Corner 1 | Receiving His Refreshment

of the I Love You Room, we see the God of Refreshment and the God of the Rain. We don’t come out of duty or hardness. We come with love and attentiveness. We come with affection. We come with humility. We come with a posture that is so filled with appreciation for His value and worth. We come holding His hand, looking into His eyes. We come with this sweet communion looking across the table at our best Friend who has always been there, and who's been the Abundantly Available One, our Passionate Pursuer.

We are overwhelmed and refreshed by His love.  We drink to our fullest capacity of His Rain and the wine of His love (Song of Songs 1:2-4). We allow Him to correct our perceptions of ourselves so we can accept the greatness of His Calling. We appreciate His Humbling Love in the way He corrects us. He corrects us gently as children, fondly as friends, nobly as royalty.​

"What shall I render to the Lord for all of His benefits towards me? I will take up the cup of my salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord.” -Psalms 116:12-13

​The Psalmist says, “How do I please a good Father? I hold up my cup of salvation and ask for more.”

The God of Refreshment wants to invite us, His children, into holding up the cup of our salvation and asking for more. A good child goes to the Father and says, “More.  More of Your love.  More of Your Presence.”  A good child is good at receiving love because their spirit needs to be soaked. Their spirit needs to be drenched.

"Isn’t there a father for the rain? Or who has begotten the drops of dew Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, that an abundance of water may cover you?” - Job 38:28,34

There’s an invitation for us to lift up our voice to the clouds and have the Father release an abundance of rain of His presence over us.  He has a refreshing rain that soaks our spirits in His love and brings forth a culture of life instead of a culture of religion.  His rain brings refreshing communion, then partnership.  It's loveliness, a fresh burning of love--freedom from disturbing emotions, moving into unintelligible peace beyond comprehension, where the ugly clouds fade away and this brightness of our God, this radiance, comes forth.  

​Nehemiah 9:17-25 says that God's people did not obey because they did not remember His great goodness. They had been given cisterns which were already dug-- a great inheritance in the ground which were then filled with rain.  Rain helped those wells spring up!  Rain brings up true inheritance. He’ll rain on us, and we’ll remember His wonders forever. He wants to bring us to a place where we uncap those cisterns together. And we’ll help others to uncap their own cisterns and promises that He has for them.

"By edict of the king, no limits were placed on the drinking, for the king had instructed all his palace officials to serve each man as much as he wanted." - Esther 1:8

Everybody drank of the royal wine, and their capacity started to stretch.

He has refreshed us with His Rain and then we get to drink with Him, and He drinks with us in an appropriate sense.  We get to come into that place of harmony and nearness with Him. We give Him a goblet of wine to drink of, and He reaches across the table and He gives us the goblet of wine to drink of, and then we drink. Then He asks us how much more do we want?  We drink more and more of His Presence, more of His Love, to our fullest capacity.

"Your love is sweeter than wine."  - Song of Solomon 1:2

This helps us respond to circumstances differently. We obtain an "I-don’t-care" spirit in an appropriate way because there’s a Greater-Than love and a Greater-Than presence. The Father then comes to oil us with His refreshing and comforting love. We had felt His living water start to come through us already. Then He oils us. We get to feel the hot honey of His presence within, that goes into those crevices of our being. We start to get baptized, immersed, and saturated in His love. The oil and the rain fill our cup until it overflows, and delightful and delectable feelings start to come forth.

This gentle mode of correction is how God takes us from a place where we cannot actualize His calling to the place where we are perfectly in sync with Him, carrying it out.  The blessing of the One Who Passionately Pursues us is a partnership where the Bride bends in love and willingness for the Bridegroom.  Just the thrill of hearing his voice, the prospect of seeing His eyes causes her to change what she's doing.  This is humbling love.  The Lord's passion for His Bride to be partnering with Him, wed to Him, causes our hearts to thaw.  We change in response to His kindness and devotion because His oil has permeated in and softened all our hard places.

Corner 2 | Miracle of Appreciative Eyes

Here Jesus gives you the gift of the “Miracle of Appreciative Eyes.”  You will be able to see Jesus, yourself, and people with His appreciative eyes.‍

Appreciative Eyes for Jesus‍

In John 11, Mary of Bethany's brother Lazarus dies and she becomes hurt and confused. She loved him with all her heart. She essentially told Jesus (v.32), “If You would have cared, You would have come earlier. Don't You care about me?”

There is a great need to be understood by God.  We really want Him to understand--actually need Him to. There’s an assumption, however, that He doesn’t understand.  We must believe the best about Him. We must walk through our pain loving Him regardless of circumstances.

So Martha came to her sister Mary. She took her aside and said: “The Master is here, and He’s calling for you.” Even in Mary’s pain and perplexity, she got up and ran to Him (v.29, 31).  So part of her must have sensed, “He wants me. He’s calling for me. He wants to call me near in this place where I’m hurt and confused.”  Jesus is always wanting to teach us this higher way of love.  You  must never be distracted by your pain or accuse Him of the pain. When you are hurt, you must still trust and love Him, and never take your eyes off of Him. He is awed by the beauty in your eyes and your love for Him. He looks not at the wrong in you, but at your beauty and love because you're innately valuable to Him.

Mary's running to Him showed that she had Appreciative Eyes for Jesus.  She heard His heart and would later become the one who gave up her wealthy inheritance to anoint Him with perfume before His death (v.2). In all your weakness, just love and see Him. Never allow pain or perplexity to steal one minute of love.  Understand that, through your pain, He is on your side.‍

Appreciative Eyes for Lazarus... and for Thomas‍

But there's more! John 11 tells the miracle of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead, but this isn't just a miracle--it's a mystery!  

Commentaries on John 11 are all about the miracle of raising Lazarus, a dead person, back to life. Yet that had happened before in 2 Kings 4 when Elisha raised a dead child for a beloved widow.  But there is a mystery in John 11 that Jesus reveals. It seems really small, but it’s not. It’s everything.

He says, “I’m going to go through Judea” (Jn. 11:7).  There is a prophetic truth about death and sleeping He wants to reveal there (Jn. 11:9-10).  Jesus says He’s going to go through Judea because, “Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may wake him up” (Jn. 11:11).

Then His disciples rise up and tell him not to go through Judea because there people had threatened to stone Him (Jn. 11:8).  They basically say, “Lord, You have a great calling and a great commission! You’re going to change the earth, and You’re going to go through an area where they can kill You?” But Jesus says, “Lazarus is my friend. The one that I love is sick. I go to him.” The apostles resist Him again saying, “If he’s sick, he’ll get better” (Jn. 11:12). Jesus says, “No, he’s dead” (Jn. 11:14).

Then... Thomas responds and says, “Let us go and die with Him also” (Jn. 11:16).  Now everybody today calls this one “Doubting Thomas!” I believe it is the exact opposite. Thomas turned out to be the apostle of love; he went to India and had amazing love. There are times when he doubted. But in regards to loving and hoping in others, I believe something had been sealed in that man’s heart in that moment.

The other apostles were concerned with the greatness of the call--the Garden for All. They considered Lazarus to be a no-name and didn’t care enough because he couldn't help them build anything. Jesus not only saw His Great Commission-- His Garden for All-- but He saw the "flower for one." He unveiled to us a mystery, a beauty, and understanding called "the Value of One." Jesus believed this one, Lazarus, was created in His Father’s image. He was ready to passionately pursue him so he would rise to new life. This one man was formed intricately by Jesus and His Father, and Jesus was willing to risk His life for that one.  He had Appreciative Eyes for Lazarus.

Now Lazarus did not have any grand calling that we know of--just brother, friend, etc.  Yet his worth was indescribable because of the beauty and worth of a human being in His Eyes.   How much of this great mystery which has been revealed by our Passionate Pursuer has been diminished here on the earth? When we get to heaven, He’ll ask us, “How did you treat one another? How did you love one another? How did you stop your busy-ness to care for another’s heart?”  He'll tell us He hopes we passionately pursued people because they are His greatest treasure on the earth (Deut. 7:6).

I believe that Thomas looked at the eyes of Jesus and saw the way He loved this one. He saw Jesus look over that region of Judea that He was going to walk across and possibly get stoned; and perhaps prophetically saw the journey of the Cross that was coming.  When Thomas saw it, he said, “I could die for that. I could lay down my life for that kind of love, the love that I see in His eyes.”

Thomas saw Him when He said it... Did you see Him when He said it? He’s far more hopeful, loving, kind than we can ever dare imagine.

Receive the Gift‍

In this Corner, you can receive the Miracle of a Heart of Appreciative Eyes for the Lazarus people. They look like the walking dead. They may stink in the grave. Yet in the I Love You Room, Jesus extends an invitation for you to not just "look after" the Lazarus people, but to "look at" them. You will not just look over their heads; you will look into their eyes, and with your Gift of Appreciative Eyes, they will come alive!  Your love will raise them from the dead.  With this miracle gift, you will be able to look at them with such value, and they will become the great, noble men and women that they are.

Oh that our hearts would be fresh and alive for human beings!  Their thoughts, their feelings, their worth, their value--and that we would be ready to launch them greater than ourselves. Love comes alive, conquers, and is stronger than death! People will look at your eyes of love, and be so inspired.  Be the one to bring out the diamonds in the rough.  God so loved the world that He gave His whole life for us, and we get to do the same.

Practical Application

Imagine seeing Jesus' Appreciative Eyes when He said He would go to Lazarus--even at the risk of Him dying.  What do you see in Him as He says it?  Ask Jesus if there is anything He wants you to do to see more with His Appreciative Eyes towards the Garden for All, or for the Flower for One.

Corner 3 | The Passionate PursuTe

This is a deep experience of the goodness of God and encounter of Him. Our greatest gift is our hearts and the ability to receive His love. All He wants for us is to open ourselves to receive His love and see how he passionately pursues us every day of our lives. This is the revelation he wants to give us in this corner. He wants us to cultivate oil and intimacy with Him.

Living in the garden with the Lord

Bob has a story about the garden of the yellow house.  He went into the lobby and there was this wild garden with plenty of wonderful flowers and vegetation. The Lord takes him upstairs to see it and get a bird's eye view of this beautiful garden. The garden was so radiant and the Lord told him that this garden was his heart. Bobs heart had all these things growing in it. There's a scene where Jesus sits on a bench and holds out a rose and says to Bob, “Take the Rose. The Rose is an invitation to receive my love every day. Every day I sit on this bench and hold out a rose to your heart and I want you to take it”. It was like if a man who offers the woman a rose and she doesn’t take it, it is a rebuff, but if she does take it then romance can keep going. The moral of the story is to not get too busy to take the rose that The Lord offers us every day. We don’t want to get so busy that we ignore Jesus on the bench and don’t receive the rose of His love. 

The whole book of Song of Songs is about this kind of love:

“Draw me into your heart. We will run away together into the king´s cloud-filled chamber” (SoS 1:4 PT)

“Fasten me upon your heart as a seal of fire forevermore. This living, consuming flame will seal you as my prisoner of love. My passion is stronger than the chains of death and the grave, all-consuming as the very flashes of fire from the burning heart of God. Place this fierce, unrelenting fire over your entire being.” (SoS 8:6 PT)

“The melody of the man I love awakened me. I hear His knock at my heart´s door as He pleaded with me: Arise my love. Open your heart, my darling, deeper still to me. Will you receive me this dark night? There is no one else but you, my friend, my equal.” (SoS 5:2 PT)

‍

Practical Application

Come and adore the passionate pursuing God today:‍

1.Micah 7:18 (amp) -Who is a God like You, who forgives wickedness And passes over the rebellious acts of the remnant of His possession? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He [constantly] delights in mercy and lovingkindness 

Adoration Prayer God, you are the passionate pursuer of my heart and there is no one else like you. You are the God who loves me without limitation. You are quick to forgive and you do not hold anger against me. You are always approachable and have pursued me even when I have rebelled against you. You delight to show mercy because you have a heart of loving kindness and your love knows no end. Thank you for constantly pursuing me all throughout day and helping me to see all the ways you love me today and every day. 

Isaiah 30:18 (amp) Therefore the Lord waits [expectantly] and longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you.[a]For the Lord is a God of justice; Blessed (happy, fortunate) are all those who long for Him [since He will never fail them].

Adoration Prayer God, I adore you as the passionate pursuer who waits patiently for me and never stops pursuing me with your love. You are the God who longs to be gracious and have compassion on me in every moment of the day. No matter what the challenge, mistake, or sorrow comes my way inlife, I can confidently trust that if I look to you in love and trust, you will bless me. You never fail God, and I thank you for the great joy and love you pour out over me every day of my life. 

3.Psalm 91: 4-6 (NLT)-He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.5Do not be afraid of the terrors of the night,nor the arrow that flies in the day.6Do not dread the disease that stalks in darkness, nor the disaster that strikes at midday

Adoration Prayer: God, I adore you and your passionate love that keeps me safe from all harm. Thank you that you cover me in the shelter of your wings where you promise to be my armor and protection from fear, anger, hopelessness, and depression. I will walk confidently in your love and not allow myself to give into the fears of all the bad things that could happen to me. I will look to you and trust that no matter what happens, you are the passionate lover of my heart and you work all things for my good as I trust and rest in your loving arms. 

‍

Corner 4 | The Love Celebration

In this corner we learn to hand off the rose to others. It is the celebration of what I've entered into. It is an agreement you make, like in a marriage, to live in that place: To adore Him and be secured in His love until we're unshakeable. He is revealing to us what it means to be His Bride, launched into the world with love, power and celebration. To make cities radiant and put hands of others into His hands.

The maid of Honor

Have I ever told you the story of when I was the Maid of Honor in a Wedding? One day when I ran into an old friend while I was out running my cleaning business. Her husband was dying of cancer and she asked me and my brother to come pray for him.  When he died I told her that if she ever got married again I would be her maid of honor... So,one day I got a call...

When I got that call God said to me, “This is all you ever wanted to do.” I saw how I had become a partner to Him in preparing the bride for Him and this was what He had called me to do – to put other´s hands into His hand and prepare the bride like the Esther Journey. What happened to me on the stage was that I pretended that I was His bride; and then all the celebration of the people was seen all across the city. It became my wedding day with Him!

Song of Songs 5:16 "Yes, He is altogether lovely."

ADORATION: GOD MY BRIDEGROOM

YOU ARE. My destiny is in You and Your splendor, my Bridegroom, Jesus Christ. Thank You for the commitment You have to me. Forever I will live in You, in Your victory, in Your joy, and filled with Your love. One day all will see and know Your glory, that glory that You've given to me. Thank You. That glory which the Father gave You, Jesus, You have given to me, and You desire that I am with You to behold Your glory. This is the destiny for all who will receive Your love.

Daily You invite me to encounter and experience Your heart. My Beloved, You anchor me in Your love, and I'll not be tossed about by wrong thinking that leaves me vulnerable to attack.

You sanctified me, because You love me. You cherish me. You desire me. I am the One You want for all time. I believe You, my Bridegroom, and I run to You, even in my weakness.

Of all the created order, You have set Your people apart for Yourself. You are most invested in me, Jesus, as You are in all Your people. You care. You care about my heart. You are preparing me to be presented unto Yourself on that coming day.

Thank You for the blessings You continually bestow upon me in this life. You have given me righteousness and You are arraying me in righteous choices, so that one day I'll be arrayed in spotless finery. You've washed me by the water of Your Word, for it is here, You enter my heart and mind, and come back, out of my mouth, as my love offering to You (Psalm 19:7).

Thank You that You are there in my words as I speak Your words back to You. As I think and say what You are saying, life explodes in my inner being, and revelation comes forth. Your truth stuns me as I meditate on Your commitment to me, to share Your throne, Your secrets, Your heart, Your beauty, and all that You are. You are fairer than all others (Psalm 14:2).

As I fail, in my weakness, I am unafraid of You, and instead of running away from You, I run into Your loving arms. Thank You for Your glorious leading love. I'll not define myself by my struggles, God, but by who You say I am. You are my Bridegroom! I will honor You by expressing and meditating on what You say, and what You feel.

Shame is not Your desire for me. You made me Your righteousness. You gave me Your dignity. I am betrothed to You, and You want me. You, my altogether lovely and good God, desire me. Beautiful One, I adore You. Thank You for Your immense love for me. Your loveliness transcends all perfection (Colossians 1:17), and all else pails without You.

Though I'm dark, You say I am lovely (Song of Solomon 1:5), and I drink in Your life-giving wisdom, my Beloved Husband, for it is better than all the trappings of wealth; and nothing I could ever do, or ever have, holds a candle to You (Proverbs 8:11).

God, my Bridegroom, You equip me to enjoy You, to be in right alignment with You. What pleasure fills my soul. Even in my failure, as I look into Your eyes, You are preparing me to have no blemish, to be presented perfect and glorious to You.

My Beloved, I am Your inheritance and You are chief among ten thousand (Song of Solomon 5:10).

YOU WERE. God, like a curtain, You stretched out the heavens, and You blanketed me with Your glorious love. Thank You. (Acknowledge to Him that as you first looked into His eyes, and as You began to learn of His all-encompassing lovely nature, His grace overwhelmed your heart.)

YOU WILL BE. Jesus, You died, and set me apart for Yourself, forever. Thank You for the power of this, my eternal Bridegroom. (Declare that You have a destiny in Him, sure and final, apart from all your failures and disappointments.)

Practical application

ASK GOD: How are you celebrating me in your love? What kind of love celebration do you want us to throw this week?

‍