LIVING THE PROCESS, RIDING ON CAMELS

Ps 42:7  Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and billows have gone over me. (NKJ)

THE CALL OF DEEP UNTO DEEP

By John Wright Follette

Down in the depth of my nature

Where the issues of life are born,

From that unknown mystical realm,

Surviving through ages of storm,

A call is forever rising--

But its language I cannot speak.

It was born ere I had being,

'Tis the call of deep unto deep.

Our mother tongue here is awkward,

For no words can fully express

The needs in the depths of nature,

In bondage to sin and distress.

Our hearts in their depths sorely ache;

They hunger; they call; and they seek--

Then silently wait an answer

To the call of deep unto deep.

Down deep in the heart of our God,

In mystical regions sublime,

In the Godhead's holy council

Long before our world or our time,

An answer was fully prepared

Every pain, every ache to meet,

In Christ, God's only begotten,

Is answer to deep unto deep.

The Answer indeed was the Word,

The Word when expressed was the Son.

Oh language of God how profound!

In answer what more could be done?

The heart of our God is hungry,

His portion, His people to seek.

"l thirst," was cried by the Answer-

'Tis the call of deep unto deep.

Sometimes I hear people pray things, or sing about things and I wonder, “Do they really understand what they are praying for? Do they have any idea of what would happen if the Lord answered that prayer?” My Pastor asked us how we would react if we saw a mighty angel, like Daniel did.

Another way to put this is, “How ready are you for the Lord to reveal things to you that are deeper in your heart than you really want Him to go?” Is the hunger and ache in your heart so great that you can ask God for more of Him?

What do we mean when we say we want more of God?

Is there a process He takes us through in order to give it to us?

There are 2 books I would recommend if you are serious in getting the full answers: “Hinds Feet in High Places” by Hannah Hurnard  and “The  Cost of Discipleship” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Google them, I’m sure you can find them online. 

There’s an old song, I hope some of you remember it. It’s the kind of song you may have learned in Sunday school. It is very simple, yet walking it out takes a lifetime. I hope it becomes one of those songs that gets stuck in your head.

I want more of Jesus

More and more and more.

I want more of Jesus than

I’ve ever had before.

I want more of His great love,

So rich and full and free.

I want more of Jesus so

I’ll give Him more of me.

Sounds simple enough but it ends with something that will take you the rest of your life on Earth to experience. Giving Him more of us equates to a lifestyle of repentance. Are you determined to make the right choices? Determined to always yield to righteousness? Sometimes it’s not so simple, we complicate it with works, with self-righteousness.

Rom 6:16  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

17   But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.

18   And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.

19   I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. (NKJ)

Now don’t get in the flesh about this and start looking for things that you may need to repent of – please don’t fall into a quilt trip or legalism. Remember, Christianity is not a list of does and don’ts. It is a relationship with the Almighty and in that relationship we learn how to please the Lover of our souls. As you catch some glimpse of His character, as He reveals something about Himself to you, His love in your heart will motivate you to change and His Grace and the Holy Spirit that is in you will empower you to do so.

The Lord knows that in and of our limited, frail, human capacities there is no way we will completely follow through, we just can’t do it. We want to heed His call to pick up our cross and follow Him but usually want to do that on a cross we make ourselves, padded and not so uncomfortable and Calvary’s cross. The sooner you realize that the sooner you’ll learn of the freedom we have in Christ. Please do not strive in your flesh to be righteous – you’ll never measure up to His standards. 

Now let’s get to those 2 questions I asked a little while ago,

1.    What do we mean when we say we want more of God?

2.    Is there a process He takes us through in order to give it to us?

As I already mentioned, sometimes I hear people pray things, or sing about things and I wonder, “Do they really understand what they are praying for? Do they have any idea of what would happen if the Lord answered that prayer?” Anyone ever prayed for patience?

When meditating on this my mind was flooded with so many songs we used to sing that were prayers for more of God.

“More love… more power… more of you in my life (2x)

And I will worship you

With all of my life.. etc etc.

Or do you remember... 

“More of You, more of You

I’ve had it all but what I need is just more of you.

Of things I’ve had my fill

But yet I hunger still,

Thirsty & dry, Lord hear my cry

For just more of you.”

In order for us to be able to receive His answers to these prayers He puts us through a process, and it varies for each individual, it varies with time, it is unique for you. The Lord has a plan for your life and primarily it is to bring you closer to Himself, to cause you to become more like Jesus and ever more passionate for Him, appreciative of His Manifest Presence.

There are some great analogies in the Song of Solomon. Briefly,

Song of Solomon  5:2   I sleep, but my heart is awake; it is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, "Open for me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one; for my head is covered with dew, my locks with the drops of the night."

3   I have taken off my robe; how can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; how can I defile them?

4   My beloved put his hand by the latch of the door, and my heart yearned for him.

5   I arose to open for my beloved, and my hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock.

6   I opened for my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer.

The next verses in this chapter describe her desperate search throughout the city to find Him. She was too slow to respond, she made excuses to stay in bed.

Something happened in her heart between Chapter 5 & chapter 8. She went through a process. Notice she isn’t walking with Him, they are not skipping like a young couple just having fun and laughing together. Those times are wonderful but here she is leaning on Him. Her own strength is gone, she’s dependent on Him. The call of deep unto deep was answered – she’s different. Look at the change of heart and then we’ll talk about what the Lord does to bring this about.

Watch the center of her attention in the following 5 steps.

    Song of Solomon 1:4 Draw me, we will run after thee: the     king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad       and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than       wine: the upright love thee. (KJV)

Believe me I would much rather remember God’s love, remember intimate times in His presence, even those times of correction, than the effects of too much wine. The Lord loves it when His kids get happy in His presence, when we rejoice with exceeding great joy.

But my friends, this is only the beginning. The intimacy, the fellowship with God that is available to us is far greater when we come back from that field, from that vacation in the villages with Him with our own strength gone, when we’ve let go of more of our carnal self. When we allow the Lord to go deeper into our inner man and replace the junk with some revelation of the deeper  things of His character.

What is it that God uses to bring us to this place of great freedom and blessing? Stuff that our flesh doesn’t usually enjoy:

    Rom 5:1   Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

    2    through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

    3    And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance;

    4   and perseverance, character; and character, hope.

    5    Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our                   hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Our lives are constantly in the remaking process, we constantly exchange junk for pure gold. The Lord is preparing us for our marriage to His Son. How does the bride get to the Bridegroom? Look at Genesis 24, the story of Abraham’s servant going to get a bride for Isaac. In this story we can easily say that Abraham represents God the Father, Isaac the SON and the servant is the Holy Ghost. The servant doesn’t just walk across the vast desert, and he doesn’t go empty handed. In addition to beautiful things that will wet the Bride’s appetite, he brings 10 camels (Gen 24:10). She is given a means of transportation across that vast desert. In verse 11 we see that the servant, that is to say the Holy Ghost, is in control of the camels, he has them kneel.

The journey starts with her making a choice. We are constantly faced with choices and it is so important that our internal radio is tuned to the God Station. Rebecca chose to go with the servant.Let me quote more from Folette, 

 So let us not be foolish and pray for God to draw us          nearer and bring our hearts to sweet fellowship and        understanding of Isaac and then when He sends us a camel to carry us there want to shoot him. Never shoot your camels! What foolish creatures we are anyway!  With one breath we pray God to draw us near, conform us to His image, and deepen our lives in God, and with the next breath we shout at the camel He has sent to answer our prayer. Don't you remember it is tribulation that worketh patience and not a sweet feeling at an altar service?”

           “The camels are awkward and not so very easy to ride. There is an art to it and the secret of it is this---move with the camel and do not try to resist his momentum. For that is already established, so all you have to do is to yield to the sway and movement of the camel and you will soon learn to ride. Never resist the camel's momentum, for if. you do it will make you sick and you will have a very hard time of it. 

Let’s look at 1 of the camels, the person you really have a hard time loving, the one who just always gives you a hard time and is just impossible to get along with. You water this camel with a bad attitude. God sent this camel for you to ride, not for you to carry on your back. Get the right saddle out of the barn

What a neat thing happens when we repent of that pride and apprehend God’s enabling Grace. We handle the irritating things about that camel graciously and enjoy the ride toward our Isaac.

How about the camel that is a long, drawn out trial? The Lord has had me ride this camel all too often – a trial of faith and patience -  unemployment. Some people are caring for handicapped family members, dealing with severe financial and/or health siuations, or my amazing wife who has had to lovingly endure being married to me for all these years (39 as of this writing). There’s a saddle in the barn for this:

In the midst of that trial, we are called upon to give, and not just financially. When we apprehend the Grace to be a cheerful giver we will have an abundance of everything we need for every good work.

The caravan is large and we get to ride many different camels. The key is to apprehend His Grace to deal with each one with a right attitude. Don’t you want to get to the Lover of your soul? Of course you do. And not just to be in the same room but to be completely yielded to Him.

In conclusion I have to ask again, Do you really want more of God? Will you, as Rebecca did, say, “I will go.” Are you ready to ride those camels, choosing the right saddle for each one?