inside Your heart

There is one book in the Bible that was always a real  mystery to me. Song of songs (song of Solomon) held a poetic interest, but whenever I tried to read it, I could never really understand that much, in terms of my relationship with God. O yes, I could understand the image of the Bride (the Church) and the Bridegroom,  (Jesus Christ) but all the imagery...too much!! 

So, when a dear friend  turned to me on the night that I released the album "Fire of Love" and said "Ruth, I really believe that the next recording you will do, will somehow be based on the Song of Songs" my immediate reaction was "Well, that would really have to be God, because I don't understand that book at all!"   I put it out of my mind.  

Then a few months later I thought to myself, "OK, I'm going to try and read this again'  So I set my Bible on my keyboard, and began to read and sing. I got to the line where the Bridegroom says "Ah, you are beautiful My love"...and I began to sing......it was a love song like I've never sung before. Something was happening as these words took hold of my heart. 

Now I was hungry for more. I was beginning to sense God's heartbeat in this book, and I realised that there was a treasure in here that I had to uncover. It was not something that was going to be readily found.  A month or two later, I got hold of a couple of thick study guides to Song of Songs by Mike Bickle (Kansas City, IHOP) I devoured these books, as I worked through them, for the first time getting the understanding of all the imagery.

 I began to read my own story in this book, as the relationship between the Beloved and the Lover emerged.  It was like discovering a treasure chest, and it was as though God had thrown me headlong inside it and said, "Go and dig! "  Wherever I dug, there was rich rich treasure! My heart was bursting with a new energy and love for Jesus. Something was radically changing from the inside out, and there was a new passion in my heart for Jesus. It was an abandon to Him that I had never known before. Just the simple act of beginning this treasure hunt was changing my heart!

the next months, songs began to flow, as I began to express everything that was growing in my heart toward Jesus. Yes, He is the Bridegroom of the Church, but now I was realising that He is MY Bridegroom, and I am HIS Bride!  There is such a level of intimacy with God that I never would have thought possible.  I began to read some of the writings of St. Theresa, and St. John of the Cross, and realised that they had know this same kind of intimate  relationship. Written all those hundreds of years ago, I felt like I was reading my own journal! 

As the songs began to flow, and we began to sing them as a worship team, God was doing something in our hearts together. Each one of us was being touched by the reality of this intimacy that the Lord was calling us into. I began looking for God's heartbeat! I challenged our drummer to discover what His heartbeat sounds like. Our worship was changing.

 Throughout this album, you will hear the heartbeat ..sometimes it is the sound of our hearts beating with love for Him, but mostly it is His heart beating with love for us. I have come to believe that we can live our lives always within earshot of His heartbeat God longs to take us close to His side, and actually draw us right inside His heart. That is the place to be!  My heart's desire is to learn to live and do everything from inside His heart.