Encouragement

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Seeking The One I Love... (Song of Songs 3:1-2)

"All night long on my bed I looked for the One my heart loves; I looked for Him but did not find Him. I will get up now and go about the city, through its streets and squares; I will search for the One my heart loves."

In these last days, God wants us to recognize the urgency for His Bride to seek Him and really meet with Him in the sweet, passionate intimacy we can know in His presence. I feel His heart's grief as He calls to His bride to come and find joy in His presence, the pure and perfect joy of Heaven; but few seek Him for the sheer glory and awesome beauty of who He is. Even many of those faithful ones who call on His name, come to Him with a list and an agenda. The King of the universe, the Lord of Glory is calling to us to today - He says "Come. Come to Me. Your rest is in My presence. Your peace is from being as one with Me. Your joy is when you understand the beating of My heart. It is only then that you will know the completeness of fulfillment in Me. It is only then that you will know complete faith, and know that I will overcome all the difficulties and challenges you face. Your enemy the Accuser has tried to destroy you but if you draw near to Me, my presence will be your victory, for in repentance and rest is your salvation. I am your Lord who teaches you what is best for you. I will direct you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands and sought my face, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. But come to Me. As you seek Me you will see that every need you ever had is met in Me. Every prayer you ever prayed is complete in Me. I am the Everlasting, the beginning and the end - your wholeness and your victory is in Me. Seek me and you will find me as you seek me with all of your heart....."

What can we learn from the young lady in today's Scripture from the Song of Songs?

1) All night she sought the one she loved.

She waited for him. David wrote in Psalm 42, verses 1 & 2: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?" This was the longing in the heart of the bride who waited for her bridegroom and her lover. Her heart was thirsty; her very being was consumed with the loving longing to be with him. Nothing else could satisfy her; no one else could take his place. She understood the purest pleasure she could know in His presence, and that is what her aching heart cried out for. This is the heart that Jesus seeks as His eyes wander to and fro across the world. He seeks the heart that is sold out for Him. A bride who loves Him more than any other. A bride who will say: "Yes, I am ready to pick up my cross and follow You to the ends of the earth. Whatever You ask of me, I lay down at Your feet - my very life is as of nothing to me if I cannot feel your embrace...." A bride who is in love with the Bridegroom! One who will willingly lose everyone and everything, just to spend her life with Him.

2) When the bridegroom did not show up, she got up and went in search of him.

God is calling us to persist in our walk with Him and our desire for His presence. How much do we really want Him? Yes we are all limited by schedules and the agendas of others we live and work with, but are we willing to press in? Many things hinder us from truly encountering His presence. It could be some habitual sin, or the presence of other people, or even some unforgiveness in our hearts which prevents us from entering the holy of holies. Perhaps it is some past stronghold of evil which we never renounced and broke free from. We need to stand up and confront it and refuse to allow anything to hinder us reaching the presence of Jesus. Each day we allow that hindrance to remain, it gets harder and harder to break through it; a crust begins to grow over a heart that once burned with a passion for Jesus and melted at the sound of His Word, His voice. Deal with it today and move aside every hindrance that stands in your way. "Seek Him while He may be found; call on Him while He is near" (Isaiah 55:6).

Precious people, we are in the last days; as the time draws near for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, He is looking for a Bride who radically seeks Him. A persistent bride who does not give up. A bride who seeks Him through the night and then keeps pressing in until the breakthrough comes. Jesus, our Bridegroom King seeks a bride who will search for Him with all of her heart. A bride who will push aside every hindrance and not be deterred until she finds herself within His arms, held close to the beating of His heart. A bride who will not stop searching until she feels His hands holding her once more, and smells the fragrance of His touch, where words are now not necessary, as like lovers they commune heart to heart, spirit to Spirit, lifted up to a different dimension where deep calls to deep. All the answers that you seek are in His perfect, powerful, holy presence.

The sweet intimacy we can know in the arms of the Bridegroom is only possible as we open ourselves to the moving of the Holy Spirit who loves Him so completely. As I sought God's presence one day, I found myself praying "Precious Holy Spirit, teach me to love Jesus like You love Jesus...." I believe this was a turning point - I know He has taken a hold of my heart and it makes me weep with joy!

Precious children of the Almighty, I pray that you will set aside time to experience a fresh visitation of the Master; that you will fall in love with the Bridegroom all over again. He is so beautiful, so glorious, so eternally magnetically worthy of all our love and worship. Come to Him and just worship Him without any agenda. As we seek Jesus and His Kingdom before anything else, He has promised that all other things, whatever they may be, will undoubtedly be added to us - Matthew 6:33. His arms are open wide. He is waiting for you! May you seek Him while He may be found.

"My beloved is mine and I am His" (Song of Songs 2:16). It is all about Jesus!

Minoli Haththotuwa
www.wingslikeeagles.info

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