How do we look like Jesus? How do we become like Him? We allow love to have its perfect work in us that we may reflect Him rightly and purely. To be like Him is to be godly, and to be godly is to be the person of loving-kindness. He heeds and responds to the voice of the godly. Their voices are heard echoing upon the waters of holiness with the light of His loving face shining on them.
“But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself [and given distinction to] him who is godly [the man of loving-kindness]. The Lord listens and heeds when I call to Him.” Psalm 4:3 AMPC
We are all loved by God, though to be set apart for Him; to have His favored ear and attention we must be people of loving-kindness.
“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You.” Psalms 63:3 AMP
People who know this loving-kindness and display it, and who are becoming it themselves are ones who know God intimately. The Hebrew word for loving-kindness in the above passage is חֵסֵד, checed: favour. The phonetic spelling is (kheh’-sed) which sounds like “kissed”. The definition is : goodness, kindness. The godly are devoted lovers and worshipers of the One true God; their understanding and belief in and the reception of His loving-kindness that are His kisses, provoke a holy response of praise from their lips, their way of offering kisses back to Him.
“But know that the Lord has set apart for Himself [and dealt wonderfully with] the godly man [the one of honorable character and moral courage—the one who does right]. The Lord hears and responds when I call to Him.” Psalms 4:3 AMP
Heavenly Father, may we be a people who reflect You purely and rightly who are godly, displaying Your loving-kindness!
There is a cup of love that suffers, I call it ‘The Longing’, I’ve written about it occasionally over the years, but I feel He is increasing this message now. As we read here in Song of Solomon, cleansing and purity alone does not satisfy our Bridegroom King, even those who have yielded to righteousness He still desires more; He is looking for those who long for more of Him, pierced by the woundings of suffering love. If your heart had been touched and awakened by the love of your life, you’d pursue finding them, you would look for and long to be reconnected to them. If you were engaged (which we all are by the way) you would be lovesick for your mate if their presence departed from you for long. This is our Jesus, our bethrothed, and His desire is for you. In the Old Testament, Priests who had access to the Holy of Holies (His presence) were given a commandment by God through Moses to never let the fire go out on the alter, they in essence were in charge of stewarding the Presence of God. We are in the new covenant now, and are called priests and we have the Holy of Holies in our hearts – divine access to His presence and heart through Jesus. In the same way, the principle hasn’t changed, we must never let the fire stop burning on the alter of our hearts.
“The fire on the altar shall be kept burning; it shall not [be allowed to] go out. The priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and he shall arrange the burnt offering on it and offer the fat portions of the peace offerings up in smoke on it. The fire shall be burning continually on the altar; it shall not [be allowed to] go out.” Leviticus 6:12-13 AMP
I pray the Lord would mark you this day, and your heart would long for more of Him! May He captivate your being as you offer all of you for all of Him! ❤️🔥
The Bride-groom King Arise, my love. Open your heart, my darling, deeper still to me. Will you receive me this dark night? There is no one else but you, my friend, my equal. I need you this night to arise and come be with me. You are my pure, loyal dove, a perfect partner for me. My flawless one, will you arise? For my heaviness and tears are more than I can bear. I have spent myself for you throughout the dark night. The Sleeping Bride I have already laid aside my own garments for you. How could I take them up again since I’ve yielded my righteousness to yours? You have cleansed my life and taken me so far. Isn’t that enough? My beloved reached into me to unlock my heart. The core of my very being trembled at his touch. How my soul melted when he spoke to me! My spirit arose to open for more of his touch. As I surrendered to him, I began to sense his fragrance— the fragrance of his suffering love! It was the sense of myrrh flowing all through me! I opened my soul to my beloved, but suddenly he was gone! And my heart was torn out in longing for him. I sought his presence, his fragrance, but could not find him anywhere. I called out for him, yet he did not answer me. I will arise and search for him until I find him. As I walked throughout the city in search of him, the overseers stopped me as they made their rounds. They beat me and bruised me until I could take no more. They wounded me deeply and removed their covering from me. Nevertheless, make me this promise, you brides-to-be: if you find my beloved one, please tell him I endured all travails for him. I’ve been pierced through by love, and I will not be turned aside! Song of Solomon 5: 1-8
Many people wonder why “the call on their life” is not being fulfilled but a fulfilled call begins with Christ making us holy. As the global body we need to rise in maturity, strap up and put our boots on. We must humbly ask the Father the difficult questions about our lives. Scripture writes that God does not change, He is faithful, and that Jesus will fulfill the call over us by making us holy. I believe one of the main reasons we don’t see destiny fulfilled is because the person has not yielded to the work of the Lord; they run from refiners fire, try to escape testing, avoid pruning and the like. Holiness is a requirement to fulfill the call in consecrated devotion, however holiness is not on your terms nor can you make yourself holy. “Now May the God of peace sanctify you”, His peace is found in the yielding and in the surrender. He is the potter, we are the clay. He is calling us higher friends, there is so much more though it requires a surrendered heart, will you trust Him and place your life in His hands?
“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [that is, separate you from profane and vulgar things, make you pure and whole and undamaged—consecrated to Him—set apart for His purpose]; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete and [be found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful and absolutely trustworthy is He who is calling you [to Himself for your salvation], and He will do it [He will fulfill His call by making you holy, guarding you, watching over you, and protecting you as His own].” 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 AMP
What can you fear when your eyes are gazing upon the One you love? Your reverence of Him, (fear of the Lord) is the beginning of wisdom, and that wisdom leads to covenant love. Within this covenant is a promise that you can not be forgotten or left behind. Who can hold you captive, when you are captivated by Love?
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matthew 10:28 NKJV
“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You have anointed and refreshed my head with oil; My cup overflows.” Psalms 23:5 AMP
Where are we going? We are returning to the heights from which we have fallen, reattaching to the heart of our Beloved. Fitting that the Holy Spirit would choose John the Beloved and Revelator to write to the Church of Ephesus this message from God the Father, delivered to him by an Angel, ““To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of the One who holds [firmly] the seven stars [which are the angels or messengers of the seven churches] in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands (the seven churches): ‘I know your deeds and your toil, and your patient endurance, and that you cannot tolerate those who are evil, and have tested and critically appraised those who call themselves apostles (special messengers, personally chosen representatives, of Christ), and [in fact] are not, and have found them to be liars and impostors; and [I know that] you [who believe] are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and that you have not grown weary [of being faithful to the truth]. But I have this [charge] against you, that you have left your first love [you have lost the depth of love that you first had for Me]. So remember the heights from which you have fallen, and repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, your sinful behavior—seek God’s will] and do the works you did at first [when you first knew Me]; otherwise, I will visit you and remove your lampstand (the church, its impact) from its place—unless you repent. Yet you have this [to your credit], that you hate the works and corrupt teachings of the Nicolaitans [that mislead and delude the people], which I also hate. He who has an ear, let him hear and heed what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes [the world through believing that Jesus is the Son of God], I will grant [the privilege] to eat [the fruit] from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.’” Revelation 2:1-7 AMP
Ephesus is a Greek word that can be translated as “desirable” or “darling” and one that a Greek bridegroom would use for a girl he desired to marry (footnotes TPT). Symbolically, the Church continues to be called higher, wooed by the Holy Spirit to arise and meet with her Beloved Bridegroom King. I believe the global Church is moving from “knowing” to “experiencing” in this next season. Recently while studying scripture, asking the Lord for a plumbline for my own experiences and inquiring about this next year, I heard in the Spirit “knowledge without experience is void of intimacy” (December 17, 2021). Experiencing what we know through encounter will set ablaze our hearts for this One who desires to marry us.
The call of the Bridegroom is beckoning each one of our hearts, “come up here”. When we repent – turn from facing idols and chasing foxes and all that hinders us from His fiery love we are restored to the highest heights that are reserved for devoted lovers of His presence. A place intended for all, but a climb few are willing to trek. Repent simply means turn and come back up to the pent house, be restored to the higher way of thinking and living. In both realms, spirit or natural a penthouse or mountain top will provide the best views, the most privacy, and the least amount of noise or distraction. In the natural penthouses are financially the most costly to own or rent. They are defined as an apartment or dwelling situated on the roof of a building, or top floor. Likewise, spiritually dwelling here is costly as well, as the Psalmist writes, ““Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, Nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, And righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him, Who seek Your face. Selah” Psalms 24:3-6 NKJV.
A life of yieldedness is costly, though as I often encourage it is in the yielding that we yield.PRODUCE defined is to give birth or rise to : YIELD ; to oversee the making of ; to cause to have existence or to happen: BRING ABOUT ; to give being, form, or shape to: MAKE ; the amount produced : YIELD ; agricultural products and especially fresh fruits and vegetables as distinguished from grain and other staple crops. You can only produce good and acceptable fruit from the seed of intimacy. The seed of intimacy is reserved for the devoted lovers, those who experience Who they know. Those who Know the Beloved by experience are the betrothed, and some are already married sons and daughters who have been overshadowed by the Almighty – these chosen ones are the continual dwellers of His presence and the keepers of covenant.
The spark must first be restored, and then we will experience the flames of first love – after “doing the works we did when we first knew Him”. November 16, 2021 in a prophetic dream the Lord showed me a new apostolic marriage movement marked by creative miracles, fire and glory. The dream began with myself wrapped in a single white sheet and walking over to a sleeping mat also with a white fitted and single sheet and pillow with case that was in the middle of the “family room”. I knew this is where I was going to sleep for one or more nights until this brief assignment was over. I asked the owner of the home who is also a respected and well-known Apostle in our current day if I could ask her a question. We then left her vacation home and she took me to a church that didn’t necessarily resemble church from the exterior and we entered from the outside from a lower level which was the foundation of the Church. People in attendance, (made up of many couples and some singles too) started to dance in a train line and made their way over to where I was sitting on the opposite side in the front of the church. After I was in the back in a slightly separate room with an open doorway to the sanctuary with several others waiting to go out and fully be part of this train movement (trains in the prophetic are symbolic of the apostolic). While we were waiting I was praying for couples and seeing creative miracles, things non-existent with the human eye become visible in the natural as I decreed and “drew in the air” with my left hand. The living substance that was released from my left hand was glowing, fiery, living and sparkly. Left handed in this instance represents the creative miracles as the right hemisphere of one’s brain coordinates the left side of the body, and performs tasks that have do with creativity and the arts. Fire and glory were also being released for this new end-time movement. The Lord is bringing us back to our foundations to purify us for the sanctified global Church rising. “You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone.” Ephesians 2:20 AMPC.
It is not a coincidence that marriage and family will lead the end time revival movement with fire and glory. Why wouldn’t marriage lead when that is what Christ is returning for? Furthermore, Christ is returning for a pure and spotless Bride, one who has cleansed herself from the stains and sin of this world, therefore fire is necessary for continual purification at the foundation and also denotes passionate lovers who carry plenty of oil who burn brightly for their Bridegroom King. As the Deliverer-Prophet Moses boldly asked, “show me your glory” while atop the mountain, so is glory symbolic of intimate face to face encounter and a commitment to go only where the Lord would lead (Exodus 33). These presence people will be marked by fire around them and glory in their midst. “For I,’ says the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire all around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’ ” Zechariah 2:5 NKJV. Before this movement can fully launch I believe the Lord is restoring the spark individually within hearts; between themselves and the Lord and secondly within marital relationships. Healing not yet imagined will transpire between men and women and will be so freeing that the true hearts “longing for the Beloved” will be tangibly and authentically expressed through purity in unity within marriage and with God.
Near the end of this dream I offered to pray for a woman sitting on the floor who happened to be wearing brown boots. She kept insisting “tomorrow”, though I knew in the dream it had to be then. The invitation for this radical impartation and transformation was a “now moment”, tomorrow would be too late. And sadly, she declined. Tomorrow may not come for some, and it is a critical hour to stay in step and heed the Spirit’s call. Respond and call back to the sound of His wooing voice. The brown boots represent walking in humility, but unfortunately they were not utilized. It is humility to allow the Spirit to lift you, we must not wait to be strong enough “get up on our own”. The Lord desires to strengthen you, for it is not by works but by grace you have been saved. “Call to Me and I will answer you, and tell you [and even show you] great and mighty things, [things which have been confined and hidden], which you do not know and understand and cannot distinguish.” Jeremiah 33:3.
“Then suddenly, after I wrote down these messages, I saw a portal open into the heavenly realm, and the same trumpet-voice I heard speaking with me at the beginning said, “Ascend into this realm! I want to reveal to you what must happen after this.” Revelation 4:1 TPT
Can you hear the voice of your Bridegroom King calling? ‘My Darling, My desired one – the one I long to marry and who My soul loves – come now and change your mind, you have fallen from the heights and forgotten the depths of my unfailing love. Come up here my fair one, great and mighty things I have yet to show you. Unity with Me allows you to experience My love where you are wholly complete, secure, and transformed. You’ve been conditioning for the climb, will you come now and be with Me’?
“The one I love calls to me: Arise, my dearest. Hurry, my darling. Come away with me! I have come as you have asked to draw you to my heart and lead you out. For now is the time, my beautiful one.” Song of Songs 2:10 TPT
The full measure of the goodness of God can only be experienced while remaining in covenant with Him, and faithfulness in covenant is the key to lasting oneness with Him. You must cherish the Lord’s heart also; it is good for you to draw near to Him that you may first know Him, and then tell of His glorious works.
It is time for you to get your own oil, time for your own personal experience with Him. I see for some that you have had many personal experiences but have become satisfied with the distant flames of others. Second hand experiences and encounters are encouraging to hear and can build our faith, though I believe the Lord is asking for more – particularly in this hour. The Lord is asking more from each one of us, leading us into a greater depth of commitment and maturity. For some your fire in the camp has gone out and you continue to try and relight the fire and you are perplexed why you can not start the fire but the Lord would say it is time to move. Keep climbing higher up the mountian of the Lord, the Spirit will lead you and He will come closer still. 🔥
“But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God; I have made the Lord God my refuge and placed my trust in Him, that I may tell of all Your works.” Psalm 73:28
For some of you this is that! This is “the time”, this is the vision that was seen, written of, and spoken about for a future time; you’ve perceived and even seen it physically though have been waiting on the full manifestation and it definitely feels delayed. You have been waiting and waiting and waiting, and nearly lost hope. But it’s your time, this is the season, and it shall come to pass! Step into the now reality by the Spirit with faith. No more delay!
“This vision is for a future time. It describes the end, and it will be fulfilled. If it seems slow in coming, wait patiently, for it will surely take place. It will not be delayed.” Habakkuk 2:3 NLT
A first fruits harvest from a first fruits offering is resurrection life. To the degree you are willing to die is the degree of resurrection power that will flow through you. A first fruits offering in scripture symbolizes consecration of all the rest of the harvest to follow, the word in Greek is aparkhay, the same origin of aparchomai “to make a beginning”.
Jesus gave Himself as a firstfruit offering for all of humanity, and all of humanity has opportunity to experience this resurrection life and power. Jesus consecrated us (the harvest that follows Him) from our sins through His shed blood, and made a new beginning for humanity!
Your experience is your choice, it is a matter of personal will. You can have the fullness of Christ without measure to the measure you allow His life to work through you, bearing your cross like Him. Follow Him. If you want the power of God you will yield to death; this is where you are unified with Him, empowered, and experience His resurrection life.
This death is not morbid, Jesus said it was the joy set before Him that He endured the cross. The joy of our faces, the joy of knowing there would be a way from eternal separation from His beloved. A joy that enabled Him to complete this plan of redemption, making a new destiny for mankind He would purchase back His Bride with His innocent blood. Though self denial and loss can be painful, nothing compares to the price that was already paid. It is the joy set before us to also endure and take up our cross to be in union with Him. For in His presence is the fullness of joy … pleasures forevermore. 🕊🔥
IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING (Acts 17:28)
“What a God you are! Your path for me has been perfect! All your promises have proven true. What a secure shelter for all those who turn to hide themselves in you! You are the wrap-around God giving grace to me. Could there be any other god like you? You are the only God to be worshiped, for there is not a more secure foundation to build my life upon than you. You have wrapped me in power, and now you’ve shared with me your perfection. Through you I ascend to the highest peaks of your glory to stand in the heavenly places, strong and secure in you.” Psalms 18: 30-33 TPT
“This gospel unveils a continual revelation of God’s righteousness—a perfect righteousness given to us when we believe. And it moves us from receiving life through faith, to the power of living by faith. This is what the Scripture means when it says: “We are right with God through life-giving faith!”” Romans 1:17 TPT
Faith is so contrary to the natural that NOT walking in faith will cause you to stumble. Read that again! Not walking in faith will actually cause you to stumble!
“So then, what does all this mean? Here’s the irony: The non-Jewish people, who weren’t even pursuing righteousness, were the ones who seized it—a perfect righteousness that is transferred by faith. Yet Israel, even though pursuing a legal righteousness, did not attain to it. And why was that? Because they did not pursue the path of faith but insisted on pursuing righteousness by works, as if it could be seized another way. They were offended by the means of obtaining it and stumbled over the stumbling stone [Jesus], just as it is written: “Be careful! I am setting in Zion a stone that will cause people to stumble, a rock of offense that will make them fall, but believers in him will not experience shame.”” Romans 9:30-33 TPT
This is why the pure in heart see God, because children are pure (mostly unattached to the patterns of this world in heart and mind) and we must be childlike in this way to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Faith unlocks what can be seen in the Spirit, our true reality. Ask for eyes to see, discern, and comprehend behind the veil.
“For our momentary, light distress [this passing trouble] is producing for us an eternal weight of glory [a fullness] beyond all measure [surpassing all comparisons, a transcendent splendor and an endless blessedness]! So we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen; for the things which are visible are temporal [just brief and fleeting], but the things which are invisible are everlasting and imperishable.” 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 AMP
If you are feeling weak and unsure how to strengthen you faith, start with scripture. Even if it’s just one. Faith is more tangible than you think or know. It’s an actual substance. “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Romans 10:17 NKJV
“Faith, then, is birthed in a heart that responds to God’s anointed utterance of the Anointed One.” Romans 10:17 TPT – this is an actual response of our heart to Scripture.
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