The Bible constantly says things in little triplets, one part from the Father�s viewpoint, one from the Spirit, and one from the Son. The Psalms and the prophets are full of these little triplets, each saying the same thing from a different perspective. What I hadn�t expected was that the Glory Cloud thought would be like that too!
The Church Exodus was seeing the Father�s view on the church and how He is leading us out from slavery into the wilderness place by His Glory Cloud. The Glory Cloud part was from the Spirit, revealing how he longs for us to know that place with Him. He is the Glory Cloud. But there was something missing, there still is really as all these thoughts are incomplete and just glimpses of a depth of what He is doing.
I was reading in Joel 2:12-13, although it could have been anywhere really and the Lord was saying, (as He does throughout), about How His heart is broken because His people rebelled and how He longs to love and forgive, and to heal them:
�But now - it is Yahweh who speaks � come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.� Let your hearts be broken not your garments torn, turn to Yahweh your God again, for He is all tenderness and compassion, slow to anger, rich in graciousness and ready to relent.
And I wondered - why did Israel do that? Why did they leave Him to follow idols, when He was offering love and healing and forgiveness? Then I thought - this has nothing to do with Israel! We are exactly the same!
The Lord is offering us an incredible gift. He offers it freely because He has paid the price. Why is it that we go our own ways? Why do we rebel against that love? Why is it that I would rather do some flesh thing that numbs the pain for a short while?
I guess I can't always say for someone else, but I can say why I do it. It comes from a doubt of the love of the Lord being enough. Like - I know I have been called to be a prophet, and that is a lonely path. But there is glory at the end, at the end He at the end He will say 'well done good and faithful servant.' if I am a good and faithful servant. (Matthew 25:21 + 23)
So I should knuckle down and accept the suffering as a good servant of Jesus Christ. Accept the loneliness as going with the territory and just get on with it. As it says in Matthew 10:37-39 about having to loose father, mother, son, daughter for the sake of the gospel; or 19:10-12 where it talks of becoming eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom.
That is easier said than done sometimes though, and I think that we have accepted the biggest con of all time if we believe that this is the way it is! Yes You and I have been conned by the enemy into thinking that! We see so clearly the narrow gate and the hard path, (Matthew 7:13-14), that we miss the reason we are taking this route!
The Lord wants us to be His Bride, or at least part of it. That is the most intimate relationship of all, it is emotional, it is spiritual, and it is physical. The Lord has designed our very beings for intimacy. He wants deep intimacy with us... He has designed our spirits for intimacy.
We as prophets are called to walk a path alone, without much human support, this is absolutely true. To be able to be used by Him we need our flesh ways stripped away - absolutely true. The thing that is also true is the reason that he does this is to bring us to a place of holiness, so that He can have an unprecedented intimacy with us
The enemy lies and tells us that when we get through this it will be cold and lonely out there this is poppycock, piffle, bilge and balderdash! We are going through this for one purpose only: So that we can have an intimacy with Him unheard of since Moses. This is what our hearts truly long for and we often daren�t even admit it to ourselves, for fear of having it taken away.
To be the Bride of Christ we will also love one another as He has loved us. So there will be human relationships between the refined ones as well.
When Paul says about young people choosing not to be married, where he says I wish everyone could be as I am, it always seems hard and cold, but was he really saying - I know an unparalleled intimacy with Christ because of being stripped of fleshly things. Was that what he wanted everyone else to be able to share?
These are only embryo thoughts, not really thought it through, but I know inside me there is a fear of the loneliness of former times. The refining we face can be a very isolating thing. There is a real fear that I will be left not only with nothing, but in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
That is where we are at the moment this is the refining, we are being taken into the wilderness. We are seeing the dry and weary land, and are thirsting for Jesus, but look at where He is taking us:
I have seen you in your sanctuary... to behold His power and glory, (the glory cloud) Because your love is better than life my lips will glorify You. My soul WILL be satisfied
Will be satisfied - not might be, perhaps, or partially, or the emotions but not the physical, or spirit only, or anything like that! His promise is total, complete, nothing missing. I know my soul isn't satisfied yet; but Jesus thank You, thank You that we do not need to fear, that You have promised us that in that dry and weary land - You will give us what our hearts are longing for!
After that it still talks about persecution - so that continues; but we are in the presence of His glory cloud � we know that sanctuary presence. That next part about lying awake at night, meditating on Him � Do you find sometimes you can�t sleep because you are just so excited by Him - It is where it is at isn't it?
Jesus - we have to face some really dreadful emotional yukk in this refining, but we so desire that place in Your sanctuary. We so desire to be in Your holy of holies, we simply do not want anything to cause us to miss out, no human striving, not holding onto any bitterness, not trying to justify ourselves. Help us to let go, help us to not strive for acceptance, but be filled with You, and who we are in You.
Give us the strength and grace to walk out the pain, not trying to escape and numb it,(ouch that is a hard one for me!), to walk more and more into YOUR healing, to trust you to take the pain away in your way in Your timing Lord.
YOUR will be done. Jesus we need you - we need to know You in that depth - our hearts will be satisfied with nothing less. Fill this empty space inside of me, this ache; fill it Lord, with more of YOU!
Jesus - I am satisfied if you take everyone away - but I need someone to hug me. Lord I need to know you on a physical level, to feel You. Lord we need to know that depth in you. We refuse the lies of the enemy. Lord please forgive us for believing that You only had a hard path for us to walk. When in truth we have been running from Your love.
Lord you have told us so many times how great your love is and I�ve tasted a little of your love and it is like honey on my lips. Yet we still believe the lies that our hurts have told us. Jesus fill us with YOUR truth. Forgive us JESUS, wash us clean with your blood and write your truths deep on our hearts like never before - We need more of that honey!
Thank you for shedding your blood for us, so we could TRULY LIVE! Lord please come and totally cleanse once again - we need You Jesus, we need to come away changed because of Your forgiveness. We truly desire to walk knowing that truth. - That all this heartache is for one purpose only - to truly be able to know the depth of Your love.
Following that prayer I remembered Ephesians 3:16-19 That prayer of Paul for those guys in Ephesus. It is a totally inspired prayer; it says something of what God�s heart is:
Out of His infinite glory, may He give you the power through His Spirit for your hidden self to grow strong, so that Christ may live in your hearts through faith, and then, planted in LOVE and built on LOVE, you will with all the saints have the strength to grasp the breadth the length, the height and the depth; until knowing the LOVE of Christ, which is beyond all knowledge, you are filled with the utter fullness of God.
This is God�s purpose for us, individually, and together with all the saints. There is no room in this whatever for any fear of abandonment, fear of walking comfortless in a weary land because of our calling! Hallelujah � the Jesus part of the Glory Cloud is a part of total intimacy with Him � complete with nothing missing .
I hadn�t realised until I re-read the Church Exodus that these were the same verses that the Father speaks over us � There is something here that He is truly preparing us for as we walk through the fire with Him.
This is certainly not all from me � The Lord uses each of us to sharpen each other and lead us deeper into Him. Not only that but I feel there is a lot more to come as He speaks through this, and uses it in some small way to stir up your heart too! Oh and one more verse � doesn�t really seem to fit, but I felt Him say it so I will add it. Acts 1:4 ..He told them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait there for what the Father had promised�
There is still a time of waiting for this promise to be fulfilled, the purifying is not over yet � I guess as we feel the flames licking around us, that is hardly an inspired revelation! But He is going to do this. We will know all 3 aspects of the Glory Cloud � we will have that spirit understanding of what it is like to be totally humbled before the Lord � and totally in love with Him at the same time!