"The 2:30 a.m. Visitor   God wants you to know He is crazy about you

  It happened again last night. It is Sunday, November 24th, nearing midnight. I plan on getting some good sleep and begin my workday fresh tomorrow at 6:00 am. But before I turned out the lights, I had this strong desire to worship the Lord in dance, inparticular, the V'ahavta prayer by Messianic Psalmist Marty Goetz. This prayer is taken from Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37. It is the hallmark of the Jewish tenets of faith, and Jesus (Yeshua) said it is the greatest commandment to 'love your God with all your heart, and soul and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself'. As I dance before the Lord, with my eyes closed, I can tell there is a spectrum of color and a bright lightness in the room. I can feel God watching me. I know that sounds weird, but I don't know how else to say it. There is a strong sense of quiet awe: I turn the CD off, and I get into bed, and I know for certain, I am not alone in this room. Like a favorite cologne whose scent you can't forget, this presence floods my spirit with the awareness that the Rose of Sharon (Song of Songs 2:1) has entered this place. I can't even move. I don't know if I should pray, or just lie still. This strong scent of majesty has entered this place, and I don't know what to do. I don;t know how long I lay motionless like this. I just couldn't move. So I wait. I listen. I say nothing. I don't move a muscle. And then, I feel a wet teardrop on my face. It wasn't my tear that hit my face; it was the Lord's. This is all true what I write, not one word here is imagined. This happened as I said. I then heard the Lord (in my spirit, for He speaks to our 'spirit in truth' - that is the worship He is looking for) say some things to me, which are not important to relay here. It was personal. It was precious. It brought life. He did let me know that He has waited my whole life, yes, all these years, to bring me to this place. I was not ready before. I thought I was, but I wasn't. Grace had not finished her work. There were bits of me that the Potter had to smash on the wheel where He molds the clay. I could not have stood in that pain before. I would not have lasted. I was not ready. I had not suffered enough, nor been broken enough, for Him to speak to me like this. Suffering is the only true measure of exchange that is sufficient payment for the grace which is to follow. 

  I remembered that only months ago, the Lord asked me one night, as I was crying out to Him, "WHY LORD" ...what had I not done to save ____, what could I have done. There are always why's in a soul that has not yet seen what the fire of God's plans will do. God's fire burns out the dross. I remember only months ago He asked me "Liz, how much do you trust me". I knew He wasn't asking because He didn't know the answer. He was asking to show me my heart. Did I trust Him when nothing makes sense anymore? Now I see His plan. It is beyond my comprehension to take this in. It is so beautiful. I see Him smash to pieces all the plans of the enemy. What seemed like loss is really gain. What seemed like judgment is really mercy. He has not only redeemed me, He has re-dressed me and repackaged me into something better than I was before. Loss takes you to a depth of compassion that is breathtaking. Sorrow catapults you to a place of joy that is sublime. The Beatitudes (Mt. 5) mean more to me now than ever, because I know how poor in spirit I really am. The more of yourself you lose, the more of Him you can take in. I am not ashamed of gospel of Christ, it is the true power of salvation.  (Romans 1:16) If being so desperately in need of His presence is what welcomed Him through the doorpost of my home at 2:30 a.m. last night, then I am thrilled to be this needy. I know this for certain, my faith life can never go back to business-as-usual. I have tasted the thrilling kiss of a Messiah who is waiting for a bride, and I can never go back to who I was before.

     Maybe it's the desperateness of life's situations that bring us to a place where we are emptied of our own ways, plans and schemes to rescue our own life, that grace does her finest work. I know I have come through a season of my life where I have delivered a man-child in prayer (Revelation 12). The man-child The Book of Revelation speaks of is the remnant bride, who has come through the wilderness, the tough seasons of life, and weathered the storms. Only God Himself can keep us in the storm. Prayer and passion for a God we cannot see, but a Son we cannot live without is what births the man-child in us. What the Spirit of God is looking for - what He wants more than anything else, is true sons and daughters, and a true bride. He is hungry to feed the hungry hearts. He is thirsting to satisfy parched lips. "Let all who are thirsty, come" He says. He is looking hard for those who know they are nothing without Him, and who have come to the end of it all, and realize, if He isn't with me, I am not going. If He isn't in this, I don't want it. It is knowing we are miserable and unfulfilled and our lives won't be worth living anymore, unless His beauty, His presence, His love, shows up in us. The old wineskin just won't cut it anymore. We have been ripped, torn, stretched and molded beyond what we could bare, and we (our flesh) hated every minute of it: but now we see the Potter, the garment maker, He knew what He was doing all along. He purposely tried to kill us, and He succeeded. And how wonderful it is to be dead to what was. He now resurrects us to a new us: the presence and scent and cologne of God poured into us makes us smell like heaven: we carry His presence and it is beautiful to behold.

  I don't know how long He stayed. I don't remember when He left. I only know the next 2 hours (until the alarm went off) I felt like I was being held in still motion. It was the most tranquil and euphoric feeling that has no words. I am aware of a sensation that I can only describe as if I had slept in a tub of liquid love: if this is the Peace of God, I can't get enough. Surely, the Tzar Shalom (Prince of Peace) had to be here last night. What else could it be? I don't know how I can taste any more and still function. I am like the lovesick bride in Song of Solomon. This was so worth the wait. I get my thoughts in order, get dressed and out the door. I need to drop my car off at the mechanic for a tune-up. I arrive at the garage at 8 a.m. I look at the people in the garage and can literally feel God's love for them. I think to myself  'if they only knew....if they only knew God was crazy about them". If they could feel what I am feeling right now, they would just melt. And I say a silent prayer in my heart that they will. Somehow. Someway, when the time is right, their soul will be flooded too. God prepares us to receive Him in waves. You can't throw an infant into the ocean and expect them not to drown: you can't run into God and live unless His spirit is doing the work of grace to make you able to stand in His love. Love has a rhythm and measure to it. It is like a dance. When all the moves are right, and the tempo is pitch perfect, and everything works in sync, it is beautiful to watch. God's love is like that. He meets us where we live, where we are, and He works from there. And I know a whole mess of people are about to experience this oozing tsunami of love from heaven. Even as I write this blog, I hear in my ear the Lord tell me 'It's Time". It's time for my people to get their bridal raiment on. I am coming to love them. I am coming to dress them for my Son. I will pour myself into all who want to taste and see that I am a good God. Get ready". I know that I cannot live without this love. I have tasted something so sweet, that dead works and religion will never do it for me again. So, if you remember the lyrics to that great OJay's song form the 70's. "Love Train', I am inviting you to 'get aboard that love train'. The conductor will soon be pulling into your station, and He wants you on board.