Isn’t it a wonderful thing to realize how much Jesus desires to have an intimate relationship with us, and that all that is required of us, is “to ask”?! What an awesome God we serve!
As we prayerfully follow the steps that Jesus takes in order to draw His Bride to Himself, we also will be drawn into a closer personal relationship with Him. We will become more responsive when He comes to knock upon the door of our heart, and more submissive to His dealings within us, as we identify ourselves with the “reluctant” and “preoccupied” bride who lives within the pages of the Song of Solomon.
As we “relate” and think on her experiences while she progresses from being self-centered and satisfied, into becoming all that her Heavenly Bridegroom desires her to be, and we recognize her problems as also being ours, we will be able to more readily submit ourselves to Jesus, as He seeks to draw us into a closer relationship with Himself. If we carefully observe the “gradual changes” that take place within her, and prayerfully follow her as she moves step by step, upwards toward His chambers, we will discover the delight of joining her, in union and communion with Him.
I think for many of us, we realize that we want more of God, and are not satisfied with where we are currently at. We already can relate to the bride in the Song of Solomon and have come to a place in our walk with God where all of our past experiences, being used by God, the gifts, even His presence to some degree, visions, dreams, etc, has left us wanting. Simply put, His hand and His gifts are no longer enough, we are desperate for Him, His face. We just don’t know how to get there and have failed to seek Him on a consistent or disciplined level. Why? Because He must do the drawing and by His grace, empower us with His hunger and thirst.
It is important to understand the role of the Daughters of Jerusalem, (those who are only satisfied with a normal church life), so we will be able to appreciate the Bride’s relationship to them. This is not meant to cause division but rather to help us understand our need for one another. All of us either currently are the Daughters of Jerusalem or have moved on past being the Daughters of Jerusalem, and realize our need to become His Bride. The Daughters of Jerusalem will provoke us into becoming “overcomers” through their criticisms and misunderstandings of us. God uses them to “expose” our need for a deeper relationship with Jesus. God will use them as they place obstacles in our path, to help us truly grow spiritually, as we learn to overcome these obstacles, God’s way. I hope your getting this.
It is critically important to understand that the Lord will not deal with us or allow others to affect us, beyond what which we are able to handle. He knows the rate at which we can successfully progress spiritually. He will remove our spiritual pride, (thinking we are more spiritual than others), in His time and in His way and often uses others to expose it. When we relate to the hesitations of the Bride in the Song of Solomon to run after Him and see how far we strayed from “abiding in Him”, this will stir us up to pray, “Draw me”! This sincere prayer, asking the Lord to enlarge our spiritual hunger and capacity to run after Him, will cause Him to strengthen our consecration to follow Him alone, and will release Him to change us into the Bride that He longingly desires us to be.
We were created with the ability (spiritual sensitivity) to respond to our Bridegroom. We all have the capacity to enter in to an intimate relationship with Him so that when He “Calls”, it awakens this desire within us. By divine intention, it is impossible for us to find any spiritual satisfaction or fulfillment outside of intimacy with Him. There are three basic progressive levels of spiritual growth found in the Bride in the Song of Solomon. Each of these three “confessions” of her spiritual condition sets the stage for “intervention” (Holy Spirit’s grace and power), of the Lord to draw her further up the stairs, to the next level.
The 1st level deals with her feeling of “self importance”. S of S 2:16. As an afterthought, she declares, “I am His”. The 2nd level shows a partial change in her priorities. Now she is able to put Him first and say “and my Beloved is mine”. S of S 6:3. Although she has made progress, and element of self-centeredness still exists in her priorities. The next level expresses a total change. The Lord has become her all. “I am my Beloved’s and His desire is toward me”. S of S 7:10. Her “self life ” has been completely been dealt with and no longer controls her desires or actions.