Intimacy with GOD by Esher Shoshannah (e book reading free .txt) 📕

full, true Spirit-filled fellowship with other lilies!

Has she forgotten the joy of fellowship with the other lilies when together they experienced His wonderful love and secrets of His heart (1:4)? What she does not understand is that as she goes with Him and the other lilies a greater intimacy will be experienced as never before! She is so distracted with the fox that the blessing of chapter 1:4 is blocked from allowing the Holy Spirit to bring it up to her remembrance.

O dear bride of His heart, RUN! RUN! RUN! INTO HIS ARMS. DON'T WAIT! RUSH! YOU HAVE NO IDEA OF THE PAIN THAT IS AWAITING YOU IF YOU DON’T RUN INTO HIS SPIRITUAL EMBRACE. 

 

PRAY WITH ME: "Dear Father, I confess to You the sin of spiritual selfishness. I have wanted to walk the Christian life on my own terms. I am sorry for being so deaf to Your voice gently calling me to step out and trust You in circumstances You allowed into my life. I robbed You of spiritually feeding me and my love satisfying Your heart. I run to Your side to follow You in action and attitude. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit! Fill me with Your wisdom! Fill me with Your love! I humble myself under Your mighty hand knowing You will exalt me in due time (I Pet.5:6). Dear, dear Lord Jesus, may I never hesitate to fellowship with others who love You so deeply! May I give to You the all consuming love of my heart and soul! My satisfaction is You Lord (Lam. 3:24)! Holy Spirit I surrender my will to You. Change me into the image that pleases my God, my Lord, my Savior, my Beloved! In Jesus' name, amen."

 

I hear the refrain of that old hymn and Lord I sing it in my heart to You:

"Where He leads me I will follow. Where He leads me I will follow. Where He leads me I will follow, and go with Him, with Him all the way." E. W. Blandy

 

The Bride continues:

V.17 "Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether."

All of a sudden there are disturbing shadows creeping slowly onto the horizon of her life. They keep her feet from moving. Shadows now move into the place where only light had resided and guided. The little foxes of self are on the throne - "MY beloved is MINE...."! As her eyes are transfixed upon the "cute" foxes of self, shadows are dimming her view of Him! She sees Him but ever so faintly. A strange, unwanted chill spills over her soul as the shadows gather.

If not dealt with immediately, these "shadows" will become stark darkness! She wants Him to run to her. But safety is running to and obeying Him. The word "Bether" means "separation" or "division"! Her Beloved begins to walk away glancing back to see if she will come. Instead of obeying and keeping her eyes upon Him ("let me see thy countenance") the eyes of her heart are distracted looking at the "cute" little foxes. Unknown to her before, a strange fear sweeps over her soul. The light of her Beloved is fading as the shadows slowly turn into an ominous darkness!

The bride now has a divided heart: wanting Her Lord to stay with her, yet at the same time watching the little foxes. She blames the Lord for the difficulty! How could He leave her at a time like this? Doesn't He care at all? She thinks, "All He has to do is turn to me and all will be well." How blind she is. Does she not realize that the decision not to go with Him (the Light of the world) brought on the shadows? She refused to let Him who has victorious power deal with the little foxes.

Has she so quickly forgotten that her Beloved has already dealt with the mountains (2:8)? He has skipped on the hills and leaped upon the mountains. The mountains of division (meaning of "Bether") have already been defeated by Him. This is the crucial moment when she should run to Him and by His power defeat these little foxes. In a commanding voice she says to Him...

"turn...and be like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether." (Hebrew separation or division).

Isn't it amazing that she is asking the Lord to turn? It is as if she is saying, "I know what is best for us. You, my Beloved need to turn and change Your mind. These shadows are but a small thing." That is not what He wants to hear! In the distance, for one last time, Jesus lifts up His nail pierced hands and beckons to her in a loud voice, "Come with Me My love." She refuses to even acknowledge Him in any way. She's upset that He did not pay attention to her and do what she had asked. Pride keeps her from responding.

She wants to have His fellowship while entertaining the "little foxes" in her life. How often believers want to have the fullness of Jesus' Spirit in their lives plus compromising sin! Don't kid yourself, you can't have your Bridegroom’s blessing and protection if you continue to entertain those “little foxes” that seem to be so innocent but will deeply dull your spiritual life. All believers will sin, but spiritual growth is sinning less and less and that happens when we surrender our will to our Bridegroom each day. We will grow in our intimacy with Him and sin will become less frequent. The closer you walk with your Bridegroom the more and more you will hate it when you do sin. You will rush to 1John1:9 and lean on Him even more and more. You will keep your eyes on Him (Heb.12:1-3).

This decision to not go with Him unreservedly will cost her dearly. There will be much emotional pain before she is restored to Him. Remember what she had stated to the virgins after the banquet? She just knew nothing could ever come in and spoil all of that perfect joy. It has happened!

A final question: Why didn't the Beloved make her go? He had every right to do so! The Lord could have argued that she had declared her surrender to Him and now she can't even obey a special request of His, thus shaming her into going. If He had coerced her the "little fox" of selfishness would still remain, hidden for awhile but then rise again in another circumstance. Even though she began to walk in the surrendered life, she had things buried deep within her heart that needed to be dealt with. The Lord will allow her to languish in the hurt and let her see all the ugliness and damage caused by a "little" bit of her will mixed into the surrendered life. It's going to be very painful but when it is all over she will be another step further in His goal for her life! She is seemingly all alone. True, He will never leave us. But we will not be allowed to sense the Lord's presence until what needs to be dealt with is accomplished.

 

PRAY WITH ME: "Dear God, cause Your Holy Spirit conviction to come on me so strongly that I will rush to repent of the "little foxes" before they ravage the garden of "our" heart! Take over, my Bridegroom! I bow at Your feet and relinquish the rights to any pleasurable "little foxes"! Correct and discipline me so that I may walk with You higher and higher on the path that You have planned for my life! In Your holy name, Lord Jesus, amen!"

 

COME APART AND REST FOR A WHILE. GO TO THE PRAISE LIST AT THE END OF THIS BOOK AND SELECT A FEW WORDS OR PHRASES WITH WHICH TO PRAISE YOUR DEAR BRIDEGROOM.

 

CHAPTER 3 - THE DECISION FOR SELF (cont.)

 

AN OVERVIEW OF CHAPTER THREE: The division (mountains of Bether) has caused great emotional pain to sweep over her soul. She lost what she desired most, continued, loving fellowship with her Beloved. However, after many sleepless nights of depression, she searches for "Him whom her soul loveth". The watchmen of the city tell where her Beloved may be found. Joyous fellowship is restored. The bride takes Him to her family. Hidden sin is uncovered. She is emotionally exhausted and her Beloved beckons her to go to sleep and find needed rest. While sleeping the bride is given a vision of her Beloved in all His power and glory. This Holy Spirit given vision is the answer to victory over any temptation that would attempt to entice her to go it alone again.

 

Deeply concerned, The bride’s intimate friends, the virgins, pay her a visit:

One of them spoke, "We have missed being with you. Remember all those wonderful times we had with the Beloved? Then, later we would get together and share just how special He had been to us. We have been real worried about you because you haven't been coming to fellowship with us. You always had so much to tell us about Him." Another very concerned friend said, "And then, we noticed that our Beloved King left on a mission a few weeks ago but we did not see you with Him. We couldn't believe it knowing how deep your relationship with Him had developed. We thought possibly you might be very ill." What they saw in their friend was disturbing to say the least. "What has happened to you? We have never seen you in this condition! What can we do to help you? You know how much we love you." Standing before them was their friend in deep depression, pale and disheveled in appearance. She began to sob uncontrollably. A couple of the virgins just held on to her tightly until she could speak. After a few moments, sobbing intermittently between words, she shared, "I have lost the One I love with all my heart. There is no hope!" Some quietly gasped in unbelief. This was much worse than they could have imagined.

Unable to make eye contact she bowed her head in shame and said, "I will never again have what I had before with Him. I will never forget His eyes, the hurt, the deep disappointment when I wouldn't respond." One of the virgins interrupted. "What do you mean you wouldn't respond to Him? You can't mean that! Tell us what happened." The bride looked as if someone had died and she knew it was her heart. She continued, "He had just shown me His power over every kind of mountain of trouble and hill of difficulty. He explained how it was time for a new work to be done. Oh He was so excited when He asked me to go. He did everything to persuade me to come with Him. However, a little fox of selfishness appeared and I focused on it instead of responding to Him. I finally told Him that I wanted Him just for myself, no one else. I asked Him, 'Why do we have to leave'?"