HIS HEART SONG…Part 10



HIS HEART SONG…Part 10

“His Ravished Heart”

Song of Songs 4:8 “Come with Me from Lebanon, My spouse, Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions’ dens, from the mountains of the leopards.”

• This is the very first time in the entire Song of Solomon where He calls her HIS SPOUSE…HIS BRIDE…

• She is finally beginning to actually function as His Bride!

• Here is an all new invitation to “come away”….but now that her will has been crucified…she will go COMPLETELY WILLINGLY!

• He asks her to come out from Lebanon…Lebanon is a beautiful country…but not so godly…

• 2 Corinthians 6:17 says “…come out from among them, and be ye separate.”

• COME OUT…means there has to be ACTION on your part…and when you take that FIRST STEP FORWARD…then He is right by your side to help you the rest of the way!

• Let Him take you out of the places that are not so godly…the places where there might be COMPROMISE in your life…

• Not only will He lead you out of those places…but He will lead you up to MOUNT AMANA

• AMANA comes from a Hebrew root word that means “CONFIRM, BELIEVE, ESTABLISH, SUPPORT, FAITHFUL, TRUST and TRUTH”…what an awesome mountain THAT is!!!

• Notice that you are gonna “LOOK FROM THE TOP”…from HIS point of view! We have to see things from an ETERNAL point of view…not from a natural one…when we look from the top of Amana…we are looking from the viewpoint of TRUTH!!!

• How would we ever win a battle in spiritual warfare if the only view point we ever had was the viewpoint of the NATURAL WORLD around us…???

• HISTORY FACT: Solomon built a summer house in the forests of Lebanon, and it is referred to by the name Lebanon. This house was built for a place to take his bride….In the natural, this was a place for Solomon to find refuge.

• MORE FACTS: In Arabic, Mt. HERMON means “Mountain of the Chief” “mountain of victory”….It was called Senir by the Amorites…it is a mountain with two names…it was one of the borders of the Promised Land…Mt. Hermon is also the possible sight of the transfiguration…..

• SENIR means “armor”….this mountain, according to Historical Notes, was so FRUITFUL that it could not even all be harvested

• MORE FACTS: Israel defeated two Kings of the Amorites (in Deut. 3:1-11)…Og the king of Bashan, and Sihon, King of Heshbon…the Amorite Kings had to be conquered before Israel could CLIMB THE MOUNTAIN….this is just a picture for us (cause God knows we learn through pictures!)…

• Another interesting fact…the name AMORITE means “fame-seeker and self-exaltation”

• So since….all this part of our FLESH (our fame-seeking and self-exaltation) has been defeated …..defeated cause we went up the Mountain of Suffering (Myrrh)… we can now ascend Mr. Hermon since we are cleared from all those “shadows”…

• This is to be our viewpoint for SPIRITUAL WARFARE…we are to view things from a HEAVENLY viewpoint…the view of VICTORY, of ARMOR, and of TRUTH

• But walking on the Mountaintops and checking everything out from that view will INEVITABLY bring us into the very places where the “lions’ dens and leopards’ mountains”…..

• He never said it would be all “hunky-dorey” when we ascend….actually when we are hanging out on the peaks is where the lions and leopards are closest of all…

• The “lions dens and leopards” speaks of those things and principalities that would try to consume believers….

• 1 Peter 5:8 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

• Ephesians 6:10-12 “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms”

• THIS IS A PICTURE of Spiritual warfare!....not only is she taking her place as the lover of God…but she is also talking her place as a WARRIOR

• Now……………woah………..it’s about to get hot and heavy here…..we are about to hear about the RAVISHED HEART of our Beloved Bridegroom….

Song of Songs 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.”

• RAVISH…means to overcome with emotions of joy or delight, unusually attractive, pleasing or striking…causing great joy or delight; entrancing, ecstasy

• The Hebrew definition of RAVISHED is “to be deeply moved with emotions of delight because of one who is unusually beautiful, attractive, pleasing, or striking

• Does that not just blow you away!!!!????...are you amazed at how incredibly IN LOVE God is with YOU!!!??????.....He is RAVISHED with you!!!

• We almost can’t believe it….we almost can’t even comprehend it…..and it’s all because of the brides WILLINGNESS to go with Him to the Mountains!!!

• Psalm 139:16-18 “Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand…”

• He is so RAVISHED and OVERWHELMED by her…that she has His full attention…it’s like He can’t seem to think of anything else but HER!

• What is it in her that He sees?.....He sees HIS HOLINESS rising up in her! She is surrendered totally to Him and the beauty that is coming up in her is the BEAUTY OF HOLINESS!!!!....woah!!!!!

• Doesn’t this just make you want to throw yourself down at His feet!!!!????? In WONDER and AMAZEMENT that THIS is how He feels about YOU!

• Notice that He called her MY SISTER before He called her MY SPOUSE….this is because He first had to become one of us (like us)…a human being….He had to become our KINSMAN REDEEMER…we had to first be OF THE SAME FAMILY

• Ruth 4:6 “At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it."

• In Hebrew, KINSMAN and REDEEMER are the exact same words…..He came to REDEEM us …to buy us back

• He had to become HUMAN before He could become our SPOUSE…..THAT knowledge should give a whole new meaning to “My sister, My spouse”

• Hebrews 2:11-17 “He is not ashamed to call them BROTHERS…have partaken of FLESH and BLOOD, He Himself likewise SHARED THE SAME…For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give air to the SEED OF ABRAHAM. Therefore, in all things He had to be made LIKE HIS BROTHERS, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God…”

• He HAD to do this so He could impart His NATURE into us…He is not ashamed of us…..we don’t really completely understand everything He had to leave in heaven in order to do this for us….I mean, my goodness…He left a place where He was worshipped non-stop to come down here to a world that most of us reject Him in….and if we don’t reject Him…we seem to mostly reject the way He FEELS about us…

• If you don’t come into agreement with the way that God feels about you…what you are doing is actually creating strongholds in your mind that are FALSE….these false strongholds create walls that keep you from becoming intimate with Him

• He doesn’t just feel this way about MATURE believers…He feels this way about us in our IMMATURITY….

• We HAVE TO GET THIS!!!!!...it isn’t enough just to “know” what He did for us on the cross or even to “know” what He will do when He returns….He apparently really wants us to KNOW how He feels about us HERE and NOW….it must be very important that we do……could it be that in the trials that may come, that if we KNOW how He feels about us…that knowledge will help us to be OVECOMERS in a hostile world.????

• We have a God with very intense…very deep feelings for us!...He is RAVISHED by her HEART

“…with one glance of your eyes…”

• Think about what it does to you when the ones you love look at you…sometimes a LOOK can say way more than words could ever say…sometimes Adi (2yrs) or Cohen (1yr) give me a look that just melts me…it’s one of total LOVE

• Check out this example from Scripture of what happened when Jesus just LOOKED at Peter…

• Luke 22:61 “At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord's words flashed through Peter's mind: "Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me."

• Your eyes are the lamp of your body according to Matthew 6:22-23

• HISTORY FACT: Girls in parts of Asia have been known to veil their faces…when they wanted to flirt with someone that they are interested in, they would lower their veil just a fraction, showing one eye

• Nobody loves us like God loves us!....Just a GLANCE from us…from the ones that are REDEEMED by His blood…just a glance in His direction and He is FLOORED!

• WHY???....because we RAVISH His heart

• So…..think about it….if just one GLANCE moves His heart THIS MUCH….what does it do to Him when we FIX OUR GAZE on Him!!!!??????

“….with one chain (link) of your neck (necklace)…”

• Remember that her NECK speaks of her SUBMITTED WILL

• IT’s not even the WHOLE necklace…just ONE LINK!...every single little bitty move she makes toward Him in OBEDIENCE completely bowls Him over!

• Hebrews 6:10 “For God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward His name…”

• Matthew 10:42 “And whosoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water because he is My disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward.”

• Do you remember what was bound around her neck way back in 1:11???...

• Proverbs 3:3 “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.”

• He is totally ravished by the LOVE and FAITHFULNESS that she has for Him

• One translation I read of what the word RAVISHED means said there is no way to translate that Hebrew word into English…it would actually read something like “My love for you drove Me out of My mind”…..now THAT’s some intense love He has for us!!!

Song of Songs 4:10 “How fair (beautiful) is your love, My sister, My spouse! How much better is your love than wine! And the smell of your ointments than all spices!”

• Here He goes again…lavishing He love onto her…she is just irresistible to Him …she was willing for her selfish WILL to be crucified on the Mountain of Suffering…we was willing to devote herself to prayer and holiness on the Hill of Frankincense…she is totally fully separated to Him

• “…how much better is your love than wine!”

• This is the same thing that SHE said about HIM way back in Song of Solomon 1:2 “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth--for your love is more delightful than wine.”

• Remember that WINE represents JOY….our love to Him is better than JOY!!!!...and just take a minute to think about all the things that He created that give Him joy…the entire universe…the angels that constantly cry out to Him “holy, holy, holy..”…but all those things cannot compare to YOU!!!

• “…the smell (scent) of your ointments (perfumes) than all spices”

• PERFUME is a fragrance that is invisible…but it is readily known by others…you can tell when someone has on perfume…it fills the room….remember way back in chapter one when she spent time with the King at His table, how her perfume filled the place…its super difficult to use words to explain a fragrance…but isn’t it so true that others are so touched by what emanates from believers…you can’t really describe it with WORDS…it’s what happens when you are living in total submission to the Holy Spirit

• The SCENT…is a divine aroma that is released from her to God

• 2 Corinthians 2:14-16 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”

Song of Solomon 4:11 “Your lips, O My spouse, drop as the honeycomb: honey and milk are under your tongue; and the smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.”

• Remember that her lips earlier in this chapter had been described as SCARLET…with REDEEMED SPEECH…they were prepared and ready…now her lips are FILLED

• Her REDEEMED SPEECH…her words…are as sweet as honey to God and to others…He must apparently notice EVERY SINGLE WORD that comes from his brides mouth….woah….every single word…think about that for a moment…

• Notice that her words DRIP…not GUSH….not excessive words…but balanced, wise speech…

• Proverbs 15:2 “The tongue of the wise makes knowledge appealing, but the mouth of a fool belches out foolishness.”

• Colossians 4:6 “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone”

• HONEY AND MILK …the Promised Land…it was a land flowing “with milk and honey” these things were to be used to NOURISH and FEED….which just so happens to be a theme that has been running through this book….we show our love for Him by NOURISHING and FEEDING the young ones in Christ

• This HONEY AND MILK ARE UNDER HER TONGUE…what’s under YOUR tongue…???...this bride is dripping out nourishing words for younger Christians and for her lover…her heart and her speech are lined up according to His Word…

• Psalm 119:103 “How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

• There is noting sweeter to God than for us to have HIS WORDS on our lips

• 1 Peter 2:1 “So get rid of all evil behavior. Be done with all deceit, hypocrisy, jealousy, and all unkind speech.”

• Psalm 10:7 “His mouth is filled with cursing and deceit and oppression; under his tongue are mischief and iniquity.”…other versions use words such as trouble, evil, wickedness, vanity, wrongdoing, evil purposes, dark thoughts, perverseness…are under his tongue….WOW

• The phrase UNDER HIS TONGUE refers to the PRIVATE THOUGHTS….in Psalm 10:7 the private thoughts are YUCK….but the Bride only has NOURISHING words under her tongue…not flattering words to someone’s face but really malice in her heart…but her HEART and her MOUTH LINE UP

• Luke 6:45 “The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.”

• If you seem to be having trouble with your speech…and you know that what comes out of your mouth is not pleasing to Him…pray Psalm 141:3

• Psalm 141:3 “Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.”

• MEDICAL FACT: Placing medicines “under your tongue” helps them get into the bloodstream faster…(like nitroglycerine and B12 and things like that)…so for the bride to have MILK and HONEY under her tongue…it’s in her BLOOD to nourish and feed…..cool, huh??!

• Pray that you would know what is fitting to say…and what is not…

• Proverbs 10:32 “The lips of the righteous know what is fitting, but the mouth of the wicked only what is perverse”

• Pray this…

• Psalm 19:14 “May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.”

• THINK ABOUT IT…before you speak, think about what you are going to say…”How will the person feels that is going to hear it?...will it hurt them? Or will it edify, comfort, or encourage them?

“…and the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.”

• YOUR GARMENTS….we did a huge teaching on our garments a long time ago when we were learning about linen…your garments speak of your RIGHTEOUS ACTS

• Revelation 19:8 “Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear." (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)”

• Isaiah 61:10 “I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

• Jesus warns us that we have to “keep our garments” or we will become naked and others will see the shame of our life that produced no works of service for God

• Revelation 16:15 “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed."

• LIKE THE FRAGRANCE OF LEBANON…Lebanon was known for very fragrant cedar trees and flowers…the Brides deeds, her garments, were like the fragrance of Lebanon…beautiful and fragrant because she nourished others

• If you find yourself lacking in the fragrance area…Ask Him for His the clothes of His fragrance…

• Colossians 3:12 “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

• SIDENOTE: We also can tell that our little bride must have followed her Beloved to Lebanon like He asked her to…because now, her garments smell of Lebanon!!!

Song of Songs 4:12 “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”

• He calls her a GARDEN….if you do a little research on a King’s Garden…you find that it is a special place of pleasure and solitude and rest that is reserved for the King. Great care and planning is done to a King’s garden….Lots of money was spent to take care of it…Most of the time the King’s garden isn’t right next to the palace, but a little ways away from it…it was never used to grow crops or anything like that…just a place of rest, beauty, solitude, and enjoyment…King’s would show their gardens off to their friends…they were very proud of them because they cost so much money!!!!

• She is an ENCLOSED GARDEN…..not open to the public…..most of the time King’s would build a stone wall around their garden’s to keep strangers from wandering into it

• She is ENCLOSED in two ways….she is WATCHFUL…she guards her heart and doesn’t let the yuck stuff of the world get into it….her heart is His and His alone…it doesn’t belong to the world….she has closed out all the mess and she understands that SANCTIFICATION and SEPARATION from the world is a MUST!

• Acts 20:28a “Keep watch over yourselves…”

• A long while back we did a whole teaching on what it means to place a watch over your mind

• She is also ENCLOSED meaning that GOD HIMSELF is protecting her…He has placed a “fence” around her

• Some versions even call it a LOCKED garden…how awesome is that! To be a locked garden for God alone!

• Lots of amazing things happened in the GARDENS in the Bible….Adam and Eve walked with God in the Garden of Eden…God longed for their fellowship…can you imagine how heartbroken He must have been when they turned their backs on Him?????....

• THEN…He banished them from the garden of intimacy…He locked it up and placed a cherubim with a flaming sword in the entrance to keep anyone from coming back in…..THAT’S how important it is to keep SIN out and HOLINESS in….

• Jesus prayed great drops of blood for us in the Garden of Gethsemane

• JUST A THOUGHT…was Jesus climbing the Mountain of Myrrh (suffering) for US at that moment, taking on all our sins??????????????????? I think so

• John 19:41 tells us that “At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid”

• John 20:15 tells us that where the tomb was, there was a garden…”Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him."

• John 15:1-11 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

• It’s amazing what FRUIT can grow when the ground in the garden is FALLOW…

• Jeremiah 4:3 “This is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns”

• Hosea 10:12 “Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you”

• It’s not fun to be tilled and plowed on…but the result is AMAZING FRUIT!

• Hebrews 12:11 “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”

• Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit”

• WHAT IS IN YOUR GARDEN?....if Jesus opened it…would He find FRUIT…or would he find weeds of bitterness, unforgiveness, jealously, gossip and selfishness?

• “…a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.”

• SPRINGS are very rare and valuable…especially here in this country they are in…

• God promises to make His church a “well-watered garden” if we would just follow Him

• Isaiah 58:11 “The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.”

• To be SHUT UP means that it is protected from being defiled…since springs were so rare and valuable, they were shut up to keep wild animals and other mess from getting into them.

• So….if He is saying she is a “spring shut up”…then He is saying that she is not wanting to be polluted by the mess of the world

• We are a FOUNTAIN SEALED…this fountain belongs to the King…He has sealed it…He has protected it

Song of Songs 4:13-14 “Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, fragrant henna with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all chief spices.”

• These two verses are describing the young bride’s life…this is just like the CHURCH…to be filled with a ton of different types of plants…LOTS of diversity…meaning very FRUITFUL ministry

• Notice that the fruits and spices are all mentioned in PAIRS except for the pomegranate…..WHY?...cause it symbolizes the BLOOD of JESUS…it is FIRST and FOREMOST

• Let’s look at what each of these phrases means…

• ORCHARD OF POMEGRANATES….this fruit is red (like the blood of Christ) and very sweet…meaning her ministry to God is sweet…not just ONE pomegranate…but an entire ORCHARD of them….tons of praise goes up form this bride to her Beloved!...he can come into her garden at anytime and find lots of pomegranates (praise and ministry)…the pomegranate is important…we HAVE to have praise and have a love for the BLOOD of Christ FIRST or everything else is just yuck

• WITH PLEASANT (CHOICE) FRUITS…John 15:8 “This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. “….this speaks of the sweet and pleasant impact her life has on others…are YOU pleasant to Him?

• HENNA WITH SPIKENARD…the nard has to do with the COSTLY work of God in her life… remember that spikenard could only be made by CRUSHING…and the Henna has to do with resurrection and ATONEMENT…the word HENNA literally means in Hebrew “the price of a life or ransom” (just like it did way back in chap. 1:14)…the HENNA needs to be SEEN and “worn” in our lives….young believers are watching and learning from us…WHAT ARE THEY SEEING AND HEARING??? Are they seeing a TRANSFORMED life?

• SIDENOTE OF HISTORY: In the Middle East, a bride applies the spice of henna as a paste to her hands and feet on the night before her wedding.  This spice yields a red stain which signifies the ransom of sinners who through the shedding of Jesus’ blood on the tree…

• Think for a moment about what the hands and feet of our Lord did for us.  His were stained with blood for the forgiveness of sins and as a ransom for His bride.  …For us as believers, the hands signify work and the feet represent the way in which we walk.  Our lives are supposed to give out the sweet fragrance of the Messiah’s sacrifice on the tree as our ransom for sin.

• 1 Timothy 2:6 tells us: “Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”

• The way we walk and behave toward all men and our acts of deeds and charity emits a fragrance for the world to savor. 

• Ephesians 5:2 says, “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor.”

• SPIKENARD and SAFFRON…saffron is used in cooking for flavoring and coloring (yellowish)…it is used in sweets…you get saffron by drying the stigmas and parts of the styles of the autumn crocus….it takes about 4000 flowers to get one ounce of saffron…so, you can tell it takes a lot of time to make this stuff…PERSEVERANCE…with our WILL being crushed(spikenard) being given over to Him every day, then saffron (perseverance) will be produced

• THINK ABOUT IT…over 4000 flowers needed to be used just to make one little ounce….this bride has given thousands of moments of her submitted WILL to her Bridegroom…as she gives her WILL to Him…there is a sweetness that appears in the way she lives and it flows over to her relationship with others

• CALAMUS and CINNAMON…Calamus is the sweet cane…when its leaves are crushed, it gives out a fragrance that smells like ginger…it was used in making the holy anointing oil in exodus…this type of oil was so special to God, that he warns the people in Exodus that this mixture was not to be duplicated by another Hebrew…it was to be used for Him ALONE…if someone was caught mixing it…they were cut off from their people…that’s tough stuff! There was 4 things that were used in making this special oil…3 of them are mentioned here in the garden of her heart…

• The root word for CALAMUS means “to stand upright”…this oil was used to set things apart in the tabernacle…it was also used to light the lamps in the tabernacle…which is exactly what it means here…for us to be SET APART and UPRIGHT FOR HIS USE ONLY!

• Why is it important to have CINAMMON with the calamus???....cinnamon is made by cutting away the bark of the lower branches from an evergreen tree…

• So….. the oil of the calamus is used to cut away those things that don’t belong…those inner thoughts that don’t belong…those sins that might easily trap her…she has given Him FULL REGIN to cut those away from her…although it HURTS to have things cut away…she just keeps her eyes on Him and can stand UPRIGHT (calamus)

• Can we pray this verse…

• Psalm 139:23-24 “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

• WITH ALL TREES OF FRANKINCENSE…frankincense means “to be white” (purity)…the ministry of PRAYER/ HOLINESS/WORSHIP….all these spices and fruits are intermingled among the trees of frankincense…He loves the PURITY of her prayer and worship

• MYRRH and ALOES…the suffering of the cross…death to self…could she still be wearing the little sachet of myrrh around her neck to remind her of His suffering???…with her remembering His suffering…there is no place in her for SELFISHNESS…remember that myrrh was used in the PURIFICATION process, as a beauty aid, used by royalty to perfume their garments, it was used to take away pain, …it is COMPLETE for us….This myrrh is paired with ALOES…aloe was highly valued for incense and perfume…

• ALOES were obtained from the inner core of the aloe tree….the aloe tree logs were BURIED. The wood was buried because of the hardness of the wood…the outer part would decay making it possible to get to its heart and extract the inner core of resin…the result was a beautiful grain that could be highly polished….doesn’t this sound EXACTLY like DYING TO SELF so that the fragrance of the NEW MAN can be released

• How wild is this….aloes and myrrh were actually used in the burial of Jesus’ body…

• John 19:39 “He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds.”

• WITH ALL CHIEF (finest) SPICES…spices are added to food to make what already tastes good GREAT!....you never just go to the spice cabinet and take a big spoonful of a spice…spices have to be used in the right way to enhance a particular food…she is ready to ENHANCE others….

• Remember how before, she had wanted Him all to herself…but He had wanted her to be with other lilies…now her garden is ready to do just that….Each one of us has been given gifts and talents by the Holy Spirit that we are to use to enhance others…whatever “spice” is needed at the time will be ready….whether it is a kind word, a hug, doing a kind deed for someone, sending someone a text, or a note, etc….

• Because you are so filled with Jesus…ministering to others just “happens naturally”

• The Bride has finally moved from worrying just about what God can do for her…to understanding that God wants to produce FRUIT in her life!

Song of Songs 4:15 “A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.”

• Notice that He has mentioned 3 different sources of water…

• A FOUNTAIN OF GARDENS…a fountain is hidden water that is below the surface coming up…it’s hidden below, but it’s fresh and it’s flowing…it’s from the source INSIDE you which is the indwelling Christ

• A WELL OF LIVING WATERS…signifies a deep place…an ability to store water that you can draw on when you were in dry times…

• AND STREAMS FROM LEBANON…streams symbolize an outward flow of water which is for everyone to come and drink from whenever they need it…a STREAM is above the ground…It’s not just a little creek…it’s a flowing stream and it’s flowing from HIGH PLACES (Lebanon is a high mountain which when the snow melts in the spring and flows down replenishing and watering the whole land)….this water supply comes from ON HIGH….our Bride has an outward source of supply and she is ready and able to minister to others from this supply…

• SO……..she is filled INWARDLY from a flowing source (FOUNTAIN) which is Christ who lives inside of her….she can pull on a stored up source (HER WELL)…which is her past experiences with God…and she has an outward source that is above the ground (STREAM)…that continuously flows from God on high

• John 7:37-38 “…“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”

• We are described in Psalm 1:3 as “… a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers”

• Check out how the hardened heart is pictured as…Isaiah 1:30 “You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water.”

• Notice that she is not LOCKED up and ENCLOSED anymore…that was her private, personal time with Him…but now its time to share it with others…

• SMALL STRAWS IN A SOFT WIND by Marsha Burns -- 1/28/11:

• How beautiful it is for you to share your heart of faith with another. It is a glorious thing for you to build one another up in your most holy faith and to encourage each other through My Word. Your tenderness towards Me is precious is My sight, says the Lord, and I bless those who bless Me.

• Isaiah 52:7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

•

• She responds to all of His lavish praise….with a PRAYER….but that is for next week (

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download