You know
the Bible tells us in the Book
of Ephesians that in Jesus,
get this now, we stand before
God, get this now, Church,
holy and blameless. Do you
know that you stand before God
right now, I'm talking about
this minute, you stand before
God because of what Jesus has
done for you? And because
you're in Jesus, you are
presently standing before God,
get this now, holy and
blameless. In other words,
when God looks at you and
looks at me, he doesn't see
any blemish in us. He doesn't
see any sin because Jesus took
our sin in his own body on the
tree. He removed it. There's
no sin between you and God.
You are holy and blameless
before God right now.
And Abba Father, God and Jesus,
get this now, see you as
beautiful. Let me tell you why
God sees you as beautiful and
why you are in fact and indeed
beautiful, and why God wants
you to agree with him about
this fact so that you yourself
will know that you're
beautiful and feel beautiful,
and experience the beauty of
the beautiful God on your
life. Number one, beloved
ones, you're beautiful, get
this now, because God is
beautiful, and the eye of the
beloved one who's God sees you
through his own eyes. In other
words, God is beautiful, and
beauty comes through the eyes
of the beholder. And because
God, who is beautiful, loves
you, he sees you as beautiful.
Not only that, he made you and
I in his own image. So if God
the Creator is beautiful and
you were made in his own
image, that means that his
beauty is in you; that the
beauty of the Creator is in
you and through you, 'cause
you're made, beloved ones, in
his very own image. Thirdly,
you're beautiful, beloved
ones, because Jesus took away
your sin. Lastly, you're
beautiful, beloved one,
because the presence of God is
literally on your life. You
and I are beautiful to God.
God wants us to affirm this
about ourselves. You see, as
we journey into the Song of
Songs here, we see that as
Jesus kept on speaking this
truth over his Shulamite
bride, which is a type of you
and a type of me, she accepted
this truth about her life and
she said this. She said in
chapter number 2, verse 1: I
am the rose of Sharon. I am
loved. The rose is a flower of
love. And she said, I'm pure.
I'm the lily of the valleys.
Right now, Father God, we
agree with your Word that we
are roses of Sharon and lilies
of the field; that we are
loved and pure before you in
Jesus; that we stand before
you, Abba Yahweh, holy and
blameless in love; Jesus, that
you're in us and that our
glory is you in us, Christ in
us, the hope of glory; that we
are holy and blameless and
beautiful before you and in
you. Let me ask you, Jesus is
knocking at the door of your
heart right now about this.
Will you break shame off your
life and affirm this? Many of
you that are under the sound
of my voice right now, Satan
is keeping you separated from
experiencing the love of God
through the foul demons of
shame. In Jesus's name right
now I break shame and every
spirit of shame off your life.
Satan, I take authority over
you. You're the accuser of the
brethren, and I break you and
every demon under your command
off of the lives of God's
children. I break off shame
right now, Jesus, in your name
over the lives and hearts of
your people. Amen. She
received that revelation and
you and I want to receive that
revelation too. We're
beautiful to God. Jesus just
kept on affirming her over and
over again. She says in verse
number 3 here that she sat
down under his shade and took
great delight. In his shade
tree, she said, I took great
delight and sat down. And his
fruit was sweet to my taste.
She is just experiencing the
love of the Lord, beloved
ones. But you know what? Jesus
leads us out from under the
shade tree to face mountains
in our life that we need to
conquer. So after she had sat
under the shade tree for an
extended period of time, Jesus
next appeared to her, beloved,
as the one that was on top of
a mountain. In other words,
she was just enjoying his
presence. And you and I go
through seasons in our life
where Jesus just blesses us by
allowing us to sense his
presence around us. But he's
not gonna leave us there just
to experience his, to
experience his beauty forever.
He's gonna move us on,
beloved, to go to war. And so
the next thing that happens in
the baptism of love is that
the Shulamite bride is called
out from under the shade tree
to conquer. So Jesus next
appears to her on top of a
mountain. And he says to her,
and I want you to come out
from under the shade tree.
Okay, this is strength in you.
I've strengthened you there
and you're ready now to climb
this mountain with me. So
notice what happens, beloved
Church, as we continue in
chapter number 2, verse number
8. She said: Listen! My
beloved! Behold he is coming,
Climbing on the mountains. And
in verse number 10, after she
sees him on top of the
mountain, Jesus says to her,
Arise, my darling, my
beautiful one, And come along.
He says to her the same thing
at the bottom of verse number
13: Come along. Jesus said
it's time for you now. You're
strong enough. We're gonna
face some things you haven't
dealt with. We're gonna
conquer some worries.
We're gonna face some fears.
We're gonna repair some
relationships. We're gonna be
dealing with some issues in
your life that you've kept
buried. We're gonna be dealing
with some things, Jesus said,
that you've been unwilling to
face. Jesus said to her, it's
time. In verse number 11 he
said: For behold, the winter
is past. The rain is over and
gone. The flowers have already
appeared in the land; The time
has arrived for pruning of the
vines. Jesus is saying you're
strong enough now. We're
ready. Let me ask you. Has
there ever been a season in
your life where you were just
kind of being drenched in the
love of God? You just felt
God's favor in your life, but
then suddenly you felt the
wind of the spirit change and
the Lord was saying to you
in a subtle voice, you just
sensed it in your heart,
listen, I want you to deal
with some things now. Maybe it
was some family relationships
you needed to repair. Maybe
you needed to confess
something's. Maybe you needed
to conquer some sins. God,
maybe you had some false
crutches that you were holding
onto. God was saying to you,
it's time to give that thing
up right now. It's time to let
go of that thing. It's time to
let me be your everything. You
don't need that any more. I
want you to know, many of you
can relate to what I'm saying
right now, and Jesus is
knocking at the door of your
heart right now. He's calling
out to you again. He's
appearing to you as one on top
of the mountain, meaning come
now and let's conquer this
thing. Let's conquer these
things. And if you will follow
him, my beloved one, what's
gonna happen is you're gonna
get strengthened and you're
gonna enter into a deeper
baptism of love. You see, God
is so patient with us. He's so
merciful. He's so sensitive
and understanding. He doesn't
require us to deal with some
things immediately. He
tolerates certain things in
our life until we're ready to
deal with them. And some of
you right now know exactly
what I'm talking about. There
are issues in your life. The
Holy Spirit's been gently
knocking at the door of your
heart about tackling some of
these issues that I've
described. And right now those
of you that are hearing under
the sound of my voice by the
Holy Spirit, you know that now
it's time for you to step out
and climb the mountain and
overcome and conquer some of
these things. Whether it's
sins, whether it's letting go
of false crutches, whether
it's facing some of your
insecurity or fears, whether
it's dealing with relational
issues that you've just been
pushing aside and not dealing
with, Jesus is saying now come
on, come to the top of the
mountain with me. Come to the
top of the mountain. It's time
to conquer these things. And
when you follow me to conquer,
because Jesus said, he that
overcomes will inherit these
things. When you do, Jesus is
saying to you, you're gonna
enter into a deeper level of
my experience in your life.
You're gonna enter into a
greater strength of me. And
the strength will impart to
you even more of the emotional
experience that you're looking
for in me. In other words,
that you're gonna be brought
into a deeper experience of
the love of God, consciously
and tangibly in your life.
RABBI SCHNEIDER>>And so Jesus
calls her to conquer the
mountain. But you know what,
beloved, she is a shadow of
you and I. You know what
happened? She didn't go
immediately. She wasn't ready
to leave her comfort zone. She
was too comfortable where she
was. She told us in verse
number 4 of chapter 2 that she
was really being blessed under
the shade tree. She was just
blessed just sitting in his
presence, you know, listening
to the worship music. She
wasn't ready to leave that
comfort zone and conquer the
mountain. And so when Jesus
called her, she said to him,
you know what? I'm not ready.
She said in verse number 17:
Until the cool of the day when
the shadows flee away, she
said, Turn, my beloved, and be
like a gazelle Or a young stag
on the mountains of Bether.
She's saying to him, you know
what? I'm not ready. Until
the cool of the day when the
shadows flee away, she's
saying. In other words, until
it's comfortable for me, until
all my doubts are gone, when
the shadows flee away, she
said, Jesus, you, you go that
direction right now. You go on
top of those mountains, but
she said, I'm not ready to go
with you yet. She even says,
as a young stag on the
mountains of Bether, in verse
number 17. And Bether is the
Hebrew word that literally
means, beloved ones,
separation. She knew in her
heart that Jesus was going one
direction and she wasn't
willing to follow him there.
And you know what happened as
a result of that? Get this
now, she lost a sense of
the intimacy that she had
previously been experiencing.
See if God is talking to us
about one area in our life and
we consciously know that the
Holy Spirit is putting his
finger on an area of our life
that he wants us to deal with;
he wants us to repair a
relationship, he wants us to
make things right. He wants us
to let go of a false crutch.
He wants us to stop sinning.
If there's a specific area in
your life or my life that we
know that God is putting his
finger on and we refuse to
yield to him, we refuse to
follow him, you know what
happens? Fellowship is broken.
And that's what happened here
with the Shulamite bride
that's a shadow of you and I.
When she refused to yield to
the Holy Spirit you know what
happened? She lost the sense
of Jesus's closeness to her.
So look what happens in
chapter number 3, verse 1,
after she said no to Jesus,
you go, I can't follow you
there. Chapter 3, verse 1,
says: On my bed night after
night I sought him Whom my
soul loves; I sought him but
did not find him. In other
words, when she said no to
Jesus, the Lord withdrew the
sense of his manifest presence
from her. And the same thing
will happen with you and I.
Eventually this sense of
separation became so intense
that the pain of the loss
of intimacy became more
uncomfortable with her
following Jesus up the
mountain. So when she realized
that her disobedience and
refusing to go up the mountain
and conquer, when she realized
that that was the cause of her
loss of intimacy, eventually
what happened was she said you
know what, I'll go, because
the pain of the loss
of intimacy was more
uncomfortable of the pain of
stepping out of her comfort
zone. And so she said, I will
go now, I will arise. And as
soon as she made the decision,
beloved ones, to arise, she
said in verse number 2: I must
arise. As soon as she began to
really, really seek him, Jesus
re-presented himself to her.
So look what happens now as we
continue in verse number 4.
She said: Scarcely had I left
them When I found him whom my
soul loves. In other words,
beloved ones, she said, he
re-presented himself to me. I
found him, she said, whom my
soul loves. And when she found
him again, in other words,
when Jesus re-presented
himself to her after she had
experienced a season of loss
of intimacy, she said, I'm
never gonna let you go again.
She said, Jesus, I'm never
gonna make the same mistake
again. I will never, she said
to him, keep you separate. She
said, I am committed, Jesus,
to obeying you fully for the
rest of my life. We know that
we're all on a progressive
journey, but she, beloved, got
a big yes in her heart to God.
Once she learned that
disobedience caused a break in
fellowship with God, when
Jesus came back and
re-presented himself to her
after she repented, she said,
Jesus, I'm never gonna do that
to you again. I'm never gonna
say no to you again. Right
now, beloved ones, I want to
give you an opportunity to
re-present yourself to God in
repentance. And as you do, he
will re-present himself to
you. Father God, in Jesus's
name, Father, thank you for
revealing to us how you work
and the strategy of love in
the Song of Songs. Father, we
see that when we say no to
you, we grieve the Holy Spirit
and the result is that you
withdraw, you withdraw your
manifest presence from us. And
Father, all of us here have
experienced that. Right now,
Father God, as we see clearly
how it works and what goes on,
because we do love you more
than everything; Jesus,
because we do desire your love
more than wine, more than
anything else as the Shulamite
bride said, we repent and we
say yes to you. We will go
with you up the mountain.
We're gonna follow you, Jesus,
wherever you lead us. Whatever
you want us to conquer,
whatever you want us to repent
of, and now beloved Church,
just name what that thing is.
What is that thing that God
has been putting his finger on
in your life that you know he
wants you to respond in? If
it's an addiction, you tell
him right now that you forsake
it, that you are willing by
his grace to let go of that
addiction, to depend on him
alone. If it's some sin that
you know you've been sinning
but you've been unwilling to
let go of it, to repent, right
now, beloved, what I want to
encourage you, beloved child
of God, to confess it to him,
yield it to him, tell him that
by his grace you repent of it,
you give it to him, really
mean it in your heart. Give it
to him right now. If it's a
false crutch that you've been
leaning on and you know that
you've been taking, you've
been taking a false comfort in
this crutch, whether it's food
or alcohol, whatever it is,
right now tell him Jesus, I've
been relying on this false
crutch. I give it to you now.
I'm gonna depend on you alone.
And as you say yes to Jesus,
beloved ones, and follow him
up the mountain, he is gonna
re-present himself to you. The
Bible says, draw near to me,
saith the Lord, and I'll draw
near to you. And you're gonna
have a fresh encounter,
beloved ones, with the love of
God. Jesus, we thank you that
you have made a way. And
Jesus, we come to you right
now. Jesus, we're confident in
your operation in our lives.
Beloved ones, as she made that
decision to repent, Jesus came
to her. He re-presented
himself to her, and she
had a whole new encounter,
hallelujah, in the love of
God. And as soon as she
committed himself to him, as
soon as she repented and Jesus
came back to her, you know
what happened? She started
experiencing, get this now, a
supernatural deliverance in
her life. As soon as she
realized, beloved, that her
sin, her refusal to follow
Jesus to the top of the
mountain, as soon as she
realized that that caused a
break in fellowship, and
repented of it, and said
Jesus, I'll never let you go
again, she said, Jesus,
scarcely that I left them When
I found him whom my soul
loves; I held on to him and
would not let him go Until I
had brought him in to my
mother's house, And into the
room of her who conceived me.
What he's saying, what she's
saying here is I received him
back into my life through
obedience. And she said, and I
brought him, get this now,
Church, into the deepest, most
intimate places in my life. I
brought Jesus, she said, all
the way back into the room of
her that conceived me. In
other words, she's saying, I
didn't keep anything separate
from him. I didn't keep any
room locked from him anymore.
She said, when I found him the
second time, I brought him to
every chamber in my heart and
I gave him full access to me.
Now next week we're gonna see
that once she made this
decision, a radical
transformation began to take
place in her life. We're gonna
see that once she said yes to
Jesus without reservation, the
powers of darkness began to
break off her life and she was
led out of the wilderness into
the experience, beloved, of
bridal love, of the type of
intimacy that Father God wants
to have with all his people.
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