God is into relationship. There is nothing more important to Him than our spending time with Him. This is the beginning and end of all things in our lives. This intimacy with God is to intensely burn in our hearts. It is a fire that burns inside of us. This is not a dull softness. Fire burns! God wants us to have such a burn in us that it catches things on fire. His love is fire that is all consuming. When His love is poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit there is a burn within us that causes us to want to come back to God for more of His life and presence.
The heart was created for passion and intimacy with God. When people don’t have this intimacy with God within them they turn to other things to try to fill that spot. This intense intimacy is not a mushy lovey kind of expression, but rather that which carries an authority, power and burning that is threatening to the devil. There is also a covenant associated with this kind of intimacy. It is not double-minded and has no opt-out.
Set me as a seal upon your heart,
Song of Solomon 8:6
As a seal upon your arm;
For love is as strong as death,
Jealousy as cruel as the grave;*
Its flames are flames of fire,
A most vehement flame.
Many waters cannot quench love,
Nor can the floods drown it.
If a man would give for love
All the wealth of his house,
It would be utterly despised.
Set Me As A Seal
Two times in this verse it says “set me as a seal”. This refers to permanence. This says, “I’m not going anywhere”, “I’m hooked”, “I’m Yours”, “You got me where you want me”, so go ahead and “burn me on your heart and arm,mark me on your very being and person“. Just as Jesus said, “The Father and I are One”. We too become one with God in this commitment and dedication in this awakening to His love. When God gives us an encounter with His love, with who He is or opens up our eyes to see things we have never seen before in a dimension that we have never experienced before then we are taken to another place. In his place there is such an awakening that it is addicting. With this it evokes a response from us that“there is no other place I’d rather be!”
Eye Opening Encounters
Just as Jacob had the experience with the Angel and the ladder of heaven exclaiming, “This is none other than the house of God!” His eyes were opened to a realm that he had not experienced up to that point. Where life may seem hard, mundane and difficult, all of the sudden he is shocked with an encounter from the heavenly realm of God. Now things are different. His eyes are enlarged as he responds to this amazing encounter with God’s realm.
Paul encouraged us to set our sights on things above. It is in this infatuation with God’s realm rather than the dullness of the earthly that we can then live from that place of His Kingdom. It is our inheritance to live from the original realm where all things came from. All that we see comes from what is invisible to the natural eye. This is the place God wants us in touch with because it is here that depths of intimacy are awakened in our hearts. It is in His Kingdom realm that the fire of his intense intimacy is released into our being. Getting in touch with God in His realm is required for us to have notable experiences with Him. It is not far away from us but is readily accessible because of the blood of Christ. He opened the way for us to enter boldly into this place of deepest intimacy with God.