Awake O North Winds

Sunday morning we sang the Misty Edward's song, Fling Wide. The opening verse is, "Awake, awake O north wind, awake, awake O south wind, blow over me."

I paused worship to explain. This song is from Song of Solomon chapter four.

v16 "Awake, O north wind,
And come, wind of the south;
Make my garden breathe out fragrance,
Let its spices be wafted abroad
May my beloved come into his garden

And eat its choice fruits!"

I know this book has been relegated to human relationships, mostly marriage, but what a disservice to this amazing book of God's love for us; of the Bridegrooms love for His Bride.

The language is poetic so we dismiss it as something we can't understand, or to snickering sexual language between Solomon and his wife. (One of them anyway.)

This book is about Jesus's incredible love for us. Why He would leave the splendor and majesty of heaven to become a man and die on a cruel cross.

Verse sixteen is talking about the seasons of life that cause us to lean into Jesus. The north winds speak of the cold trial of winter. A season in our life where things are difficult. The south winds speak of the warm gentle season of our life where life is easy and good.

In all seasons, our hearts (the garden) must breathe out the fragrance of Jesus when the winds blow. Are you in a "winter season?" Then let your heart waft with the fragrance of Jesus by leaning against Him.

Are you in a summer season? Then let your heart perfume the world around you with the love of Jesus.

We must constantly be His fragrance no matter what physical or emotional trials are going on around us.

Fling wide the door to your soul. Let the Lord in. Let the winds blow. The good seasons remind us of His goodness. The hard seasons remind us of... His goodness.

I can't know His love and goodness without them. Sure, I hate the hard seasons. I'd rather bask in the summer winds all year long, but in the winter, I learn to lean.

Sometimes it seems seasons change from one day to the next, doesn't it? Or from morning to afternoon. My summer morning can be turned into a winter afternoon by an email or twitter. It's ridiculous, really.

But my prayer is always to be leaning into Jesus. He is my rock! He is my fortress. He is my one true love.

The goal is to not create my own north or south winds but to keep my gaze fixed on Him.

What season are you in? Are you leaning into Jesus? He is the only one who can sustain you.

Learning from the Queen of Sheba

You know the classic, sarcastic saying, "I wasn't born yesterday." Most of us have said it at least once in our life.

But the truth is we live like we were born yesterday. I've been in conversations with twenty and thirty-somethings who espouse values and "wisdom" based on observations and lessons learned in their short life span.

Cold war? To a twenty-something? Never heard of it. Never lived with the idea of the USSR pushing the big button to blow us up.

Herb Meyer of American Thinker wrote this:

History had three turning point. During the Crusades, there was a battle between Jews, Christians, and Muslims. The Christians and Jews lost and experienced the Dark Ages when their societies did not thrive. Muslim society grew and thrived. Things were discovered there, and not in Europe. The key was learning how to reconcile their faith in the modern world.

A huge battle happened outside Vienna on SEPTEMBER 11, 1683 where Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. The Muslims lost, and then they stopped developing and adapting. The Jews and Christians went on from there and developed their civilizations and we had the Renaissance and a growing society. Since our 9/11 we are now in a new phases of an old war.

One of the greatest sorrows of the world is the inventions and creativity that was not allowed to occur in the Muslim world for centuries.Their society does not encourage creative, free thought and so…they were stuck in the past. The problem now is that we are playing defense in the world. And when you play defense you have to win 100% of the time. We can’t do that.

The good news is that the moderate people of every country are the majority. The bad news is that the minority is louder.

History didn't begin the day we were born. We may think the world began with our first newborn cry, but it didn't. We must learn from history. We must live free to discover the past to determine our future.

This weekend my pastor taught on prayer and used the Queen of Sheba as a reference point. As I looked into the scripture myself, I learned something from the past. In 1 Kings 10, the Queen travels to visit Israel's King Solomon, the wisest man in the world. She wanted to see with her own ears his wisdom, see his riches.

"So she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels carrying spices and very much gold and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she spoke with him about all that was in her heart. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was hidden from the king which he did not explain to her."

The Queen of Sheba came to Solomon with an open, teachable heart. She brought gifts and richest with her. She came to worship and to gaze on his beauty.

Like the queen, we are to come to Jesus with an open, teachable heart bringing all that we have in adoration and worship. To gaze upon His beauty and splendor.

If Solomon, being a mere man, revealed himself and his splendor to the queen, how will Jesus, being God and man, hold back from us, His Beloved? The ones He died for? He won't. He can't. He longs to reveal Himself to us.

'King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all her desire which she requested, besides what he gave her according to his royal bounty. Then she turned and went to her own land together with her servants."

Solomon gave to the queen ALL HER DESIRE WHICH SHE REQUESTED besides WHAT HE GAVE HER ACCORDING TO HIS ROYAL BOUNTY! That's incredible. Solomon already had a royal bounty set up for her. I'm sure it was unimaginable knowing Solomon. But on top of that gift, he GAVE her all she requested of him.

Jesus has already given us an amazing gift: life abundantly, life forever more. But on top of that He gives us what we request. Like the queen with Solomon, we must first sit at His feet and learn, see His splendor and majesty and marvel at Him.

Can we be bold like the queen and go to our King and ask our heart's desire? Yes, we can and we should. But first we must be found in Him. We must learn to adore Him and worship, be taught and instructed by Him.

As we learn, we run. As we mature, we learn to ask. I'm not talking name-it-claim-it gospel. I'm not talking ungrounded faith. But as we move into Jesus, as we make Him our aim, our obsession, He reveals to us His heart.

In John 4, Jesus runs into the Samaritan woman at the well. First, He talks to a Samaritan. Second, He talks to a woman. He willingly broke societal traditions. Look what He does when she asks Him about the Messiah and worship.

"The woman said to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us. Jesus said to her, "I who speak to you am He."

Jesus clearly reveals Himself as the Messiah. Until now, when asked if He was "the One" He merely answered, "What do you think?"

Jesus longs to reveal Himself to true worshippers. Are you one? Can you learn from your past, from those who've gone before us?

In our natural history, we must learn about the past and mistakes to ensure our future. Our spiritual history is the same. What and who has gone before you? What image of God and Christ do they mold on your heart?

If you don't have Christian family members, can you look to history to fine flaming examples of love? Start with Jesus. His love for you nailed Him to the Cross. And when they taunted Him, jeering for Him to come down and save Himself, He refused. "No, I'm purchasing the one I love."

You. Me.

Building a Culture of Prayer Part 4

Here's where building a culture of prayer gets sticky. Controversial. Theological break down.

We can all agree on the power, purpose and need of prayer. It is a cornerstone of our faith.

Maintaining consistent prayer is difficult. Why? Because it's a labor. Jesus said in Matthew 11:12, "The kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent take it by force."

What kind of violence is the peaceful Jesus advocating? Violence against our flesh. Violence against sin, lies and deception of the enemy. Violence against those who lead us astray.

Prayer and fasting are God's violent measures against the way and will of the world.

And we must be violent about taking our time, thoughts, emotions and will captive to prayer and fasting. To the truth of the Word.

Even so, why? How can a church or city maintain a culture of prayer? Vision. We must have a vision of why and how and for what we are praying day in and day out without seeing results or answers.

The vision comes from two paradigms. The love of Jesus for the church and individual believer as detailed in Song of Solomon. And a correct End of the Age view. Understanding Revelation and the 150 chapters in the Word that talk about Jesus return to the earth for His Bride.

See, I told you it was touchy. You cannot maintain a culture of prayer if you do not know, understand and somewhere along the line encounter the love of Jesus. The kind He talks about in Song of Solomon 4:9. If hearing "you're His favorite one" makes you uncomfortable, then you're falling short of His love and His favor and your place before Him.

How intimate and close can we be with someone we believes looks at us with sadness, disgust or anger? He's not the mad, sad God waiting to punish you. Yet so many of us carry that view. Hard to pray to a God like that.

And how can we maintain a prayer culture if we believe we have no purpose and plan to partner with Jesus for His triumphant return to earth? We do. We are not "out of here" before it all goes down. You have to read all the 150 end time chapters to get some kind of picture.

Yes, Jesus said "we can't know the day or the hour" but we CAN know the season. Too many of us cling to that one verse about "not knowing" and burying our head in the sand. There are also plenty of verses where Jesus admonishes us to be like the sons of Issachar and recognize the times and seasons.

Here's one. Matthew 24 Jesus is telling us how to recognize the end of the age. "Wars and rumors of war. Earthquakes." We've had what, seven or eight earthquakes and a major volcanic eruption this year? Wars and rumors of war. Yep.

We are called to partner with Jesus for His kingdom to come on earth at it is in heaven. Beloved, He's coming here. We're not going "there." He's coming to establish His kingdom. The one He bought and paid for on the Cross.

He's only coming "a second time" once. And that's to judge the quick and the dead, to judge the nations and their kings.

If you think Christianity isn't about politics, read Isaiah. Jesus is King! That's political.

Revelation 22:17 says, "The Spirit and the Bride say come, Lord Jesus." That's our job. To pray with the Spirit, "Lord come."

Are are His ground troops, interceding for the earth like Noah, like Moses, like Joseph for God to come and be with us in our darkest hour.

The end of the age will be brutal and dark.God's people praying, having a culture of prayer, rooted and ground in that amazing love we read about in Song of Solomon, will keep the earth from imploding until He comes at the prescribed time.

Ephesians 3 tells us to pray to be in the love of Jesus which "surpasses" knowledge.

Knowing who you are and where you're going is key to life. It is double key to maintaining and fueling a culture of prayer both in our hearts and in our churches.

Do some reading and researching, studying, get a good study on Song of Solomon and the end times. I recommend resources from IHOP-KC.

Check out what we're doing in my community at MyHOP.

Be blessed!