HIS HEART SONG…Part 14
“The Equipping of the Bride…part 1”
- We left the bride and the Daughters of Jerusalem and all the other “lilies”, which are the other believers, in the gardens with Jesus as He had lavished praise over her and then the Daughters lavished praise on her…now check out what happens….so cool!
Song of Songs 6:11 “I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded.”
- Ok……go back to chapter 2:11-13 when Jesus was trying to get her to come out from behind the lattice and go jumping and leaping over the mountains and to go check out the vineyards and the flowers because the winter had passed and springtime had come…..but back then, the bride wasn’t moved at all…she said “nope” and she hung out behind her lattice….
- BUT….here, He says it again….and gets a completely different response!
- It’s springtime…a time of new beginnings…He is wanting to go check out His spiritual garden to see how fruitful it will be…
- He is ALWAYS concerned with the condition of His gardens!!!!!
- He seems to know that she is completely ready to go with Him and to follow Him into the gardens….as Christians, we have to ALWAYS fruitful…always working with Him to tend OUR garden!
- In this verse, the Hebrew word for FRUITS is FRESHNESS…..does our garden have a newness or freshness about it?
Song of Songs 6:12 “or ever I was aware (Before I realized it), my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib.”
- The Hebrew word AMMINADIB is actually two words combined together…”Am” and “Nadib”…
- AM usually is translated as PEOPLE
- NADIB is translated as WILLING, VOLUNTARILY, INCLINED, or NOBLE……
- So…..He is calling to His WILLING PEOPLE!!!!!
- He loves it when we have a WILLING SPIRIT to do His will!!!!
- He calls us NOBLE when we are willing to do His will!
- Are you like a CHARIOT?????....a chariot is a vehicle that MOVES but that is driven by another….
- Are you spiritually NOBLE by having a WILLING, SUBMISSIVE spirit that is being driven by obeying His COMMANDS…
- Just like that song we sing sometimes…”where You go, I will go…what You say I say…”
- Who is holding the reins to your chariot???? Does He have them or are you holding on so tightly to them that He can’t call you NOBLE????
- He apparently has the reins to her chariot…because the next thing we know….they are walking off together….we know this because of what the Daughters of Jerusalem say next….
Song of Songs 6:13a “Come back, come back, O Shulammite; come back, come back, that we may gaze on you!...”
- Did you notice that He didn’t ASK her to come with Him….she just WENT WILLINGLY…..
- She has soooooooooooooo been transformed by Him that they are awestruck of her and will truly miss her if she goes….which is exactly what happens when those who are really filled up with Him, leave….you cry out for them to ‘come back’ because just being around them totally refreshes you!
- This is super cool….they call her SHULAMMITE…this is actually the first time that they call her this…..do you remember what that name means???....it is the feminine form of SOLOMON…..how cool is it that they called her by HIS NAME!!!!....because NOW she really is so transformed and is becoming more and more like Him in His image…
- This is what will happen to us!!!!!....Check out this verse….Revelation 22:4 “And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads.”
Song of Songs 6:13b “…What will you see in the Shulamite? As it were the company (dances) of two armies (encampments)”
- Some versions (like the NIV) uses the word MAHANAIM…which means “two camps” in Hebrew…it’s a place near the Jordan River…THIS IS A SUPER COOL BIT OF HISTORY….Jacob, when returning from Padan-aram to southern Canaan, had a vision of angels (Genesis 32:2). Jacob’s realization that the place was “GOD’S CAMP”, led him to name the place Mahanaim…two camps, or two companies…to memorialize the occasion of his own company SHARING the place with God’s…..now how cool is THAT!!!!
- And here we have the Shulamite and Solomon DANCING TOGETHER here!
- Psalm 149:3 “…praise His name in the dance.”
- This bride was so transformed ….her life was so dramatically different now that she couldn’t help but to DANCE!!!!!!
- She looked just like two armies dancing and rejoicing over VICTORIES!!!!
- Can you just picture this scene….she is walking with Him through this garden and she watches Him as He exclaims over every little part of it…she KNOWS how important it is to Him…and the wild thing is…it is becoming just as important to her…she is becoming LIKE HIM!!!
- Now….there are no longer two separate beings….no longer two armies….but one…..she is becoming more and more like Him….
- Romans 8:29 “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son…”
- She is now concerned about the same things that He is….THIS IS WHAT HE WANTS!!!!
- He wants us to be concerned about what He is concerned about!!!!!
- He wants us to LOVE Him and then LOVE our brothers and sisters!!!!....It’s the first and second commandments!!!!
- John 15:1-11 “I am the vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples. As the Father has love Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you OBEY My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that My joy may be in You and that your joy may be complete. My COMMAND IS THIS: LOVE EACH OTHER AS I HAVE LOVED YOU. Greater love has no one than this, than he lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you FRIENDS, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”
- He is looking closely at your branches….are they budding?????...are they blooming?????
- BLOOMING represents WORSHIP…..it shows Him that He is your FIRST LOVE!!!!
- ARE YOU BLOOMING IN WORSHIP FOR HIM!!!????
- Now…in chapter 7:1-9….He is going to EQUIP her….just like He equips everyone of us who are willing to go WORK in His gardens
- She is ready for SERVICE…..here He goes…describing parts of her that hadn’t been described before….He is so overjoyed with her that He is going to describe her attributes one more time!!!! He must be so thrilled that she did not give up or turn back, but that she pursued Him!!!!
Song of Songs 7:1 “How beautiful are your FEET with shoes (sandaled feet), O prince’s daughter (O queenly maiden)! The joints (roundness) of your THIGHS are like jewels, the work of the hand of a cunning workman (artist)”
- He calls her the PRINCE’S DAUGHTER….He speaks of her NOBLITY…she is one of the royal household!
- Think about it….last time He described her…He only described her from the HEAD to the WAIST…..because she wasn’t ready to actually WALK it out….NOW, she is ready to WALK it out and go with Him….
- Her FEET are now clean and ready to STAND….with shoes on…she is ready to walk! What are those shoes???....
- Ephesians 6:15 “And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.”
- With your feet shod with the gospel of peace….you can STAND in the evil day and when you have done all you can do…just STAND!!!!
- It’s all about those FEET….the FEET of EVANGELISM…
- A LITTLE BIT OF JEWISH HISTORY ON SHOES….The Jewish custom of not wearing shoes was taken as a show of remorse, penance or mourning (Isaiah 20:2). In Talmudic times both the pall bearers and the mourners went barefoot. When David was in mourning he went barefooted.
2 Samuel 15:30 'And David went up by the ascent of mountOlivet, and went as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot'
- So…………her feet have SHOES on…there is no mourning here!!!!! Pure JOY, BLISS, and PEACE!
- Your spiritual FEET are important to Him! They have to be cleansed by the washing of the water of the Word…..you HAVE to have the WORD (the water) APPLIED to your feet (to your life)
- Check out what Peter said…John 13:8-9 “No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash your feet, you have no part with me.”
- We have to RECEIVE the WORD before we can WALK in it…
- Psalm 119:105 “Your WORD is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”
- Check out what else the Bible says about our FEET…
- Our feet have FREEDOM.
Psalms 18:36 Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.
Psalms 31:8 And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.
- Our feet are Kept by God.
1 Samuel 2:9 He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
Psalms 116:8 For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
- Our feet are Established by God.
Psalms 66:9 Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
Psalms 121:3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.
- Our feet are Guided by Christ.
Isaiah 48:17 Thus saith the LORD, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel; I am the LORD thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go.
Luke 1:79 To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
- Check out what the Bible says about the feet of the WICKED…
- The feet of the wicked are…Swift to mischief.
Proverbs 6:18 An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
- The feet of the wicked are…Swift to shed blood.
Proverbs 1:16 For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood.
Romans 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
- The feet of the wicked are…Ensnared.
Job 18:8 For he is cast into a net by his own feet, and he walketh upon a snare.
Psalms 9:15 The heathen are sunk down in the pit that they made: in the net which they hid is their own foot taken.
- Our FEET are important….and where they GO is important….Proverbs 4:26“Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.”
- Your FEET have to MOVE in order to RUN…..remember her request from chapter 1 where she said “draw me, we will RUN after You…”…HE IS ANSWERING IT NOW!!!!...it was a progressive thing….she is now APPLYING the GOSPEL to her FEET!
- Go back to 6:11 and notice that her FEET moved and she went “DOWN to the garden…”….before, she was willing to go with Him to the Mountaintops…remember Amana and Hermon…(armor and victory)….now she went DOWN to the valley….and even without Him asking her too!!!
- THINK ABOUT THIS GARDEN FACT: VALLEYS are where gardens get their best nourishment and nutrients and the weather is best to produce TOP QUALITY FRUIT
- How often do we gripe and complain when going through a VALLEY….but, we have got to understand that THAT is where we get the best nutrients…THAT is where we produce the best FRUIT in our lives!
- Isaiah 52:7 “How beautiful upon the mountains are the FEET of him that brings good tidings, that publishes peace; that brings good tidings of good, that publishes salvation; that says unto Zion, YOUR GOD REIGNS!”
- O how He loves your SURRENDERED, BEAUTIFUL FEET!!!!!
- So many times, believers don’t seem to have beautiful feet….they study His Word…they even praise Him…but when the Holy Spirit nudges them to MOVE their feet in a new direction….they HESITATE…..they come to the very edge of a spiritual breakthrough and blessing…and then FALL SHORT!.....
- Everything they have wanted and longed for is right within their reach….but they MISS IT!!!!!
- They had a beginning desire to RUN after Him….but they don’t follow through…..they are unwilling to receive that washing of the Word….ESPECIALLY if that WORD is bringing CORRECTION to them……to CORRECT or change the path that their feet are on…
- Lots of people are EMOTIONAL about Jesus…which is a great thing….but they have no DETERMINATION…..they are in love with the principles of His Word….but not with the very PRINCE of PEACE HIMSELF…..they don’t embrace this next passage of Scripture
- Hebrews 12:6-14 “…because the Lord DISCIPLINES those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son. Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are ILLEGITIMATE children and NOT TRUE ONES. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we SUBMIT to the Father of our spirits and LIVE!!!!!! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for OUR GOOD, that we may SHARE IN HIS HILINESS. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces A HARVEST of righteousness and peace for those who have been TRAINED by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and week knees. Make level PATHS FOR YOUR FEET, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.”
- ANOTHER TOUGH QUESTION…..What are YOUR FEET causing others to do????.....to be disabled or healed?????
- We could actually just stop right here and think on this all week…..this is soooooooooooooooo what God has been doing to me this past couple of weeks…..He has been DISCIPLINING me so that others will be HEALED by the paths I have made for my FEET, rather than DISABLED by them…..
- Not fun at all to go through….but much needed….I had sooooooooooo pushed my gifts of mercy and grace down because it seems that operating in those gifts, only caused me to get hurt…..but, because I was not operating in my gifting of mercy and grace…I was instead making JUDGMENTS ….letting my mind run wild…not “girding my loins or my mind”
- ______
- So I sought counsel and this is what I learned….most of the time when you find yourself making judgments…it is normally our of HURT or you are using your gift of discernment in the flesh…..
- BAD NEWS…whatever you judge comes back upon you….so BLESS instead…because then Satan will not be able to use the same thing on you…because you have shut the door…you have taken away his “foothold” by choosing to BLESS instead of JUDGE
- Those you judge you will become like…EX: “I will never be like you”….then , the next thing you know…you are just like em
- Speak in LOVE rather than in judgment
- No one…not even seasoned Christians…can receive TRUTH that is not spoken in love
- Choose not to walk in the harshness of judgment
- When you walk in LOVE and “things come”, you will see them in TRUTH instead of your filter (the filter causes you to make the judgments)
- When you choose to make a JUDGMENT…everything that happens from that point on will be judged from that “foundation”
- SO………………..walk in LOVE
- EX: The lady I bought a gift for
- Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
- 2 Timothy 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.”
- Psalm 133:1-3 “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down upon the collar of his robes. It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on MountZion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.”
- So…………………with that Scripture read…..instead of judging….I should instead PREFER other people….LOVE…because where there is UNITY there is a COMMANDED blessing from God!
- SO….I learned….don’t react out of the flesh…don’t react out of my mind…instead react out of LOVE and out of my (His) spirit…
- ______
- HOW CAN THE PATHS YOU CREATE FOR YOUR FEET DISABLE PEOPLE?????
- HOW CAN THE PATHS YOU CREATE FOR YOUR FEET HEAL PEOPLE?
- Just about every choice you make will affect people in one of these ways….
- EX: ADILYNN….she is 2 yrs old…she copies EVERYTHING we do or say…even our mannerisms…what are my actions teaching her?....as she follows me around the house…if I drop something and get upset about it, she learns that when we drop things-we are supposed to get upset…by eating a donut instead of a banana…she learns which foods are fun to eat…but not necessarily good for you!....even the LITTLE decisions I make affect her!
- THINK ABOUT IT before you speak or do EVERYTHING and ANYTHING!
- With our SHOES on…we stand strong against our enemy…we will RUN and not grow weary……then He goes on to say….
Song of Songs 7:1b “…The joints (roundness) of your THIGHS are like jewels, the work of the hand of a cunning workman (artist)”