Living Grace

“Promise me , O women of Jerusalem, by the gazelles and wild deer, not to awaken love until the time is right. ” Song of Songs 2:7

Love appeared at the appointed time. Love was given to us in flesh, for Jesus came to satisfy our hearts.

He came to satisfy your hunger, satisfy your thirst and satisfy the longing for connection within your heart.

One of the most heart breaking moments in the Bible is when Jesus broke down and wept over Jerusalem. It is so powerful that it can only be summed up in two words “Jesus wept”. The heart break of God as his chosen people rejected his mercy and settled for obedience in the place of grace. The eternal invitation to come and thirst no more rejected for a business contract with God.

With all of us the trap of our hearts is to get God to bless us by our actions instead of trusting his devotion.

Christ is the promise of Eden now planted into our hearts. The grace of God his unmerited favour given to us as a free gift to satisfy our hearts desire.

Jesus wept over Jerusalem but he rejoices over us his new creation with singing. His death and resurrection opened a new and living way into all the wonders and treasures of heaven.

So if there is longing in your heart, today eat from the fruit from the tree of life and that fruit is the grace of God which will nourish, nurture and protect you so you hunger and thirst no more.

For in Christ you enter into the day of God’s favour over your life. Love, joy, peace, freedom from oppression, deliverance from captivity in your mind, health to your body, release to your emotions and wholeness to your soul are your inheritance, given without reservation and placed into your hand.

“Strengthen me with raisin cakes. Refresh me with apples, for I am weak with love.”Song of songs 2:5

Strength is found in the depths of God’s grace.

Every crumb of grace is carefully marked with the promise of God.

Every strand of grace is a confirmation that God desires to bless us.

God is the source of all desire.

God created us out of his desire to share himself with us. He wanted to share his boundless joy and endless peace with us.

God is the one who recaptured us and delivered us from the Kingdom of death.

He invites us into the heart of his creation to enjoy the glory and wonder of his abundant life.

For his strength is nourishment to our hearts, it is in him that we live and breathe and have our life. His grace is his abundance to us, it his his promise to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works within us

And his grace is perfected in his love.

“Strengthen me with raisin cakes. Refresh me with apples, for I am weak with love.”Song of songs 2:5

Strength is found in the depths of God’s grace.

Every crumb of grace is carefully marked with the promise of God.

Every strand of grace is a confirmation that God desires to bless us.

God is the source of all desire.

God created us out of his desire to share himself with us. He wanted to share his boundless joy and endless peace with us.

God is the one who recaptured us and delivered us from the Kingdom of death.

He invites us into the heart of his creation to enjoy the glory and wonder of his abundant life.

For his strength is nourishment to our hearts, it is in him that we live and breathe and have our life. His grace is his abundance to us, it his his promise to do exceedingly, abundantly above all we could ask or think according to the power that works within us

And his grace is perfected in his love.

“He escorts me to his banquet Hall, it’s obvious how much he loves me.” Song of songs 2:4

Grace makes the love of God obvious.

Grace brings us into a place where we hear the Father’s voice.

Grace takes is into the realm of our identity.

Grace stresses the freeness of God’s giving, that he gives just because of his heart of love not because we have somehow earned it!

And this banquet is without stipulations or requirements. It is without charge or payment . It is given to us with no strings attached .

Christ escorts us into the treasure chamber of the riches of heaven and gives us all his good gifts.

It is so wondrous, bountiful, it is an open demonstration of his delight and desire in us.

God’s grace is his eternal declaration of his love.

And how do we tell God we love him?

By living in the fullness of his grace.

By feasting on his rich provision, by believing in his promises, and by delighting in his grace we tell God I accept your love and I want to delight in you forever.

“Like the finest apple tree in the Orchard, is my lover among the young men.” Song of songs 2:3

The enticement of sin is that it turns evil into the normal.

Our hearts dulled by the onslaught of evil slowly resign themselves to accepting darkness as normal.

For it is in this resignation of death that we accept sickness, lack, captivity, bondage and oppression as part of life and accept it’s influence on creation.

The Orchard of life is filled with the numerous trees of opportunity and in the midst of the Orchard is the tree of everlasting life. The magnificent finest tree of grace.

It’s fruit is offered to us in Christ’s abundant victory, it is a fruit of boldness and courage, adorned in beauty.

Sins enticement is forever dulled and eternally dismissed in the wonderous, scandalous finished work of Christ.

Choose to eat from the fruit of Christ.

Choose to see the goodness of God as the normal.

Choose to focus on the finished work of Christ.

Because he has drawn himself to you, He has sought you out and he has found you.

He abides in you, see yourself abiding in him and let his love and delight in you entice you into accepting his love and righteousness within you as the normal.

The power of Christ in you is your normal.

Don’t limit the grace of God. His goodness is beyond measure and his deliverance is relentless. It is a flowing ever increasing river of strength and protection. It is God’s fierce intention to see you flourish in every part and thought of your life.

For someone today

The tide is turning. You have felt that you have been swimming against the tide. You have been feeling battered, bruised and weary of the struggle in your soul and emotions.

But today the word is that nothing is lost but it is all gain.

God has recaptured you. He is the power alive within you. All the resources of heaven are alive inside you. You are a joint heir with Christ.

God is opening you eyes so you can see clearly who you are and what he has done. He is opening up your eyes to the knowledge that you are perfect in Him.

He has turned your struggles into your gain.

Let songs and words of praise rise from within you and focus your mind to receive the favour of God. His goodness is there ready for you to receive.

The tide is turning nothing is lost but all is there in Christ for your gain.

For someone today:

God is opening up the curtains that have been closed over his grace.
He is drawing back the curtains over your mind that have kept you in the darkness.
It is time to come out of the shadows and let the light flood in.
The curtains of unbelief, doubt, fear and wrong focus have been slowly closing as the influences and words of the world have closed your mind to light of God.
It is time to draw them back and let the radiance of Christ fill your heart.
And God will fill you with his love, joy and peace and your heart will be at rest.

Today know that he can do exceedingly, abundantly above all you can ask or think according to the power that works within you.

Don’t look to the right or the left but look to Christ within you.

The curtains that have kept your mind captive are being drawn back and this is a new day of God’s grace. His light wants to flood into your life. Let him do it, let him open up your heart and let his light shine over every circumstance and situation you are facing.

“I am the spring crocus blooming on the Sharon Plain, the lily of the valley” – Song of songs 2:1

You were reborn into a time of innocence.

You were reborn into the goodness of God into a New Creation devoid of evil. For where there is the light of God darkness has to be extinguished. Light and darkness do not share the same space.

It is the revelation that you now in Christ, you are Holy and righteous in your Spirit and the former darkness that invaded your thinking, your desires and your actions has been eradicated by your new birth into the fulness of God.

Our past, our sin tainted nature died with Christ.

And just as the spring crocus takes root and flourishes in the rich phase of a new season, we receive the purity and innocence of new life.

For within us even before we believed and were made new there was calling that believed in a place of joy, an existence of bliss. That we we created to be part of an eternal dance of love.

Today you have in Christ been reconciled back into the arms of your Father and the love your heart cried out has been placed into your new innocent heart.