Arise And Come With Me
Part 2
A meditation on Song of Solomon 2:8-14
My beloved spoke and said to me: “Rise up, my love, my fair
one, and come away. (NKJ)
The NIV Bible translates the above verse as follows: My lover spoke and said
to me, "Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come with me.
This is how the MESSAGE reads: My lover has arrived and he's speaking to
me! Get up, my dear friend, fair and beautiful lover--come to me.
(All emphasis added).
It’s not enough then to “come away”, but it’s “come TO me” and “come WITH
me”. The Lord is saying meet me where I am and go with me where I want to
go. In the past our relationship with Him has been: “Lord, come where I
am. Lord, you see my circumstances, come here, and meet me here. I
need healing Lord, come to me.” Now the Lord is saying: “No, but I am
saying to you, come to ME, and come with me. Meet me where I
am”. And where is He? Sitting in Heavenly places!
He goes on to say:
“RISE UP!” The Bride must rise from a state of despondency and
bondages.
Prov 6:5
Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the
hand of the fowler.
RISE UP!
She must stand up, stir herself up, take a position, and get up from obscurity
and from inactivity. It is up to you and I.
RISE UP!
Take a stand against the devil that wants to keep you there telling you that
this can’t be for you, you are not good enough, you are not like so and so”.
RISE UP!
There is a power that works in you
and it is the Resurrection power of Christ.
Rom. 8:11
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal
bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. The Jesus that is in us is
the RISEN CHRIST. Resurrection is already in us.
His call for the moment is to rise up in power and authority, not only for
service, but also for spiritual warfare. It's a call to live in the realm
of the miraculous. He wants us to do the greater works He told us we would
do, that is His plan. He wants us to cause as much trouble for the
kingdom of darkness as we can. It is a call to discover that Power that
WORKS in us. Ephesians 3:20.
“Come with me” It is an invitation to fellowship, a call to openness.
It’s an invitation to deep communion where He will share his heart, His plans
and His purposes. When He says “come with me” He is declaring: " I
want one who doesn't covet only my blessings but desires fellowship,
companionship, wanting to go where I want to go.”
It is written that Enoch “walked” with God. He went where the
Lord went.
The Bible also tells us that there is a company of people that “ follow the Lamb
wherever He goes”. Rev 14:4. They make up the company of
the elect, the remnants, those who were “redeemed from the earth, (or earthly
things) and “from among men”, to be separated unto God.
Come with me
– and invitation to friendship (the basis for the prophetic), for there is
no better way to become friend with someone than that of walking consistently
together. Enoch’s constant close walk with the Lord so transformed him
that “he was not”; he had become so much like his Friend, that he lost his
own identity in that of his companion, the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not,
he had decreased so much as Jesus increased that you could not find him any
more.
Come with me”- an invitation to stop doing our own thing. An
invitation to reach the place where we want to do what He is doing, we want to
join Him in His works, learning how to operate in realm of faith and not
in that of the intellect or reasoning. Bill Johnson
in his book “When Heaven invades the earth”
puts like this: “when we submit the things of God to the mind, unbelief and
religion are the results. When we submit the mind to the things of God, we
end up with faith and a renewed mind” The Bible exhorts us not to lean in
our own understanding. Much of what we do is the result of
reasoning, brainstorming, coming up with our own ideas and fabrication, animated
with carnal energy instead of being empowered by the Holy Spirit.
For lo, the winter is past
The winter of the church is over. Do you not you perceive a
change in your circumstances? The long, dark, cold, barren season many of
us have experienced in the past years, are gone. What the winter was
supposed to accomplish is done. Can you hear Him saying to you: your
season of trial and testing, when the self life was being put to death, has
passed.
To experience His Resurrection there must have been a death. The winter
brought death to much of our carnal nature. (As the seeds buried
under ground during the cold months, you have undergone a deep change (a seed
goes through a transformation: from starch to sugar and it emerges in
spring looking altogether different that when it went down)
Rom 6:4-5 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even
so we also should walk in newness of life.
For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we
shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
God has been (and still is) busy pruning His Church. It has been a
long season of barrenness and loss for some.
Some plants indeed die in the winter and some look dead only to come alive in
springtime. Winter enhances the beauty of spring.
The plant is barren after the pruning. The cold kills what it must die,
but this process precedes fruitfulness. The obscurity of winter heralds
the big changes of spring and the following gathering of fruit at harvest time.
The leaping mentioned in this biblical passage, implies quick transition:
from where we are to where we are going with just a jump, a quick jump and we
are over on the other side. The purpose of every pain and every adversity
that God allowed in our life was to develop in us hind's feet. Let
us therefore make the jump of transition.
The rain is over and gone.
The writer is talking about the winter rain that often causes floods with
resulting losses of houses, possessions, even lives, a rain that brings
destruction, devastation, and desolation.
However in Isa. 54:9,11 the Lord says:
For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters
of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would
not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee…then he goes on to say:
“… O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I
will lay thy stones with fair colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
Beauty and preciousness coming out of your life…The GLORY of the Lord
revealed in you.
Rom 8:18 …the sufferings of this present time are not worthy
to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us…”
The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing
of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;
Flowers are dead in winter, and birds suffer and even die during the cold;
but when the winter is past, they forget the hardness of the season, now they
sing for joy. It is time of restoration, time to forget the winter and
sing again for joy, it is time for love…
The fig tree puts forth her green figs, and the vines with
the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
Figs appear very early on the tree even before leaves do; they are green but
they tell that summer is near;
with summer comes harvest time! Harvest time is fast approaching; the
fig tree - which is Israel - it is proof of it. Israel is beginning to
become ripe to receive the gospel. The Church (the vines, or those
who abide in the vine) (John 15:5) is starting to show fruit and to give out a
good smells.
Note of interest: the scent of the vine drives away serpents. Our
screaming does not impress Satan and demons, but they tremble before a life
connected to the Vine. The life connected to the vine is the
individual who walks in close relationship with the Lord; therefore, intimacy is
a secret weapon for spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare cannot be
separated from intimacy. (Later on in the book, chapter 6:4, king Solomon
compares the Bride to an army with banners).
Again He says, ”Come away”. . Come away where? On top of the
Mountain, where He is skipping and leaping.
Mountains are sites of spiritual experiences, and of unforgettable
encounters with God. Abraham met Jehovah-jireh or the Lord who provides on
the top of Mt. Moriah. Moses had an encounter with God through the burning
bush on Mt. Horeb. Elijah also met Him on the same Mountain. Moses met God
again as the Law Giver on Mt. Sinai. Jesus went often to the Mountain to
be alone and meet with the Father. He ascended from the Mount of Olivet
and is coming back on that same Mountain.
Mountains are also a natural place for vision. Rev 21:10
“And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and
showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from
God.”
Coming to this place of vision requires that we separates ourselves from what
seems to be good, in order to be brought to know the best.
Weights (things that are not born of the spirit) must be laid aside so we
can climb without hindrances to this place of Union with Him from whence He can
work His end time purposes. We may have to lay aside the coziness of being
in fellowship with friends and be willing to climb alone, but there is a reward
for those who do: unlimited vision.
You can see the horizon, you can see with clarity the movements, the stirring of
God’s Spirit and you can gain a perspective on things that those who
remain below do not have.
Peter, James and John beheld on the Mountain the visible glory of God in the
face of Jesus and they received an understanding that they could not have
received in any other way. They saw Jesus in His glorified state.
We must see Him like that too if we want to be like Him and move in Power
with Him.
For years I wondered about I John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he
shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is”.
We must see Him as He IS now, and not simply as He was then, when He
walked this earth. We will not see Him as He is unless he appears
(The original word for “appear” is the Greek word Phaneroo= manifest [by
revelation]).
It brings to mind the story of Elijah and Elisha. (2 King 2: 10-14):
Elisha had followed Elijah all the way. He had followed him to Gilgal (the
place of activities, for Gilgal means “rolling”), and then He followed him to
Bethel, or “the house of God” (prayer and worship), then to Jericho or difficult
places (the challenges, the winter times) and again to Jordan, the place of
descending or “humbling” (less of me, more of God).
Many of us have been in the very same places with Jesus. After all of
that, came the time when Elisha asked for Elijah’s mantle and the double portion
of his Spirit. Elijah told Him that if he saw him go up, he could
have it. Elisha saw Elijah go up into Heaven by a whirlwind. He saw
chariots and horsemen, in other words he saw a picture of conquest, victory, and
triumph. He saw the Overcomer! We too, like Elisha, need to
have an encounter with the Jesus that Elijah portrayed. We need to have a
revelation of Jesus as He is described in Revelation 1:13-18 and in Revelation
19:11-16. John, in the isle of Patmos saw the Lord as He is.
The beloved disciple had walked the street of Galilee with Him, he laid his head
on His chest, he saw Him bleeding, humiliated and wounded on the Cross: he
had seen the Jesus that “was”, but now he sees the Jesus who is and the vision
is so glorious he falls on his face. Then John was called up
where Jesus is, and he saw with a different perspective. He saw far and far away
into the horizon of time.
After His death and Resurrection, the disciples and followers saw the Lord go
up in glory at His Ascension. Afterward they tarried in the upper room
until Jesus’ mantle fell with power on them.
Peter, James and John after the Mountain of transfiguration went down to face
the demonic.
We are to confront the power of darkness, witchcraft, sorcery occult, and all
kind of evil doctrines. We need to see Him as He is!
“Come to me, come up here”. This is the call. Those who will respond are
those who are hungry for more, those who can no longer rest in the safety
of past experiences.
How do we go up? “They that wait upon the Lord shall mount up…”
One way of waiting upon the Lord is through worship, extravagant
worship even in the middle of difficult circumstances.
It reminds me of Esther. She prepared a sumptuous and costly banquet
for the king in the presence of her worst enemy. (Esther chapter 5).
She inebriated the king with her worship and this brought about the defeat of
the enemy. (Haman was hung). It is all about worship. Satan
wants it. He was the one who led worship on the Holy Mountain of God
(Ezekiel 28:14) so in the measure that we give it to God, in the same measure
defeat comes to him.
Climbing Mountains is not easy, it takes time, effort and it is risky. The
terrain can be slippery, the going up is steep, and a person could get dizzy.
Pride could make us fall into the precipice below.
As we ascend in ministry, influence, and exploits, let us make sure that we find
a den here and there, for rest and worship. Mountains are full of crevices
or caves. Caves are hiding places. David spent lot of time in
caves, hiding from his enemies. They are also places for intimacy, because they
are secret. Even if the Bible does not tell us, I am sure David worshipped the
Lord in the cave. David had discovered the place where the enemy could not
touch him because he was hidden.
Gideon too knew such a place: when the Midianites invaded the land and stole
precious wheat from the people, Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress and
not on the threshing floor, the obvious place. He was smart enough to know that
the enemy would not look for wheat thresher in a winepress. And God called
Him a mighty warrior. What was the secret of his military strength?
He knew where to hide: in the secret place of the Most High. Psalm 91
tells us that from that place we
shall tread upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the adder we shall
trample under feet. Cannot separate intimacy from spiritual
warfare.
O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the
stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy
voice, and thy countenance is comely.
Our Hiding place is Jesus. The Rock is Jesus. The cleft in which we hide to
be out of sight is the Cross.
John 19:34 “one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and
forthwith came there out blood and water”.
Upon the Cross the Rock Jesus was cleft. That is the place where His Bride came
from (Like Eve came from Adam side). To dwell in the cleft of the Rock then is
to live the crucified life, a life of self-denial.
Matt. 16:24 “Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and
follow me”.
The Bride that dwells in the cleft of the Rock has allowed herself to be
perfected by the work of the cross. From that place, her
worship is precious to Him. From that place, her voice is sweet to Him and
her countenance comely. This is also the place, by His side where –
as His wife – she takes up the queenly role.
This cleft of the rock is called the “secret places of the stairs”.
There are many secret places as we climb. Much like in Jacob’s ladder, every
step is a progressive revelation of Jesus and as we ascend on the knowledge of
Him, we will descend with provision for mankind.
We have a choice to make. Let us not remain where we have been for so long,
behind a wall with windows, looking but not participating. We do not want
to be like the paralyzed man who days after days lay before the gate called
Beautiful looking toward the beauty of the temple, the Sanctuary wherein are
beauty and strength (Ps 96:6).
He looked, he saw, but was not able to go in and participate until he heard
the command by Peter and John “Rise up, walk”.
With the command came the faith. “Speak the Word”, said the
centurion to Jesus “and my servant will be healed”. “Stretch forth your
hand”, said Jesus to the man with the withered hand and he did.
When the man at the gate heard the word spoken by Peter, faith entered his
heart and he skipped and leaped as he entered into what God was doing in the
temple.
Have you heard the voice of your beloved today calling YOU: “Rise
up, come away”?
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