“Dark I am yet lovely…” Song of Songs 1:5
To know that I am dark yet lovely is to understand my weakness, which is comprised of my sinfulness, my immaturity and my natural limitations together with the revelation of my loveliness to Him. David expresses this twofold mystery in Psalm 86, “Bow down Your ear, O Lord, hear me; for I am poor and needy. Preserve my life for I am holy…”
When He gazes upon me, instead of seeing only that which has fully come to maturity, He perceives the yet maturing virtues within me. He hears my inward cries to fully belong to Him. When I stumble in my persistent weakness, His gaze pierces through my external struggle and sees, in my spirit the internal flame of true yearning to be His. With eyes of fire, He perceives the continual cry deep within my heart to fully belong to Him, and He calls it part of my “loveliness.” He defines me by the things that are not yet revealed as though they were. When I lie on my bed at night and long for victory in my weak areas, He esteems my longing and receives my cry.
Oh Gaze Eternal,
How penetrating are Your Fires
Rushing through my darkest places
With the burning streams of Desire
Leaving me naked, purged and bare
….Yet embraced
Refusing all my offers
To earn Your love
To win Your gaze,
To deserve Your smile,
You wrap Your heavy love around me.
Until my anxious arguments subside.
You take hold of my weakest places
And kiss them with Your mercy
Lifting up my low grounds,
With Your mighty love so holy.
Burning Affections, consume me,
And transforming my darkness with Light
Jealous Ardor refusing to be denied
Yet engulfing all that hides…in me
Oh Gaze Eternal,
How penetrating are Your fires
Oh Friend eternal. How You win my heart
With unprecedented, unmerited Desire
My heart aches. I love Him, yes, but faintly.
I desire Him, yes, but weakly.
I want Him, true, but waveringly.
Even the pain that lies within
I recognize to be such faint pain,
A mere discomfort next to the heartwarming anguish
That grips true lovers
My knowledge is nothing. My wisdom, infancy.
I see nothing as it truly is.
Eternity what is light. This life of earth what is dark.
Stories remain stories. Not sinking deep within my soul,
And scarring me with Divine invasion
Your cross is a picture, Your heaven a fantasy.
Tears are sweet emotions, moved by Your sacrifice.
But not the tears of sharing in Your sufferings.
I say Your name so sweetly but do not know its Face
All I am is far. So distant, so removed.
But You beckon me come.
Yes, my Lord, I am nothing. I have nothing. I know nothing.
When I thought I had something,
It dissolved in Your beauty,
And I was left naked. Possessing nothing.
Poor for words. Empty of all. Needy and alone.
Even so, my Love, call me.
Yes, do not leave me here but beckon me to come.
Though I have nothing, though I am only poor,
I cast myself on Your unfailing love
Where else would I go??
Whom have I but You?
Psalm 119 is divided into twenty-two sections-one for each letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The Psalm is written by David, the king whom the Lord called “a man after His own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). From beginning to end of this Psalm, David praises and prays about the power of God’s Word. Most of us skip this chapter because of its 117 verses seem to say the same thing. But it is important because it shows us how to delight in the Word of God. If you fall in love with this chapter, you will fall in love with the rest of the Bible. Psalm 119 is all about happy holiness, which means being divinely entertained by the Word of God. Happy holiness means that we joyfully deny the lesser pleasures of all: being loved and enjoyed by God and loving and enjoying Him in return. We should call this Psalm the alphabet of divine love. Corey Russell – Pursuit of the Holy
Jesus will only give Himself to the hungry, He will only pour water into a thirsty soul. He waits to be wanted. But we do not realize we are full beyond measure, satiated beyond our realization by a thousand distractions–whether they are mental, relational, occupational, or simply amusing. We do not know how quenched our souls are, and yet the demand of the kingdom of God, the prerequisite for encounter, is always hunger and thirst.
How I feel the pleading of Jesus here in my own life.
Every yearning for God we ever experience is encompassed within the Great Desire of our God. If the reality of Jesus’ “Father I Desire” were a chamber, we would find each one of our own desires for God holding residence within that chamber. We desire God because He first desired us. We long because He longs. Every desire we have for Him is not from our own heart but from His. We are created in His image, and we desire Him because He has caused us to be caught up in the flaming desire of His own heart.
To long for God is only to say “yes” to the invitation of participating in the desire of God.
Starting with Noah, the dove has been a picture of the Holy Spirit throughout Scripture. A dove speaks of singleness of vision, singleness of devotion, singleness of purpose. Because a dove can only see straight ahead, its focus is clearly set on the object in front of it; a dove’s eyes cannot focus on two things at the same time(Matt. 6:22).
The worthiness of Jesus is the central and supreme theme of the worship and prayer movement, because it is central and supreme in the heart of God! The worship and prayer movement exists solely to give God glory. Why did God create; why does He uphold all things by the word of His mouth? It is because all of creation reveals Him and gives Him glory. The end toward which God is advancing is the recognition and celebration of His own name.
The Spirit of revelation is all about seeing. It “will guide us into all truth” (John 16:13) and awaken us to the realm of heaven. We must enter the call to “come up here.” I have heard the saying, “You can either pray from earth to heaven or from heaven to earth.” I want to pray from heaven to earth. I want to pray from that realm, the realm of revelation, the realm of impossibilities, from the heavenly places with no boundaries and no hindrances. I want to pray from inside God’s heart.
Am I desperate enough for revival? Do I realize the desperate condition of my country? And if I trust in religious organization, material wealth, popular preaching, shallow evangelistic crusades, there will never be revival. But when confidence in my flesh is smashed and I realize my desperate wretchedness and emptiness before God, then and only then will God break through. “Lord, make me ready for revival, Revive me.” I challenge you to join me in prayer for revival for our lives and for the nations I call for prayer that is strong, prevailing, and believing and that takes all that we are and all that we have. God Himself will motivate us to pray these prayers that have extraordinary consequences if we are only willing, willing to pay the price. Pray that God may fill us with the very passion of Christ and with the power and persistence of the Holy Spirit.