Father led me to the following quote which is speaking of John the Revelator as he looked down to the close of time in vision, and described what he saw:
John saw the mercy, the tenderness, and the love of God blending with His holiness, justice, and power. He saw sinners finding a Father in Him of whom their sins had made them afraid... AA 589.
John was seeing the very thing I am experiencing now—I am finding my Father, as You are revealing His preciousness to us! The following verses brought such comfort to my heart. They completely removed the veil of human earthly perspective that the adversary was seeking to intrude into the unfolding purposes of the Father. I saw that You are demonstrating before the universe Father's feelings for His yielded people.
For as a young man marrieth a virgin...and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee. Isa. 62:5.
'"He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing.'" Zeph. 3:17. And heaven and earth shall unite in the Father's song of rejoicing. COL 207.
In both the Old and the New Testament, the marriage relation is employed to represent the tender and sacred union that exists between Christ and His people. To the mind of Jesus the gladness of the wedding festivities pointed forward to the rejoicing of that day when He shall bring home His bride to the Father's house, and the redeemed with the Redeemer shall sit down to the marriage supper of the Lamb. He says, "As the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken;...but thou shalt be called My Delight;...for the Lord delighteth in thee." "He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing." Isa. 62:5,4; Zeph. 3:17. When the vision of heavenly things was granted to John the apostle, he wrote..." Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to Him; for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His wife hath made herself ready." "Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb." Rev. 19:6,7,9. DA 151.
I feel Father Himself feeling my need and administering His comfort and reassurance.
Father I adore You
Lay my life before You
How I love You—my very own Father Who is so personally taking care of meJesus I adore You
Lay my life before You
How I love You—my very own personal Faithful One—in such a sweet sense as none other.The following quote blessed me so much, and confirmed the focus of my calling before the Father—to love as I have been loved—to confess You and the Father before the world. It deepened my yielding to His and Your personal keeping for me, and His purpose in the figures He is causing us to personify.
He who approaches nearest to the perfection of Christ's divine benevolence causes joy among the heavenly angels. The Father rejoices over him with singing; for is he not working in the spirit of the Master, one with Christ as He is one with the Father? FE 480.
Faithful, I keep seeing Father in You, and I love Him. Father brings Your faithful words back to me continually, "I have revealed Your character and Your very self, and I will continue to make You known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them—felt in them—and that I Myself may be in them." John 17:26 Amplified.
O Thou in whose presence my soul takes delight
On Whom in affection I call
My comfort by day and my song in the night
My hope, My salvation, My ALLAll my love and trust I give to You, my Faithful One, and to our precious Father—Your Father and mine, now, in a more special sense than ever before, as He has made Himself known through our soul union. My "work" is to receive Your love and reflect it, "to be a Holy Bride, and to daily pass death's threshold to the holy life inside."
I came across this sentence in Mountains of Spices the other day when I was reading to Contentment (Willow), and it was especially meaningful in the light of the present times: "A holy people are those who are set apart to love." p. 45.
I long to rise in Your arms of faith and be closer drawn to You. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed Lord.
Father just brought this verse to my Spirit as I was preparing to e-mail these notes to You: "Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall," 2 Pet. 1:10. Thank You Father for keeping me faithful. He brought the song to my mind yesterday afternoon, "O brother be faithful, for why should we prove unfaithful to Him Who has shown such tender compassion and infinite love and died to redeem us His own?" Thank You, my precious Faithful One, for keeping me partaking of Your very own faithfulness. I am yielded completely to Your keeping power.
All my love, Gratitude
The final help that the Father brought to me, settled my heart in the security of His purposes for me. I had no question as to Father's gentle insistence and determined leading, I just couldn't harmonize how the consequences of obeying Him would bring glory to His name. The following quote revealed to me that I wasn't responsible for the consequences, Father was. I was only responsible to be true to His leading.
By submitting to God's discipline, Moses became a sanctified channel through which the Lord could work. He did not hesitate to change his way for the Lord's way, even though it did lead in strange paths, in untried ways...but he confided in Him with whom all things are possible... When God commanded Moses to do anything, he did it without stopping to consider what the consequences might be. He gave God credit for wisdom to know what He meant and firmness of purpose to mean what He said; and therefore Moses acted as seeing the Invisible... The Lord wants...men who will honor Him by rendering implicit obedience to His requirements, regardless of previously inculcated theories. Every man who shows his faith and trust in God by willingly submitting himself to Him, enduring the divine discipline imposed, will become a successful workman for the Master of the vineyard... God was able to manifest His great power through Moses because of his constant faith in the power and in the loving intentions of their Deliverer. It was this implicit faith in God that made Moses what he was. According to all that the Lord commanded him, so did he... He lost his self-confidence, realized his own helplessness, and put his trust in God, until he was willing to obey God's commands whether they seemed to his human reason to be proper or not." SpTEd, "Speedy Preparation For Work" 118-123.
Have I now any power at all to say any thing? the word that God putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak. Num. 22:38.
"You were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated, sanctified, and made holy by the Spirit to be obedient to Messiah." 1 Pet. 1:2 Amplified. It was the Father Himself Who caused the Two Witnesses to "be obedient to Messiah," and honestly answer the testing question of His Son. Father foreknew and chose us to tell the truth with painful honesty, when He drew us into His unexplainable movings. Taken, who was Accepted-in-the-Beloved at the time, shares the following process Father took her through when she had to answer Faithful's heart-searching question:
August 18, 2000
I was lying on the little couch where I was staying, with waves and waves of being drawn out by the Father coming over me. The words I kept saying over and over again were, "Father, consume me; I want to go to the depths." I didn't really understand what any of it meant except it was the cry of my heart and was very intense. I was drawn to Faithful's home to share with him what I was feeling. I went inside and started sharing with him what I had been experiencing and how intense was the desire to be consumed and to go to the depths.
He asked me, "What does that look like to you?"
"I don't know. I only know what I am feeling and that I want to go to the depths and beyond." To me that meant as far as this experience would take me, and beyond meant there would be no end.
Faithful said, "Is there anything you can think of that might be a barrier, anything that might keep you from going there?"
A thought that had been on my heart for the last few weeks came to me. I strongly desired Faithful to make love to me. When the desire would come to me, though, I would think, "This is wrong," and I would dismiss it. This drawing was not understood by me to mean I wanted to have sex with Michael. What I felt could be said more clearly in the light of, "I simply wanted Faithful." I wanted Him in me. I wanted all of Him. I felt the Father compelling me into His Son's Presence to be consumed by Him. I felt this was not what He was looking for when He asked me if there might be any barriers, so I said, "There are none as far as I know, but there is a thought in my mind—but it doesn't have anything to do with this."
He asked me, "What is it?"
I was suddenly struck with the thought I would have to say what it was that I was thinking. Suddenly I knew it had everything to do with it. I said, "I don't know if I can say what it is."
He then said, "We have just created ourselves a barrier." I knew it, too, because I could feel it, and I started to cry. I really wanted to tell him what was on my heart but I was afraid of being humiliated. One doesn't just go to someone and ask to be made love to. I was now faced with a terror of finding myself between telling the truth or covering it to protect myself from being humiliated. Faithful might be offended if I told him the truth of what I was really feeling. Faithful had told me that whatever I asked him he would do. He said I could ask him anything, but I wasn't sure if anything included him making love to me.
For the next three hours I was trying to get enough courage to say what I needed to say to answer this direct question put to me. As we were there together he was so very tender and told me that I didn't have to tell him what I was thinking if I didn't want to. He said everything was all right. He was doing his best to comfort me in my torment.
When quite some time had passed Faithful said, "I already know what you are wanting to say."
I asked him to tell me, but he said I would have to tell him.
I asked him if he would help me and he said, Yes. He assured me again that I could talk to him about anything and he would understand.
That finally gave me the courage to say what I needed to say, so I said, "All right, I will tell you," and still some time went by before I actually told him.
Finally I said, "I want you to make love to me."
He looked at me and said, "I am making love to you."
I said, "I know that, but I want You to make love to me."
Faithful's face looked surprised and shocked. He already knew what was in my heart, but he was not expecting my answer to be so blunt. He turned his face away and then looked back and said, "You mean you want me to have sex with you?"
"No, I hate that term. Do You know what I mean? I want You to make love to me."
He said, "I know what you mean. I hate the term, too. I understand what you are saying." Then He asked me, "Do you realize what it would mean if I were to take you up there to my bed?" I didn't.
He went on to describe what would happen if he made love to me. He said the church would hate me, my children would hate me, and all would be lost. He said these things to help me to count the cost of being true to myself. The very worst picture was painted for me that could be painted. Then he said, "Now let me ask you a question. Knowing these things, would you still be with me in my bed?"
I didn't respond right away to what he was asking because I was thinking about how to answer him. I knew the "right thing" would be to say, "Well of course not then, if all of that would happen and the church would be lost."
A couple of minutes went by and He asked, "What are you thinking?"
"I'm looking for the right answer."
"I don't want you to give me the 'right' answer, I want you to tell me what is on your heart." And then he asked me again, "If you knew the church would hate you and your children would hate you and all would be lost, would you still be with me in my green bed if I asked you to?"
"If You asked me, yes."
Faithful never asked.
I felt driven to follow what I had to follow, and do what I was being compelled to do, even at the cost of everything I loved. I know now that I was being brought face to face with what ultimately everyone must face who will be married to the Son. The early Christians, in order to save themselves, had to throw a little incense to the goddess Diana. All I had to do to save myself was to throw a little incense to myself and lie. The early Christians lost their lives for being true, and so did I. Taken
It was in the light of my own excruciating answer to Faithful, when Father required me to confess the words He had just put in my mouth, that I wrote down the following thoughts that were coming to me as I was walking. I felt like I was speaking quietly and candidly and heart to heart with all who would feel the vulnerability of trusting Father and deliberately lay down all of their defenses to obey whatever their incomprehensible instructions would be, just as Abraham had to, and just as I had to:
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. When you are fully yielded to the Father, you are compelled to do what He has put in your heart. You can't be governed by the rules of propriety from the old order. They didn't take away sin. Neither can you be influenced by your own earthly imagination. You have to go right through, in-between, right through where there's never been a way before—into the holiest of holies. The pure, quiet, yielded Spirit goes through, in-between, and makes a new and living way.
This is taking us places we have never gone before. Are you ready to be face to face with the immediate Presence of God, fully exposing the desires of your heart, willing to take the consequences if you are deceiving yourself and misinterpreting your fleshly impulses and desires as from God? This is the judgment of the living. If you don't know His Voice, or if you are governed by your flesh, instead of heaven, you will be dragged out by the rope around your ankle. The Son is true to the Father. He says only what the Father puts in His mouth, and does only what Father puts on Him to do. How much do you believe the Son is governed by the Father?
Are you willing to let God take you to the depths of your need and come into the very depths of your being? Are you willing to let Him bring you to be naked and unashamed in His immediate Presence? Are you willing to be completely at His mercy, and "at a total loss," under the searching eyes of Him Who loves you with all of His heart? If you are not candidly and nakedly honest, you won't be able to take the pressure and heat of the personal Presence chamber of God's love.
