Mike Bickle explores the theme of challenging our comfort zones through the lens of the Song of Solomon, emphasizing that spiritual sincerity does not equate to maturity. He highlights how Jesus calls the maiden to rise above her comfort and face the mountains of costly obedience, revealing His desire for a deeper relationship based on voluntary love rather than mere obedience. Bickle illustrates that the journey to spiritual maturity involves confronting fears and the 'little foxes' that spoil our relationship with God. Ultimately, he reassures that even in moments of hesitation and struggle, our sincere cries for help are sweet to God, and He desires to see our faces and hear our voices. The sermon encourages believers to embrace the challenges of faith as a pathway to deeper intimacy with Christ.

Father, we thank you for this glorious love song. God, I ask you even now to release living understanding to our hearts. I ask you for strength in the inner man as we encounter you in this glorious love song, in Song of Solomon. I thank you, Holy Spirit, for your presence. We acknowledge your presence right now in our midst. In Jesus' name, amen. We're continuing in our studies in the Song of Solomon for 24 sessions. In this class, we're in session 13, Challenging the Comfort Zone, where Jesus challenges the comfort zone of this devoted, very sincere, yet still spiritually immature maiden. Sincerity and maturity are not the same thing. We are sincere for years before we're spiritually mature. And the Lord enjoys us in that season. Even in our immaturity, he still enjoys us. He sees the cry of our spirit. This is one of the classic passages in Song of Solomon where the Lord reveals his tenderness towards the sincere maiden who's falling short. I'm going to begin with a little review of the last session, session 12, because Song of Solomon 2, verse 1 to 7, which was the last session, session 12, creates the context of understanding Song of Solomon 2, verse 8 to 17, because what she declared, the seven confessions of her faith in chapter 2, verse 1 to 7, are now being put to test. They're being tried. Romans 1, the bride's life purpose in Song of Solomon chapter 2, verse 1, she said, I am the rose of Sharon. I am the lily of the valley. She understands her life purpose was found in being Jesus's inheritance. And Jesus's inheritance is more than just the mandatory obedience of all creation. But Jesus wants more than obedience, because even the unbelievers obey when they go to hell, they go in obedience to his word. Jesus wants more than obedience. He wants voluntary love. He wants the response that is given freely because the person adores the Lord. I call it adoring obedience. This is really what he's after. This is the ultimate dimension of his inheritance. And this is the description of who we are. This is what makes sense of our life. We were created to give ourselves to him. The affections of the human heart. This is what Jesus longs for more than anything. This is the only thing he would die for, is to utterly possess the affections of the human heart. Again, not just the obedience, because the unbelievers will obey even in judgment. They go to judgment and obedience. He wants the voluntary affection, the adoring obedience given to him freely. Paragraph C, she confessed that the Lord brought her to the wedding table, to the banqueting house, to the place where she celebrated the revelation of his love for her. And she celebrated the reality that she loved him back. That's what the banqueting house is all about. And the Lord has a purpose in everyone's life to bring us to this celebration, where we discover the love of God and we give ourselves back to him in love by the power of the Holy Spirit. And she declared, he brought me to the banqueting table. She understood the Lord's leadership in her life. And then she adds another confession. She says, his banner, his leadership over me is to produce this reality of love in my heart. The banner over your life that describes Jesus's leadership in your life, that describes what he's doing in your life, even more than your ministry or your circumstances, he's leading you in order to reveal his love to you and then impart it in you. The banner over our life is to grow in love. When we understand that, it makes sense of our journey because many believers, the banner over their life is to have a big ministry or to have successful circumstances. And there's nothing wrong with those two things. And certainly those things are within the will of God for many people. But the banner over our life is different. The primary purpose is that God would reveal love to us and then impart it in us. Paragraph E, and you can, if you don't have the notes, you can get them on the website. They're available right now for anybody that wants them. The Holy Spirit charged the others not to disturb the bride in this season of devotion. But what's going to happen, this is chapter two, verse seven, is in verse eight, which is the passage that we're looking at tonight, Jesus now disturbs the bride because the season has changed. There are seasons in the Spirit in our life. Now he's going to come to her and stir her and disturb her and awaken her and call her to another dimension of experience. It's Roman numeral two. We look at the overview of Song of Solomon, chapter two, verse eight to 17. Just a quick snapshot of it, and then we'll break it down verse by verse. And of course, I'll leave more on the notes that we won't cover so you can study it in your personal life. And I really encourage you to do that. But what the essence of this chapter is, is that Jesus reveals himself to her as the sovereign king, as the one who effortlessly conquers all the mountains, has authority over every obstacle that nothing can get in his way that he cannot conquer effortlessly because he has all power. Now she's not accustomed to this kind of relationship with Jesus. She's been sitting at the table under the shade tree, eating grapes, eating apples, singing love songs. And she has seen Jesus as the one that feeds her heart. But he's going to now disturb her. And he's going to call her to the mountains. She doesn't like mountains. She doesn't like heights. And he's going to call her to the hills. The big areas of the mountains in the smaller area represents the hills. She's going to call her to rise to the mountains. And then the second part of this passage, he's going to call her to obey him and to love him and even the small and the secret areas of her heart. So there's two challenges that are going on here. He's going to call her to the big mountains, to the costly obedience to believe him in such a way she will obey him in the areas that even tear her heart. Even that one area that has a hold of your heart, you say, Lord, I'll obey you in anything besides this one area. He says, I want you to meet me in the mountains on top of that mountain. It's like, Oh, Lord, anything but that area. I'll give you every other area, but not that matter. That's what the mountain is about. And the mountain is not only the issues of the heart. The mountain is also assignments. There's many of you when God called you to be Anna's intercessory missionaries, that was a mountain. I remember what he called me to do this. It was a troubling. I mean, I said, okay, kind of long pause. Okay, I'll do this. Huh? And he said, I want you to resign the church and the ministry that I was at for near 18 years. He says, I want you to turn it all over, resign it. I want you to believe me for your finances and just start with 10 of you and start over. And you're all going to be intercessory missionaries. I remember that was a come to the mountain time in my life. And I went, Hmm. And many of you have experienced that very dimension, what you left and the change of your lifestyle to be sitting here in these chairs, you were called by Jesus to ascend a mountain, a place of difficult obedience. It was a challenge. The assignment was challenging, but there's also other issues of the mountain. Again, it's the issues of the heart. It's that most costly area that as Joel chapter two, verse 13 says, it tears the heart to obey. That's the mountain, but it's also going to call her to the Hills. It's going to call her to catch the little foxes, the little areas of compromise in her life. So there's really, it's a twofold challenge paragraph B back in chapter one, verse four, the bride prayed draw me and we will run after you. So she's been experiencing the drawing of the spirit at the heart level and intimacy. Now she needs to run after him on the mountains. And this is a new experience for her. It's a spiritual crisis because the Lord's going to require her to run with him in a new way into the high places. And she's used to sitting at a table under a shade tree, just enjoying his presence. Now he says, if you don't obey me, now that the season has changed, you won't experience my presence like you did in the former season. She's really in a difficult position. She's in a position. She doesn't really get to have it both ways. She has to obey him in the difficult areas now for the presence of God to continue in her life and to increase. And if she says yes, which she does eventually, initially, she says no. And the presence of God diminishes in her life. And she's terrified and she's disturbed. She's in anguish. She's in pain. And the Lord is saying, I'm only getting your attention. I'm only withdrawing my presence, not because I've lost interest in you, because I'm so committed to you and I being close together. But it's time to go to the next level of our experience together. Sometimes we'd like to just, you know, get to a certain level, get comfortable with a certain assignment in God, in terms of a ministry assignment and a certain place of obedience. You know, it's pretty diligent, but it's not total obedience. It's mostly obedient. It doesn't get real invasive in terms of our speech and our thought life and our words and our time, but it's mostly obedient in the other areas. And the Lord says, time is up. I'm now bringing you to a place. I'm requiring that of you now to go on with me in maturity. It's a crisis because she draws back and says, no, in fear, she draws back, not in rebellion. She's because I can't do it. I don't like mountains. I'm afraid of heights. I can't do it. No. Ah, no. Oh, I love you, but no, I do love you. And it's real. She really loves him, but she really says no. Then she's troubled because the Lord's presence lift. And then she's miserable. Then she ends up obeying him. And then the Lord shows his kindness to her paragraph. See, he calls her out of the comfort zone because he desires a deeper level of intimacy with her. He's not just testing her like a coach would test an athlete. He's calling her for in jealous love because where he wants to bring her is to the seal of chapter eight, verse six, where he reveals himself as the jealous bridegroom who wants her to love him with all of her heart and the way that he loves her with all of his heart. This thing is going to the place where Jesus reveals himself in the seal of love, the jealous bridegroom who will not allow any area in her life to go contrary to his heart. And that's beloved. That's where we want to go because that's where life is. That's where safety is. That's where power is. That's where we want to go. But in our flesh, we draw back and we hesitate. But the Lord's wooing her forward chapter by chapter. The real issue, paragraph D, the real issue is does she believe that Jesus's leadership is good? If we believe his leadership is good, then why would we be afraid to go to the mountain? Why would we be afraid of an obedience that demands our speech and our thought life and our time and our money? I mean, entirely. Why would we be afraid of it if his leadership's good? But the enemy comes and he says, if you obey at that level, you will miss out on life. You'll miss out on fun. You'll miss out on life. And it is a lie. That's what he told Adam and Eve in the garden. If you, if you obey God, you will miss out. But if you eat the apple, if you eat the fruit of the tree, you will know good and evil. You will experience more if you get outside the will of God. Beloved, I want to tell you, the richest place of experience is right in the center of the will of God. And that's what God wants to teach us. How about when the obedience is costly? Is it still good? Meaning, will it bring life to us? And of course the answer is yes. It's good, meaning obedience will bring life and joy to our spirit. It really will in a moment. Not always the first moments of it, but just a minute down the road. And that minute stretches out sometimes for a few months, sometimes longer. It's going to top of page two. Again, you can get the notes on the internet if you want them and follow along with me. Song of Solomon chapter two, verse eight, verse eight and nine. Jesus now reveals himself as the sovereign king. Now we're just going to break it down verse by verse. She says, the voice of my beloved, he comes, he's coming to her, but he's, he's leaping on mountains and skipping on hills. She's never seen this face of Jesus leaping on mountains, boundlessly going from mountaintop to mountaintop. She goes, I've only seen you with a guitar singing love songs under a tree. I've never seen this side of you. Boundless energy, power, ability. Behold my beloved. He's like a gazelle or a young stag. He's like the deer boundlessly leaping or the gazelle on the mountains. Nothing can stop him. Nothing can slow him down. He is, he's being revealed as the one, the king in whom nothing can stop. Mountains in the Bible often speak of obstacles. There's demonic mountains, there's human mountains, there's obstacles that get in our path, but no, nothing can stop or slow down Jesus, the resurrected Christ. She recognizes it. It is the voice of her beloved. He speaks tenderly. He loves her and he's saying, come up, come with me to the mountains of risk, to the mountains of full obedience. He speaks tenderly. She continues, Roman numeral four, behold, you know, he comes leaping over the mountains. Now he gets to the house and she's looking out the window. She's going, yes, where's this going? You came so powerful. What is happening? He stands behind our wall and he's looking through the window, gazing at her. And of course he's wooing her to come in and he completely has her attention because she's never seen Jesus in this way. She's never, the Holy Spirit has never required her to go to a mountain yet. And it's true that many believers, they are in a season where the Lord challenges certain issues of the heart, but he doesn't, there's only a few mountain challenges in a lifetime. I'm not talking about everything that's a little bit difficult. I'm talking about those really unusual few times in your life where the Lord comes and calls you to a whole nother level of requiring faith and obedience. When Jesus is pictured as standing in scripture, he's ready for action because almost always in the Bible, he's pictured as seated. When Stephen, the first martyr in the New Testament, when he was stoned in Acts 7, Jesus stood at the right hand of the father and Stephen said, I see him standing. When Jesus stands, something dynamic is about to take place on the earth. So when Jesus stands before the Laodiceans, remember Revelation chapter 3, I have the notes here, he knocks on the door, he stands and knocks. When Jesus stands on the outside knocking, he wants in, something dramatic is about to happen when Jesus stands. Paragraph C, she identifies the wall as our wall. It's the wall of their mutual making. She doesn't say it's her wall. She goes, it's our wall and it's right. She has been in a place of isolation in a real focused way for a season. And some, sometimes the Lord calls people to that season for an extended period of time. Like Moses in the wilderness for 40 years, John the Baptist, his entire life till he was 30 years old. There's David, seven years. He wasn't ruling as king. He was just in the wilderness. And before that as a boy, just singing his love songs to God. And the reason that she's right, it is their wall, not just her wall, because it was the wall of isolation. And that might not be the perfect, it was, it was a wall of protection and the Lord hemmed her in. It was a wall of focus, kept her focus in a particular way because the spirit mandated for that. No one disturbed her just in the verse before in chapter two, verse seven. So it was the result of her obedience to the Holy spirit that she finds herself behind the wall. And so up until now, the wall of focus, this wall of being locked in only before the Lord, it was a good thing. It was an issue of obedience. Now the wall, if she does not obey the Lord in the change of season becomes a point of her disobedience. Roman numeral five, top of page three. Now he speaks to her and he says to her, my beloved. So he's speaking tenderly. He says, rise up my love, my fair one. Or you put the word there, my beautiful one. It's the same word. I want you to come away with me. In other words, come with me back to the mountain tops. We're going to leave the house where you're walled in, in the safety zone, the comfort zone, and you're going to go with me. You're going to follow me paragraph B to the mountains of faith and obedience to costly obedience and to that risky, even difficult assignment where you don't have the certainty like you had in the season before you might not end up looking good. You might not end up with honor in the new season. You might end up in a different, a whole different place, but you're dear to God and his eyes are upon you. So we'd like to just in our flesh, we want, we'd like a contract with the Lord. Okay, Lord, I will be in the next season, but I want to make sure that circumstances will be better. Many people make all of their life choices based on circumstances becoming better. That's the only grid they have. They have no grid of going to a mountain of risk. Now many believers do and many don't. And so they'd like to make a contract to the Lord. I'll obey in this next season, but I would like some kind of certainty. I'll have more honor, a little bit more comfort and a little bit more money. And if it adds up that way in the charismatic church, we say it's God and everybody claps. And the way we tell it's God, because there looks like the guarantee of more honor, more comfort and more money. It has to be God. And so somebody tells it and that's the proof. And everybody goes, yay, God is good. Well, I tell you his banner over you is to bring you to the experience of love, not necessarily to make your life easy. This has come to the mountaintop and sometimes there is, it does result in more honor. Many times it doesn't. Sometimes the honor, I would say the honor, I'll say differently. The honor is always there. It's just delayed. It's a deferred payment program. Sometimes the honor is in the age to come, but the honor is always there is a more accurate way to say it. John Wimber said that faith is spelled R I S K. John Wimber was a man that made a real impact on my life for a number of years. And one of the most, I believe influential leaders in the 20th century in the body of Christ in the Western world, just the impact that he made on so much of the church. And he said, he said this over and over. He goes, faith is spelled R I S K at a dynamic healing ministry. One of the oddest things they told me, and he said it many times, he goes, cause he had tremendous healings. He says, I never feel the presence of God when I'm healing the sick. Never. He goes, I never feel anything ever. I said, Oh, come on. He goes never ever. Do I feel anything? I get an impression. I speak it out and then power moves and sometimes nothing happens. And I, I, and I go, I feel the Lord's presence in my personal life, but when I'm ministering, I don't, it's just somewhere. The Lord just wants me on that kind of relationship with him. I thought, Oh man, I don't, I don't like that, but he had this, this, this idea. I like it. I mean, I know it's true. Faith is spelled R I S K. So here's the question of the hour. Is it safe? Is it safe? Is it good? Will you have life at the heart level? And that's what the definition of safety is. If you obey the Lord a hundred percent, it is safer to be on the water. Peter was walking and was in the boat and he got out of the boat and walked on the water. It's safer on the water with Jesus than it is in the boat without him. Many people, they are committed to the boat. I mean, they're, their knuckles are just white. They're hanging on the boat. If Jesus isn't in the boat, the boat isn't safe. You want to be in the will of God where Jesus is in the boat boat. And if Jesus is on the water, it's safer in the water than it is in the boat at preachers. Easy lives, lives different. I don't always obey that, but as I speak it, I'm just saying, Oh Lord, I got to really obey that a hundred percent. Roman number six, the prophetic signs of fruitfulness. Now he's going to woo her by giving her signs of future fruitfulness that are coming. This is a very amazing passage. I love this passage. Song of Solomon chapter two, verse 11 to 13. The Lord is speaking for low. The winter is past. The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth. The time of singing has come. The voice of the turtle dove is heard in the land. The fig tree puts forth her, her green fix. The vine puts forth tender grapes and it gives a good smell. The fragrance of the grapes. And then the Lord says again, rise up my love. He's still speaking Jesus, my beautiful one. I'm saying it for the second time because he sees her hesitation. Well, actually he knows that in verse 17, she's going to say, turn and run to the mountains yourself. She says, turn, go back to the mountains. I'm staying here. That's what she refuses him in verse 17, but he knows it's coming. So he gives the second exhortation, rise up. He's the first ones in verse 10. Second one's here in verse 13, but he gives these, this, uh, encouragement about what is happening in terms of in the Lord's vineyard. He appeals to the signs of the times, but first he looks at the past. He says, my beloved, think about it. You have been in winter seasons before he goes, but the winter's past that bitter season is over. And I'm here with you and you love me and I love you. You made it. And she goes, yeah, I guess that's true. And the Lord speaks to us that way. Many times he appeals to our past and his faithfulness in our past to prepare us for our future. And he says, is it not true? I was with you in that winter season and that winter season came and now it's passed and we're still together. And the wisdom of God was established in your life. And we would all say it's true. If, unless you're just brand new walking with the Lord and you don't have that history in the Lord yet, but most of you can remember a difficult time and you can, and it's past tense and you see the wisdom of it. And the logic is if that was true, then why won't I be with you in the next season on the mountains? It goes on in paragraph D the logic. If I was faithful to you in the past, why won't I be with you in the future? My banner over you was still the same. My purpose is to reveal love and to impart it in you, to reveal it to you and impart it in you. There's no reason to hide behind the wall because he is faithful and he is God. Now he's going to change directions in paragraph E. Now he's going to point to the future. When he said the winter is past, he appealed to the past. Now he's going to appeal to the future. He's going to give her five different signs from an agricultural point of view that the harvest is right around the corner. He says the flowers are appearing because the flowers appear before the apple. There's first a little flower and then the apple comes forth. There's the little flower, then there's the grapes. He goes, the flowers are appearing. That means the fruit is coming in a minute. He says the time of singing has begun in the land. The time of singing meant the singing that happened in an agricultural society right before the harvest. He's saying they're already getting the bands together to organize the celebration. The singing practices are taking place. The notices have gone out. The singing season is now, which is always the harvest. He says the voice of the turtle dove, the turtle dove always sang. Uh, you could hear the voice of the turtle dove just before the harvest time. He said that the green figs, the green figs appear right before the ripe ones do. Oh, they're all five saying the same thing. We're minutes before the harvest. But when I look across the nations right now, it is so obvious that we are right before the greatest harvest in the history of all of human, of human experience. The signs of the harvest are everywhere. The point that Jesus is making the harvest is coming. You need to know me within it. You need to get a history in me. You need to get experience with me in obedience. Don't wait till the harvest time to be dedicated because I need mature seasoned people of the spirit and the time of the harvest. This is the logic. He told the 12 apostles, he told them to look. He said, the harvest fields are coming and they sold their businesses and left their houses. They didn't know that in three years, the book of acts revivals were going to begin through their own ministries. They had no idea that what Jesus meant when he said the harvest is around the corner. He was meant Peter. You're going to be leading the day of Pentecost revival. No, Peter's just a young guy and he doesn't know anything about preaching. And he's like, well, what do you mean? He goes, it's important that you obey me. You don't really understand the harvest is moments away. It truly is moments away. Beloved right now, the voice of singing is in the land. Now in the context here, it's the singing of the, of the music groups that they organized before the great harvest festivals. But beloved the houses of prayer are emerging across the earth so fast days of prayer. I mean, we're approaching the global day of prayer. They're expecting a hundred million people worldwide on one day singing to Jesus. The voice of singing is in the land and all over the world. I mean, not in every nation of the world, but in various parts, stadiums are being filled with days of worship and prayer and singing beloved the voice. The sound of singing is already in the lamb for the end time harvest right now. It's a remarkable reality. Let's go to Roman number seven. Now he's going to appeal to her confidence to cry out. He's going to give her a basis for confidence because he sees her hesitation. And again, he knows she's going to say no. And so he's going to lay the foundation. And this foundation is critical because if she can stay confident with the Lord, even in her weakness, she can maintain the relationship with the Lord to get through this season of compromise. Because her compromise is not because of rebellion. Her compromise isn't because she doesn't want to bother with the Lord. Her compromise is rooted in her weakness and in her fear. It's in her fear of the mountains and it's in her weakness of the little areas, the little foxes that are ruining the vineyard of her heart. So her resistance is not rooted in rebellion or, or a defiance. It's rooted in weakness and it's rooted in fear. So he's going to tell her, he says, Oh, my dove song of Solomon chapter two, verse 14 in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see your face. Let me hear your voice for your voice is sweet. And your face is lovely. I mean, this is such a significant passage. What is he saying? First of all, as she is hesitating, she's not responding. He's called her twice, verse 10 and verse 13. And she's now it's verse 14. And she's hesitating. He knows her. Well, he says, you are my dove. Nothing has changed. And the dove is the picture of the sincere one, the pure one, the loyal one. He goes, I know that you love me. I see your spirit. I mean, another person and the same situation would have said, Oh, you little rat or all you little snake. She said, he doesn't say this as you're my dove. And I know you're hesitating right now, but it doesn't change the fact that I see that it's in your heart to give yourself to me. And then he calls her to the reality of the cross and the resurrection of Jesus. He says in the clefts of the rock, which speaks of Jesus's death on the cross. And I have a page of notes here. I'm not going to go through that because we don't have time. It's clearly speaking of Jesus on the cross. Because when Moses was hidden in the cleft of the rock, when the glory of God was revealed, God hid Moses in the cleft of the rock. And he put his hand over him as his Moses. I'm going to hide you from my glory, because if I don't hide you, my glory will kill you. And it was a picture of Jesus on the cross with the cleft in his side with the wounds in his body that made provision for us so that the glory of God doesn't kill us when we encounter it on the last day. The secret place of the cleft. And I have several, a couple paragraphs of notes on that as a reference to the resurrection. The mysterious ascent into the heavenly places. One translation calls it the secret place, the mysterious place of the of the stairs that ascend into the presence of God. Anyway, you can read that on your own, how the symbolism references that. I don't want to go into that here. That's why we have the notes. But here's the point. I want to see your face, and I want to hear your voice. Because as her heart is trembling, the devil comes with condemnation when we hesitate. He says, you're just a hypocrite anyway. And the Lord says, no, I want you to, I want you to cry out for help right now. Well, how can I cry out for help? I'm not obeying. I'm not following through in the way that I know. He says, I want to hear your voice. Cry out for help. I want to see your face, stand before me and worship. Don't back out of my presence, move into my presence. But what the spirit of religion tells us is that if, if, if something is unsettled in our life, you have no right to be in the presence of God. And the truth is opposite. You need to be in the presence of God because it's there where you will find your strength. And then the Lord says the most amazing thing. He says your voice. When I hear your love songs, even though I know you're wavering, I know you're hesitating. Your voice is sweet. It moves me. He said, your face is lovely. You're beautiful to me. When you stand before me with unsettled issues, even with hesitation, with trepidation, because you know, I've called you to a place of obedience that you don't in your own strength, you don't have the ability to do it. And you're, you tremble before it. And he says, you know what? Your voice is sweet to me. Your face is lovely. Beloved dead religion says exactly the opposite. It says, stand not in the cleft of the rock and in the secret place of the cliff. Don't stand in the confidence of the cross and resurrection stand in your own deeds. And it's, and instead of let God hear your voice and see your face, it's leave the presence of God. Go get your act together. Come back later. But the gospel says exactly the opposite. Stand in the cleft of the rock. My dove, let me hear your cry for help. Even the cry that you offer is sweet to me. And you are beautiful to me. Even in the issue in the season of the unsettled issues in your life, let's go to the top of page. Let's go to page five. Paragraph I, this is the very message that Jesus told Peter. Peter's in the garden of Gethsemane. Peter, Jesus said, you're going to deny me tonight. Just like the maiden in the song of Solomon in verse 17, she's going to say no to him. Jesus knew Peter was going to deny him. And he says, verse 41, watch and pray. Matthew 26 verse 41. Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. I know your spirit is willing. I see the cry in your heart. And beloved, the cry in your heart, the willing spirit is sweet to God. You are not a hopeless hypocrite. You are not a false lover of God. Your love isn't false until it becomes mature. Even weak love is true love before God. He looked at Peter and he said, Peter, you have a willing spirit. I see your heart. And you're going to deny me tonight. And Peter says, not a chance. He says, well, we'll work through that later. You got a couple of issues going on here, Peter. But I want you to, I want to hear your voice when he said, watch and pray. This is equal to song of Solomon chapter two, verse 14. Let me hear your voice. Let me see your face for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely. And beloved, when you're struggling with condemnation for failure and the enemy says, just, you know, curse God and die. Just give up. You declare the word of God. My voice is sweet. My face is lovely because I stand in the cleft of the rock. I stand before him in the righteousness of Christ. Beloved, you have confidence to cry out. Let's go to top of page six. Now in verse 15, song of Solomon chapter two, verse 15, she offers the prayer and it's interesting. She prays for the little issues in her life. He says, well, what about the mountain? Well, the good news is I'll tell you the end of the story. She makes it to the mountain in chapter four, verse seven. We'll get there in a few classes. She makes it to the mountain. She does obey the Lord, but she cries out. The Lord says, let me hear your voice. She goes, okay, here's my voice. Here's my prayer. When she said, let me hear your voice and see your face. I want you to worship and pray while you're going through this. So now she obeys that exhortation and verse 15. Now she prays. She says, catch the little foxes, catch those little areas in my life that are ruining my love. They're spoiling my fellowship with God. I want to go deep in God and the little foxes, it's the little issues that are, that are not, they're not going to, uh, forfeit our place in, in, in eternal life, but it's the little foxes that keep us from bearing fruit, the mature fruit in the vineyard of our heart. They're spoiling our relationship with God says for our vines have tender grapes. There's tender grapes were immature. They, they, they are not prepared yet. They, they're, they're not fully mature. And so she's saying, Jesus, help me catch the foxes so that my love won't be spoiled so that my fruit will be mature. The grapes will be mature. I will offer you a mature offering. She sees that the, the seriousness of the small areas in her life. Now notice, I mean that they're really hurtful. There's a, it's a revelation in your life. When, when God by revelation shows you that the little foxes are what are keeping you from a deeper walk in the spirit, she's not just content to be free from a scandalous sin. It's not okay just to live moral. She wants to live deep in the spirit and beloved. You can't go deep in the spirit. I can't go deep in the spirit, except the issue of our thought, life, our words, our use of time. Our use of money is clearly under the leadership of the Holy spirit. We can be in the kingdom, but we can't go deep in the love song. I want to go deep in God. I don't want just to have a ministry and I don't want to get by with a little bit of blessing, a little bit of anointing. I want to offer mature love from my heart. That's the purpose of our life on the planet. She prayed catches the foxes. Look at verse 16, top of page seven. Look at her, her confidence. I mean, she knows she's hesitating in her trouble. She said, catch the foxes, catch the foxes. And then she says, Jesus, you are mine. You are accessible to me. You love me and I love you. You love me and I love you. Look at the confidence. Look at the connection that she has while she's gaining strength in the spirit. Many people, because of their image of God, when something goes wrong, they lose the connection and their cut, their confession would be Jesus was mine and I used to be his, but right in the midst of the struggle, she's worshiping. You are mine. You are accessible to me. Your heart is open to me. You're mine. You reign and you open yourself. And I am yours. I I'm not, I I'm struggling in this area, but I'm yours. I live for you. I'm going to get through this. Help me, help me. You can see her confidence in her struggle in her prayer. Her prayers continuing here in verse 16, verse 15 and 16 is, is the, is her prayer. But look what she has the revelation. God is going to feed his people among the lilies. She knows that God is only going to feed her and take her to the next level. Um, in the context of purity, beloved, we can know that we're forgiven. We can have confidence in being forgiven, but you have to know he will only feed you at the highest level. When you're saying yes to purity, there's all these kind of false doctrines floating around the body of Christ about how it's okay to sin. It's a big difference of sinning and repenting and getting free forgiveness and having confidence. That's what we're declaring. You can, you sin, you genuinely repent and you can have confidence that moment right away. That's a very different doctrine. Then God is so good. It doesn't matter what I'll do. I'll live in immorality, but I want to, cause you can forgive me anyway. That is called presumption against the grace of God. I'm not talking about that. I tell you, he feeds your heart. He feeds you in the place of the lilies in the place of the purity. Then final verse, we'll end with this verse 17, the painful, the painful refusal until the day breaks and the shadows flee away. She goes, she's in the nighttime. There's darkness in her heart. She goes until light breaks in. No, just go. I will just go on without me to the mountains. This is terrifying. She says, it'd be like the gazelle up on the mountains of, of, uh, Bethar and the mountains of Bethar. You'll look at the notes, the word Bethar in Hebrew and even some Bible translations, translate this, translate it this way. It says it's the word separation. She goes, I, I accept the fact there will be some separation from what you wanted to give me. You wanted to bring me to the next level. I understand I can't go to the next level. And then the chapter ends and the class ends. Stay tuned for the next class in her anguish and in her disappointment.