Falling in Love With Jesus

There is a song that goes like this:

Lord I long for your touch
To feel you deep in my soul
To sense your presence within
I feel like a dry river bed
Waiting for the water to flow

Warming Up Cold Hearts

Our hearts have grown cold and it is time that we fall in love again with Jesus. It’s time that Jesus really becomes our Bridegroom, not of His whole Bride or the Body of Christ out there but of our hearts. That is what I want to impart to you today.

What it Means to Fall in Love
You know I thought about falling in love. Every one of us knows what it means to fall in love.

You get all those feelings bubbling deep within. You feel the butterflies and you feel like people can say whatever they want. Everything is perfect! The world just takes on a whole new meaning when you are in love.

You know the feelings that I am talking about. But where do you stand with the Lord right now? You are likely saying,

“Here she comes with the feelings. It is just woman stuff. Do not include feelings with me. It’s for the women. They are weak and they like their feelings and emotions.”

But you know what? Jesus wants you to be like that woman that is so in love with Him. He wants you to be like that woman who can’t wait until He comes back so that you can snatch a moment away with Him. You are so busy doing things for Him that you can’t just spend time with Him.

The Most Important Thing
You know I have been in ministry now for a couple of years, and I think,

“It is the most amazing adventure with the Lord. You can minister for Him and minister to people.”

You see He moves and you experience things that other people don’t. But you can get so wrapped up doing the things for Him, that you forget what it is all about.

You stand there at the end of the day and say,

“Wow, didn’t I just preach such an awesome message! Lord did you see how I moved in the Spirit. Lord did you hear that I tongue I spoke in? Did you see it?”

The Lord says, “Yes I was there. I was waiting for you to come to me into the secret place afterwards so that I could spend time with you.”

You can get so wrapped up and forget the most important thing in all of it which is Him. I got convicted myself and thought,

“I am missing the most basic thing here.”

Back to Your First Love

In fact my message today is very basic and simple. It is just about going back to the first love with Jesus. It is going back to that person who didn’t just capture my heart because He is my Savior. He didn’t just capture my heart because He did all those things for me.

No I want to go back to that person that I met in the secret place. I looked in His eyes and it just cracked my heart.

That person is what I want to introduce to you today. I want to introduce Jesus your lover; yes Jesus your Savior, your redeemer and your everything. But more important I want to introduce you to just Jesus Himself.

If you are married I want you to think about when you fell in love. You may not be married yet, but you have surely also fallen in love also. Think of somebody that you like, then ask yourself,

“What was it about them that captured me so much?”

Why did you fall in love? Was it because they took the trash out for you every night? Was it because they cooked so well for you every night? Was it because they did all those things for you?

It wasn’t because of that was it? That is the wrong answer. It was one look from their eyes that did it. It was a touch or a smile.

For women I guess it is the eyes and the smile that do it. I don’t know what guys look at or what they fall in love with right away. Maybe it was the nice curves, I don’t know.

Going Beyond the Secret Place
Whatever it was, think about it. What was it with Jesus? What drew you with Jesus into the secret place?

As I said, yes He was your Savior. He still is your Savior who saved you from those things, but that is not what took you in. I think what He really wants to do with you again is to take you back into the secret place and then go beyond.

You see a lot of people only know Jesus as their Savior. They have never reached beyond. I see how they just stay on this level and they wonder why it is so hard to walk on with Jesus.

They wonder why it is so hard to make a decision. And when they are faced with a temptation they think,

“Oh Lord I know I shouldn’t do this. Sorry Lord, now I did it.”

But if you are so in love with Jesus, you never actually have to face that situation. You will never come to that place where you think,

“Lord, I don’t know how to face this but I really need your help.”

You are actually so in love that you think,

“You know I want to do everything He is asking of me. I am going to do everything and more because I love Him so much. How can I not lay down my life for Him?”

How to Fall in Love

That is where I want to be. I know you want to be there too. But how do you get there? How do you fall in love? Is it a principle? It is something that I can say,

“Okay, step one do this. Step two, step three.”

I don’t think that is the way it is. I’m not a good teacher so I wouldn’t even try to do that. I want to give you the heart of Jesus. I want you to close your eyes now and imagine that Jesus is standing in front of you right now.

I want you to look into His eyes because that is all that it takes. There is nothing that has to go through your mind. You don’t have to think,

“If I do it right I might fall in love. If I figure Him out and trust Him enough, I might fall in love with Jesus.”

No it is so simple. You just take one look into His eyes and you will fall.

Fear of Entering In

I feel that even now so many people are afraid to actually look into His eyes because they think,

“What will I see when I look in His eyes? Will I see condemnation? Will I see my father’s eyes? Will I see in His eyes those leaders who have hurt me? What will I see?”

I understand if you feel those things because those were things that you experienced. But I want you to go beyond that fear and trust that what you will see in those eyes is a love that you can’t even explain.

It is a love that you can’t even understand. It is a love that will set you free by just looking at it.

Maybe right now you are thinking,

“I don’t know if I can trust Him. I tried and I gave Him everything I had, but I don’t think this deep love thing is for me.”

Why don’t you give Him a try? Why don’t you just take one step? If you feel this is not for you, He will step back and say,

“I am going to wait here. I’m not going to push myself on you. I’m not going to hammer you down with my word and say you have to come. No, I am just going to wait here until you are ready. Then when you are ready I will give you my all and show you everything.”

Maybe you are in another group and you think,

“Yes I have been there. I know Jesus.”

But as I said earlier on, maybe your heart has grown cold. It is so simple to get back to that first love again.

You might say to me,

“I’m okay; I love Jesus more than anybody else. I am so in love you can’t imagine.”

If you say that then you just lied to me, because there is so much more that you can have from Jesus. If you think you have it all together, you are doing all these things for the Lord and you don’t need more I think you are very foolish.

There is so much more that you can have with the Lord. There is so much more that He wants to give to you.

I feel this strongly right now. Do not throw away what the Lord wants to give to you. Do not think that you have arrived and it is all okay.

Seeing Jesus in You

Jesus wants to give you more. He wants to take you in so that you can have more; so that He can do more through you and give you what He wants to give you.

Unless you can tell me that when you walk down the road everybody that walks by you says, “Hello Jesus,” I do not think you have arrived yet.

You know last night I walked around the complex where we live. I met some people on the walk and said hello to them.

The people here are really friendly. It is pretty easy here to start a conversation. But after I walked by those people I thought,

“What did those people see in me? Did they see me; the broken or foolish me? Or did they even see something small of Jesus?”

I think that is what we really should be like.

You know it is great going out there and witnessing to people. It is great telling them about the Lord. But how about being the Lord for people? How about walking down the road and being Jesus when He just passed by?

That is what He wants to give you and to bring back into His church. It isn’t just the doing but the being. It is having people saying to you,

“There is something different about this person. It isn’t because he talks nicely or says the right words like hallelujah and I am blessed. No, it is because I sensed a presence in him and through him.”

People should be able to sense that without you even having to open your mouth.

I don’t know about you but I really want that. And I know there are so many people out there who have the same desire. Perhaps right now you say in your heart,

“I want this but I don’t know how to get it. I don’t know what I have to do in order to get it.”

God is going to pour this out as we heard in the Word. He is going to pour His Spirit out so that we can become really for once a church that is set on the hill.

Giving the Lord More

Is it going to cost you something? I would be lying to you if I said no. I would be foolish to even say no because His Word says,

Pick up your cross and follow me.

Picking up your cross means you just let everything go that stands in the way. But some people will likely say,

“Ugh there the message comes again about the nails in my hands and I have to hang on the cross. It means I have to let go of all the things I don’t want to let go of.”

No it doesn’t mean that; not when you are in love with Jesus. Then you say,

“Do you want something more Lord? Can I give you anything else? Can I go a second mile for you, because that is what I would love to do?

One mile is not enough for me Lord. I want to go two, three or four miles for you. I want to give you my everything. Let me run around the block many times if that is what you want. Let me carry this cross and another cross if that is what you want.”

Being Broken Before Him

You know I am sharing this message with you now. And yes my words are hard. But I can’t lie and deny what it is going to be like. I cannot say it is all going to be okay and just wonderful.

No being in love hurts sometimes. Being in love sometimes means you have to let go of your ideas for the other person. It means the other person means more to you doesn’t it?

I have gone through a brokenness that you cannot imagine. But in that brokenness I have to tell you that I have fallen in love with Jesus more than I did on the day I got saved.

I thought that back there that He was my everything. But I look at the last week now and I think,

“Wow, He really has become my everything. There is nothing more than Jesus! There is nothing more than His Holy Spirit my best friend. He is the one who can be with me, who can minister to me and who can carry me through.”

Just Love Him

If you haven’t experienced that I want you to reach out to the Lord and say,

“I want more. I can see I am missing something. I am missing that part of my life.”

I want to take you back again to where you fell in love with Him. To where it is not about what He does for you or did for you, where it is just about being with Him.

It is sitting in the secret place with Him and where nobody else is. It is just you and Him.

You know before I shared this message we had a good worship. But for me worshiping with others is not the same. Yes you get into the glory and into the awe and you worship Him. But when you do that in your room and nobody else is there, it takes on a whole new meaning.

It is like it is you and Him and you can tell Him how wonderful He is. You can tell Him how beautiful His eyes are. You can say,

“Lord I just love your smile.”

You don’t get that in the group though – or not very often because there are other people around you. You may feel you have to put up a front, to sing in pitch and you have to get everything right.

But if it is just you and Him who cares how you sing or dance? Who cares what you look like or how foolish your words are?

If you love someone you say the most stupid things to the other person. Afterwards you might catch it and think,

“Oh no I wish I could hide from them now.”

But when you are in the moment it just comes out of your heart.

You Are Precious to Jesus

That is what Jesus wants to do with you. I want to tell you that He is so in love with you that He wants to tell you those things.

But how often have you listened to Him? How often have you sat there and heard Him saying to you,

“I really love you. I think you have such amazing eyes and such amazing lips. I really think you have the most beautiful face ever.”

That is not so spiritual is it? But you know what? He is in love with you. It is exactly what He wants to tell you. He wants to tell you those things because you are so precious in His eyes.

You are not just precious for what you are doing, but you as a person are so precious.

Don’t ever think you have to do something to get that from Him. He looks at you, and one look from your eyes and He is captured. One look from your eyes and just a tiny love you might have for Him has captured His heart for you for ever.

I find it hard to understand this. And if you try to grasp it with your mind you just kind of lose that moment. You lose the pureness of it and what He really wants to tell you.

Sometimes it is not even the words that matter. Sometimes it is just looking at Him. Sometimes it is just being there with Him, staring into His eyes and losing yourself.

If I can’t do that I think to myself,

“How can I go out and conquer the world?”

Yes I can hope His Spirit will be with me. Yes I can walk in His power and stand in it for a while. I cannot live like that, but I can live in the secret place. I can be in love with Jesus every single day of my life.

I can live there for every minute of my day and not do anything if I have to and I will not be bored.

Loving You As a Bridegroom

When is the last time you did that? When is the last time you picked up a guitar or clapped your hands and just expressed your love to Him? He is waiting for us to get to that place again. He is longing for His Bride to get there again.

He is not condemning you and saying,

“Please can you do something. Please can you dance for me now and show me your beauty.”

No he is not doing that. But He is longing like a bridegroom waiting for His bride.

You know I thought about something that it says in the Song of Solomon,

You have stolen my heart, my lover; my bride. You have stolen my heart with just one look of your eyes.

When I read that before I preached this message I imagined a bridegroom standing before the altar when the bride comes in. Is he looking at her and thinking,

“I wonder what she thinks right now. I wonder if I am doing everything right.”

No, he is just looking at her and he is just gone. I don’t think there is anybody who is not just in awe when the bride comes in. The only time it may happen is if they think they are marrying the wrong person or have made a big mistake.

That is exactly the way Jesus is right now. He is standing looking at you and He is just in awe of you. As much as you stand in awe of Him, He stands in awe of you.

Giving You Everything

This is not a one way street where we have to do everything for Him. We don’t have to do everything, and if we do it right we get something back.

No, you should be in love with Him, but He is in love with you. He is already there. And you know His desire right now is not just to pour out His blessing on everybody. It is not just to see everybody growing and to get more people into the church.

No His biggest desire is to capture your heart right now again. It is to give you so much in your heart and to spend just the time with you.

That is what you have been created for. It is not to say,

“I am walking in my calling. I’m doing this thing for the Lord and I’m doing that. Lord everything that counts right now is my calling.”

No it isn’t. Everything that counts is you and Him. It is that simple.

Ministering to the Hurts

I can’t even share more with you now. I just feel it coming again and again; and I feel such a love for the Lord and such a drawing to everybody out there.

God wants to give you more because we need more. God wants to pour out His love and His Spirit on all those dry bones, on that dry river bed and the dry wilderness. He wants to pour it out on every single hurt within your heart.

I see those hearts right now. They are yearning for it. They have been going around searching for the love. They have been going around being hurt by people who said things like,

“Jesus is not like that.”

Or they have said,

“Jesus doesn’t want you like that.”

I am coming against those words within you right now. I come against those lies within you and say,

“Jesus wants you more than what you think He does. He wants more for you and He wants to draw you even close than what you thought possible.”

I come against all the lies that have been wrapping you up and I break them down on in Jesus’ name. I stand against all the fears and the hurts. I speak to them right now in the name of Jesus.

And Holy Spirit, I ask right now that you come upon all those desires in your people that have been hidden away deep in their hearts. I ask you to come with your fire right now in the name of Jesus. I ask you to breathe upon those dry bones and bring them back to life.

The Lord says to you,

“I will bring my fire and my power as you have reached out for. But more than my power and my fire I will breathe my love upon you my child. For you have searched for me and you have looked for me in so many places. But you have not looked into my eyes says the Lord.

And now as you are open to listen to me; as you are open to receive and to look again into my eyes, I will reveal to you my very heartbeat my child.

In this way you and me can become one. We can stand as one and we can be one. And you can go out into this world and not just act like me, but you can be me says the Lord.”

I thank you Lord that you can just wipe away all those hurtful things. I thank you that you can pick up all the tears that I see in the Spirit. I just speak your healing over all those hurts and those tears. Lord they are so precious to you.

Thank you Lord for that heart that really ministers now to each person. Thank you Lord for drawing them into that secret place. And for all those people who don’t know you Lord I ask that you give a new revelation of yourself.

I ask that you give a new revelation of that secret place with you. No matter how you do it I thank you Lord for doing it. You know their hearts and you know how to get them there.

I just see the Lord standing there with His arms open wide. He is saying,

“Come to me. Don’t try to figure it out and don’t feel you have to give me something.”

He is not expecting anything from you. He is not expecting a perfect person to come. You can come in your filthy rags and He is not going to push you away. He will never ever do that.

You can be so filthy or stinky before Him right now and He will still be in love with you. No matter what you look like He still looks at you and says,

“I want you afresh.”

Thank you Lord for doing this. Amen.

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