We enjoy Christ as our Husband by having a Private and Spiritual Relationship with Him

The romance in the Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be personal and affectionate, and it must also be private and spiritual; we need to develop our relationship with the Lord, our dear Husband, whom we love!

Our relationship with God is not only of worshipping Him and revering Him but also of loving Him; the loss of our first love for the Lord is the cause of degradation in the church.

In Rev. 2:1-7 we see the Lord’s speaking in His letter to the church in Ephesus, in which He tells them that He has one thing against them, that they left their first love; He advises them to repent and do the first works, for if they don’t repent, He will come and remove the lampstand from their midst.

And the reward that the Lord gives to those who enjoy Him by loving Him is the enjoyment of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God.

The way we enjoy Him is by loving Him, and the more we love Him, the more we enjoy Him. The degree of the enjoyment of the Lord as the tree of life becomes the content of our church life.

By our enjoying the Lord, the church becomes filled with the enjoyment of the Lord, and we become His testimony, the golden lampstand.

However, it is possible for us to meet as the church, have the proper ground of the church, yet our love for the Lord would not be fresh, and we would not give Him the first place in our life. Oh, Lord!

If we don’t love the Lord with the first love and do the first works, repenting for not loving Him, we may have an outer shell of the church life but the reality is gone. In such a situation, the Lord is warning us, He will come and remove the lampstand, and we will lose the testimony of Jesus.

We can never graduate from loving the Lord, enjoying the Lord, and being His testimony.

When we love the Lord, the Father will love us, and the Father and the Son will come to manifest themselves to us; He comes to reveal Himself to His loving seeker (John 14:21).

When we tell the Lord, Lord Jesus, I love You! the Father and Him come to us to reveal Himself to us.

For Him to manifest Himself to us is for Him to make Himself real to us.

How real is the Lord to us? Do we see Him in His preciousness, sweetness, and loveliness? Do we appreciate Him more and more each day? May we start our day by telling the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I love You!

May we learn to open our being to Him and tell Him that we love Him, and may we let Him love us back and reveal Himself to us.

May we develop our personal relationship with the Lord so that we may be personal and affectionate with Him, and we would have an intimate and spiritual relationship with our dear Lord.

Our relationship with the Lord must be Private: we must daily Spend Private, Secret Time with Him

The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be private; in 1:3-4 we see that the king brings us into His chambers, privately, shut off from the rest of the world, to enjoy Him.

We must contact the Lord and spend time with Him privately in secret; we need to spend time with Him in a secret, definite, and prevailing way.

In our secret time with the Lord, we need to open our entire being to Him for His enlightening and infusing so that we can glow with God and shine forth God (Matt. 6:6; Exo. 33:11; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Isa. 60:1, 5a; Matt. 14:22-23; Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:28).

Every day, especially in the morning, we need to spend private time with the Lord, having a private and spiritual personal time with Him to gaze on Him, behold Him, and be infused with Him.

As we spend personal and private time with the Lord, we are infused with God, we are enlightened inwardly with Him, and we can glow with God so that we can shine with God into others.

We need to enter into our private room, pray to our Father who is in secret, and our Father who sees in secret will repay us (Matt. 6:6).

When we arise and spend time with the Lord under His shining, the glory of Jehovah will rise upon us; then, we will see Him with an unveiled face, and we will beam Him into others (Isa. 60:1, 5).

Amen, when we have an unveiled face and behold Him face to face, with all the veils being removed, we behold Him and reflect Him – we see Him and we beam Him (2 Cor. 3:18), and we’re transformed into the same image!

We become like a mirror, beholding the Lord and reflecting Him to others and into others.

We must experience and enjoy Christ as our hiding place, our dwelling place, and our secret of sufficiency (Psa. 90:1; 91:1; 31:20; 18:1-5; Phil. 4:7-13).

We simply need to dwell in the secret place of the most high and abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

God has a secret place, which is He Himself; in a practical way, this secret place is in our spirit, and we need to spend private and spiritual time with Him.

May we have a personal, affectionate, and private and spiritual time with the Lord every day.

In our time with the Lord, we can ask for the counsel of the Lord related to every problem that we encounter (see Josh. 9:14).

We need to bring every matter to the Lord and consider, examine, and determine things before Him and in fellowship with Him.

If we don’t have a private time with the Lord, we are prone to be deceived by the enemy and we may fall into his vile schemes, but if we spend time with Him and ask for His counsel, the enemy has no way.

In this respect of having a private relationship with the Lord, every believer needs to be weak to the extent that he doesn’t have his own ideas, doesn’t make his own decisions and doesn’t take any action related to what he encounters without contacting the Lord (2 Cor. 12:9-10).

When we spend private time with the Lord, we will realize how much we depend on Him, and we will contact Him in all things, allowing Him to make the decisions; this is the sweetest living of a Christian.

Amen, we really have no alternative but to fellowship with God in all things, spending personal and affectionate time with Him, and contacting Him in a private and spiritual way day by day.

In our time with the Lord, we discuss all things with Him, and we allow Him to handle all things, speak in all things and make every decision (Phil. 4:5-7; Prov. 3:5-6; 2 Cor. 1:8-9).

It is such a glory for a Christian to be dependent on another One – on God – at every moment and in every matter!

May we allow this Person who lives in our spirit and makes His home in our hearts to handle everything related to us, and may we allow Him to speak through us!

Lord Jesus, we want to have a private and spiritual relationship with You by contacting You in secret and in spirit every day! Amen, Lord, teach us how to contact You in a private, secret, definite, and prevailing way. We open our entire being to You for Your enlightening and infusing so that we can glow with God and shine forth God! Grant us Your mercy, Lord, to abide and stay in You as the secret place of the most high. We take You as our hiding place, our dwelling place, and our secret of sufficiency. We open to You and ask for Your counsel related to every problem that we encounter. We don’t want to have our own ideas, make our own decisions, or take any action without first contacting You and consulting with You so that You make the decisions in us. Dear Lord, we come to You to fellowship with God in all things, discuss all things with You, and allow You to handle all things, speak in all things, and make every decision! We depend on You, Lord, in all things!

Our relationship with the Lord must be Spiritual – we need to Exercise our Spirit to Contact God and Worship God

The romance in Song of Songs portrays that our relationship with the Lord must be spiritual (1:4b); the chambers referred to in this verse are the place where God dwells, that is, our spirit.

The Lord is with our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22), and our spirit witnesses with the Spirit that we are children of God. When we exercise our spirit, we enter into the place where God dwells.

Christ visits us spiritually because He is the life-giving Spirit in our spirit (1 Cor. 15:45).

Our Spirit is the Holy of Holies, the chambers of Christ as the Spirit to dwell, and the One who dwells in us is the Lord of Lords and King of kings (Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; 2 Tim. 4:22; Rev. 17:14; 19:16).

The One who is the Lord of lords and the King of kings, the Head over all things, lives in our spirit and is mingled with our spirit as one spirit.

We can contact the Lord only in our mingled spirit, and we can worship Him only in spirit (John 4:23-24).

God is Spirit, and for us to have a relationship with Him and to worship Him and contact Him, we need to be in spirit.

We need to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and also to live in spirit, one with Him. In the book of Ephesians

Paul shows that, in order to contact Christ and enjoy Christ for the Body of Christ, we must exercise our spirit. In every chapter of Ephesians – a book on the church as the Body of Christ – we see the matter of our spirit.

We need to have a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Christ (Eph. 1:17).

God dwells in our spirit, for His dwelling place is in spirit (2:2). The revelation of the mystery of Christ is in our spirit (3:5), and we are being strengthened into our inner man through His Spirit – our inner man is our spirit (v. 16).

We are being renewed in the spirit of our mind (4:23) and we’re filled in spirit (5:18); we need to pray always in spirit, unceasingly praying in the mingled spirit. In the book of Romans, Paul stresses that whatever we are (2:29; 8:5-6, 9), whatever we have (vv. 10, 16), and whatever we do toward God (1:9; 7:6; 8:4, 13; 12:11) must be in our spirit. Amen!

In our relationship with God, we need to have a private and spiritual contact with Him, developing our personal, affectionate, private, and spiritual relationship with the Lord day by day.

The Father is seeking true worshippers, those who will exercise their spirit to contact God the Spirit by drinking of the living water; to drink of the living water is to render real worship to God (John 4:23-24, 10, 14; 7:37-38; Isa. 12:1-6).

May we be such ones, those who exercise our spirit to worship God, that is, to drink of Him as the living water.

How can we exercise our spirit to drink? Isa. 12:1-6 shows us “the science of drinking the living water”; there is a scientific way to drink the living water.

For us to drink the living water we need to rejoice in the Lord, thank the Lord, praise the Lord, call on His name, make His deeds known among the people, sing songs, cry out and shout. Amen!

We are the inhabitants of Zion, where God dwells, and we can drink the living water in our private and spiritual relationship with the Lord; the Lord as the Spirit is the reality of the living water.

May we be those who build up the habit of continually exercising their spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in the love of God (the Father), awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son at His second coming — 2 Tim. 1:16-18) unto eternal life (to become the totality of the eternal life — the New Jerusalem) — Jude 19-21. Amen!

When we take, experience, and enjoy Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband, we will build up the church as the Body of Christ to consummate the New Jerusalem (Matt. 16:18; Eph. 4:11-12, 16; Rev. 19:7; 21:2).

May we not only agree with this and enjoy this but even more, turn all these matters into our prayer so that we may practice taking Christ as our King, our Lord, our Head, and our Husband.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for our wonderful private and spiritual relationship with You. Bring us into Your chambers, in our mingled spirit, where we can contact You and receive You. We exercise our spirit to contact the Lord and enjoy Christ for the Body of Christ. Amen, Lord, may everything that we are, everything we have, and everything we do toward God be in our spirit! Make us the true worshippers, those who exercise their spirit to contact God the Spirit by drinking the living water! Amen, Lord Jesus, we want to drink of You as the living water by rejoicing in the Lord, thanking the Lord, calling on the Lord, making His deeds known among the people, and crying out and shouting! Praise the Lord! Dear Lord Jesus, we want to build up a habit of continually exercising our spirit by praying in the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life! Amen!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message given by Ed Marks on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1994-1997, vol. 3, “Crystallization-study of Song of Songs,” pp. 263-270, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 8, entitled, Taking, Experiencing, and Enjoying Christ as Our King, Our Lord, Our Head, and Our Husband for the Building Up of the Body of Christ to Consummate the New Jerusalem.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Lord, Thou hast made Thyself to me / A living, bright reality, / More present to faith’s vision keen / Than any earthly object seen; / More dear, more intimately nigh / Than e’en the closest earthly tie. (Hymns #526)
  – Praying always in the spirit, / Never in the flesh or mind! / If this secret we will practise, / God’s full presence we will find. / Praying always in the spirit / Is the secret we are told! / In the spirit, God to contact, / Is the secret we must hold! (Hymns #780)
  – Therefore with joy shall ye draw water / Out of the wells of salvation. / And in that day shall ye say, / Praise the Lord. / Call upon His name, / Declare His doings among the people, / Make mention that His name is exalted. / Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion: / For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee. (Hymns #1340)