TAKING THE SHEPHERDING WAY
TO PREACH THE GOSPEL AND REVIVE THE CHURCH

SERIES Two
The Outflow of the Vital and Revived Living—
Preaching the Gospel by Visitation Weekly

Message One
Building Up a Personal and Affectionate Relationship with the Lord

Scripture Reading:

S. S. 1:2-4 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine. Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; Your name is like ointment poured forth; therefore the virgins love you. Draw me; we will run after you—the king has brought me into his chambers—we will be glad and rejoice in you; we will extol your love more than wine. Rightly do they love you.

PURSUING CHRIST FOR SATISFACTION

Song of Songs is a book in the Bible that tells us how we can be satisfied properly with God. There is no other way except by pursuing after Christ, because Christ is the very embodiment of the Triune God. He is the reality of God. He is God in reality, God’s embodiment, coming to earth to give people the opportunity to receive Him for satisfaction.

Only Christ Being Excellent

Paul told us in Philippians 3 that we have to pursue Christ to gain Him (vv. 12-14) because He is the most excellent way. All things other than Christ are dung (v. 8). Only Christ is excellent. Whatever we obtain or have obtained other than Christ is vanity. Paul says that it is dung. Do you like dung? But today many worldly people are gaining dung day after day. Dung is their food. Solomon says that they are pursuing vanity. Vanity of vanities is what they are eating. That is their food. Paul’s desire was to gain Christ, and he instructed us how to gain Christ as he did.

Love Being to Pursue Christ

We have to pursue Christ for satisfaction. Song of Songs opens in this way: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” (1:2a). The seeker longs for kisses, not just one kiss. The most impressive thing about weddings in the Western world is the time of kissing. The bridegroom opens the bride’s veil to kiss her with his own mouth. He does not kiss the ears or the nose of the bride but her mouth. This is the most personal and affectionate thing. Here is a book in the Bible that opens in such a way: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” This is what it means to pursue Christ.

According to the New Testament, God’s ordained way for man to receive Him in this kind of personal and affectionate way is first to believe in Him. To believe in Him is to receive Him as the divine life into us that we may have an organic union with God in the divine life.…According to the New Testament, after we believe in Christ, after we receive Him as the divine life into us, we have to love Him (see 1 Cor. 2:9 and note 3—Recovery Version). Paul told us that the Lord’s grace super abounded to him with faith and love in Christ Jesus (1 Tim. 1:14). Faith is to receive Christ, and love is to pursue Christ.

Christ’s Love Cheering Us in an Unrivaled Way

In her desire to be kissed with the kisses of His mouth, the seeker goes on to say, “For your love is better than wine” (1:2b). She does not say that His love is as good as wine but that it is better than wine. Wine cheers but Christ’s love cheers us in an unrivaled way. No wine can compare with His unrivaled love. Nothing is so cheering as Christ’s love.

Verse 3 says, “Your anointing oils have a pleasant fragrance; / Your name is like ointment poured forth; / Therefore the virgins love you.” Christ’s name signifies Christ’s person, His being, and Christ is the compound Spirit signified by the anointing ointment in Exodus 30. “The last Adam became a life-giving Spirit” (1 Cor. 15:45b). This indicates that Christ’s name as His person is the anointing ointment.…Christ’s charming name, His person, is the all-inclusive, compound Spirit.

His love is attracting, His name is charming, and His person is captivating. He has drawn and captivated millions of His lovers to pursue after Him and is still doing the same today. Therefore, all His lovers would run after Him for their satisfaction. This is why the seeker prays, “Draw me; we will run after you” (S.S. 1:4a).

OUR NEEDING TO HAVE A PERSONAL
AND AFFECTIONATE RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD

Not Having a Movement in the Lord’s Recovery

God works in a personal and affectionate way, not in the way of a movement.…We do not want to have a movement in the Lord’s recovery. A person can be moved to join a movement and not have any personal contact with the Lord. Recently, we have stressed that God became a man that man may become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. Although many responded to this truth, I was not very happy, because this response was a movement. In order to practice such a high truth, we need the personal and affectionate experience of Christ.

The seeker said, “Draw me.” She did not say, “Draw us.” Draw me is personal. We want a drawing from the Lord that is His personal and affectionate doing. We want Him to be with us in a personal and affectionate way.…Regardless of how great, sovereign, almighty, and majestic God is, when He wanted to build up His relationship with man He took the personal, affectionate way. He took the way of becoming a man.

Our Needing to Have a Personal, Intimate Prayer with the Lord

We all need this kind of personal, affectionate, intimate contact with the Lord every day. This has become my habit. Every morning after rising up I go to my desk and the first thing I say is, “Lord Jesus, I love You.” …He is personal and affectionate to me, as I am personal and affectionate to Him. We all need to take heed to what the seeker says: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!” Right away her tone changes: “Your love is better than wine.” This is a personal, intimate prayer. “Draw me; we will run after you.” This is personal and affectionate. We need this kind of personal and affectionate seeking after Him, and we need to build up such a relationship with Him that is so personal and affectionate. (Crystallization-study of Song of Songs, msg. 1)

Practicing a Personal, Intimate Contact with the Lord
All Day Long by Calling on His Name

We must all have a living relationship with the Lord. There is no need to be occupied with doctrinal teachings or with works, miracles, gifts, power, or religious rituals. We simply need to deal with a living, lovely, divine and human person who is both God and man—the incarnated and resurrected One who brought God into man and man into God. The One whom we love, contact, know, and follow is a living, real, and practical person. We enjoy such a person, He is life to us, and we are one with Him.

We love to contact the Lord by calling, “O Lord Jesus. O Jesus!”…The more we breathe the Lord by calling on His name, the more living we become. We must all love the Lord Jesus and practice a personal, intimate contact with Him all day long by calling on His name. We need to give up our old religious knowledge and teachings so that the living person of Jesus can become our enjoyment and experience.…We have no words to describe Him in full. We simply need to tell Him, “Lord, Jesus, we love You. We simply want to remain in intimate contact with You.” (CWWL, 1971, vol. 4, “Having a Personal, Intimate, and Loving Contact with the Lord”)