The Road back to Love and Intimacy
August 28, 2015
Colossians 3:18-19
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, love [your] wives, and be not bitter against them.
The Road back to Love and Intimacy
Remember when your romance was as sweet as honey and the love of your life could do no wrong. You adored them, idolized them and wanted to spend every moment together. Many of us, looking back at those younger years, ask ourselves, “what happened to that first love?” We still may love each other, but many couples struggle with the “feelings of love” that are missing. The romance has died way down and now you may find that instead of really loving and cherishing that wonderful man or woman you are struggling to get along with them. The man may feel like the wife is always nagging him, he can never do enough or anything right, she doesn’t respect and honor him. The woman may feel like the husband has become an insensitive jerk that never communicates or works through the problems, he doesn’t meet her needs. Over the years and the cycles of good and bad times, we can accumulate a lot of baggage. If I ask you if you love your husband or your wife, you would quite likely reply, “will of course I do,” but neither one of you may be experiencing the love from one another that you feel and know should be there. We may say we hold no unforgiveness toward one another, but in reality both parties bear scars, wounds, unresolved conflicts and issues that linger in the subconscious ready to rear their ugly heads at the right moment, opportunity or provocation. We find that we fail to often treat each other with the love, dignity and respect that both parties are due in a marriage.
Fifty percent of our marriages fail due to these kind of issues, but how many more are struggling and hurting? We need to return to that place of intimacy and closeness that we once shared, but we can’t until we are able let down the walls we’ve built up and are willing to let go of all the offenses, hurts and bitterness that we carry.
When the Word says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord,” that submission might be just creating a safe place where your husband can share with you. It needs to be a place where you aren’t venting your anger, frustration, criticism and unhappiness, no matter how justified you may feel with those feelings. If you want your husband to communicate and be sensitive to your needs, you have to create an atmosphere of submission where you really want to see, feel and understand his heart. That can be a hard place for a man. He may not be in touch with his feelings the way you are, so be gentle and be patient and above all, be kind.
“Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.” Husbands can be very confrontational, critical and harsh, but many repress their feelings and emotions. They retreat into that shell of seeming insensitivity and non-communication. Many times it is a response of self-preservation. Often the harder the wife tries to break through that seeming insensitivity with harsh or critical words the more the husband withdrawals. If you want the turtle to stick his head out of the shell you have to stop beating on the shell and make him feel that when he sticks his head out it won’t get bit off. Husbands can hold a lot of things in their hearts that they may not even be fully aware of. Their means of retaliation may be more passive or subtle, but it may be coming from a bitterness that has built up in their hearts against their wives. They, on the other hand, need to really listen to the heart of their wives and make those needs their goals to fulfill. They need to make them feel secure in your love for them and remember them often in the little gifts, the things you do and say. Marriage is a teaching ground for unconditional love and service. It is where we should both be learning to lay down our lives for the other. Love is not always about feeling, but about commitment, covenant and a decision to love your spouse unconditionally even when they don’t derserve it.
Maybe we need to come together as a couple where we can agree that the love of Christ is going to rule and dictate our behavior and response to one another. We need to hold one another, not sexually, but intimately, while we confess our sins, our hurts and failures to one another. We need to truly commit to a willingness to really forgive and hear the other person’s heart. We need an uninterrupted time of reconciliation where we can write down and commit to one another some realistic goals where we will begin to address some of our deepest issues. Keep it simple and not more than we can realistically deal with at one time. Start with just three things each. Then let’s make a date for our next intimate time we can meet with the same right heart and attitude, in the love of Christ to see how we are doing. Again, we need to keep it safe and non-confrontational. This is a team project and we can’t succeed if we only have our own agenda and interest at heart. We can’t expect to mend and restore a broken down barn in a day or even a week, it will take time to restore, just as it took time to deteriorate. We can change the cycle and the direction of our marriages if we will both commit to it and stay with it. We will begin to see our true intimacy and love begin to come alive in our feelings and the way we treat one another. God wants to see our marriages strong and alive with His love. There is a lot of truth to the addage that ‘the family that prays together, stays together’. It is hard to be right with each other when we are not right with God. If we are committed to Christ, then we must also be committed to one another, for we are one flesh. Together let’s build the road back to true love and intimacy like we had in our first love.
Blessings,
#kent
Drawing Near
February 17, 2015
James 4:7-10
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Drawing Near
James gives us a strong admonition here reminding us prior to these scriptures that our friendship with the world is enmity and rebellion against Him. His Spirit is jealous over us as His possession. It is His will and desire that we honor Him with the fidelity and faithfulness of our hearts. If we wonder why we are in such a state of disconnect with our God this may well be why. A sanctified people are a separated people. We are disassociating with the world, its standards and its ways as we consecrate ourselves to the Lord’s service and His purpose.
James now admonishes; do you want to get back into right relationship with your Lord? Do you want to know His fellowship and closeness again? It first starts with submission. Until we are willing to submit our self-life to Him we are going to be double-minded and adulterous in our thinking and doing. First, we must submit ourselves through repentance and consecration of our lives and wills to Him.
We should know up front that if we have been allowing the devil access into our lives then just because we change our minds and hearts doesn’t mean he easily gives us up or leaves us alone. Temptation will come which brings us to Jame’s second admonition, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” When the devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness, He resisted the devil by speaking the Word, “It is written…”. Our power to resist the devil is never in our reasoning or rationalizing with him. He knows how too artful twist the Word to pervert it to his own ends. Resist the devil by standing on the truth and declaring it over your life and circumstances. As an example, do you know that Romans 8:37 declares, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” This word, “more than conquerors” in the Greek is hü-per-nē-kä’-ō. This word indicates no small win, but a great, pre-imminent and surpassing victory. This word indicates you just kicked the stuffing out of your adversary. It wasn’t even close. Your victory in Christ is so superior, overwhelming, and indisputably complete. In your resistance of the devil come into complete identification with the Victorious One and stand on your complete victory through Him who is completely and utterly victorious over all the powers of sin and the devil.
Thirdly, “come near to God and He will come near to you.” This passage is all about the restoration of that fellowship and unity that has been broken because we have been double-minded, trying to please ourselves and please God also. It is like dating another while you are married to your wife or husband. Your spouse is jealous over you because you have entered into a covenant with him or her, promising to forsake all others. If you want right relationship, you have to be single in your love and affection for that spouse. We are espoused to Christ and our covenant, sealed in the blood of Jesus and the earnest of His Spirit, is with Him.
Fourth, purify your hearts and wash your hands. Separate yourself from all impurity of spirit, soul and flesh. Renew your mind through the washing of the water of the Word and put away from you all impure and unholy things. The hands speak of our works and doings. When we wash our hands we are separating and cleansing them from the works of iniquity. We are choosing rightly and doing the works of righteousness.
Fifth is the change in the attitude of our heart. In verses 9-10 we are reading about a true attitude of repentance, not just in our heads, but in the inner depths of our heart. This is a deep cleansing act of repentance where we become very grieved over our sin and rebellion. We have a true revelation of how we have called ourselves Christian, but have been anti-Christ in our behavior and compromise. This is an attitude much like Peter had after he realized he had just denied and forsaken his Lord. Because of the repentance of his heart and his willingness to humble himself the Lord forgave and restored Peter. He will do the same for us if we will get our hearts right before Him.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you, but recognize, acknowledge and do what is required so that you may have a right relationship with your Lord again. God is in the business of restoration, so no matter how far you have wandered or how much condemnation you may feel, Jesus wants to restore you to right fellowship and relationship with Him again. Just honestly, completely and without reservation give back to Him your whole heart, mind and soul. His blood will wash you. His Word will renew your mind and His Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth if you will turn your back on all of the past darkness. He loves you with a complete and unconditional love. He abides faithful, even when we are faithless. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you!
Blessings,
#kent
Our First Love
February 14, 2014
Revelations 2:3-5
You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.
Our First Love
Many times our marriages and our relationship with Christ have a lot in common. They both are built upon love and relationship. They generally start out with great commitment, emotion and passion to love and serve the Lord or to love and serve our spouse. Through the course of life with all of its trials and demands the polish and gold tends to wear thin on the feelings and commitment we first felt and lived toward the Lord and toward our spouse. Many of us have endured many hardships together and we have trusted the Lord through many of them.
Even though we are good people, who have worked hard for our marriage and for our spiritual relationship the dynamics have changed. We’ve somehow lost the closeness and the intimacy of relationship we once had.
This word “forsaken” in verse 4 in the Greek means, “ to depart, as of a husband divorcing his wife, yield up, expire, let go, let alone, to disregard, to leave, to omit, neglect.” Do any of these words speak to our hearts as to our relationships in our marriage and in our walk and relationship with Christ? We are still here in body, going through the motions of marriage and relationship, but have our hearts left the room? Have they grown cold with complacency? Sometimes our marriages are measured by how well we tolerate one another rather than how well we really love and bless one another. Even in our Christianity we so often get in the rut of being religious, going to church, giving our tithe or doing our duty, but our heart and passion are no longer in it.
It is a time for stirring up the embers and throwing on some new wood. It is a time we must blow and breathe new life back into the fire of our relationships. I’ll admit I have been bad about becoming so caught up in my business and the things that concern me, that I have neglected the weightier matters. Somehow we come to take for granted that this loved one will always be there and everything will be fine, meanwhile we allow the foundation to rot out from under us. One day we wake up and our house is in ruin. The signs were all around but we didn’t heed them until our lampstand had been plucked from us and suddenly we found ourselves shut out.
Here the Lord is warning us about our relationship with Him and also what can happen in our marriages. We must return to that first love, the courting, the dating, the intimacy and attention that we gave to our partner then. It can be no less with Christ. It is not our works that save us in our marriage or our Christianity, it is the relationship that we maintain and cultivate with the one that we say we love. For me, it is often my communication that fails the most. I get caught up in my own little world and when I fail to communicate, I find I am failing in my relationship. That communication, especially that which shares my heart, is what my wife needs from me. She has to feel that connection with my heart to feel close to me and a part of me. I think this often comes more naturally to women as a general rule than men, but it doesn’t mean that we as men can neglect it. We have to cultivate it, even when it doesn’t come naturally to us. It is always remembering that love is not about us, it is about the object of our love. When we love the Lord or our spouse the way they need to be loved, we will find that our needs are met in our giving and loving. Let us endeavor to return now to our first love, not just in word, but in deed and with all of our heart.
Enter In, the Third Dimension (Part 2)
December 23, 2013
Enter In, the Third Dimension, Part 2
Hebrews 9:16-22
This [is] the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these [is, there is] no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And [having] an high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
This scripture is pregnant with promise and while we as Christians enjoy a greater degree of intimacy and closeness in our relationship with our God, yet there is still an itch in our spirit that cries out to be scratched. We experience our God’s glory and presence in a measure, but we know that there is so much more we have yet to experience. In those moments in our walk with our God, when we taste of a deeper revelation and experience of His holy presence, when His Spirit comes over us and we are undone in ourselves and yet sense the fullness of joy and completeness that only His presence can bring, our spirits cry out, “Abba, Father, we want more of you”. Inwardly we groan and travail because we know that still we haven’t experienced and aren’t walking in the fullness of what He has created us for.
It is a principle of God that many times God gives us a promise that we lay hold of and enter into by faith, but we don’t always experience the full manifestation until its fullness of time. Abraham had the promises of God, but saw only a small portion of them fulfilled in his lifetime. God has given us principles here and in the Old Testament examples for entering into the Holy of Holies.
First, we know that there is no entrance without the blood of Christ applied to our hearts by faith. Secondly we see that Christ Jesus was not only the sacrifice, but also the high priest and it was only the high priest that could enter into the presence of Almighty God. In the Old Testament the high priest wore what was called an ephod or breastplate set with two onyx stones. These stones represented the twelve tribes of Israel (Exodus 28:12). When the high priest entered into the Holiest of All, all of the tribes and all of the peoples were represented there in that ephod. We could have no entrance before the presence of God in ourselves, but as believers, by faith, we are in Christ. The identification of who we are is no longer seen in that former sinful man we were, but in the Christ man that we are, one in Him. When we come before the Father in faith He no longer sees sinful, corrupt flesh, He sees the righteousness of His Son because we are in Him and covered by His blood. This is what gives us that boldness to approach His throne. We don’t come before the Lord with defilement. The Word says here, “ Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” We have touched on our ‘approaching in full assurance of faith’, meaning without doubt or wavering. It says that our hearts should be sprinkled from an evil conscience. We need to deal with heart issues that aren’t right with the Lord whether that be unforgiveness or sin we are still harboring in our hearts. These issues need to be dealt with and put under the blood of Jesus. Otherwise there is a defilement that brings separation. Our bodies are to be washed with pure water. It is Spirit and Truth, the washing of the water of the Word, quickened and revealed by the Holy Spirit.
Jesus told the Samaritan woman in John 4:24, “ God [is] a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship [him] in spirit and in truth.” It is not about where we worship that matters, it is about how we worship that matters to God.
Lastly let us discuss this area of worship because it is the atmosphere that God lives in continually. In heaven around His throne we see the picture that there are multitudes of heavenly hosts of angles and the redeemed of the Lord singing and worshipping their God continually without ceasing. This is the atmosphere that we need to cultivate within our spirit. There was a piece of furniture that stood at the entrance of the Holy of Holies. It was the altar of incense. The priest would burn sweet smelling incense and wave the smoke of it before the Lord. This is our praise. Our worship and praise is foundational to our entering into the Lord’s presence. Praise is used in some 216 verses, so the Holy Spirit is telling us this is a key not to be overlooked in approaching the throne of God. Psalms 22:3 says, “But thou [art] holy, [O thou] that inhabitest the praises of Israel.” If we want to enter in and experience the presence of the Holy One we need to worship in Spirit and in Truth. We need to create the atmosphere of praise and worship that invites His presence into our midst. We will experience more of the presence of God in this atmosphere than anything else we can do.
The body the Lord has given us is His tabernacle. We have a body, outer court, a soul, holy place, and a spirit, which is our Holy of Holies. What part of your being are you living out of?
Ours is a progressive walk in the Spirit as we seek to grow up into Christ in all things. By faith and the blood of Jesus we go through each entrance into a deeper level and experience with God. We have only touched on a vast subject as we briefly looked at each entrance into the greater depth and dimensions of God. In conclusion, let us share the vision that Paul had as He pursued the fullness of God for his life in Philippians 3:8-16, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things [but] loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [but] dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”
Lord of the Flood (Prophetic)
October 22, 2012
Psalms 29:10-11
The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever.
11The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.
Lord of the Flood (Prophetic)
Though the flash floods come suddenly to overtake you, I am the rock you cling to and climb. Ascend the Rock of your Salvation. Come up into Me when the floods come. For they come to quickly wash away all that is not secure and eternal. Earthly loss is not spiritual loss. Though you lose everything in this world, you still have all that you need.
Though the waters rise, you shall rise above them as you cling and climb up the Rock of your salvation. Many below you are swept away, but I have not given you the spirit of fear, but of confidence. In that confidence you move knowing that your life is in My hands and not in the world and its circumstances.
Raging waters come to wash away all that is not secure, but security rest in Me, not in the abundance of what you have or own. Look to Me. Confide in Me your every need. Put no confidence in the flesh, for you are the circumcision in Christ Jesus that worships God in the Spirit. Your life is in My Spirit and because you are mine I will glorify Myself through you. When others are in terror, you shall be in peace, for I have overcome the world and My overcoming peace resides in you. You shall not fear what men may do to you, for your life is hid in Me and none can snatch you from My hand. Your steps are ordered of the Lord, so in physical life or death, trust me, for in Me, you shall never die. Where there is no permanent death, there should be no fear of death, but fear only Me. I will honor Myself through you as you walk in the integrity of My ways.
Secure yourself in the Rock of your salvation. Anchor your life there. For in that place, when the floods come, they will not sweep you away. I am your anchor and your sure salvation. Each day, set your hope in Me, honor Me and pursue me with all of your strength. In that pursuit, you will find I have become your strength and I am more than sufficient.
Blessings,
kentA
Knowing Jesus
October 19, 2012
Song of Solomon 5:16
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely.
This is my lover, this my friend,
O daughters of Jerusalem.
Knowing Jesus
Consider for a moment that you have an estate. Your home is surrounded by a court yard. Within your courtyard is your personal home and within your home is you personal room or bedroom. Now think about who you invite into those places. In the courtyard you will receive and entertain your friends, neighbors and acquaintances, but they may rarely come into your home. In your home you have your family, those relatives that live with you and are close to you. But in your bedroom and personal domain, only your wife shares the intimacy of that space with you.
This is a rough analogy of our spiritual relationship with the Lord and where we are at in that relationship. Most are content to meet with the Lord in the courtyard of religion, church, general worship and fellowship. They have their meal and their time with Him and then they go on their way until it is time to meet with Him again. Then there is His family, His disciples who walk with Him daily, live with Him, dine with Him and spend a great deal of personal time with Him. Lastly, their is His bride. Only she comes into the intimacy of His personal chambers or bedroom. There, she shares breath and life with Him. In that place she is not content to just fellowship with Him or even to imitate Him. There she is impregnated with His very life and being. There she become so one in His identity that she is one flesh with Him. When the others see her, all they see is her husband represented in her and in the life that she carries.
The question before us, is where to do we want to be in our relationship with Father? Are we content to know Him at a distance? Are we willing to pay the price to be a disciple and live with Him daily, forsaking all else, in our walk and life? Or, could we be like His wife who is content with nothing less than all of Him and giving all that she is to Him. In that relationship the one life is lost in the other and they can’t be distinguished apart except in form. Their spirit and their hearts are one. She is bringing forth the man child who is the express image and likeness of Jesus.
What relationship are we content with?
Blessings,
kent
I Will Wait for Him
March 6, 2012
Lamentations 3:22-27
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;
26it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.
One of the richest and most fruitful times of the day is the time I spend with Papa. Out of that time and communion with Him I find the strength, direction and the attitude I need to carry into my day. The most special of those times is when I hear Him speak to me or even speak through me as write. Indeed, “His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
There are times in our lives as God is growing us, maturing us and seasoning us that we have our times of lamentation. We don’t always feel God’s closeness or sense His presence. Circumstances that surround us might suggest that maybe God has left us or abandoned us. Then we hear the jackal voice of the enemy as he taunts us with doubts, fear and unbelief . He whispers his condemnations to us because we think somehow we are not good enough or worthy of God’s love.
The Lord has not forsaken us. It is not because you aren’t good enough or worthy of His love. It has never been about our worth. If Father didn’t consider us worth saving He would have never sent His Son to die for us. Our worth is found in our identity with Him, not in the efforts or failures of our goodness. He alone is our goodness and our righteousness and because of that God does not turn His back on you.
What God is looking for is the man that is steadfast and faithfully waits upon the Lord even in the midst and length of trial and adversity. Of course it easy to love God when we speak and it happens, when we pray and He answers, when we sense His presence and love all around us. What happens when we don’t have that and our heavens seem as brass? Will we say like Jeremiah, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for Him.” Isn’t that basically what Job said when his world turned upside down and God seemed no place to be found? God is wanting sons and daughters that are so sold out that they totally love God for who He is, regardless of what He can give them or how He can make them feel. Faith is the “feeling” of the Spirit. It will believe when all else says otherwise.
God has never forsaken us. “The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him; it is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.” God can so blow us away with all He could do for us and provide for us and there will be a day for that, but first God wants to know our heart. Are you willing to hang with Him in the rough times, those lonely and desert times? Are you willing trust Him and praise Him even in adversity and lose?
It says of Jesus in Hebrews 5:8, “though he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered.” If Jesus is our prototype and pattern should we think that it would be different for us?
Shore up your resolve and know that God is always on His throne and His promises are always “yes” and “amen”, but that doesn’t mean the ride can’t be rough. Jesus says, “In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” Tribulation is part of our portion if we live godly in Christ Jesus. Why would you be an overcomer unless there was something to overcome? It is what builds the fabric of your faith and relationship with Father. When He knows nothing will move you from Him then He knows He can trust great responsibility into your hands. “It is good for a man to bear the yoke while he is young.” The yoke speaks to the burden and the testing of our faith. When we have been seasoned through our youth, then in latter years we can more fully move into what God wants to impart through us because of the experience He has worked in us over the time.
There is no place like God’s presence, but know that this is not always a warm and fuzzy place based on our feelings. Remember that the feelings of the Spirit is faith. In that faith we stand in confidence of God as we wait upon Him, knowing that He is our portion.
Isaiah 40:29-31 reminds us, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”
James 5:7-11 exhorts us, “Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. 8You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near. 9Don’t grumble against each other, brothers, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!
10Brothers, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
Wait upon the Lord. Persevere. The Lord has great things ahead for those who stay the course and don’t faint.
Blessings,
kent
tricklesoftruth 