Generating Enthusiasm for being in the Spirit for Study

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Generating Enthusiasm for being in the Spirit for Study

[Study Aired June 29, 2022]

The short answer is that nobody can generate enthusiasm for Christ’s truth without the Lord providing curiosity and longing.

There are always two key women in the scriptures – the Whore and the Bride of Christ.

Without understanding “The Keys to the Kingdom” and all in the “Essential Reading” segment on the IWWB website, we will remain firmly entrenched in Babylon.

Hopefully, this study will amplify a heightened desire through a detailed inspection of every word’s types, symbols and shadows as the Song of Solomon colourfully and secretly expresses, as does the entire Bible.

Joh 8:43 Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.

Mat 13:11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
Mat 13:12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Most certainly, Babylonian Christianity (the Whore outwardly) likewise has an intense curiosity; it ebbs and flows inconsistently and is driven by ignorant unrealistic fear and rulership by their Nicolaitan slave-masters. In addition, they breathlessly share and sell spiritual intimacies within the 46,000 splinter, Christian, harlot denominations; as we once did and now daily diligently seek to eradicate remnants of harlotry.

There is no escaping the fact that interest in the word of God has a deliberate and direct correlation with our physical marriages and sexual relationships. It is akin to the Babylonian Christians feeling obligated to attend church and is the same as us possibly feeling dispassionate for spiritual intimacies and skipping studies with the apathy of a harlot for her client (for us, it can be the dull eyes of Leah, the elder daughter, whom Jacob unwittingly married by Laban’s deceit). Likewise, if our physical marriages are sexually lack-lustre, they risk being a symbol of harlotry where indifference for physical or spiritual intimacy apathetically rules.

Traditionally, harlots have no intrigue and curiosity for authentic presence for spiritual unity with their customers. For her, time is of the essence; time is money or merely validation. Similarly, that detachment caused by ‘more important’ things can blight our delight in Christ.

The entire experience that the Body of Christ has been given is pure intimacy between the Bride and her fiancé, the Christ. She is already spiritually ravished by His word. Her God-given and increasing incontinence for His spiritual truths grows daily. Hence, He says, “I come quickly” since lovers waiting too long for physical marriage risk adultery by enthusiastically participating in the fullness of each other’s ardour. Likewise, Christ comes quickly to us since our intense spiritual intimacies quickly increase knowledge and understanding through spirit-discerning spirit. While dying daily, we are flushed with the glory and downpayment of His spirit of first love and the anticipation of marriage. Yet, we must wait patiently while the intensity of expectation increases seemingly to the breaking point.

Son 2:5 Sustain ye me with raisin-cakes, Refresh me with apples; For I am sick of love. (Darby)

Psa 62:5 My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Our former and dissipating whore within was equally passionate for a different Jesus. What an earthquake to discover that we had been amorously following another Jesus for all of our lives! It is like being at school for a final exam. With no time to spare, you were proud of your answer, only to review the question, and you had it utterly back-to-front. What a miserable and devastating flood of inward wailing and howling emotions!

Mic 1:7 And all the graven images thereof shall be beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate: for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, and they shall return to the hire of an harlot.
Mic 1:8 Therefore I will wail and howl, I will go stripped and naked: I will make a wailing like the dragons, and mourning as the owls.

2Co 11:4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. 

Mat 23:25 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! [When we were whores and harlots] for you are cleansing the outside of the cup and the plate, yet inside they are brimming with rapacity and incontinence. [going over land and sea to make one proselyte a two-fold worse child of hell than themselves.] (CLV)

1Co 7:1 Now, concerning what you write to me: It is ideal for a man not to be touching a woman.”
1Co 7:2 Yet, because of prostitutions, let each man have a wife for himself and each woman have her own husband.” Spiritually speaking, we are to have ONE husband, the Christ and not the prostitutions with another Jesus.
1Co 7:3 Let the husband render to the wife her due, yet likewise the wife also to the husband.” [by the washing of the word of truth.]
1Co 7:4 The wife has not the jurisdiction of her own body, but the husband, yet likewise the husband also has not the jurisdiction of his own body, but the wife.”
1Co 7:5 Do not deprive one another, except sometime it should be by agreement for a period, that you should gave leisure for prayer, and you may be the same again, lest Satan may be trying you because of your incontinence.

Just as husbands and wives in a well-balanced marriage have curiosity and desire and specific incontinence for the mind and body of their mate, so, too, is the Body of Christ incontinent for His spiritual truth. Leisurely time through deep presence in the Word evokes profound ruminations that arouses a spouse to engage their mate.

Son 4:9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck. 

Rev 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. 

Pro 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

I expect that everyone here knows what it is like to be “sick of [with/in] love”. To become sick with love for God’s word requires diligent study of different Bible versions and related dictionaries with cross-referencing of the many instances of scriptures where a particular word or phrase has an order of frequency of use for a meaning. To a Babylonian it sounds tedious, and it is unless the Lord has given us righteous lust for his word.

There are 35 internationally recognized descriptions of wine tasting. Within each class, the vintner looks intently into each classification in his attempt to express the subtle flavours that he more often overstates in the hope of sales. It is an act of being intently present for the more exquisite and delicate flavours. Those qualities are identified, sometimes in more flowery and inspirational terms than I express, as a hint of chocolate, mild pepper, oak, rose and so forth. Unless we were inspired by the vintner to seek those flavors, we would most likely miss them. By being utterly immersed emotionally in the art, we extract a peculiar delight in the subject.

Similarly, we, too, look intently into the word of God for its underlying flavors of all truths without adding to the word of God, or diminishing His word, just as Solomon immersed himself in the delight of his Bride. That is being “present” in a thing.

[For your interest to characterise fine wine, the following link is excellent: https://www.wine-tastings-guide.com/wine-descriptions.html]

Son 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love.

For the sake of the exercise, following is a simple breakdown of that verse that most in the Body take for granted.

Continuing…

For brevity’s sake, I haven’t included the full KJV+TVM rendition for each word in Song of Solomon 2:5. Below is a more extensive example of “for I am sick”H2470. However, a detailed study of words arouses “presence”. It is like studying the label of a presumed fine wine where the careful wording is designed to intrigue and promote lust for a sale. So is Solomon’s authentic love speech, but without a harlot’s flamboyant ‘sales’ pitch with lying eyes and dress.

The Bride has a single-mindedness of eye for her fiancé since he has given her a new and virgin mind for him alone. She is, before creation, “spoken for” where the pattern of the younger ruling the elder is permanent. She is promised and declared in advance for Christ.

Son 8:7 Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned. [despised; condemned]  
Son 8:8 We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts: what shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? 

What the Lord does for the cute “little sister”, to the unwitting Babylonian Christian’s sullen displeasure, is that the entire Bible is written primarily for her, His future Bride. It is a love letter to her alone. She is the little sister typified by Rachel, Jacob’s fiancée, and compared to her elder sister Leah’s “weak eyes”, Rachel was vibrant, eager, anticipatory, but most of all, devotedly being present in communications and submission, the apple of Jacob’s eye. How do we know that? For our benefit, the Lord deliberately portrayed Rachel as His spiritual Bride, and we know that the Lord will suffer nothing less than a perfect representation.

 Son 4:7 Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee. 

Jn 4:17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. [We know that she does have “spots”, but they are gone and made as white as snow when his righteousness is attributed to her, as she, with the simplicity of acknowledging her sins, they are made as white as snow.]

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Every bride desires the perfect marriage, and vibrant marriage is built upon being equally yoked in the spirit of understanding the truth with vibrant communications in all things.
Jer 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. 
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

Since we are here in our forums with each other in regular and intimate communication in Christ, it is the God-given primary key to increasing spiritual intrigue.

As did five of the sleepy and foolish virgins, we must challenge our fleshy proclivity to take our ease.

Heb 10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) 
Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: 
Heb 10:25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

Amo 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountain of Samaria, which are named chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel came!

Israel came from the wilderness and the mountains of Samaria, where she committed many whoredoms with her neighbors and is a shadow of us coming out of the many harlot churches of the same people where we took our ease in the foolish belief that we are already saved without chastisement.

We all experience the weariness of the flesh and turn over on our spiritual bed of slothfulness. World time zones, health, sleeplessness and many other tribulations of the flesh contribute to genuine absence from our daily studies and private communications. Nonetheless, the Lord knows our heart, and so we should first judge ourselves within for any slothfulness.

Pro 26:14 As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed. 
Pro 26:15 The slothful hideth his hand in his bosom; it grieveth him to bring it again to his mouth. 
Pro 26:16 The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. 

Jdg 18:9 And they said, Arise, that we may go up against them: for we have seen the land, and, behold, it is very good: and are ye still? be not slothful to go, and to enter to possess the land. 

Pro 12:24 The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. 

Tribute is forced labor. The entire world has been under tribute since Eden. Israel experienced the first forced labor in the wilderness under the law of Moses, where physical blessings and cursings ruled. The world will participate in a second tribute, in type, for their God-given slothfulness under the rod of iron in the One Thousand-Year reign where again, and without the Lord’s spirit, everyone will see their teachers and hear God’s laws but not be converted.

So, pray diligently for the habit of daily routine and probably rising early to feed your household within. Consistent study with a mindful presence in Christ is vital whatever your timeframe.

Pro 31:10 Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. [We know that Christ has found, and even made for Himself, such a woman.
Pro 31:11 The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil [Christ had already experienced a lack-lustre and indifferent woman, his first wife in the wilderness. He will not suffer to take her back in adultery as that would be dishonest spoil. So, too, we don’t go back to Babylonian doctrine].
Pro 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life [Only because He first loved her by giving her increasing intimacy for him; she wanted him to wash her by his word].
Pro 31:13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands [She is spiritually clothed and diligent in study].
Pro 31:14 She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar [By searching the scriptural fare daily].
Pro 31:15 She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.

To be sick with love, we need commonality in most likes and dislikes. We need a bright-eyed accord that makes us equally yoked in flesh and spirit with our lover.

At this point in the study, we have seen that:

  • We first must be dragged to the truth since our Babylonian brothers and sisters likewise proclaim their passion for ‘the truth’ unwittingly for a different Jesus. We must be pre-signed for the right course and in the relevant lecture room.
  • We must show up with disciplined, consistent and meditative study and do our homework. 

Rom 10:17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. 

Gal 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not [The hard-working farmer reaps in due season].

The Third and Vital Ingredient is to have a Vibrant Presence in Christ to be “Sick of Love.”

Jacob’s fiancée, Rachel, is a classic example of a young woman trembling in anticipatory excitement for her man and him for her. Before meeting him, she knew the truth of what kind of man would magnetically snap her attention. She was a delightful girl who loved the beauty of the outdoors in nature and solitude while tending her father Laban’s sheep. As did Jacob, Rachel knew that being equally yoked in all things with her lover created a brighter path to more profound understanding of each other and for us, Christ.

Presence in each other creates vibrancy and makes us “sick of love” ~ meaning sick with love. (Song of Solomon 2:5)

Essentially, by being dragged to Christ and studying His word, we are automatically given the path to first love that makes us sick with love for its intoxicating joy of oneness of mind and burning spiritual bodily union with Christ.

1Co 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 
1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 
1Co 15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. 
1Co 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 
1Co 15:49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

First comes the natural, and then proceeds the spiritual. Most newlyweds believe that they are equally yoked in mind and spirit, for that is what exhilarates their sensuality to more intense delight in the other. It is a beautiful thing that, without further reason, they immerse themselves wholeheartedly in a bodily union. The spiritual correlation is that immersion in Christ is first seen in the flesh with our physical love affairs.

We all crave the ‘happy hormones’ (Oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin) and remember the newness of their effects in our youth and long to return to those heady days and recapture the deep intimacy and presence of courtship and newly marrieds. Platonic friendships can have a far more focused presence on each other, especially Christ, since sexual intimacies don’t clutter the devotion for spirit of truth, and no doubt Paul experienced and was prompted to say that it is good not to touch a woman. However, if spouses can achieve presence in and for each other and Christ, it can be an exceedingly fruitful experience of spiritual discovery.

Ecc 4:9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work. 
Ecc 4:10 And if one has a fall, the other will give him a hand; but unhappy is the man who is by himself, because he has no helper. 
Ecc 4:11 So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself? 

What is not stated is that a single person can have a possibly equal or greater intensity of desire and presence alone with Christ since his ache to share his deep spiritual insights escalates in solitude with the Lord. Today, I lust for that presence! With emotions too deep to relate, I have experienced that deep intimacy with Christ, especially in my single days on my farm that can only be described as a shadow of sexual intimacy with a spouse transcended by spiritual intimacy in Christ. I like to think that is what Paul experienced.

Physical love ebbs and flows and can become static or face wintery growth. Ephesus within us, the first of the seven churches of Asia, is admonished right off the bat to regain its first love.

Rev 2:1 Unto the angel [the Body of Christ] of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; 
Rev 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: 
Rev 2:3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. 
Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

Hopefully, new people in the Body of Christ are still in that state of first love when Spring is in the air. They intensely focus on every word of God for more profound spiritual meanings as the happy hormones brighten their spiritual eyes.

The fruit from our flush of first love steadily matures over many months and possibly years. Maturing members of Christ’s Body sometimes long for the heady days of ravenously devouring the word of God. Similar to youthful lust, they lust for a revitalised spirit righteously.

Ecc 7:10 Say not, Why were the days which have gone by better than these? Such a question comes not from wisdom. 

That first love is often based on the new and pure milk of the word, and it is not wise to say that the old days are better than the present. As I experienced on the farm with my profound delight in the Lord, people think the old days were better because they brightly recall the effects of the happy hormones and try to retrieve them rather than focus on the foundational truths of mature fruit which the happy hormones incite. I wanted the wine of my spiritual hit. That emotional buoyancy is as much as so-called charismatic church folk want to know with their understanding. They amplify their drunkenness by babbling in tongues and all sorts of mindless ravings for the emotional hit it evokes, and agitate deluded marvelling from peers.

There is nothing wrong with breathtaking truthful joy. As the saying goes, “Let’s have our cake and eat it too!” By eating the meat of His word, we attain a more mature buoyancy springing from detailed study. Focused study on types, symbols and shadows and the Greek and Hebrew meanings of words, bursts exponentially upwards in our minds for more exciting exploration. To the non-dragged mind, that is as boring as it sounds, but it is hidden manna to us. Almost every word in scripture has a spiritual meaning, and if we don’t seek its often multiple meanings, we will remain a mindless unconverted Babylonian.

Mat 13:13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

How do we recapture our first love? 

Heb 10:24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

To stir up love and good works of being one with Christ in everything, we need to review the physical that precedes the spiritual briefly. The classic example is a husband and wife’s love-making desires for each other. Of course, we don’t have to go into the intimate details to know what actions escalate all the happy hormones for righteous incontinence. Nevertheless, Solomon’s examples in the scriptures below have inspired playwrights and poets for centuries where one’s imagination is titillated. At the Lord’s hand for the discerning Saints, our minds are seasoned with self-mastery while reading such accounts; of which single Saints are increasingly adept.

It is understood that there are endless avenues of meaning in poetry. For this purpose, we have a glimpse of stirring up passion in each other, a shadow of the spiritual for Christ, our fiancé, who is pretty amorous yet restrained in verse 6. His nearness to marriage and his courting chastity is an act of “good works” and symbolizes our ardour for intense delight in what is to come in marriage.

Solomon, the Rose of Sharon, represents Christ, and the Body of Christ is the Lily of the valley among the harlot thorns.

Our deliberate restraint of haste in love-making is for the Lily’s (Christ’s) good pleasure, where the Rose and the Lily’s presence in every minute detail of each other is paramount to becoming “sick of love”. So, too, is our study for every word in scripture, our focus, that is, our presence which ravishes our hearts for Christ! Being “present” is precisely that ~ deliberate and absorbing focus on the details as with our delight in fine wine. The result is the physical and spiritual flow of happy hormones that cause us to crave more as should happen both physically and spiritually with equally yoked spouses.

Son 2:1 I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. 
Son 2:2 As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters. 
Son 2:3 As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. 
Son 2:4 He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. 
Son 2:5 Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples: for I am sick of love. 
Son 2:6 His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me [That to me looks like highly restrained ardour, yet it can be taken both ways; for the unmarried and the married].
Son 2:7 I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes, and by the hinds of the field, that ye stir not up, nor awake my love, till he please [Christ pleases Himself whom He chooses as members of His Bride whether they are called at the third hour or the eleventh hour].

The Bride Adores Her Beloved

Son 2:8 The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. 
Son 2:9 My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. 
Son 2:10 My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
Son 2:11 For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; 
Son 2:12 The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; 
Son 2:13 The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 
Son 2:14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely. 
Son 2:15 Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes. 
Son 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies. 
Son 2:17 Until the day break, and the shadows flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young hart upon the mountains of Bether.

We know all too well our aches and pains through trials and sufferings as we are chastised and die daily to our sins as walk, rest, sleep, and we resume the race against ourselves to win the prize of our high calling. Our spiritual ardour ebbs and flows in fits and starts. That is the habit of weak flesh subject to idols of the heart. The flush of first love matures into a more intense purity in Christ, and is especially experienced at the wedding supper of the Lamb where our spiritual winter is banished forever.

Amo 3:13 Hear ye, and testify in the house of Jacob, saith the Lord GOD, the God of hosts, 
Amo 3:14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel: and the horns of the altar shall be cut off, and fall to the ground. 
Amo 3:15 And I will smite the winter house with the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish, and the great houses shall have an end, saith the LORD. 

Isa 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Amen.

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