Chapter 1:7-8
“Tell me, O
you whom my soul loves, where do you pasture your flock, where do you make it
lie down at noon? For why should I be
like one who veils herself beside the flocks of your companions?”
”If you do not know, most beautiful among women, go forth on the trail of the
flock and pasture your young goats by the tents of the shepherds.”
The bride cries out to be restored to intimacy, to a
Spirit-led life. She carries shame, like a veiled woman she says, who in those
days tended to be a prostitute. She knows that her Bridegroom and King intends
something better for her. Should she, the beloved of the King, live under
condemnation and separation as if she were just some prostitute? She knows that
there is a place he has for her of being personally led by him as her shepherd
and given rest from the driven, performance based life, as lying down (at noon) in the heat of the day symbolizes rest. (note: the
heat of the day would be the harshness of the natural world and of labor under
the curse of the fall, as in “labor under the sun” in Ecclesiastes.) She loves
him, why should she follow him only as an outsider, carrying shame, and only
picking up the scraps from others who do have a direct relationship with him?
This is something we deal with. Her example shows that it’s normal, and she
will be given answers.
The King responds, “If you yourself do not know, most
beautiful among women…” This is how he sees us even in our shame. We, the bride of
Christ, are the most beautiful of all created beings in his eyes. In Christ, we
are made of his very nature, his very likeness, he prefers our beauty above
that of all of unredeemed humanity and above that of the angels and all created
beings. Individually, we reflect aspects of who he is which nobody else does. We
are his own literal bride. He seems astonished that she doesn’t know the answer
herself concerning where he leads his flock. Really, the issue isn’t that he’s
not already her shepherd, perfectly willing to lead her and actively doing so, but
it’s that she is keeping herself from experiencing that more fully as a result of
her shame and her unbelief and her low self-evaluation, and her lack of awareness of how he sees her and feels about her. This is the story of
all of us.
Jesus said in John 10:14 & 27 “I am the good shepherd…
my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
In John 6:44-45 Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent
me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the
prophets, ‘and they shall all be taught of God.’ Everyone who has heard and
learned of the Father comes to me.” This makes it clear that God is already
speaking to us or we wouldn’t have come to Jesus in the first place. He is
love, his words are Spirit and Life, and we live by every word that proceeds
from his mouth, so of course he isn’t going to hold them back from us. It’s an
issue of whether we believe he will give them or not. His name itself is The
Word, and he is constantly speaking to us and giving us life, we only need to
believe it to receive more fully. We don’t need some elusive “gift” that is
only available to a few for us to be able to hear and be led by God. (or else
we never would have come to Jesus in the first place) To be Spirit-led, according
to Jesus in the scripture mentioned above, we only need to tap into that
relationship with God which brought us to Jesus and which keeps us with him. We
only need to believe in who he is within us already. Scripture further
testifies to this reality:
1John 2:20-21 “You have an anointing from the Holy One, and
you all know, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but
because you do know it…” and
1John 2:27 “As for you, the anointing which you received
from him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you, but as
his anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, and
just as it has taught you, you abide in him,”
We truly do already know where the one we love leads his flock into his rest.
To “hear” God, we don’t necessarily need a booming voice
from the sky or a certain tingling sensation in our left foot, or anything like
that as “proof,” we only need faith and a surrendered soul. We don’t need him
to prove that he is speaking, because he has already proven himself. We “hear”
because we already believe him. You can simply quiet your mind and heart
(letting go of your own agendas and worries and such, with all the internal noise
that creates) and simply trust his heart and his promises, waiting and allowing
him to faithfully speak in covenant response to your faith. You may want to journal
to keep track of the impressions that come up inside of you at those times. He
is so close to you that it can often seem like you are only hearing yourself. This
is because you have been made one with him. He will put little thoughts in your
head, images in your imagination, feelings in your emotions, and you will find
through testing them out over time, that this is really God speaking to you from
inside yourself as you are quieting your own soul and trusting him to speak.
This is no less real than any booming voice from the sky or trance experience.
He can use this to impact nations. He will help you to grow in learning how he
speaks to you and how to tell what is him and what isn’t.
It is true that there are more dynamic manifestations of his voice and visions and
experiences than those things which we could mistake as only being from
ourselves, but I’m not emphasizing that because it really isn’t what is as important.
People in the religious world tap into a grace in those areas and often get all
puffed up, and they start strutting around as if they are more spiritual than
those who haven’t tapped into those same blessings. We all tap into different
things in a different order, and it isn’t about competing over whose left foot
gets more tingly when they pray (or anything like that, any certain
manifestation) to argue over whose the greatest among us. People can start
relying on a manifestation, a certain sound of a voice, or a certain sensation,
and I’m not saying we shouldn’t want as much of those things as we can get, we
should, but the hard truth is that when we rely on a manifestation in the place
of a relationship, deception is never far behind. I’ve known enough people
who’ve had incredible manifestations; hearing an extremely distinct sound of a
voice, being super sensitive to different feelings, having open visions all the
time just like watching movies appearing out in thin air regularly, and I’m not
taking anything away from that, but I’ve watched the same people tend to get
filled with spiritual pride and then massive, obvious deception was always soon
to follow. I’ve seen that so often, and even with strong pastors and such. In recorded
history, William Branham is a great example of this. What happens if we aren’t
careful, is that we start relying on the sound or feeling of a certain
manifestation rather than relying on who we are trusting in when we pray and rather
than relying on the surrender of our heart towards him when we pray, and the
result is that all the sounds and feelings get counterfeited. It is said in the
word that when someone comes to a prophet with idols in his heart, the Lord
will allow that person to be deceived, he will answer them according to their
idols. This is really how it works, regardless of manifestations; the enemy
gets access to deceive when our heart is off. So it’s important to learn to
surrender our own hearts and to learn to trust his heart, and to believe that God
uses even the faintest senses within us. We need to not get all caught up in
glamorizing and competing over dramatic manifestations as if they could take
the place of a relationship, or as if they are the definite marker of a person
being more mature.
We also need to be careful not to be afraid of the devil deceiving us. This
doesn’t mean we don’t approach things with humility, care, and the willingness
to admit it if we are proven wrong, but we need to trust that Holy Spirit is
way better at leading us into all truth than the Devil is at leading us astray.
We are protected from deception to the degree that we know our Father and trust
him. He truly will not give us a serpent if we ask him for bread from a sincere
heart. If we are afraid to pray and trust for revelation because the devil
might deceive us, we are already deceived about the heart of our Father. He
will lead us to the place of receiving accurately from him, he will sort out the
wheat from the tares, not as we check whether what we perceive lines up with a
formula, but as we trust him and continue to relate to him personally.
Psalm 23; “The
Lord is my shepherd… he leads me beside the still waters… etc,” is
another
passage which shows this aspect of his leadership in our lives. Here is a
relevant point from this: the still waters speak of a source to drink
from that
is peaceful and safe. Turbulent waters can actually drown a sheep even
while it
is only sticking its mouth and nose in to drink. Being at peace and at
rest in
him, having cast our cares upon his shoulders and trusting him to care
for us, is the condition which allows us to accurately receive the
revelation he is
already trying to give us without all the noise and confusion we create
for ourselves otherwise.
Getting back to the Song:
Where is the shepherd? He’s inside of us! Where does he lead his flock and make
them to rest? Through his revelation of his great love and acceptance of us
which tears down our shame, unworthiness feelings, and our unbelief!
He leads us directly by his Spirit who is within us already and who isn’t
holding back from us as if he were playing some sadistic game. It is when we
believe that he isn’t really willing to guide, or that we aren’t really worthy,
even though he washed us in his own blood and made us worthy, that we block off
our experience of it. We experience the realities of redemption by faith, rather
than by shame and unbelief, and this includes the leading of his Spirit.
In James 1, we are told that, “if any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who
gives generously to all men and without reproach… but let him ask in faith,
without doubting… he who doubts… let not that man expect to receive anything
from the Lord,” and truly this applies not just to wisdom, meaning knowing what
to do, but this applies to all things such as the blank check promises of Jesus
to ask anything (any good thing) in faith and you will receive. This isn’t
meant to isolate wisdom as the only thing you can ask for, but this is simply
about God being a generous giver of all good things to all people who ask in
faith.
Jesus said in the sermon on the mount that if we, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to our children, how much more will our heavenly Father give good
things to those who ask?
As Paul told us in Romans 8, “He who did not spare his own son but delivered
him over for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Jesus paid the price for all sin that was separating us from God, now the issue
is that God is simply good and a generous giver to all, and whether we believe
that or not is what determines how much we experience of it. He is generous in
giving us his wisdom and his leading by his Spirit along with everything else.
He gave us his own son!
Isaiah 42:16 is a great promise; “I will lead the
blind by a way they do not know, In paths they
do not know I will guide them. I will make
darkness into light before them and rugged
places into plains. These are the things I
will do, and I will not leave them undone.”
It can be very helpful to meditate slowly and prayerfully on the scriptures and
truths of God’s giving nature and of his promises to speak to and lead us,
including the ones referenced here, and to allow those truths to be made alive
in you as you do. Also, we need to address the arguments which come up from our
hearts against these truths and to see them in light of the truth, laying them
to rest as a result. Believing is more than just knowing some scriptures and
mentally agreeing, but it is when our hearts, emotions, and entire being come
into full agreement with the truth. It is something that needs to be developed.
The seeds need to be planted and watered, and the ground needs to be
cultivated, and it is an intentional process over time involving all aspects of
ourselves. It can sound like daunting work, and there is work involved, but if
you quiet yourself and meditate on his truths, even just for a little while,
you will be amazed at how quickly your faith builds and what kind of things you
can receive from him in that place of trusting him with more of your entire being
rather than just your theology. It can help to look up “lecto divina” online
and to practice that form of biblical meditation with these scriptures and truths.
Another more tricky manifestation of unbelief is stubbornness and self-righteousness.
We cling to our own agenda as a way of making up for our lack of trusting God’s
agenda, and we compensate for our lack of confidence in God with confident
self-righteousness and stubbornness that we ourselves are right in our own
opinions. This feels similar to faith, enough to even deceive ourselves
sometimes. We can hold stubbornly to our own plans and desires, unwilling to
surrender because we don’t trust his heart in that area. We are afraid of what
hearing “no” might mean to us. We can presume that God is confirming our agenda
when we are really just hearing our own mental and emotional “noise” which hasn’t
yet been surrendered, or we are hearing other things besides God which our
leaning towards rebellion is making room for. We typically need to surrender
our own mind and emotions in faith as an essential part of receiving his
leading by faith. He won’t force us, and it can take practical experience to
know the difference.
Sometimes our lack of surrender (due to lack of trust) looks like being
unwilling to walk out the process it takes to receive some things we are asking
for. We just demand to get it right now and to get it in our own way. Sometimes
there is a process of growth needed to steward certain blessings without
bringing harm to ourselves and others, or sabotaging other things God is doing
in and through us, and we almost never know what this process looks like or how
much of it we need. He isn’t going to give us every blessing we want to our own
destruction without any training process first, although he does give us things
instantly many times. The issue is that we aren’t the judge of whether we need
more of a process or not, and we need to let go of our attempts to control
that. We don’t even really know what the blessing is going to look like, we may
be being prepared for something bigger and heavier than we thought. Letting go
of control of how he always gives, let us just trust him to give what is good.
Let us also definitely not assume that he won’t give us anything instantly, or
that his will is just to make us miserable.
v8- “If you do not know, most beautiful among women, go
forth on the trail of the flock and pasture your young goats by the tents of
the shepherds.”
She has the ability to know directly from the shepherd inside of her, but he
tells her that if she doesn’t know, she can follow the trail of the flock, and
pasture her “young goats,” beside the tents of the shepherds. Goats in
scripture often speak of that which is rejected. Her young goats speak of the
immature parts of her which are still dealing with rejection issues, the parts
of her which don’t feel worthy of being led directly by God and so can’t
believe enough to receive it.
Following the path of the flock and the shepherds would mean
following others who are following the Shepherd and who are bringing revelation
from him, or following the path of those who have followed the shepherd in the
past. She can go to the time tested revelation of the scriptures, written by
those who have walked with God in history under divine inspiration, and she can
go to proven people who are ministering Life from heaven in more modern times,
and she can use food from those sources to feed herself in the areas where she
is weak and where she is feeling shameful and unworthy. She can nourish her
weak areas, possibly by meditating on relevant scriptures, until those areas
get strong enough in faith that she can be confident to be led directly by God.
Hebrews 10:17-23, for instance, is often a good passage to slowly meditate on
and feed your “young goats” until you know where your shepherd leads his flock:
“’And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no
more.’ Now where
there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering
for sin. Therefore, brethren,
since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through
the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we
have a great priest over the house of God, let
us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts
sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the confession of our
hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.”
