"Dance With Me"

The Waiting Bride

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!

You shall love the LORD your God 

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

And these words which I command you today

shall be in your heart.

-Deuteronomy 6:4-6

My beloved spoke, and said to me:

Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away.

For lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

And the voice of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grapes

Give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away!

- Song of Solomon 2:10-13

There has to be a divine reason for my being awakened at nearly the same hour every morning.

I say this not with pride or presumption, but with fear and trembling.

Many times I would just sit in my prayer room, rub the sleep from my eyes and mumble, "Speak Lord, for Your daughter is listening." In previous years, I would have my journal open, and begin to write as I sense the words coming. More recently though, I would just sit quietly in His presence. Sometimes I would pray softly in tongues, other times I would open my Bible and read the passage being impressed. A lot of times I would listen to worship music. There have been a few times that His presence is so thick, that I would go down on my knees.

Most of the time though, there is really nothing earth shaking. No great revelation. Sometimes I would lie down on the couch and even fall asleep.

What is important I believe is that I was at the appointed place, at the appointed time.

This morning, I was distracted. I woke up at the usual hour, 3:00 a.m. I puttered around the kitchen for a few minutes, and went to the garden to water my plants. An hour had passed before I finally made it to my prayer desk.

By then I was ready to go back to sleep.

Not wanting to do my morning devotions out of duty, knowing I am secure in the Father's love, I went back to my bedroom and uttered a simple prayer as I began to rest my sleepy head on my pillow:

Father, forgive me for not being more intentional about spending time with You this morning. You woke me up at the usual hour, but I allowed myself to be distracted. I know You are not angry. You know what is on my heart... I so want to be the woman You created me to be. And I so desire to live up to the kingdom assignment that You have created me for... Help me, Father.

At those words, I sat up and was wide awake.

I ran back to my prayer room and realized there was a song on my heart, one of my favorites, actually. But I had not listened to it in a long time, and so back at my prayer room, I looked for the file and played it.

It just took my breath away.

Here are the lyrics to this song, and the youtube video:

Dance With Me
(lyrics by Phil Tarver)

Dance with me
O Lover of my soul
To the song of all songs
Romance me
O Lover of my soul
To the song of all songs

Behold You have come
Over the hills
Upon the mountains
To me You have run
My beloved
You've captured my heart

Dance with me...

With You I will go
You are my love
You are my fair one
Winter is past
And the springtime has come

Dance with me...




As I listened to this song,  to the beautiful and tender way that Paul Wilbur pours out his love for the Lover of our souls, I could only recall that this was the very passage, Song of Solomon 2:10-13 Abba Father spoke to me a few weeks after Ernie died, nearly seven years ago.

It was a morning in January 2009, one of those early mornings that I was missing my husband, and my heart was grieving for the deep sense of loss. And slowly but clearly these words were spoken to my heart so tenderly by my heavenly Father.

Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away.

For lo, the winter is past,

The rain is over and gone.

The flowers appear on the earth;

The time of singing has come,

And the voice of the turtledove

Is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth her green figs,

And the vines with the tender grapes

Give a good smell.

Rise up, my love, my fair one,

And come away!

It was then that I began to realize I was in a new season of being set free from earthly commitments. That there is new life being poured into the places in my heart that have died.

Indeed this has been one spiritual principle that has brought comfort to my heart, that out of death comes life. Always... without fail. Any season of loss is followed by a season of replacement.

And in my heart there arose such a longing to be a bride, waiting for her bridegroom.



This again is a spiritual truth, not to be misunderstood in any earthly sense, with sensual undertones. Not at all. I have understood the bridal paradigm in a spiritual sense that even I do not have the words to explain it.

Romance me, o Lover of my soul... Romance is a love word that means to court, to woo, to pursue. 

Despite our unfaithulness God's love remains constant, and He pursues us, He woos us. I have loved you with an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness (Jeremiah 31:3).

It is a deeply spiritual matter, and of course, spiritual things can only be discerned with the spirit.

All I can say is that the marriage relationship of a man and a woman is simply a type, a picture, of how our relationship with Jesus is meant to be - a relationship so deep, so intimate, so infinitely fulfilling, there are no words to describe it until we experience it in reality. What we have is a shadow of it... only in the eternal kingdom will it be fully grasped.

Yet, the song that I listened to this morning just filled my heart with such a glad expectation of what it will be like.

The other night I listened to Edmund Chan's teaching entitled, "No Half Measures." It was a powerful teaching on how God so desires to empower us to fulfill the great commandment, which is called the Shema. It is direct in what it says:

You shall love the LORD your God 

with all your heart,

with all your soul,

and with all your strength.

Edmund Chan was so practical and so realistic in his message. When we come before God with the truth, and say to Him, "Lord I want to love You with all my heart, and with all my soul, and with all my strength... but I can't! I need Your help, Lord... help me to do that..." that is the very attitude the Lord is waiting for.

He steps in to help us.

In effect, that is what was on my heart as I prayed in my bedroom, about to go back to sleep. But there was something in the way I asked Him to help me, such a sense of helplessness and dependence on Him, that brought me running back to my prayer room. And as I listened to the song by Paul Wilbur, a renewed sense of divine purpose welled up in my heart.

I so desire to be the woman God created me to be. And as Edmund Chan had said in his message, let us not be content with half measures to be holy before God. We need to return to Him again and again, and returning to Him means acknowledging His Lordship over us, and removing all idols that stand in the way.

Removing all idols that stand in the way.

This really is where the problem lies. So this morning, I ask my Abba Father's help to help me get rid of whatever idol stands in the way of my walking in the assignment that He created me for.

I do not want to miss this... There is no doubt that each one of us was created for a divine purpose, a unique kingdom assignment that no other person can do. And I have been designed and equipped for that very purpose, and what a tragedy if I let the idols of my life get in the way of God's perfect plan for me.

He will not impose... He offers... He invites... but I have the freedom to choose.

It is for your own good that I ask you to love Me above all, I hear His still small voice.

How thankful I am for this special morning, that I did not miss out on what He wanted to say to me.

And so once again, I say, with fear and awe... Speak Lord, for your daughter is listening. I desire to obey, help me."