Secret of the Stairs Pt 3 A Single Eye Aug. 21, 2013
A In about a week, dove season will come here in Illinois.
1 Doves are similar to pigeons, but the dove has a very unusual quality - single eye.
a A dove doesn’t have side vision... why they are referred to as “love birds.”
b When it sets it’s gaze upon another dove it sees nothing else - it’s not easily distracted.
2 The Bridegroom has seen that His bride has this quality of having a “single eye” for Him.
a She looks at Him differently than the other Daughters of Jerusalem.
b She has His favor, attention & He begins the process of drawing her to Himself.
B I believe there are 2 levels of Relationship in our spiritual development and 2 levels of Experience in our relationship to the Lord.
1 Relationship: Inner chamber in our hearts; Throne Room of our Groom.
a The first chamber is within us that we need to make ready to receive our Bridegroom.
aa Revelation 3:20 (NKJV) 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
bb As He knocks, what will He find when the door is opened?
b The second chamber is the throne chamber we ascend to as “overcomers”
aa Revelation 3:21 (NKJV) 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
bb We don’t get to sit with Him until we’ve prepared what’s behind our door. (Inner chamber)
2 We experience Him, identify with Him in two areas.
a In our inner chamber we have to prepare our hearts through devotion/submission as brides.
aa Cleaning house, organizing some things, de-cluttering.
bb As we prepare, when He arrives He will enlarge our capacity to receive more of the things of the Spirit. -Fellowship, communion with Him.
cc John 3:29 (NKJV) 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice.
b The second is experienced in the “chamber of His throne.”
aa Through the overcoming, obedience, dying to self we are raised up to a place of identification with Him as a “son.”
bb As we experience the “overcomings” outweighing our “shortcomings” we develop spiritual maturity.
cc 2 Timothy 2:12 (NKJV) 12 If we endure, We shall also reign with Him.
c For us to be allowed into these chambers we must have the “want to” in our spirit to want to know/obey Him.
aa To be in communion with Him as a bride.
bb In response, He’ll meet us in the chamber of our heart.
cc Other times He’ll lead us as sons/children into His throne chamber. - We participate with Him in the outworking of what He’s doing.
Romans 8:17 (NKJV) 17 and if children, then heirs--heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.
d SOS reveals to us the methods the Lord uses to prepare us to experience these relationships with Him.
aa There is a “step-by-step” progression God uses to make us able to be His bride & son.
bb To have communion (bride) and be seated with Him as a son.
3 We’ll never be qualified to “rule” with Him until we’ve fully submitted to Him as His bride.
Revelation 2:26-27 (NKJV) 26 And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations-- 27 'He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter's vessels'-- as I also have received from My Father;
Revelation 5:10 (NKJV) 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we shall reign on the earth."
Revelation 20:6 (NKJV) 6 Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.
a Before we start thinking we’ve got the “right” to rule, Reign with Him, we’ve got to be prepared to be the bride!
Revelation 19:7-9 (ASV) 7 Let us rejoice and be exceeding glad, and let us give the glory unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they that are bidden to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are true words of God.
b The bride has fallen in love with Him, eyes only for Him.
Song of Songs 1:12 (NKJV) 12 While the king is at his table, My spikenard sends forth its fragrance.
aa He catches our devotion, notices we’ve not taken our eyes off Him.
bb He isn’t a spouse that fails to see our effort, love, devotion - He reciprocates it.
Song of Songs 1:15 (NKJV) 15 Behold, you are fair, my love! Behold, you are fair! You have dove's eyes.
c Song of Songs 2:13b-14 (KJV) 13b Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. 14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
aa He now begins to prepare her to take her to His secret place.
bb It’s a process!
C STAIRS mean to go from one level to the next higher one.
1 The Lord’s stairs are not out in the open.
a They lead to His chamber where He desires to reveal Himself to His bride.
b Stairs also represent the things in life we encounter, go through.
aa A wrong response is a short coming.
bb A right response is an over coming.
c When our “overcomes” outweigh our “shortcomings” we enter a new level of spiritual maturity.
2 Until we do, we know what it is like to go to the throne room.
a To know the communion as the bride the cooperative experience as His son, nothing less than a “single eye” must be ours.
aa You don’t see the stairs without the “single eye.”
bb Not only see, makes them accessible to us.
cc Ephesians 1:18 (KJV) 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
b Song of Songs 2:14a (KJV) 14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs,
3 David experienced what is possible with a “single eye.”
Psalm 27:4 (NKJV) 4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.
a David knew he was going to be kind, yet there was something greater/more that had his attention - the LORD.
b The Lord wants everyone of us to have a single eye for Him.
aa We’re created with the ability to focus our desires.
bb What we want to do/accomplish, we can do.
cc When we are inhabited by the H.S. through new birth, we are created to experience/respond & know Him intimately.
dd All we have to do is lift our spirit towards Him.
c One of the greatest miracles of creation is that God finds pleasure/satisfaction in His time with us.
aa We’ll never be who/what we were intended to be apart from Him.
bb When He sees that we long to be with Him, determined to be “single eye,” the Lord comes to us & says, “O my dove”
D He then places us in a special place: cleft of the Rock. (The Rock is Christ Jesus!)
1 He is the Rock foundation upon which we are to be built/established.
a Usually when we get to the point of desiring intimacy we’ve found that the Rock is covered with a lifetime of rubble - separating us.
aa We discover we’re not standing on the Rock, but rather the rubble.
bb Single eye helps us see the rubble that stands between us.
b John 3:30 (NKJV) 30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
The way up is down!
2 When we’re ready to haul out the rubble, He is ready to take us a step further.
a “Cleft of the Rock” is an opening in the Rock.
aa In the cleft the Lord has the right to access/move in our lives.
bb He’ll begin to change us into the bride He wants.
b He also wants to develop within us stability.
aa After the rubble/rubbish is gone He sets us in the cleft.
bb We rest there, His presence will become like a song as He expresses His desire for us to desire Him.
cc Song of Songs 2:14b (NKJV) 14b Let me hear your voice; For your voice is sweet, And your face is lovely."
dd Now we’re able to sing a song back (worship) Strengthen the security of our developing friendship with Him.
c In the cleft He may speak admonition or correction to us.
aa If He sees something that would hurt/hinder intimacy with Him, He will help us recognize it.
bb He is free to deal with it.
Song of Songs 2:15 (NKJV) 15 Catch us the foxes, The little foxes that spoil the vines, For our vines have tender grapes.
3 One of the basic urges of life is self-preservation. (Root of Adamic Nature)
a The Lord must deal with the root of self-preservation.
b When we’ll say...
aa “I give up my right to my life - I’m Yours.”
bb “You do with my life as You please.”
cc “I understand what that means - I’ll respond rightly as You accomplish within me all that You desire.”
E Satan used this “self-preservation” against Job.
1 If you’ll hurt him (Physically, financially, los) he’ll curse You.
a Job 1:21b (NKJV) 2b The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD."
b Job stayed standing on the Rock - trusting in the Lord... The Lord was in control.
aa Job 13:15a (NKJV) 15a Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
bb Job 42:5 (NKJV) 5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.
c Job had been set free from his self-life & standing within the cleft of the Rock - it was God who had brought him to this spot.
2 If a potter is making a jar it becomes marred in the process - He’ll reduce it to powder - remakes it.
a The problem with most of us is that we refuse to let Him reduce our lives to powder so He can remake us as He chooses.
b To enter the secret of the stairs we have to trust Him with our lives.
3 IL. Tuning guitar/piano - for the string to work in harmony they have to be under a tremendous amount of pressure.
a To little - not in pitch: To much -snap
b To go to the next level we must trust Him to put His finger on our lives, deal with the Law of self-preservation.
c We must become like Job, “Though He slay me, yet I will trust in Him.”
aa We must enter the cleft in the Rock, allow Him to tune our lives - no matter what it takes, no matter how much pressure is needed to bring us into pitch.
bb Song of Songs 2:14 (KJV) 14 O my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice; for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance is comely.
4 As He tunes us a melody plays upon our strings.
a He’s had to remove the rubble/rubbish.
b Keep our eyes on Him - pressure.
c All about Him.
aa Now she can respond to His presence as He visits her & worship Him.
bb He is able to say,
Song of Songs 2:13b (KJV) 13b Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
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