act religiously —
and what a fine act it is able to perform! The soul can be taken into a
meeting where a religious atmosphere is created by a man at the pulpit;
with a suave and dynamic personality he tells you to stand up, sing,
clap your hands, raise your hands, praise the Lord, say Amen, etc. By
the rhythm of the music and movements of the body the soul is stirred
and takes on the appearance of spirituality. And yet, the source
of all this is not the sovereign and spontaneous OUTFLOW OF HIS LIFE IN
THE SPIRIT, but merely the contrived actions of the soul! When none of
these “good” things are motivated from within by the spirit, it is still
naught but the vanity of the soul!
When we can recognize what type of person is soulish, it is
not difficult to realize what kind of person is spiritual. Since a
soulish person lives by the mind, will, emotion, and desire of the
natural life, a spiritual person is one who does not live by these.
A spiritual person thinks by the spirit, desires by the spirit, wills by
the spirit, acts by the spirit, and speaks out of the spirit. The
spiritual person is not one who acts religious. Most people who
have a religious aura about them are not spiritual at all! A
spiritual person simply allows the spirit to be the source and master of
all their action and behavior. The spirit in them occupies the
preeminent position; the soul in them is in the position of submission,
under the government of the spirit and dominated by the spirit. They
are not like soulish persons, who let the soul dominate in everything;
they deny the preeminence of their own mind, will, emotion, and desire
by entering into union with the spirit and yielding to the high desires
of the spirit! Thus they allow the spirit to BE LORD in them; they
allow the spirit to direct their whole being so that they become the
expression of the spirit. Whenever they encounter a situation they do
not draw from their mind, will, emotion, or desire; rather they draw
from the life of Christ in their spirit to understand what is the
mind, the will, and the way of the spirit! These are spiritual,
living by the life of the spirit, and the soul acts only in union with
the spirit, as the outward expression of the indwelling spirit. It is
Christ in the spirit who becomes the Bridegroom that ultimately is
fully joined to the soul — receives the soul into itself. This is the
Song of songs, the Message of messages!
The wonderful goal, however, is not just our will, our mind,
our emotions, and our desires submitted to His will and way, but
ONLY HIS WILL! In the marriage union of spirit and soul, of Christ and
the church, there is one new creature, Christ, with one mind, one
will, one emotion, and one desire — HIS made OURS. This is union!
Blessed union! It is not merely His mind controlling our mind;
it is our possessing HIS mind. It is more than just “fill me” with more
of God, but a being swallowed up into Him, that henceforth it is “no
longer I that live, but Christ that liveth in me” (Gal. 2:20). This is
UNION! This is what all of God’s elect are yearning for and
experiencing more and more every day — that we have a constant outflow
of our true inner nature. As Paul wrote, “Stop assuming an outward
expression that does not come from within you and is not representative
of what you are in your inner being…but change your outward expression
to one that comes from within and is representative of your inner being”
(Rom. 12:2, Wuest).
That’s how you get to know yourself — when you meet the corresponding
reality to yourself within yourself your true nature is awakened within
you. A woman doesn’t know all that it means to be a woman until she
falls in love with a man! It is in that intimate and exquisite
experience that all her feminine qualities are awakened within her. And
it is the same with a man, when his masculine capacities are awakened
within him and fulfilled in their totality. You are actually changed —
expanded, broadened, increased, intensified, amplified, made complete —
when you enter into a relationship with the beloved one of the opposite
sex. In that union you come to know yourself in a way you never could
by any other means. It causes your true feminine or masculine
potentials to be called forth, expressed, utilized, and fulfilled
through that exchange.
It is
just the same between Christ and His bride, between the spirit and the
soul! The fullness of what He is and the fullness of what we are called
to be are revealed in the union of love! When our soul bows low before
the spirit, yields to the wooing of the spirit’s love, submits to the
will and way of the spirit, to find itself in union with the spirit,
that is when our true identity is discovered! As long as our soul is
doing its own thing, walking in our own way, after our own desires,
fulfilling only the promptings of our own mind, we know neither who we
are nor why we are who we are. That is most of humanity! But as we,
the firstfruits of God, seek the Lord in our spirit and enter into union
with Him, the eyes of our understanding are enlightened and we are
granted the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of HIM.
The Shulamite, as she went about Jerusalem searching for her
Beloved, said, “I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him,
but he gave me no answer” (S. of S. 5:6). At night she was out looking
for him and we read, “The watchmen that went about the city found me,
they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the wall took away my
veil from me” (S. of S. 5:7). The watchmen of the wall represent the
ministers of the carnal church systems. It was the watchmen and keepers
of the walls around the Lord’s people who should have gladly assisted
the Shulamite in finding her Beloved, but instead they began to mistreat
her in the most brutal ways. It is truly irritating to those who are
appointed to lead and tend the sheep, for those who should go before the
flock and first partake of every pasture and all the fruit, to have
those whom they esteem as “dumb sheep” start out and run ahead of the
shepherd, and the pasture in which they are staying and keeping the rest
of the flock. Nothing will stir up persecution as this will! But it is
because the sheep have heard the voice of the true Shepherd,
instead of those appointed by man!
Many
of us have had this experience who have kept step with God in His
on-going revelation and walked on with Him, regardless of cost or
separations. And how some of us have been smitten by the watchmen! No
greater indignity could be offered an oriental woman than to take away
her veil. In those days it was only harlots who went about unveiled.
The watchmen taking away the bride’s veil denotes the removing of her
covering — the misrepresentation and slurs cast upon her, the claim that
she has no covering, therefore she cannot be considered acceptable in
the city, for shame is cast upon her. How many churches have acted in
this way to the Lord’s faithful chosen ones who cry out for Him! We are
not received by them, but of course we have no desire to be. We are
accused of being “Lone Rangers,” unsubmissive to authority, uncommitted
to the brethren, and worse things. Because of the veil being torn away
from her condition and distress, the Shulamite was urged on to greater
love and fervency in seeking him whom her soul loved. And we, too,
never before have we loved Him as we love Him now! Never before has He
seemed so sweet and desirable to us, as He does now! And never before
have we been so determined to find Him, to know Him in all His
fullness as we are now!
So the Shulamite says to the daughters of
Jerusalem, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my
Beloved, that tell him that I am sick of love (love-sick).” To which
they respond, “What is thy beloved more than another beloved, O thou
fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved,
that thou doest so charge us?” (S. of S. 5:8-9). And to those today who
are following hard after Christ in all His fullness the old-order church
daughters of Jerusalem say, “What is there about your message that is so
much better than anybody else’s message? What is there about your hope
that is so much better than anybody else’s hope? What is there about
your experience that is so much better than anybody else’s experience?”
They ask out of ignorance because they have neither seen Him nor
known Him as He is!
She
goes into a description of Him that was rooted in her knowledge of Him.
She knew Him! She could describe Him! She could praise and
extol and say everything her heart felt about Him because she knew Him.
She knew what she was after. And so do we know today who is our Beloved
and so do we know what we are after. We know the beauty of His
appearing, for He has disclosed Himself to us. We know the wonder of
His ways, the marvel of His salvation. We know what is the hope of our
sonship in Him — it’s beautiful, it’s altogether glorious, and there is
none like unto our Christ, our Beloved! There is no hope greater than
His hope, no faith more powerful than His faith, no love stronger than
His love, no purpose more excellent than His purpose, no life more
abundant than His life, no peace deeper than His peace, no joy more
exhilarating than His joy, no righteousness more pure and holy than His
righteousness, no power more triumphant than His power, and no throne
higher than His throne! Aren’t you glad!
Ah,
yes, CHRIST is our chief, foremost, supreme, first love! We
shall never leave our first love!
To be continued…
J. PRESTON EBY
If you would like to receive these studies write to:
J. Preston Eby
P.O. Box 371240
El Paso TX 79937-1240
All writings are distributed on a free-will offering basis.
Pathfinder Homepage | Elwin's Articles | Margit's Articles | Other Links