LOSING CHRIST - PARADISE LOST .. WILL YOU EVER RE-FIND IT?

PARADISE LOST ..  WILL YOU EVER RE-FIND IT?

LETTER TO A FRIEND WHO, after a period of wandering felt as if she could no longer find Christ or His sweet presence...

Song of Solomon 5:1-8

Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south;

blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out.

Let my beloved come into his garden,

and eat his pleasant fruits.

 I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse:

I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;

I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;

I have drunk my wine with my milk:

eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved.

 I sleep, but my heart waketh:

it is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying,

Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled:

for my head is filled with dew,

and my locks with the drops of the night.

 I have put off my coat; how shall I put it on?

I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?

 My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door,

and my bowels were moved for him.

 I rose up to open to my beloved;

and my hands dropped with myrrh,

and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh,

upon the handles of the lock.

 I opened to my beloved;

but my beloved had withdrawn himself, and was gone:

my soul failed when he spake:

I sought him, but I could not find him;

I called him, but he gave me no answer.

 The watchmen that went about the city found me,

they smote me, they wounded me;

the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.

 I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,

that I am sick of love

Your situation dear, though totally personal to you is almost a scenario that ALL believers will find themselves in sooner or later.

That is that we have responded to our Lords invitation, we have run after Him and fallen totally in love with who He is, and so begins a dynamic, life changing walk of power & glory.

After a while we rest in that, and sadly when He comes knocking on the door of our hearts again, we find it inconvenient timing, His visit disrupts us, we want to stay in the bed we have made.

O but His love is persistent, He stands at the door and knocks.. The fact that He is no longer within but instead outside is concern enough. Add to that that we can no longer leave our comfort zone to welcome Him, suggests a very poor state indeed. Surely, our lives reveal if He is still our first love or just a casual acquaintance.

This is where many believers are. In theory they knew Him, walked with Him, thought that they totally loved Him. But actually they didn’t, they were only in love with the feeling of love.

As young believers in Christ we use His love and power as a platform to elevate our own egos & pride. As the path becomes more narrow and the cross more heavy, day by day, the shallowness of our love is seen by Him and our heart drifts to the comfort of endless temptations & sin. Vices that Satan constantly offers us. We believe the lie that Satan told Eve - "If you take of the forbidden fruit you will surely not die”.

So, after a few years of amazing Christian life, the most promising believers often end up in the most awful sin. Sadly, I know that I am among that number...

But, Oh Christ is such a steadfast & faithful lover, jealous to keep what He purchased with all He had … And that means you, so He does not sit on His throne quiet and leave us to perish, He comes to see if He can stir again the embers of our love for Him. But this time it must be different, He is no longer the pursuer, NOW, WE MUST PURSUE HIM! Or fall away in the process. Many are called and begin, many will not finish and disqualify themselves.

It is at this fork in the road that many turn away and settle for an easier life without the weight of the cross. Not realising that any decision other than fervent first love & seeking of Christ, is in itself a death sentence. He has warned that HE WILL REJECT those that lose their first love, HE WILL remove their name from His book of life.

And so the Shulamite maiden stirs from her slumber, realises that the lover of her soul has withdrawn himself & is gone, she quickly dresses (that means she cleans up her act). Puts on her veil. That means she is not painting up her face like a prostitute to appear attractive to the lusts of sinful men. And she RUNS after him. Does she find Him straight away? No!

At what stage did Esau stop looking for repentance, even though he sought it carefully with tears?

Well, the Shulamite didn’t quit her search. First she asks the watchmen, who completely misunderstand her motive & beat her, taking away her veil because they believe that any woman out in the dark is really a prostitute. So, do not be surprised if pastors reject you, they may think you have another agenda, they often won’t believe it when a member of their congregation truly loves and seeks hard after Christ.

Tragically, actually ... Out of the hundreds of pastors that we have taught in seminars, It is my unfortunate observation that many pastors cannot tell you where to find the Lover of your Soul.. Because it would appear that they haven't found Him themselves! The title pastor should not be considered someone who knows God, but perhaps knows of Him. Seminary's are not venues of spiritual growth but typically head knowledge and spiritual death. However, His kind invitation remains open to all saints, it isn't exclusive. We  can find him on your knees, on your face in the secret place.

Song of songs 6:2

My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices,

to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies

You can stop the pursuit of Him anytime you like and you will have all eternity to regret it. He deliberately will not be quickly found, as He must establish to the wandering heart that He has far greater worth and His love may only be found when we offer our ALL..

·      The widow, in giving her two mites, gave her ALL

·      The rich young ruler was told to sell ALL

·      The man sold ALL to buy the field with hid treasure

Christ’s new address after we lose our first place with Him is OUR ALL !!!

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with ALL your heart. Jeremiah 29:13

That’s where He waits for you dear one, when in your heart you find the hidden, narrow, all grown over pathway that leads you to YOUR ALL, Dare step on that path and you will begin the greatest journey of your life in seeking AND FINDING HIM!

And if you endure to the place where you feel you really cannot go one step further, you totally are willing to be & do anything & everything He wants … Then & then only will HE MAKE HIMSELF known to you and be found of you.

The Shulamite feels like a failure, rejected, abandoned, misunderstood, beaten, alone & in the dark, yet still when asked of her beloved she gives the most beautiful testimony of Him. She doesn’t complain or judge Him, she is not bitter, she doesn’t blame Him. Instead she rightly exalts Him.

Song of Songs 5:8 – 6:2

I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him,

that I am sick of love.

 What is thy beloved more than another beloved,

O thou fairest among women?

what is thy beloved more than another beloved,

 that thou dost so charge us?

 My beloved is white and ruddy,

the chiefest among ten thousand.

 His head is as the most fine gold,

his locks are bushy, and black as a raven.

 His eyes are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of waters,

washed with milk, and fitly set.

 His cheeks are as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers:

his lips like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh.

 His hands are as gold rings set with the beryl:

his belly is as bright ivory overlaid with sapphires.

 His legs are as pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold:

his countenance is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.

 His mouth is most sweet:yea, he is altogether lovely.

This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.

Can you give such testimony dear? Is He still altogether lovely to you? Even though it seems like He has abandoned you and you have given Him good reason to do so? Even after days of seeking, waiting, fasting, praying until your throat is sore, can you still give testimony that God is good ALL THE TIME?

So then the virgins of Jerusalem ask her this question:

Song of Solomon 6:1

Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women?

whither is thy beloved turned aside? that we may seek him with thee.

Strange question when you think about it? She has just asked them if they know where He is? Daughters of Jerusalem is a type of those who in general believe in Christ, but they do not really know Him or love Him. If they did they would never ask that question “where is He”?

But a Daughter of ZION, is a lover & follower. But, these she speaks too are are not yet and maybe never daughters of Zion and therefore most “moderate believers” will not be able to tell you how to find that deeper place of restoration. They can’t tell you how to find Christ because they don’t really know who He is or how to get to Him.. And yet this beat up believer, without the covering of any local church because the “watchmen” ripped that away already, gives a testimony that she really seems to know Him but just doesn’t know where He is at that moment of deep conflict, trial and seeming abandonment by Him!

Strangely, then the answer comes as if by a revelation, she went from asking “where He was” to now telling them “Where He is”.

Christ can be found in the declaring of who He is in our testimony.  We are His spokesman to every person He brings before us. If we are too ashamed of Him and His words & we do not let our lights shine brightly, He has no use for deniers & lamp hiders. But in her lost & beaten state, she doesn’t quit, doesn’t complain or blame, she boldly declares that He is the most beautiful among beings AND NOW She knows where He is.

Song of Songs 6:2

 My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices,

to feed in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

Christ Is Not Yet Lost – Only His Presence Is Not Yet Found

Song of Songs 6:3

 I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine:

he feedeth among the lilies

What garden is she talking about? It’s the very same garden that He mentioned to her in chp 5v1, God lost His son Adam & Adams bride Eve in the Garden of Eden. And to get His son back He gave up His own life in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Knowing where He is not the same as being where He is. If we want to find Him we MUST run to our own personal Garden of Gethsemane and there IF WE WILL BE ONE WITH HIM, pray this pray...

NOT MY WILL BUT THY WILL BE DONE...      

Then and only then can we ever be restored in our eternal love relationship with Him. When we realise that we are from Him, By Him, For Him and In Him alone we live & move & have our being. Only then can we be united with the heart of our Maker. We were made for His will, anything else we do is rebellion.

Surrender is not easy, we know that, Christ had to pray three times and sweat as it were great drops of blood. His surrender was not a clinical, calm & cool deed. He was in deep anguish of soul. Do you think it would be any different for us?

Are you willing & ready for that dear friend. Do you honestly feel that you have an option? Actually, He is bidding His lover to her death, to the end of ALL her aspirations, hopes & plans. He has never hid the cost of His love, He has always warned right form the beginning that life to Him and from Him can only spring from death to self. And not just any death but the death of the cross. The end of our agenda and often in a most awful & humiliating way. You own loved ones will mock you as you strike out on the narrow path of ALL FOR JESUS.

Father is faithful, even in our absolute surrender, He will have on hand a Simon the Cyrenian among your friends & family that will, by your consecration, be forced to assist in the carrying of your cross. They will know the rugged invoulentary weight of your decision to abandon all that makes sense to the cause of Christ. 

Are you willing to accept His invitation to the Garden? Will you go, knowing that after you bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the alter, that God has a Golgotha waiting for you. A series of events too brutal to imagine that will surely end your old life before His NEW LIFE can even begin. For there can be NO new life … until the old life is dead & buried not just in the waters of baptism, but also in life & reality. 

God will not anoint uncrucified flesh for His glory. Behold all our carnal suited & booted, mansion living jet setter celeb preachers of today.. They steal His glory, and surely there will be a day of reckoning for that. But His true sons & daughters of Zion are typically, nameless, faceless, and anonymous. Are you ready & willing for that life, the end of you, & the beginning of Him?

In begins in the Garden with a prayer.. He waits for you in the Garden

For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal

1 Cor 4:17,18

He waits for you my friend, and heaven & hell wait to see which way your heart votes. Make the correct decision and utterly abandon you’re ALL to God and angels will sing & rejoice. Make the wrong decision and devils will rejoice. Heaven waits, what will you do now?

Much love, prayer, grace & mercy … For without it I could not stand

Best Regards

George

UPDATE: Forward one year and this young lady, with serious life mistakes and loss of faith behind her, is soon to graduate from a missionary training school and enter full time overseas ministry. Her present testimonies are alive & full of faith & victory. God is faithful and a restorer of broken & bruised hearts.