The Fire has come: The flame of desire: PT 4

Hello Dear Reader,

I am finally able to have some time to continue our teaching on the "present work of the Holy Spirit!" As I wrote earlier, many are seeking the Holy Spirit for empowering for service, the gifts that He brings and the blessings He provides. This is not wrong for us to do so, for the Bride-to- be sat under the apple tree in Song of Solomon chapter 2 asking for raisins and apples.

Son 2:1-5, I am a rose of Sharon, A lily of the valleys. As a lily among thorns, So is my love among the daughters. As the apple-tree among the trees of the wood, So is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, And his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting-house, And his banner over me was love. Stay ye me with raisins, refresh me with apples; For I am sick from love.

In her present relationship with the Lord, she sees Him as her Provider, her supply, and all that she would need Him to be in her life. She sees the Lord as an apple tree: The place where she get her supply. This would be like our present pentecostal movement, "give me more power, more gifts Lord, more boldness to preach your word." These are wonderful things to ask the Lord for, but He is after so much more from her. He wants to be her Husband.

In this lovely book in the bible she is transformed from a child-like heart of seeking the Lord for Her needs to a the Bride of His choosing after His needs. In her present child-like confession she declares, "My beloved is mine and I am His." This shows us her selfishness in her seeking the Lord for her only her needs. This is normal in the growth of a child, for that is all they can see their parents for when they are young.

If that is all the bride-to-be relationship with her Beloved remains it would not be healthy. A bride is to be a "help-mate" to her husband's needs and desires. The Song of Solomon is a book about that very changes required to be made in her and in us to grow up spiritually into a pure and spotless bride. She must learn to give up her own life, desires and plans, to become what her husband would need her to be. Beloved, this is why so many marriages, even Christians ones fail! The two never become one in heart, purpose or desire.

That is where most of the present Body of Christ lives here in America. Many are the "daughters of Jerusalem." The heart of the daughters cries, "God do this for me, that for me, empower me to preach, heal the sick and raise the dead." Again, these are Godly desires for us in ministering the Gospel to those in need, but what happens when there are no more people to preach to, heal or set free?

What kind of relationship will those who won't move upward in the Lord have if they won't come into the refining flame of Love Himself? The answer would be that they would only have child-like selfish desires that would see the Lord for their needs alone. This would be a sad testimony to give account for in the day we meet Him as our heavenly Bridegroom. Would you want that to be a testimony of your whole life in Christ?

The highest divorce rates happen in year 3-5 and years 10-25. The reason for this high rate is that couples break up before the kids get to big or after the children are gone. They break up so the kids won't have to go through years of fighting, or they stayed together just for the kids sake. This is true even in Christian marriages. The hot buzz word in America is called, "marriage of convenience."

These (so called) marriages stay together for the money, the houses, insurance, but the two don't love each other, just what they can supply together." These "new American" marriages allow you to have multitudes of partners, or have affairs, and commit adultery. The couples stay together out of need and convenience.

Yet in many ways, this is what our relationship with the Lord has become in America, a marriage of convenience. This is the source of what mega-ministries appeal to in so many these days, offering what the Lord can do for me and never having to preach about sin!

The question to ask ourselves today is why are we staying with the Lord? Is it to shack up with Him, take Him for what He is worth, and then go on our own ways, coming home to Him when we need something else? Many have built their relationship with the Lord to be like this, "as long as you bless me, provide for me, take care of me, meet my bills," I will stay with you and even go to church. It is also the reason so many "christians" are beginning to fall away from Him. They are not getting what they want from the Lord when they want it.

Most of the Body of Christ's relationship with the Lord in this nation has been,"a marriage of convenience.' James wrote this warning to church of His day, and the warning is true of our generation here in America as well.

James 4:1-5 Whence come wars and whence come fighting among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. Or think ye that the scripture speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying?

We want the Lord to provide all that this world has to offer by asking Him to feed us with apples and raisins. The reason why the church in Laodecia was luke warm is that they desired the best of the world and the best of God. Much of todays preaching in America even encourages this self-seeking mentality. This is where we get "seeker-friendly" churches, cell groups and much more. All with good intentions, but are they truly the Lord's desires or ours?

To often here in America we take the things of the world and try to make them Christian to fill our own needs and desires. We to have asked Aaron to make us a golden calf and call it "jehovah" the God that led us out of sins bondage. We have little knowledge of what the Lord's true needs and desires are because we have not "pressed on to know the Lord." Hosea 6:3

Asking God for things is normal in a life of a babe in Christ who cries so mom can feed them. It is not normal for a bride to want things more than the person they are marrying. For us to become a bride or overcomers, we must have the Lord remove that very heart in us. The only way to remove that heart attitude is by the Lord sending REFINING FIRE! A special work of dealings in our heart to cause us to want to grow up into maturity where we live for only His desires for us! This is why in Revelation 19 it says the following,

Rev 19:6-8, And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunders, saying, Hallelujah: for the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigneth. Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

The refining fire has to come to help us "prepare a way for the Lord in our hearts, or to make ourselves ready." For this to happen, the Lord must cause a greater hunger for Him to arise in our hearts which I believe He is doing (today) in His bride. There is a need arising in the Bride-to-be's heart not for apples, raisins, gifts, power or anointing, but a need for the Lord Himself! He is awakening in us to see past the need for things, to our real and vital need, Him! Our last conference was called, "the Bride is awakening!" Do you see why that name came forth?

The Lord must cause us to grow up, but He will not make us grow up. Those who responded to this awakening join in the prayer found by the Bride to be in Song of Solomon chapter 1:4 Draw me; we will run after thee: The king hath brought me into his chambers.

This prayer is a prayer of DESIRE for God to intervene in our life. It is the prayer that allows Malachi chapter 3:1 to happen, " and the Lord whom you seek, shall suddenly come to His temple." This prayer for God to "draw us" is for the Lord to lift us up and take us where He is! THIS IS THE WAY IN WHICH HE WOULD WANT TO BE MET!

In the beginning of the Song of Solomon, the Bride-to-be doesn't understand His longing heart yet, because she still wants to be fed with apples and raisins. She still sees Him as an apple tree, but He sees her passion for Him. He will feed her there, but then will begin the process of FIRE in Her life, the Baptism of Fire, to bring her forth as Gold.

This Gold in her will not seek Him for her needs, but will be her finishing testimony found in Song of Solomon 7:10, "I am my Beloveds, and His desires are towards me." This is the heart of a bride that has made herself ready. (Revelation 19:7) She now is His entirely! YEAH GOD! She now lives only for His desires and not hers. Why, for His desires have become her desires, and their hearts burn together as ONE for the same thing.

Beloved, that is what a marriage is supposed to be in the natural and with the Lord. The "two shall become one." It was never meant to be a marriage of convenience, but a marriage where two hearts shall beat as one, and two people shall become one." This is the prayer of Jesus found in John chapter 17.

John 17:21-24 I pray Father, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me. Father, I desire that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.

Listen to the prayer: and the GLORY WHICH YOU HAVE GIVE ME, I HAVE GIVEN THEM, THAT THEY MAY BE ONE! "I AM MY BELOVEDS, AND HIS DESIRES ARE TOWARDS ME." This is the very heart He has to produce in us by the Baptism of Fire to make us one as Him and the Father are one, Glory! It will wreck us as we have known ourselves to be. It will wreck our understanding of church as we have known it to be." It will wreck our understanding, doctrines and bring forth the true revelation of Jesus Christ as He is desiring to be known. The same kind of knowing when Adam knew His wife Eve! He won't throw away all that we learned or believed from the past, just COMPLETE IT. "IT IS FINISHED! I am the ALPHA and OMEGA, THE BEGINNING AND THE END!

This is the mystery that is being revealed to those who have an ear to hear, and have allowed this desire for the Lord to consume them. This is what the prayer, DRAW ME LORD, will produce in the hearts of His bride. If you are reading this and have not this desire in your heart, stop right now and ask Him to awaken the heart of a bride in you for Him. Say, Lord, I don't understand all this, but I want to be your bride forever, do what you must in me now. I give you permission Holy Spirit to do all you need to do, until I am a Bride ready for my King Jesus." If you meant that beloved, get ready for the ride of your life.

Ephesians 5 tells us that husbands are to love their wives like Christ loves the church. That whole chapter is about the quality of love that will make us one with our wives and them one with us. It speaks of laying down our lives for our wives. It speaks of cherishing them, nourishing them, and washing them by the water of the word. It speaks of a man leaving His mother and Father and cleaving to His wife. Then Paul writes these statements:

Eph 5:25-32 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church.

Paul writes that Christ will present to Himself a glorious church, without spot or blemish. How will He do it? He sends the BAPTISM OF FIRE! How do we get it, by seeking the Lord as never before: DRAW ME LORD, WE WILL RUN AFTER YOU, O KING BRING ME INTO YOUR CHAMBERS. This prayer causes the Lord's attention to be single upon us or His favor to rest upon us. He then arranges the circumstances in our lives (as He did for Joseph, Moses, Abraham) to bring forth this fruit of desire for Him by FIRE!

This is a three part prayer of desire. The first part is the prayer of desire, DRAW ME! I want to know you Lord the way you want to be known. The second part is the Prayer of desire is of COMMITMENT! We will run after you means this: all that I am, all that I have, all that I ever will be is yours! This is the total commitment to give your entire life as you know it to Him as a living offering. This is where many believers stoptheir growth in Christ. Their destination in the Lord is the apple tree and to stay fed by His hand there.

But to those being awakened by the Lord, a deeper commitment to be His alone is awakening withih their hearts. The third part of this prayer of desire is to BE WITH HIM WHERE HE IS: O king bring us into your chambers. This speaks of oneness and intimacy of living together as on e BODY! The bride leaves her home to go and live with Him in His home! He leaves His mother and Father and cleaves to His wife.

His prayer is "make us one!" Her prayer is, O King bring us into your chambers! Her desires have changed from "living for him," and eating apples and raisins which sustain her life, to the full grown desires of bring me into your chambers to "live with Him" which sustains Him and in turn fills her completly!

I want to write so much more in this blog, but that is all for now. I am going to finish this thought in the next couple of blogs, so keep looking for them. But for now, please understand that in Hosea 6:2 This prayer, take me into your chambers will be fulfilled now while we are alive and completed when He returns: Listen to the promise of Hosea 6: 1-2: Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him. "O king, bring me into your chambers." "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places."

Let the Holy Spirit reveal this present work in your heart today. I encourage you to go and reread the beginning of this series, the Fire of the Lord. A quickening word is in them, that will increase your desire and capacity for the Lord Himself.

Until next time!