Jan | 16 | Know Your Words!

DESIRE

Know Your Words!  

Song of Solomon 2:4 
He brought me to the banqueting house, And his banner over me was love. NKJV

It is the great English Baroque composer, Henry Purcell, who is attributed by some singers from the 1970’s as being ‘a great influence on modern day Rock and Roll.’ In any event, this 17th Century composer is influencing me this morning as I recall one of his most famous ‘Pop’ songs of his day entitled: ‘Cakes and Ale.’ ( Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t heard Maddy Prior and June Tabor singing this, then you have missed a treat.) One of my favourite lines from this ancient hit is ‘I thought she was afear'd, till she stroked my beard, and we were wondrous merry.’ To which theme the chorus explodes in singing: “Merry me hearts, merry me cocks, merry me sprites, Merry, merry, merry, merry, merry me hay down derry, I kissed her once and I kissed her twice, And we were wondrous merry!” Yes indeed, I bet you were!

The ancient song was a bit naughty and a little bit cheeky, but great fun. The people who sang Purcell’s ancient drinking song knew exactly what it was about, and they had a great time singing about it as well! In the modern day church, the out of context much over allegorizing of our text for today, has led to many believers singing some, and one particular ‘worship’ songs in hilarious ignorance!

In our text, the intent of the line in this Song of Songs, is that the lover knew that he wanted her to ‘stroke his beard’ and probably not a little more besides! In other words, just in case you’re not getting it, this verse is about the ecstatic exhilaration of sexual intercourse. When it says, “His banner over me was love” we can also legitimately write it as “His intent toward me was lovemaking”. Now, trying singing that little chorus again!

The whole of the Song of Songs is about the joy of sex between a married man and woman. There is no hint of procreation in the song, no, it is all about recreation. Sure, we can also pick out a multitude of spiritual parallels in the book but the legitimate joy of sex is at its very heart, and did I tell you, it is only expressed here, and with great abandoned and unashamed holiness, between a man and a woman who are both married to one another.

Remember, God made men and women, He made beauty and desire, and put them all together in a glorious marriage bed. Maybe you need to put your magazine down, turn your computer off, put your DVD away, stop fumbling in your pants or surreptitiously bumbling in the bedroom, propose, get married and start rejoicing. And yes, sometimes, it is as legitimate and as simple as that!

Listen:- He brought me to the banqueting house, And his banner over me was love.  Sustain me with cakes of raisins, Refresh me with apples, For I am lovesick.  His left hand is under my head, And his right hand embraces me.” Song of Solomon 2:4-6NKJV

“Marriage is honourable among all, and the bed undefiled; but fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” Hebrews 13:4NKJV
 

“but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is better to marry than to burn with passion.” 1 Corinthians 7:7 NKJV

Pray: -  Father, find me a help meet. Lord, give me a partner of mutual desire. The O mighty Holy Spirit, ignite our marriage in pleasure, that we may rejoice together in You. Amen.
 

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Dec | 30 | Jewels In The Crown

Dream Word – DESIRE

Malachi 3:17 “They shall be Mine," says the Lord of hosts, "On the day that I make them My jewels....” NKJV

Jewels in The Crown

Any kind of repentance leads to jewels and crowns and a whole lot more!

In our text for tonight the nation of Israel had been lamenting the poor results they had been experiencing in following the Lord. “It’s been a waste of time,” they said, “because the proud are still blessed, still wallowing in health and wealth and the wicked are still in power!” God replied to their complaint telling them that they had judged Him too harshly here and frankly, He wasn’t well pleased. God’s hurt indignation to His children’s charge was both heard and felt by those who loved Him and they consequently got together and encouraged one another in His faithfulness and goodness and then, imagine this, they then encouraged God in His faithfulness and goodness by meditating on His name and writing their names in a book of remembrance before Him! God's response to this act of repentant love was one of righteous covetousness! God of the angel armies says, “They are mine, all mine! Jewels in my Crown! The glory of my head, the colours of my rule! They are my kids and I will have compassion on them, I will prefer them above all others!” God was well pleased with their encouragement of Him.

Now the eschatological application of this verse is at the end of days. However, the implication of these verses are both profound and near. I would suggest that anyone who WOWS the Lord with repentance, and then WOOS Him with dedication, will be regarded as precious, granted the gift of discernment, the power of His protection and the covering of His provision.

Now, if that’s not encouragement enough to repentance and recommittement at this time of year, then friends, I don’t know what is. Do you want to be a jewel in His crown? Well this coming year, get wooing and get wowing!

Listen: - "On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him." Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, and all the proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble.And the day which is coming shall burn them up,"Says the Lord of hosts,"That will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With healing in His wings; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves. You shall trample the wicked, for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day that I do this,"Says the Lord of hosts. "Remember the Law of Moses, My servant,Which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments. Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers,lest I come and strike the earth with a curse." Malachi 3:17-4:6 NKJV

Pray:- Lord, at the end of this year, I choose to rest in Your goodness. Yes Lord, despite all indications to the contrary, I acknowledge Your majesty, I bow down to Your omnipotence, I tremble at Your justice and rejoice in Your mercy. In Jesus name I praise You, amen!

Oct | 17 | Of Replacing your dry wall dust with the vigour of Rhino!

Dream Word – DESIRE

Genesis 30:14-16
 Now Reuben went in the days of wheat harvest and found mandrakes in the field, and brought them to his mother Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes." But she said to her," Is it a small matter that you have taken away my husband? Would you take away my son's mandrakes also?" And Rachel said, "Therefore he will lie with you tonight for your son's mandrakes." When Jacob came out of the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You must come in to me, for I have surely hired you with my son's mandrakes." And he lay with her that night. NKJV

Replacing your dry wall dust with the vigour of a Rhino!

I was in a large food supplement store recently looking for some powerful vitamins and was once again overwhelmed by the choice before me. “Can I help you today?” Says the assistant. So I explain my need and requirement of information to make the right decision and he looks at me with piercing eyes and says, “Well, let me guess, I am pretty sure you are in your fifties so I would recommend…” Astonished I replied, “In my fifties! I might soon be knocking on the mid-century door mate but I’m not there yet!” I was not well pleased.

I became a Christian when I was in my nineteenth year and being nearly in my fifties, (at the time of writing this) I have been walking with God for nearly thirty years and tonight, being such an expert on walking with God, I have been invited to speak at a Presbyterian church about the need for a strong devotional life. I shall of course, be talking about the need for some real spiritual Viagra.
Our text for tonight makes reference to Mandrakes. These are part of the potato family and are also linked to ‘Belladonna’ or, ‘Deadly Nightshade.’ They are referred to as ‘The Devil’s fruit’ or ‘Love Apples’ and the reason for this, is that they are in effect, an aphrodisiac! It is not just for their mild narcotic, aroma therapeutic properties that Mandrakes were sought after, but in heavy doses, the Mandrake can also act as an anesthetic whilst in mild doses, they can, as one old commentator put it, “excite the nerves, act as a stimulant and have power to excite voluptuousness!” Sounds good to me!

So, in our text tonight, Leah, the loser in love to Rachel for the heart attention and associated passion of their husband Jacob, is very simply, trying to get the sexual edge. Leah is trying to use artificial means to no doubt excite both her and Jacob into a such a passionate love making session, that it will in turn, result in babies. You see, Rachel and Leah are locked into a competition of love, through the means of child production. Believe me when I tell you, that this still goes on today.

Old Testament stories present us in the 21st Century with such a foreign cultural context that the stories we read seem so very strange to us. Yet, what an equally strange world we live in! A world where have murdered unwanted children in their tens of millions and yet a world in which conception control coupled with erections out of control, magnifies and increases sexual activity to such an extent, that all the associated terrible transmissions of sexually acquired diseases are multiplied in a mad voluptuous viciousness. Yes, it is a mad, mad, mad, mad world!

Viagra of course is the brand name of one of the latest 21st Century chemical Mandrakes. It’s not cheap though, and so many folks are buying the drug online and/or from cheaper places of production like South America or China. One of the latest drug manufacturing scams of course involves the production of Viagra, in that the “knock off” of the drug, whilst presenting itself in identical packaging, colouring, shape and sizing, is not in fact anywhere near the real deal. Pharmacists have been examining the cheaper product coming into the country to find that not only is not of the same potency and consistency as the more expensive local product, but millions of pills are in fact very simply, nothing but compressed drywall dust! That’s right, what many men thought were Mandrakes, were in fact just dry white plasterboard dust and the only thing the consumption of that material will make solid, is their stools! Hilarious!

The truth is that just about all Christians believe that the only way to maintain a strong devotional life, a close and passionate, long-lasting, life-producing love affair with Jesus, is to get hold of some real spiritual Viagra. Therefore, with this rising demand of desperate and unsatisfied Christians, our Christian bookshop shelves are bending under the weight of all the spiritual motivational potency you could ever imagine and most of our sermons and seminars are really selling the same kind of spiritual Viagra as well. “ Do this for a solid Christian life!” Unfortunately though friends I have to tell you tonight, that it’s all mostly plain old drywall dust. It might all be presented in shiny packaging and brightly coloured covers, it might promise the fulfillment of all your wildest dreams as well but in the end, it’s mostly a load of old drywall dust. Expensive, ineffectual drywall dust. Difficult to digest, difficult to pass and very difficult to flush.

I tell my lovely wife that she is all the Viagra I need. I can think of no greater compliment. I tell Jesus the same. “Show me You glory” I ask Him, “In all Your glorious nakedness my Lord, please reveal Yourself to me for I know that You are all I need.” I tell you, all the religious drywall dust in all the long wide world cannot compete with that! The satisfaction of such a desire is the only thing that will maintain the circle of relationship with God. If you see Him, you will want Him! If you get Him, you will be satisfied.

Do you want to have a strong devotional life even an ever increasing inspirational life? Do you want some potency and power, some strength and solidness put back into you spiritual life? In other words, do you want a more passionate life in Jesus? Then be a Rhino with Him! Yes, pursue desire, pursue satisfaction, pursue real holiness in naked openness, all the time! Real Holiness In Naked Openess. RHINO! See it? Clear your shelves of all your old drywall dust folks and be PASSIONATE about your PURSUANCE of Jesus. Got it?


Listen: - Come, my beloved, Let us go forth to the field; Let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; Let us see if the vine has budded, Whether the grape blossoms are open, And the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. The mandrakes give off a fragrance, And at our gates are pleasant fruits, All manner, new and old, Which I have laid up for you, my beloved. Song of Solomon 7:11-13 NKJV

Pray: - O God, You are my God; Early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary, To see Your power and Your glory. Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, My lips shall praise You. Thus I will bless You while I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, And my mouth shall praise You with joyful lips. When I remember You on my bed, I meditate on You in the night watches. Because You have been my help, Therefore in the shadow of Your wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me. (Psalms 63:1-8 NKJV)

Sep | 29 | No More To The Dance

Dream Word – DESIRE

Psalm 65:4 Blessed is the man You choose, And cause to approach You, That he may dwell in Your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Of Your holy temple. NKJV

No More To The Dance

A friend of mine quoted a champion athlete who had reached the top of his game, the pinnacle of his career, the desire of his dreams, saying that when questioned regarding his success, he replied, “Well frankly it’s a little disappointing, I really expected more.” In the church, many people would like to say the same about their experience of Christianity and I have observed many people are leaving the church because of this same reason. They expected more! The fact is that many people entering the world of church rarely become solid in Christ, no, so very soon, many come to the conclusion that they have been 'sold a pup' and they leave.

This disappointment in Christianity, in Christ, is very noticeable even in long-term members of our churches and usually comes out sideways in these people. In other words, this disappointment in Christ eventually makes itself manifest in depression, manifest in sickness and manifest most usually, in sin. They are disappointed because they expected more!

The answer this disappointment, the answer to this dis-ease in Zion, has to be an active relationship between desire and satisfaction. A person in Christ must desire Christ, and must must find satisfaction in Christ, which will in turn kindle desire, which when burning in Jesus, will lead to satisfaction, which will fuel desire, which will burn in satisfaction, which will fuel desire, which will burn in satisfaction, which will, well, you get my point. We need to begin this upward spiral of satisfaction in Jesus and we need to begin it right now!

Like it or not, this means feelings. Like it or not, feelings are important. The absolute facts of the Gospel are what we hang our hats on, are what we hang our all upon, but these absolute facts will not fuel us with energy to continue and win the race. No, only the very felt presence and the manifest footsteps of God walking along with us, will keep us warm through the lonely valleys in the darkened dale of this old world. We need to feel our Christ, we need to feel our Christianity. Our experience of Jesus must become a felt reality. Spurgeon begins his opening volley of 'Daily Devotions' today with this stunning statement “He who affirms that Christianity makes men miserable, is himself an utter stranger to it.” If that is the case, then let us acknowledge but one thing tonight dear friends, and then let us make sure of but one more.

Firstly then, let us acknowledge that the vast amount of what we see in the present days of the church are indicative that most people do not truly experience Christ. Secondly, let us make sure that we do truly experience Christ.

There is a need here folks for some active pursuance of God. There is a need here for stout hearts in winning this fair prize of the felt presence of God. Maybe tonight you need to throw some rocks at the windows of the Father and demand that He get up and give you some bread. Maybe tonight you need to get out of bed and run around the city looking for your lover, weeping in desperation until you find Him. You may brush with the religious Police as they find you out of your pew so late this very night, they may even give you a right royal beating, but He shall hear about it! A report shall be made in heaven concerning the mad pursuing love which has come upon you, and who knows, tonight, when you hear the turning of your door knob, your lover may slip in and slide between your waiting sheets.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Listen: - My beloved put his hand By the latch of the door, And my heart yearned for him. I arose to open for my beloved, And my hands dripped with myrrh, My fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the lock. NKJV

Pray: No more to the dance O Lord, but bring me to Your house and to Your banqueting table dear Jesus. Let me be familiar with the language of love and ask You then to fed me on Carmel and Bashan; Oh come and satisfy my soul in the mountains of Ephraim and Gilead. Amen. (Jer 50:19)

Aug | 18 | Evanjellyfish

Key Word:- DESIRE

Title:- Evanjellyfish

Ecclesiastes 3:11 ……..Also He has put eternity in their hearts,……...

Recently I read an insignificant little paper written by a member of the American Humanist Society that had the audacity to quote just the first two lines of Emily Jane Bronte’s poem, “No Coward Soul is Mine,” to vainly try and bolster up the shattered dyke of the denial of the sense of the infinite and the knowledge of immortality, which is bound up in the heart of each one of us. It attempted to do this whilst spouting on about the glorious optimism and bravery of humanism within society at large. What HUMBUG!

Listen Friends to what Bronte really said beyond the first two lines of the poem! (This is, by the way, the last poem she ever wrote.)

No coward soul is mine,
No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
I see Heaven's glories shine,
And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.

O God within my breast,
Almighty, ever-present Deity!
Life, that in me has rest,
As I, undying Life, have power in Thee!.

Vain are the thousand creeds
That move men's hearts: unutterably vain;
Worthless as withered weeds,
Or idlest froth amid the boundless main,

To waken doubt in one
Holding so fast by Thy infinity,
So surely anchored on
The steadfast rock of Immortality.

With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou -Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.

Emily became ill after attending the funeral of her brother Bramwell. Overcome by tuberculosis she died aged 30 refusing the help of the medical profession which she distrusted greatly. An introvert with no real close friends, her world famous novel “Wuthering Heights” brought the sceptics rebuff that ‘no woman of such a circumscribed life could have written such a passionate story.’ Again, what HUMBUG!

Friends, passion is a misplaced, misunderstood and much maligned quality within the Church. Gentleness, balance, wisdom, circumspection, have in our Evangelicalism been presented from such a high and calmed vantage point, that passion is attributed mainly to those ignorant youths, who bark and leap like little Labrador puppies all over the great things of God! Our methods of discipleship and mediocre mentoring often result in training people and men especially, to be so quiet, so well bread, read and dead, that it is easy to hitch them to the white stick’d blind, that they, now also bound misled and scared to see, may be together led carefully, quietly and miserably, along the safe pathways of the ‘agreed upon’. So much so that are churches are more like Bruce Forsyth then Bruce Willis. What HUMBUG!

Surely as those born again by the Eternal Spirit, who have enlivened eternity so bursting within our hearts that our chests expand big with the eager expectancy of heaven, breathing out gregarious groanings, hyper ventilating our dizzy little heads with visions of the New Jerusalem, if we who are gagging for God and a better world to come, if we cannot be a people of passionate bravery, treading down the waves of fear and crying “Charge!” and “Onward!” “Farther in!” and “Higher up!” to one another, then who can?

Out of so many millions of men in the church, I could not tell you of any current heroes that I can count on but one hand that has the audacity to shout “Follow me even as I follow Christ!” All of our boys have for years been told to make nice and keep taking the estrogen and yet we wonder why we are so limp and insipid! Passion! It might get in you trouble sometimes but there is no life without it!
Bronte, a 30 year old isolated introvert put burning passion down on a page, looked into death and eternity and cried “No Coward Soul is Mine!” What about you pussycat?

Listen:- Then He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons: Simon, to whom He gave the name Peter; James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James, to whom He gave the name Boanerges, that is, “Sons of Thunder”; Mark 3:14-17

Pray: - Lord, when we together write Your story in my life, let it be one of felt pleasure and of pulsating passion. God! Help us to burn the pink plastic moulds that have produced wet Evangellyfish for far too many years! Amen.

Aug | 17 | Rabboni

Dream Word – DESIRE
 
John 20:15 Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, "Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away." NKJV

Rabboni

It was just yesterday that I was reading for the N’th time ‘My Utmost for His Highest’ by Oswald Chambers. In his opening paragraph he says, “It is possible to know all about doctrine and still not know Jesus. A person’s soul is in grave danger when the knowledge of doctrine surpasses Jesus, avoiding intimate touch with Him. Why was Mary weeping? Doctrine meant no more to her than the grass under her feet. In fact, any Pharisee could have made a fool of Mary doctrinally, but one thing they could never ridicule was the fact that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her; yet His blessings were nothing to her in comparison with knowing Jesus Himself. ‘She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus….…Jesus said to her ‘Mary!’ Once He called Mary by name, she immediately knew that she had a personal history with the One who spoke, ‘She turned and said to Him, ‘Rabboni!’”


It is possible to know doctrine, thoroughly, absolutely, pinned down and buttoned up tight. It is possible to love doctrine, to defend and justify your particular pet position, to write volumes about it, debate with others concerning it, even, may God help us all, yes even to die for doctrine! All this can be done, indeed has been done, and indeed is being done without knowing Jesus, without having a personal relationship and history with Him.

With my own eyes, I have seen our institutional machines turn out young men in their thousands who know doctrine,but do not know Jesus. My own shoulders have rubbed with those of seeming super magnificent success and I tell you right now, I have sensed a supreme absence of Jesus- His fragrance, His passion, His presence. I have seen Pastors that need seven demons cast out of them! I have seen falls, oh my God, I have seen the falls of the doctrinal grand masters, of the powerful and politically placed pundits of professional Christianity, and seen them come crashing to the ground. I have seen the desolate shells of doctrinal death, lay like empty husks along fine paved yellow brick doctrinal roads, all from the land of Laodicea and all leading nowhere.

Yesterday I prayed with a woman who was bemoaning a distance from Jesus that she felt had come upon her soul. In tender love, she told Him how much she missed His presence, how much she longed for Him. I tell you friend, I was greatly convicted. I must ask myself today and in doing so I must ask you, “How on earth do you cope and even continue in your walk, with the felt absence of His presence?”

If your answer to that question was a doctrinal one that says “According to the Scriptures, Jesus has said, “I will never, no never, no never, leave you nor forsake you” then may I say, I greatly worry for your Laodicean laxidasicalness. At some point you will realize that feelings are most important, feelings are very important, feelings are paramount. Call me a heretic if you will, but I have seen professors attempt suicide, great men, blood bought and distraught, doctrinally correct, disciples of Christ, destroyed in their very being, because Jesus was not a felt manifestation of person with them along the hard road they travelled. In their distress, their beloved doctrine became to them not even as important as the worms in the grass under their heavy feet.

A personal relationship with Jesus so often taught and touted in the big and bombastically brandished, multiplexed screens of our mega-churches must, I say again, MUST BE A LIVING REALITY WITH US ON A MONDAY MORNING. If it is not, then you MUST DOUBT YOUR SALVATION. If doctrine is not translated into the felt and manifest known and loving presence of a living God within our lives then we must doubt our salvation! Better, we have the pain of this deceit and the felt pleasure of discovering Him this side of heaven, than to arrive before God’s throne and hear him say, “Depart from me…..I never knew you.” I fear with all my heart that this most sad refrain shall be spoken to hundreds of thousands of dead, but doctrinally correct folk that have taught and walked the aisles of our lovely Laodicean churches.

Chambers finished his thought yesterday by saying “Do I have a personal history with Jesus Christ? The one true sign of discipleship is intimate oneness with Him – a knowledge of Jesus that nothing can shake.” Well do you? O lover of Jesus, you will forgive me if the eight shot from my blunderbuss has peppered your heart tonight, but I have to ask even myself, “Oh my soul, Oh spirit of Victor Robert Farrell, do you have that kind of a relationship?”

Listen:- By night on my bed I sought the one I love; I sought him, but I did not find him. "I will rise now," I said, "And go about the city; In the streets and in the squares I will seek the one I love." Song of Solomon 3:1-2

Pray:- Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to Thy bosom fly,
While the nearer waters roll, while the tempest still is high.
Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past;
Safe into the haven guide; O receive my soul at last.

Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on Thee;
Leave, ah! leave me not alone, still support and comfort me.
All my trust on Thee is stayed, all my help from Thee I bring;
Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of Thy wing.

Wilt Thou not regard my call? Wilt Thou not accept my prayer?
Lo! I sink, I faint, I fall—Lo! on Thee I cast my care;
Reach me out Thy gracious hand! While I of Thy strength receive,
Hoping against hope I stand, dying, and behold, I live.

Thou, O Christ, art all I want, more than all in Thee I find;
Raise the fallen, cheer the faint, heal the sick, and lead the blind.
Just and holy is Thy Name, I am all unrighteousness;
False and full of sin I am; Thou art full of truth and grace.

Plenteous grace with Thee is found, grace to cover all my sin;
Let the healing streams abound; make and keep me pure within.
Thou of life the fountain art, freely let me take of Thee;
Spring Thou up within my heart; rise to all eternity.

Charles Wesley

Mar | 06 | How's Your Sex Life?

Dream Word – DESIRE

Isaiah 26:9 With my soul I have desired You in the night, Yes, by my spirit within me I will seek You early; NKJV

How’s Your Sex Life?

Do you pray when you get up in the morning? Yes, afore ye face the coming day, do you take the time to kneel and pray?

In a morning, though I do pray for others, I mostly pray for myself, mostly for me and mine. So, with such seeming familial selfishness, I thought it would be good to examine all of my personal prayers made over the mornings now long since gone. Having done that, I have found that I can group them under less than a handful of four major headings. Here they are: I first pray for Power, then I pray for Provision followed by Protection and finally, for Presence.

I pray for Power! Power to be healed of my infirmities that seem to increase exponentially as I get older! Power to be delivered from my demons and my long besetting sins. Power for God to come and change relationships, maybe even me, maybe. Occasionally I pray for power, that I might in all my daily circumstances display the Father’s glory. Oh yes, I like a bit of justifying grandeur to be mixed with my all my personal panderings. I, you see, pray for Power!

I pray for Provision I pray for my daily bread and a whole lot more to put in my large refrigerator and freezer. I pray for chunks of money to feed the barking bills. I pray for postal miracles, I pray for money in the mail. My wife prays for the same! For sure, I pray for strength for the coming day but mostly I pray for money, materials and manpower. I pray for Provision.

I pray for Protection. For after all, if God does answer my increasingly necessary, but ever boring prayers, I don’t want these good answers stolen from me at the last, I don’t want to receive them with trouble added on the end. I need to at least cover all my bases of possible loss. Yes, I pray for Protection. Panic prayer insurance is surely a very good thing to have?

Finally, I pray for Presence and believe it or not, this brings me onto the question of my sex life, indeed of your sex life. You see, on those occasions when I have been thoroughly examined by my local Doctor, even just verbally so, he has always questioned me about my libido, or rather, if there is any lack of it. When this question has been asked of me over a visit to him regarding anything other than my genitals, it has always left me with a stunned look on my face. “Eh? What on earth did you ask that for?” In addition to the stunned look, I have to be honest that my response has never been the whole truth. “Yeah fine Doc! No problems in that department, no siree. Phew, praise God”. Liar.

The doctor of course, in questioning my prowess in the bedroom is looking at sexual desire as a sign of physical health. If I am ill, then the power of my desire, is often re-routed into fighting disease, overcoming anxiety, or repairing the body. From a doctors point of view, him questioning the function of my libido is simply a fault finding question to discover indicators of failing health. Which believe it or not, brings me back to spiritual desire and especially to my prayers of Presence.

It is too easy to begin the day with God and then forget Him for the rest of it. When my prayers for His manifest presence in my day, is nothing but a quick tag line hooked onto the other guff, then my desire for Him is low, my desire for Him is waning, my spiritual libido is not functioning as it should, indeed, I am spiritually sick.

So, let me ask you tonight my dear friend, how is your spiritual sex life? Is everything OK in the spiritual bedroom department my friend? Oh really? DO YOU DESIRE HIM? IF EVERYTHING ELSE WAS STRIPPED AWAY, WOULD YOU STILL WANT HIM? DO YOU LONG FOR HIM TONIGHT? WILL YOU SEEK HIM ALL YOUR DAY TOMORROW? INDEED, WILL YOU COUNT YOUR DAY AN UTTER FAILURE IF YOU CANNOT FEEL HIS KIND CARESS, ENJOY HIS PRESENCE OVER A CUP OF COFFEE, OR SEE HIS FACE AMONGST THE MILLING CROWD. Yes, tell me, how’s your spiritual sex life tonight?
If you are too tired for desire and frankly, that’s the usual cause amongst us Christians, simple hard pressed tiredness, even exhaustion, then you need to refocus the use of your time, change your diet and get to bed earlier. It’s as profound and as practical as that. If however, you have no desire for Him whatsoever and frankly never really had, then you are very simply, a user and an abuser of God, just a spiritual morning masturbator. Your prayers have been prayers of provision, protection, power and prostitution. Nothing else. There has been no relationship in them whatsoever. Yes, your prayers have been prayers of Provision, Protection, Power and Prostitution. Nothing else.

Let us change our ways. Let us re-order our prayer patterns and on the morrow, let us choose to desire His presence. Let us begin, to court our God once more, in pursuing, desiring and dedicated, adoring relationship.

Listen: - I have not spoken in secret, In a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, 'Seek Me in vain'; Isaiah 45:19a NKJV
 
Pray:- Lord, You have said, “Seek me and live!” Lord, You have said “You will find Me when you seek me with all your heart.” So with all my heart and mind and will, I decide to desire You. In the coming days O Lord, surprise my choice by adding the glow of passionate fires! Amen.

Jan | 01 | The OVEN of Burning Love!

Dream Word – DESIRE

Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. NKJV

The OVEN of Burning Love!

There is presently in our world an all-pervading sexual promiscuousness. It’s on our T.V.'s, our mobile phones, the internet, indeed, it’s all over the place! The main maxim of marketing is this, “If you want to sell it, make it sexy, make it appealing, then, make it eye candy!” The result of this is a multitude of scantily clad gyrating women wiggling their way across our world. This kind of nakedness is plain wantonness, just distant and very unreal, wantonness. This kind of nakedness is sex, but it is not intimacy.

Seared consciences have made embarrassed and public nakedness a thing of the past, and today, you know, anything goes. Yet, intimacy is what we truly desire, but the sad thing is that we have come to equate all of this conscience seared sexual promiscuity with intimacy. Of course it isn’t. So, our continued and unsatisfied desire for intimacy leads us ever onwards to even more sexual promiscuity. Hot sex is not intimacy but hot love is!

If at the beginning of this year we want to get real intimate with God, then we need to share with Him the OVEN of our love.

First then, let me talk about OPENNESS. We need to be open with the Lord. We need to tell Him exactly how we feel about situations, about relationships, about ourselves, about Him. Don’t hold anything back! Real intimacy always begins with naked openness.

Second, VULNERABILITY. We must allow God to go wherever He wants to go with us. We must allow Him full and open access to our spirits. We must allow Him to investigate us, to search us and to know us!

Third, ECSTACY. Don’t forget folks, the purpose of marriage, of faithful intimacy, is both procreation and recreation! God is intent on our joy, our deepest joy! We too must be intent on His joy, we must be intent on pleasing Him. Make God’s joy, your joy, and I tell you, you won’t go far wrong. We must be intent on His pleasure. Imagine that! You see, to truly please ourselves, we must always seek to please Him first.

Lastly, NEARNESS. This is the real intent of spiritual intimacy, the banishment of loneliness by the presence, the felt nearness of the person you have set your love upon.

Tell you what friend, if you this year turn yourself into a hunk of burning love for your Lord, then your deepest desires will be fully realised. Go on, give it a try and put God in the OVEN of your own burning love.

Listen: - The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you. Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice. You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food. For there shall be a day when the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, 'Arise, and let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.'" Jeremiah 31:3-6 NKJV

Pray:- Like the sweet song of a choir, O Lord God Almighty, come and lift me higher. Let the flame of Your passionate love, come lick my soul and raise my temperature toward You. Jesus, come and light my morning sky on the morrow, with Your burning love for me, that I might be inspired to please you with myself. Amen