Mike Bickle emphasizes the Father heart of God through the lens of the Song of Solomon, illustrating the deep love and longing between the bride and her beloved. He encourages believers to seek intimacy with God, even amidst trials, and to declare their love for Him despite challenges. The bride's journey reflects a shift from self-centeredness to recognizing that her life is a gift to Jesus, who finds pleasure in her devotion. Bickle highlights the importance of understanding God's attributes to cultivate a lovesick heart for Him, ultimately leading to a deeper relationship and a powerful witness to others. The sermon calls for believers to remain steadfast in love, even when they feel distant from God.

Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for the word of God, and I ask you even now for impartation. I ask you for the light of your countenance to shine upon our minds. We ask that you would write upon our mind and write upon our heart, inflame our heart with the things that are in your heart, and we thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Session 19 on the Song of Solomon, as we're continuing on a 24 class or series on this class called the Song of Solomon, the Progression of Holy Passion. This class we're gonna be focusing on Song of Solomon chapter five, verse eight, and continuing on to chapter six, verse five. Now, as always, I'll have more notes than we'll have time to cover in the class, and so I'm encouraging you to take some time to study this, and this book is not, it's not enough just having to go through it once. You wanna get it into your prayer life. You wanna find the key phrases that strike your heart, that you speak to God in your worship time, in your spontaneous singing, when you speak the word against the enemy and against your flesh when temptation rises up, when the enemy comes and tells you that it's not worth it, give up, give in. We say what Jesus said, we say it is written, and we speak the word of God back to the enemy. We speak it to our own soul, and the way David did, he said soul, and he would declare the word of God to his soul. And this book is so awesome and so filled with meaning and relevant material, but it has to go from a handout in a class into the language of your prayer life. Just a quick review of last session, the last class. In Psalm, Psalm chapter four, verse 16, one of the key passages in the entire book, the bride prays very courageous prayer, a very important prayer. She asked for the north winds of pressure, of adversity, and the south winds of blessing to blow upon the garden of her heart. Now, it's easy to pray for the south winds, but asking the Lord to do whatever it takes to cause us to grow up in love is a prayer that takes confidence that the Lord is a God of love, that Jesus is a king filled with love, because if we know who he is, we can pray that prayer and not draw back in fear. She prays to the Lord, to King Jesus, awake, oh, north wind, and come, oh, south wind, and let them, both of them, blow upon the garden of my heart, why? That the spices of the grace of God, of the presence of God, would flow out of my life, for they would increase enough to flow out and be evident to other people. Now, she's about to experience this grace flowing out of her life in such a degree that the daughters of Jerusalem, in chapter five, verse nine, we'll look at it in a minute, they're awestruck and perplexed at the measure of the grace of God in her life. The graces truly flow in chapter, later on in chapter five, and on into chapter six, seven, and eight. And then she prays a second prayer, first, that the blessing and the pressures would flow in the right combination to allow the spice of the grace and the presence of God to flow out of her life in a way that was evident to others and that she could impart it to others. And that the Lord himself would find pleasure in what he sees when he sees those spices in her life. And then she prays the second prayer, let Jesus, my beloved one, come into his garden and find pleasure in it. To eat the fruit of, the pleasant fruit means, I want him to find pleasure in what's going on in my life and my life is his inheritance. My life, I live for his pleasure and to be his inheritance. Now you'll notice, as we looked at in the last class, that this is the passage where the garden of her heart goes from being her garden, she says, it's my garden. And from this point on in the song, it is his garden. She is no longer only focused on the fact that she has an inheritance in him, but now that he has an inheritance in her. And that's a radical paradigm shift when we begin to view our life and plan our future and carry our heart with the revelation that we are God's gift to his beloved son, Jesus. That Jesus has an inheritance in us, not only do we have an inheritance in him. Paragraph B, and if you don't have the notes, you can get them, they're available on the internet right now to anybody that wants them. This is one of the greatest prayers for mature love to be increased in our life in the whole Bible. Now it's spoken in a figurative way in the language of love, but it is a dynamic prayer. It's one of the great prayers of your life in your own personal prayer list. I encourage you to have a personal devotional prayer list. I've had one for 30 years, nearly 30, over 30 years. Since 18, 19 years old, I guess I'm getting into my 50s, it's been over 30 years. I've had a personal prayer list where I would go through it. Now I used to go through it daily, go through the list, but after a few years, you tend to memorize it. I mean, it gets really stamped on your memory. But this is a prayer that you want on your personal devotional prayer list. One of the prayers you're contending for for breakthrough in your own life that this would happen in your heart. I urge you to take Song of Solomon, chapter four, verse 16, and make it a part of your everyday prayer life. Well, what happens in paragraph D is that Jesus, he comes. She said, come to your garden, come to my life and take possession. He says, okay. In chapter five, verse two, he comes to her. And he says, I want to experience something with you, and I want you to experience something new with me. I want you to know me in the place of difficulty. And as a man, I know what you'll go through. And I did it for love, and I want you to do this and to be true to me because you love me. That's called the fellowship of suffering. We looked at it in class 18. We're in class 19 now. He asked her to open her heart. In chapter five, verse two, he says, open to me as he reveals himself as the Jesus of Gethsemane. And she responds in obedience. In chapter five, verse three to five. Then he comes with what I call the ultimate twofold test. In verse six, he allows his presence to be temporarily lifted from her life. And the issue is, are you in it for me even if you don't feel the pleasure of my presence at this moment? And then the second test comes in chapter five, verse seven, where the watchman or the authorities in the body of Christ, in the kingdom of God, they wound her and they strike her and they take their covering away. So the two things she valued most, to experience his presence and to be effective in ministry to others, of bringing his glory to others, both of them were temporarily suspended. And so the question of the hour is, will you be true in love? Will you walk with me and relate to me for my sake? Not only for what you feel or how much I will use you or how big your ministry gets, will you do this only for me? Or first for me is the more accurate way to say it. And of course the answer is yes, because in chapter five, verse eight, where we left off in our last class, we'll begin with tonight, she says, I'm lovesick. She's sick with love. She's in it for him. Beloved, we can be lovesick. We can be sick with love, which means we want him more than every other thing that comes in our heart. We want him most and we want him first. We don't have to be able to say we want only him. It is all right to have godly relationships, relationships in the will of God. It's okay to want blessing of God in your life and in other things. It's not a matter of wanting him and only him. It's a matter of wanting him first and most. There are many things in the will of God that are good and they're the hand of God. And we are to rejoice in them, we're to pray for them, we're to value them, we're to rejoice in them, but not most and not first. So to be lovesick means we want him most. And everything we have that's good, if we don't have a connection with him, our heart is sick with love because we want to connect it with him more. And we want to be more true in love. And this is the glory of every single believer, to have that anointing of love operating in their life. Well, we must go through, Psalm of Solomon chapter five, what we covered in our last class, we must go through that door to enter into depths of intimacy with the Lord. There's no way to pray the prayer of faith and to skip the door of Psalm of Solomon chapter five, verse two to eight. We have to go through that door. There's a dimension of Jesus. We won't know if we do not stand in the place of difficulty and be true in love because we're faithful, because we love him, not because we see or feel anything in the natural. That moves his heart. So we'll see in chapter six, verse five, he is overcome by that kind of faithfulness and that kind of devotion to him. In the time where we could feel nothing at the heart level and circumstances were difficult, she stayed true in love and he was overwhelmed. And he says this to her in chapter six, verse five, one of the high points of the whole book, which we'll look at in far more detail in our next class, class session 20. Paragraph F, when we don't feel his presence. Just to repeat, we looked at this in the last class. Our first tendency when circumstances are difficult in our ministry or just in life, where the thing we want most, our ministry or just the blessing of God in circumstances, it's being withheld and we can't feel his presence. The first tendency is to get depressed, very natural or to complain, even to complain in a nice way. But Lord, what about, what about, what about? And the Psalms are filled with Lord, what about? It's biblical to complain to the Lord. It's not the highest way to walk with God, but it is biblical. I've done it many times, but there's more in the grace of God than complaining, even if you can find a Bible verse to back it up. So in the, in the difficulty, I call it exercising that muscle of faith. We're in the difficulty and we cry out, oh God, it's bad, it's bad, it's bad. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? It's too hard. And then we recall there's more than just a blessed ministry and feeling his presence and things going well. I'm in it for love. I'm in it for you. And it's like, oh yes, I'm in it for you, Jesus. And we realign our heart. And then a minute later, we feel the pain again and say, Lord, why am I even bothering with this? It's too hard, it's too mundane. It's the routine, too much pressure, too many people against me. Why am I doing this anyway? Won't I quit? And then you say the word of God and the Holy Spirit rises up in you and you say, doing it for Jesus, I love it. Oh yeah, yeah, good point. I'm doing it for you. And we work that muscle 10,000 times 10,000 throughout our life. And the pressure realigns our heart with that mindset. And then love grows strong in us under the pressure. Most people don't realign their heart in that kind of way when things are going great. They just kind of assume they love God. They just go with it. But when it's going difficult, we have to ask the question and answer it 10,000 times 10,000 times. And that realigning of our heart is like rewriting lines of code in our spirit. And it strengthens our resolve in love. And it actually, our love matures because as we commit, the Holy Spirit imparts more grace to walk in love. And that happens at the most intense level when we're working that muscle of faith. When we're going, wait, why don't I just give up and give in to this sin? This sin causes me so much turmoil and it causes me so much pain and shame. And every time I cry and I fail, why don't I just do it and not worry about it for a while? We say, oh yeah, I love you. You love me, I love you. Oh, that's why I'm resisting. And I tell you, beloved, when we realign ourself in that reality, it realigns our heart and the Holy Spirit bears witness to it with a small measure, just a regular increase of impartation of love he puts in our heart. Romans 5.5, he imparts it into our hearts. But he does it as we realign ourself with truth and we realign ourself with love. And again, that happens most intense in the most dynamic way when there's difficulty. I wish it would happen at the highest level when everything is good. But you know what? We can do it more than we normally do when things are well. But most people just don't get around to it when things are going great. They just ride the wave, man. They're having the time of their life. I love you, Jesus. They blow Jesus' kisses on the run while everything in their life is increasing and it's blessed. And Jesus says, oh, we're into the you're blowing me kisses stage now, eh? You used to seek me and cry out to me. You promised you'd be mine if the breakthrough come. A little breakthrough of favor comes. A little breakthrough of finance comes. A little breakthrough of ministry comes. We get so busy managing it, and now we just blow Jesus' kisses because we're so blessed by what he's given us. And he says, I don't want a bride that blows me kisses on the run. I want a bride that sits before me and I am number one to her. Not my blessings are number one. I am number one to her. And so therefore, trouble causes us to realign more than times of blessing. But if we are wise in love, we'll do it in times of blessing. We let opportunities go by. Beloved, we have to let many opportunities go by in order to stay steady in love in times of increase and blessing. I'm just speaking this to younger believers in the Bible school. I was in my younger 20s. I remember I just had so few opportunities. I took just about every opportunity that came my way for ministry to increase. Not all of them, but most of them. But now, 30 years later, my early 50s, I have so many opportunities around the world and many opportunities that, I'm not saying this to be a hot shot. I'm saying this to tell you it's a tenacious focus that I'm presenting before you. I literally say no to 49 out of 50 requests for something that would increase my ministry. 49 out of 50 times, I say no to it. I say, no, I'm called to be here. I'm called to be in the prayer room. I can't even meet that cool guy who's gonna open a big door. I have to stay focused and I have to have my time for the word of God because I'm a lover of God first before I'm a worker. I have plenty of, much, a lot of work to do. I mean, I do plenty of work, but I have so many opportunities. It seems like as IHOP is growing every week, another door opens. I go, no, no, no, no. Remember last year, I turned down probably 10, 5,000 member conferences to be one of the main speakers. I turned down all 10 of them. I said, no, no, I'm supposed to be in the prayer room up in my little prayer station up there on the platform. I'm supposed to be there in the prayer room. And it's not a sacrifice. I'm not saying this to be a hotshot. I'm not saying it. I'm saying it because I'm a lover of God first and I'm a worker second because your work will be far more effective if it comes out of love. And I don't wanna blow Jesus kisses when I'm on the road to world prominence. I'm just exaggerating it. Well, Jesus, it was great knowing you. And you know I love you, big thumbs up. Hey, I'll catch up with you later. I'm not gonna do that with the Lord. That's the way that the body of Christ relates to him. But beloved, there's another way to relate to him. But it's, I'm way out on a bunny trail and that's okay. But here's the point. The point is we normally realign our heart in love in times of difficulty, but the wisdom of love says we don't have to wait for difficulty to do it. We can do it in prosperity, but it will require saying no to many open doors of blessing. And so what? So we miss an open door of blessing. So we say no to it for love's sake. The Lord remembers it. He likes that stuff. No, you don't say no for the sake of no, you say no for the sake of engaging with him in a deeper way. Roman numeral two. An overview of Song of Solomon chapter five, verse eight to chapter six, verse five. And again, we're just gonna barely look at it because you're not gonna get this book in a presentation. Really what teachings are, you know what a teaching is? It's a big advertisement for a passage. You can't really get the passage in a teaching. What happens in a teaching? A little impartation happens and a couple maybe important ideas, two or three will strike you that will stick with you. But what a teaching really does is it points to the menu that says go deep, read this, read this, read this, study this, study this. And you know what? The menu, the word of God is not good enough. You can go to the nicest restaurant on the earth and study the menu and underline it with all kinds of different colors and everything else. But if you don't eat the food, it's not gonna do you any good. A lot of people are menu connoisseurs. They go conference to conference and they're menu connoisseurs. They don't actually ever eat the food, but they love the menu and they underline it. These truths must become a part of your secret private prayer life. They must be things you say to God in the everydayness of your life or they will never be written on your heart and they will never move you deeply. Psalm of Solomon chapter five, verse eight. She says, oh, daughters of Jerusalem. And of course, you know, they are the sincere believers but far more immature than the bride is at any time during her progression to holy passions, what I call her a chapter journey. They are sincere, but they're immature spiritually. So they're throughout the song asking her questions very sincerely. So she goes to them and she says, tell him because she can't find him. She can't feel his presence. If you find him, I mean, what humility she's going, you know, when a lot of people get hurt in the church, they boycott the church. Well, she was hurt in the church, but she's going to the new believers class with a teachable spirit to receive from them. I mean, this is amazing. And she goes, I'm not offended at him and I will receive from anybody that will teach me. I mean, there's two things going on here. She's not offended at the Lord because it would be easy to be offended at the Lord in this time of testing. But she goes, tell him I'm lovesick. I'm not mad. Tell him I'm in it for love. Beloved, this is a great phrase of truth. You can confess before the Lord. I'm in it for love. I'm lovesick. I want you more than other things. That's the definition of being lovesick. And then when other things get in the way, it pains my heart when other things get between you and me, Jesus. And when I want more of you, it pains my heart. And so we're lovesick because we want Jesus and we by our own choice allow something in the way and it hurts our heart and we regret it. We hate it all the way. We look at, we go, no, no, no, this is not what I want. Yes, I did it. Our heart's sick over that because we love him and then we're sick with love in the positive sense. That's the negative sense. We're sick with love because his stirrings are in our heart but we want more. We want more. We want more. She goes, go tell him that. She goes, I'm not offended. Paragraph C, then the daughters, they ask her two questions. And two very different questions, which is so important part of this journey. In chapter five, verse nine, they ask her a question. And the question is, the essence of it is, why do you love him so much? Because she says, I'm lovesick. And they're looking at her going, no, wait. He just lifted his presence from you and he let guys be really mean to you. Why do you wanna be so radical in loving him? Why are you lovesick? Why aren't you mad? They said, what is your beloved more than anyone else? We don't get why you're so on fire for him. That's the first question. Why do you love him so much? And the second question, after she gives the, they ask the question, why do you love him? She gives the most magnificent answer. In chapter five, oh my goodness, it is one of the greatest statements of the beauty of Jesus. And then after that question, they're so blown away, they switch the question from why do you love him so much to how can we experience it like you are? How can we know him? Where can we find him? We want what you have. Many believers in the body of Christ, they'll go to someone and say, well, it's a tough time. And why are you hanging in there? And instead of converting the carnal and the immature ones who are complaining and doubting, the complaining and doubting ones convert the on fire one and get them to say, well, maybe you're right. Maybe this is crazy and a waste of time. No, no, it's not crazy and a waste of time because we're investing everything in our life to pursue Jesus. And she's gonna give us the answer to where we can speak it to our own soul before the devil, when he attacks us before sin, we can speak it to our own soul, just in love before him. We can declare these to him, just in love to him. But we can also say these answers of chapter five, verse 10 to 16, in the context that the bride did, she's telling the younger believers or the spiritually immature believers who don't understand why she's so on fire when she's had such a difficult time. But beloved, we don't want the passive believers to talk us out of our fire. We wanna impart the fire to them, but too often it goes the other way. Roman numeral three. So she's, cause there's two questions in this passage. So the first question is, what is your beloved? More than anyone else, more than another beloved. Oh, most beautiful. They are awestruck by her. I mean, they are impressed with her. They called her most fair, most beautiful. Now remember the elders just kicked her out of the church back in chapter five or seven. They said, we don't believe the controversy that's going around about you. We see the love of God in you. We see such purity and devotion to the Lord. Beloved, when you press into the Lord, there will be members, leaders in the body of Christ that will stand against you and resist you. And they will tell everyone in their sphere about you. Just settle it. That's not a big deal. It's part of the divine pattern. Never talked to people over the years. They go, man, they were so mean to me at the church. They went to Psalm five, just settle down. It's not a big deal. It's gonna happen a few more times before it's over. It's all about figuring out why you live the way you live. Why is it you want to follow God anyway? Well, those elders will help you figure out that answer. Now I like elders. I is one. I'm not saying that all elders are bad, but I'm just saying leaders, the watchman, the authority figures. There's plenty of men and women of God that really love God, but they just got a little mean streak. But they really do love God. They just got a little mean streak. And it really is to our benefit that we run into them occasionally. We don't have to connect to them every day for 50 years, but God has seasons where we connect to them and they create the dynamic where our love grows. It's really actually an important part of our growth in the Lord. So they say to her, what is it? Verse nine. What is it you see in him that makes you so steady and so stable when he's allowed you to have so much trouble? These are sincere believers, the daughters. And they said, you're beautiful. We think you're right. We don't believe the reports. We think you are right with God. And then they asked the question again. They are so sincere. What is your beloved more than another that you charge us to help you find him because you're lovesick? They said, we don't have any comprehension what you're talking about. Beloved, there's people in the body of Christ, many of them that have no idea what you mean when you talk about going hard after God with all of your heart and all of your strength. They don't have any grid for it whatsoever. You know, they understand going to church, you know, 60 minutes on Sunday, two out of four times a week. They get that. Two out of four times a month, I meant. They get that. They get putting a little bit of money in the plate and they understand a little bit of that, but they don't understand this fanatical, all your money, all your time, all your energy, bearing trouble, fasting and prayer, believing for breakthrough, falling in love with God, sacrificing opportunities for him. Like, what are you doing? And they're truly born again believers. They just have no grid for it at all. Zero understanding. And when that happens, you are on the pathway of the song of Solomon, bride of Christ lifestyle. It's not like you're looking for trouble. Trouble will find you. You don't have to look for it. She's lovesick. She's not complaining. She's not depressed by her troubles. She's sick over them. I want a breakthrough, but she's not mad. She's not quitting. This provokes them. Her love provokes them far more than her wisdom and her giftedness. See, sometimes we might be tempted to think that if we are really wise and really articulate or have a lot of giftedness, that then the people will finally say yes. The people are moved most when they see a heart that's burning. And when I talk about burning, I'm talking about steady in love. I'm not talking about burning, meaning at a worship service, shouting the loudest. That's not what I mean by burning. That's cool to do that too, but burning to me is not about the volume or the lack of it or what you do at a public service, at a conference. Burning means steady for years with resolve of making choices of going deep in love. That's what it means to have a heart on fire. You know, some young guy came to me and says, I want to do something radical. I go, what's radical? Of course, radical to me is a steady lifestyle, the fasted lifestyle through the mundane and the routine. That is radical. They go, no, I want to go to that meeting and like scream and shout and wave a flag for eight days. I go, well, that's cool, but that's not radical. Anybody can do that. They do that out in the world all the time. It's called rock concerts. I said, they do that kind of stuff everywhere. I said, there's nothing wrong with that, but that's not radical. What radical is is Sermon on the Mount lifestyle for years with resistance and opportunities and difficulties and staying steady. Now that is radical, but you can't do that in eight days. You can't get on the bus and do that. You got to do that over months and years. That's radical Christianity, and that's what's moving these daughters. They go, why are you so loyal to him? Paragraph D, why are you so loyal to him? We don't get what it is you see that we don't see. Now the daughters had other beloveds more important than Jesus. You know, many people in the church, I have no doubt there's plenty in this room that we have other beloveds more than the main beloved. They're saying to her, what is your beloved more than others? Why do you love him more than the other loves of your life? It's really easy in the church, it's real common to love people. I'm just talking about our three or four or five key relationships more than the Lord himself. To love friends and ministry. I'll do anything just to get another open door ministry, get my ministry to grow a little bit. You don't want to lose out in your love walk with God. Money, some people in the body of Christ are into leisure more than they are anything else. They search the Bible high and low to find Bible verses on grace to prove that leisure is the highest thing. Beloved, there's something better than leisure and free time. It's called burning. Luke 11, 36, being a burning and shining lamp at the heart level before God, that's better than everything. And so there's many, many loves in the church that are more than our beloved. And so they said, why do you love him more than the other loves that are even legitimate? Some of these are very legitimate. Now the definition of spiritual maturity is when Jesus is our first beloved. It's not that he's our only beloved. You know, some people say he's all, he's the only. I go, ah, probably not. There's probably about five or 10 things you really like and really appreciate a whole lot. Chances are they're of God, you know, whatever their list is. And they might have one on the list that isn't of God, but it's maturity is that he's the first beloved. He's the beloved more than the other beloveds. Paragraph H, passion for Jesus is the, I mean, love for God, love for Jesus. It's the most powerful dimension of any person's ministry. It's not how wise they are, how great the song is, how great the book is, how great the drama is, how great the track is, how great the outreach is. The thing that moves people most is a heart that burns. And I'm talking, again, I'm talking about a consistency of fearing the Lord and going deep in God. I wanna ask a question. My point isn't to, you know, point out that you're messed up. That's not my point in the question. My point is to have you make this one of your life visions, a part of your life vision. Here's the question. Is there anyone in your life in the last three months or 12 months who's come to you and says, tell me how you carry your heart with God because the way you live with God moves me? Has anyone said that to you in three months or six months or 12 months? To where they would actually say, I just wanna be around you because you have something in God, I got to have it. I don't even know what it is you have. You have a consistency in God. I'm not talking about you gotta have a big preaching ministry. Has anyone said that to you in your life? And now my point isn't for you to say, no, aren't I a creep? No, no, that's not my point. My point is it's within your reach in the grace of God to have a life in God where people will come to you and say, they may not say the exact terminology that I'm saying, but they're gonna somewhere say, I want more of what you have. I just like, my goodness, you've got something. Tell me, how do you do this? How do you make it work? They may not ask you for a weekly Bible study, but they're saying, how do you do this? You're going hard. I wanna go hard like you're going hard. Beloved, you don't wanna be content if no one ever asked you that question. Now, don't get yourself in a mindset, well, if I could preach at the conferences, then maybe someone at the conference would ask me. No, no, no, I'm not talking about a preaching ministry. I'm talking about the way people observe your life, coming and going, coming and going. I'm just talking about one-on-one kind of thing, not even talking about a public ministry. It may be a public ministry where people are desperate to know what it is that you have because you stay focused on Jesus in prosperity and in adversity, you stay focused. What is it that you have? Make that part of your life vision. You're saying, and God, I'm gonna walk in that. I'm gonna touch that realm before this thing is over. Top of page three. Again, if you don't have the notes, they're available on the internet. Now, what the bride does, and we're just gonna go through these 10 attributes real fast. She answers the question, because the question is, what is your beloved more than another beloved? Why is it you tell us to find this one you're lovesick over? Who is he and what does he have that makes you lovesick? Tell us the secret, and she is gonna break out in one of the most dire situations in the most dynamic statements of the beauty of Jesus. It's written in poetic language of love. In her agricultural lifestyle, it's written in the language of her own heart and her own life. I mean, you read it, you know that girl is a farm girl. I mean, when you read this description. And it's in the language of agriculture, which was the common language of the day, and it's in the language of Solomon's temple, of the temples where the glory of God was manifest. It's in the gold and the silver and the pillars of the temple. So it's an agricultural language, and it's in the language of Solomon's temple, in the language of worship from Solomon's point of view. So she speaks part of it from her heart, a farm girl, and part of it from his heart, he's the king who built the temple, because it's really a Shulamite woman is speaking this to Solomon, talking about their natural love relationship, their relationship in love, but this is spiritually used by the Holy Spirit to speak of King Jesus, of course. It's one of them, paragraph B, this is one of the most powerful revelations of Jesus in the scripture. It is worth breaking this down. If it's the first time you read it, it maybe won't even make much sense to you. But when it's the hundredth time you've poured over it, few years have gone by, you've poured over it many, many times, you're saying, Holy Spirit, I wanna know what every single phrase means. I wanna know what it means. I wanna be able to speak these words about Jesus and to him. I'm gonna speak them to other people about Jesus, and I'm gonna speak them to Jesus about Jesus, and I'm gonna speak them to the devil when he lies to me about Jesus, and I'm gonna speak to him to my own soul when I'm discouraged about Jesus. And so there's 10 statements. His hair. I mean, number one, his head, his locks or hair, his eyes, his cheeks, his lips, his hands, his body, his legs, his countenance, his mouth. And then she says, he's altogether lovely. First, she starts off with a general statement. My beloved is dazzling. I like the New American Standard. He's dazzling. I like the NIV. He's radiant. White's cool, but radiant and dazzling is more accurate. Jesus is dazzling. He's chief among 10,000. So that's the general statement. Like, whoa, these daughters of Jerusalem are going, wow, you mean business. You are awestruck by this one. You're fascinated. Your heart is filled with marvel. You're filled with wonder. What do you know that I don't know? Then she gives 10 different attributes of Jesus. And then she ends it with a summary statement in verse 16. He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved. This is my friend. Now, I have just a few statements and the notes. We're not gonna go through this just for time's sake. However, I have a far more in-depth statement that as I looked over it, I wanna add some things to it. So I don't have it on the internet right now, but it's many pages. I can't remember, like maybe 20, 30, 40, maybe 50 pages, a whole lot of pages. Because I got it on a Word file and I just went through it. And I go, oh yeah, I poured lots of time over the years into that. And so, but I wanna update it. And so for those of you that are saying, I wanna go deep on these, on this description. There is a Psalm of Solomon chapter five, verse 10 to 16, these seven verses. Now I'll have more on the internet for you. But my real point in this class is to tell you the passages there and to urge you to go after it. These are the, paragraph C, these are the areas of focus, of meditation, meaning the personality of Jesus. The attributes of Jesus and the personality of Jesus is the same subject. This is why she's lovesick, because of what she knows about Jesus. She's not lovesick because she wants to be lovesick. She's lovesick because it's the fruit of what she understands about the man Jesus. When we go deep in the knowledge of God, the fruit is to be lovesick. You can't be lovesick by willing it. You're lovesick as the byproduct of encountering the knowledge of God. It's knowledge of him that makes you lovesick. It's not like just, I'm gonna be lovesick, I'm gonna be lovesick, Jesus made me lovesick, made me lovesick, and the Holy Spirit would say, fill your heart with knowledge of who he is and you will be lovesick more and more. But you can't do that on the run. You can't do that when your life is so busy. You can't go deep in the knowledge of God when your life is so full that you don't have any time, even an hour a day to stop and meditate. But the reason she's lovesick, she's focused on these attributes instead of on her, the twofold trial. See, I think it'd be very natural to understand she would be focused on the trial she's going through. She's still in the trial right now. The trial's not over. She's in it and she's worshiping him and declaring who he is in the middle of the rejection from the elders, from the watchman, and the sense of not filling his presence. She's speaking it directly by faith. The way we overcome self-focus is by going deep and searching out the beauty of Jesus. These attributes, so just knowing who he is, I don't mean just the 10 in Psalm and Solomon chapter five, just the subject of the knowledge of God, the attributes of God, they will stabilize your heart in the storm. Paragraph D, this is, I'm trying to be helpful in this. I've done this for many years. When I'm in turmoil, not every time, but many times when I'm in turmoil, my heart's in anguish, things are going really hard, I really do this. I do this as a decision. I made this decision many years ago. I mean, literally 30 years ago, I made this decision. I study books about the personality of God. I read them. Sometimes it's my own notes. I go, oh, yeah, I forgot. Sometimes it's other people's books. You know, I like the worship music. I like to be in the context of worship music. When I do it, I can't always do it. I get the books on the attributes of God and I study them and I read them when my heart's hurting. Beloved, I've never had anything be medicine to my heart like this. One of my favorite books is The Existence and the Attributes of God by Stephen Charnick. That's a big book. It's about two volumes, about two inches a piece, like font three, I think. It is so small, the print, but we have it on electronic copies. It is one of the most magnificent statements on the personality of God. It's called The Attributes, It's the Attributes of God ever written in history as far as I'm concerned. It's worth going through. The other books I've worked through, The Knowledge of the Holy, that's a little book, but oh, it's awesome. Knowing God, The Pleasures of God by John Piper. I got a few other books down there by some other guy. Top of page four. Well, she goes through the general statement. My beloved is radiant, he's dazzling, he's outstanding. He's chief among 10,000, then lays out 10 attributes, and then she concludes with this summary statement. He is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, this is my friend. Okay, let's go to the bottom of page five. We're out of time, so I'm gonna get right to another point. Roman numeral six, bottom of page five. I looked at my clock. I went, oops, I have to be done one minute ago. I want you to get the flow of what's going on. Now, after she's given this awesome statement of who he is to her. Chapter six, verse one, which is Roman numeral six on the notes. Now they go, you know what? Our first question is, what is your beloved? Why are you lovesick? Who is he? What do you know that we don't know? She gives this, rapid fire declaration of the majesty of Jesus. The daughters are like, whoa, you know something we don't know. Now their question changes from, who is he or what is he? Now it's a new question, where is he? We wanna know him. We wanna seek him. We want what you have. We want that kind of reality because she's still in a time of pressure. She's this in love and everything's going bad. Beloved, she's in it for love. There is no question whatsoever. They say, we wanna know what you know. We wanna have what you have. They are no longer content, the daughters of Jerusalem, no longer content to live at a distance like they've been living at a distance. Paragraph E, top of page six. The bride's testings are resulting in the lives of others being dynamically changed. Beloved, when you're in a time of testing, not only is something deep happening in your heart, if you're responding right, you can waste a good test. You know that, don't you? You can waste a good trial. People have gone through many temptations and trials. They just waste it. They just give up and give in and just kind of wait it out and like, why did you do that? Because you know how the Lord's tests are. The Lord's tests, they're all open book tests. You can open the book and take the test, an open book test. You can look over at your neighbor's paper. You can cheat on it. You can ask somebody the answer. The Lord doesn't care where you get the answer. And the great part about it, you can't fail it because if you fail it, you get to take it again and again and again. You never fail it. I mean, the Lord's very different than the university system. Open book test, you can ask your neighbor for the answers. You get to take it over and over and over. Let the reader understand. Beloved, we don't wanna waste a good trial. I'm serious. We wanna go deep. Not only are something happening in our soul, but others are watching us, whether you know it or not. And if we go deep in God, they're gonna come along and say, I wanna know how to go deep in God when my heart's hurting. I wanna know what you know. The Holy Spirit, paragraph E, is raising up a host, an army of lovesick messengers. And I don't mean just preachers on a platform. They will preach and sing on platforms, but far more than just preachers on a platform or singers on a platform. These lovesick messengers will communicate the knowledge of God, how lovely He is, and prepare the end-time church to stand strong in the midst of the greatest pressures that will ever come upon the earth. Well, let's go on to the end of page six, Roman numeral E. I mean, letter E. And this, I'm looking ahead to our next class. Jesus breaks the silence. Finally, the silence is broken. He's been silent the whole time. She cried out in 5, 6, where are you, where are you, I seek you. I can't find you, I cry out, you don't answer. Where are you, where are you, where are you? So he looks at the daughters, she looks at the daughters of Jerusalem, say, hey, if you help him, if you can find him, tell me where, tell me, I'm lovesick. And they go, if we find him, we tell you. And then they said, why are you so lovesick? Then she gives this awesome answer. And then they said, you know what? Why don't you tell us about him instead of ask us about him? Now, Jesus breaks the silence. Beloved, there's a time when the silence is broken. And he looks at her and he says this. Oh, my love, you are as beautiful as Teersa. We'll break this down in the next class. You are as lovely as Jerusalem. You are as awesome as an army with banners. Because an army with banners was an army that came back after the victory in the city procession. When an army with banners came back in victory and marched down the street, that means you defeated the enemy in that test. You're victorious. And then the Lord says to her, turn your eyes, he's speaking in the language of love, away from me, for your eyes have overcome me. I tell you, all the armies of hell cannot defeat Jesus. The only thing that overcomes him is believers who love him. That's the only thing that overcomes him. And beloved, she was in the most difficult time of her life and she was overcoming his heart. He goes, you are as beautiful, as lovely as, you are a victorious army. You've overcome me all through the time, even though the elders were against you and the daughters of Jerusalem couldn't help you. I was watching you every single moment of the way. Again, we'll look at that in the next class. I'm looking forward to the next class. Let's stand. The Lord will touch us now. But oh, what an awesome passage that Jesus answers in chapter six, verse four to 10. It's a long answer. He gives an answer to her as long as the answer she gave about him. She had the extravagant statement of chapter five. He gives an equally extravagant statement about her in chapter six. Beloved, we'll never out love him. Never, never, never. I'm gonna invite different ones of you. You're in a season of testing right now. It's probably everybody, nearly everybody, but some of you are in a really intense time and nobody even has to understand it. It might be something just between you and the Lord, but you're saying, no, I just gotta get a breakthrough at this level, this level. My heart is hurting. The devil's whispering in my ear. I'm not gonna listen to him and I need to stand steady and I need to declare to Jesus who he is and declare to the devil who he is. I'm gonna invite you to come and stand up here before the Lord as we worship and you declare yourself, your commitment to the Lord. And in a few minutes, I'm gonna ask the others, if you will, to come and just move around as they stand on the lines here and just move around, just put your hand up on their shoulder and pray, Lord, give them grace. But beloved, the Lord says to you, when you are steady in a time of difficulty, he says, oh, my love, you are as beautiful as Tirzah. You are as lovely as Jerusalem. You are as awesome as an army with banners. When he says, turn your eyes away from me, he's talking in extravagant love language. He says, you're conquering my heart with your love. You're moving me by your steadiness. You believe me when you feel nothing. You've set your heart on me when everything is contrary. You overcome my heart.