Deep Unto Deep - Week #5

Chapter Five: Personal Receiving

This is an important chapter related to facing the need do the hard, and at times painful, work of really receiving the love of God personally rather than generically.

“We find that though we were comfortable with Him proclaiming His love to the entire crowd, we become terrified to be alone in the ocean of His love. We begin to resist and uncomfortably squirm beneath the weight of His desire…

The God that ‘so loved the world’ remains only a nice God until the ‘world’ become you. If it continues to be ‘corporate’ in our understandings, and we merely receive the truth that He so loved ‘the world,’ it will not ever change the inner parts of our hearts.”

A few years ago as we were having a time of simple worship on Bethany campus (going non-stop all day for several days), I entered the Prayer Room where the worship was going. At that time of day, there were only 2 or 3 of us in the room loving the Lord through simply being with Him in that place. I sat for a little while being quiet before Him and I sensed His invitation to kneel at the large cross that was on one side of the room. I expected to do this for a few brief moments, but I found myself staying there for a very long time.

After a long while in that posture, I heard the Lord lovingly say in my spirit, “Now stand before Me.” And so I stood up and faced the cross, remaining in that posture for awhile. I wasn’t experiencing surface emotions during this time, but then when I felt release to sit down again, I sat listening to the Lord and sensed Him say to me, “Well done, Nita.” Hearing this whisper in my spirit overwhelmed me and I began to weep and weep over His loving and affirming words. That experience did a lot to shift “the inner parts of my heart” and strengthened me to continue to obey Him in the difficult situation I was in at that time.

Candler says, “What makes a bride a bride is that she knows…that she is the unique one and the favorite of her husband. This is why it is so crucial that each heart goes on a personal journey of bridal love…We have to know and feel like the favorite of the Lord.”

This brings to mind the apostle John who, whenever he made reference to himself in the Gospel of John, called himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” We know God is not partial, so why would John label himself such a thing? On the surface it appears arrogant; but I believe John had received the love of Jesus personally and so knew what his true identity was: the one that Jesus loves! Once I (and any follower of Jesus) begin to get even a little hold on that reality at the personal level, the issues of who I am and why I’m here start to clear up. And along with clarity of identity comes confidence and joy.

The apostle John had the courage to say the truth about what Jesus said about him, and it takes courage to dare to say “yes” to this truth and to let it begin its transforming work in me.

The author goes on to say some key things that I’ll quote below:
• …within His great musical heart were many songs. He created one person to sing a unique song of His heart…Only that person, with that frame, history and journey could answer and fulfill His desire for his or her specific place in His heart.
• The way that I enter this great mystery is through agreement – my agreement with who He is and then who I am flowing out of that.
• (The Holy Spirit) reveals Jesus to my heart, and as I behold His beauty, I am transformed from glory to glory. Proceeding from this revelation of who He is, is the revelation of who I am in Him.
• When He created me He said…"This is good"…He agreed with His work in my creation. I must also come into deep agreement with Him, joining Him in His pleasure.
• …if there resides within me a beautiful mystery of Jesus…will I not do well to peer into the way He has formed me…so that I might discover and understand what He has desired to reveal of Himself within me?...this is not an inward search unto a heightened self-knowledge or self-awareness. It is the knowledge of God that we are after.
• He measures neither my heart nor my path by that of another.

Although there is more in this chapter, I’m going to pause it here and continue on next week, because I believe it is at this juncture that we who love Him have such difficulties entering in. To deeply experience His unique love for me takes intentionality and radical agreement with what He says about me. To take the time and effort to listen and then receive by saying, “Ok, Lord, if that’s what You say about me, I will agree even though it goes against the grain of all that I’ve been told by others and by myself and by the devil.”

It takes a long time and faith-filled effort on our part and the power of the Holy Spirit for this truth to penetrate our deepest being. It’s generally such a gradual dawning of truth on us that we think we’re getting nowhere, but if you persist in listening and believing and obeying the Father’s words to you and about you, there will be inner transformation and renewing of the mind taking place.

Nothing will bring me into my true identity and destiny except the voice of the heavenly Father through His Son Jesus by the working of the Holy Spirit. No amount of mere human affirmation can do this, though God’s affirmation at times comes through humans. When it’s mere human words, the encouragement lasts very briefly; when a word comes directly from God, either through humans or straight to the human spirit from the Holy Spirit, then it brings life and it’s eternal.

So once again, I encourage you to take time to sit before the Lord with His written Word, ask the Holy Spirit to breathe on you as you read, open your heart fully to Him by saying, “Yes, Lord, I will believe what You say…” Take a Scripture such as Matthew 10:29-31 and let it sink in while you wait in the Lord’s presence.

Holy Spirit, I pray that You would show us the love of the Father and of the Son for each of us personally. May Your grace rest upon us to dare to look to You alone for our name and identity. May the same courage that John found to agree with Your revelation to him about being Your “favorite one” come to us as we ponder and gaze on Truth. We love You, dear Lord. Thank You for hearing our prayer!


Next week we’ll finish off this chapter five, Personal Receiving. God bless you!










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