Romance with God in this World

One day we will be married to Jesus and the world will be right in every way. And we will be able to do whatever, whenever with our Lover God.

Suppose we say to Jesus for dinner one night,

-Fiji? Or Hawaii?

-How about both?

-Both tonight?

-How about a double date?

We are in a process now of becoming more like Jesus. Our souls and our hearts are becoming like his through the Spirit. We are essentially being renewed by the Spirit (Ephesians 4:23) and being made into what we were supposed to be before the Fall. Before the Fall, we walked before God bare and unashamed. Lovers of God who have been passionately in love with him their entire lives still have trouble with that one in their spirits. We still cover ourselves before our Lover. And God is in the process of reversing that in us with his Son. I love what Jeanne Guyon wrote about this in her commentary on Song of Songs, Song of Songs of Solomon:

The Spouse is not yet so unclothed but that she receives from time to time visits from her Well-beloved. But why do I call it a visit? It is rather a manifestation of Himself, an experience of His deep and central presence. The holy Bridegroom is ever in the centre of the soul that is faithful to Him; but He often dwells there in such a hidden manner, that the Spouse is almost always ignorant of her happiness except at certain times, when He is pleased to reveal Himself to the loving soul, which then perceives Him deeply and intimately present.

How true! We have a passionate Lover of our Souls inside of us, in the most intimate ways possible, and yet we really are ignorant of our joy and happiness with him except in those moments. And those moments are when we are caught up in the ecstasy of intimacy with Jesus and are fully aware of it. We all feel like that poor man above in the picture above dancing with his crush when we feel sooooo intimate with Jesus, but then have to deal with the fallout of not being at the mountain of closeness to him because of ourselves/life/busybody living/____ fill in the blank/ etc. How wonderful it will be when we have the full world to roam in our intimate times with God instead of being limited to sparse moments with him; sparse moments inside of us, not even in the physical world. How incredible will it be to spend our honeymoon with Jesus and have the world to vacation in for it on top of it all! But what does he have planned? We can only guess:

What no eye has seen,

Nor ear heard,

Nor mind conceived,

The things which God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:9)

Romantic dinner by a pool in Hawaii? Moonlit stroll on the beach in the South Pacific? The summer romances we will have with Jesus! How incredible life with God is and will be forever and ever. Today, I had such a hard time just breaking through the regularity of things to get to the ecstasy with God. And it can truly be a difficult task. But we need it. We are desperate for life with Jesus. We need his nearness to get our heart racing and our pulse moving. We crave Jesus. One thing that we truly do need everyday is this unashamed, unabashed bare time with Jesus in our souls. Here are some things I’ve learned about pursuing God regardless of this world:

1. Make intimacy a priority with Jesus. I’ve had a couple times this weekend where I was on the computer and my wife was sitting next to me watching tv. And I thought, why am I on this thing when I’m with her?? Objects and things in life, even regular things like the tv or the computer or cooking or gardening, really get in our way of nearness to Jesus. And to each other also. Take 10 minutes and push it all out of the way and get intimacy with God. Let him be near to you and spend 10 minutes enjoying him. Enjoying him in worshipping Jesus is the most incredible and intimate act we can do.

2. Dream! Day dream, wonder, imagine, fantasize, put your heart and mind and soul into life with him. He's our dream Lover and he's on his way to us. A perfect life filled with joy unimaginable in his embrace across the world is oh so close. We can hope even more if we dream about being with him. What ecstasy we will be in when we are with him all the time, intimately at every moment in life. Always one with him. It will be incredible. Dream about being with him! And let the hope renew you! Read Song of Songs and put yourself into it with Jesus. Get caught up in the ecstasy of his love and let it carry you away. One day, Jesus will return and he will sweep us off our feet! As in the Song, life will stop all together and we will be swept up into the grandeur and sweetness of our relationship with him. The world will be perfect, pain and suffering will not exist. We will have God for ourself. Imagine Jesus spontaneously saying to run away with him, "Come, my lover, let us go to the countryside, let us spend the night in the villages. let us go early to the vineyards to see if the vines have budded, if their blossoms have opened and if the pomegranates are in bloom-there I will give you my love." Song of Songs 7:11-12.

3. Protect your heart. This is beyond critical. Jesus said that our hearts our the wellspring of life and that above everything, we must protect it (Proverbs 4:23). How true is this. We must put aside all things in our lives that hurt our hearts, draw our hearts away from Jesus' sweet loving embrace, and leap into his arms. Throw away everything that is unworthy of your heart (Remember, God made your heart for him. And even though we aren't worthy, by his blood we are worthy. Only Jesus and your husband or wife if you are married is worthy of your heart.)

4. Surround yourself with things that bring you to Jesus' heart and your passion for him and the romance with him. We need this one. Surround yourself with your brothers or sisters in our family of God and encourage each other. Get close to your friend and talk, share, go out for a cup of coffee and hang out at Starbucks and talk about being intimate with God for 5 hours. And have fun! Let go of the world and the troubles it brings and indulge in our freedom that Jesus has given us with our family of God. We're living forever with our perfect God, we've been freed from complete and utter bondage in this world, we're alive in Jesus. Live! Love! Give and receive! And enjoy it! Let God really bring happiness to your heart through others and through the process share how you and Jesus are so close and your hopes and your dreams with those friends that you can bare your soul to.