The preface to Watchman Nee’s book says: “Spiritual fellowship in the secret place is such a holy thing that it should be sealed.” It should be sealed. But it isn’t, because we are invited into what is sacred. To be oneself with the Lord is joy unspeakable. To put that in words is a process.
In His earthly ministry, I don’t believe Jesus ever speaks of His having a spouse, though He refers to Himself as a bridegroom. He never refers directly to a bride in any of His wedding supper parables, nor does He assign to her a role in them. After His resurrection, now so glorious and fearful a sight that even John the Beloved falls on his face, Christ never mentions her Himself, nor is He seen with her there. John is shown these things by an angel.
It might be safe to assume that the Lord does not easily reveal or often mention the things that are the most precious to Him. It might be possible that when Christ warned us, “Do not give what is holy to the dogs,” He was, even at that time, holding some cards close pretty close to His chest. In a matter of speaking.
The human family: husband, wife, father, mother and child, are living breathing metaphors for the glory of God. The boundaries around marriage and family are clear and unchanging because they are the highest living symbols of something which in its purest essence is ineffable. Which means it is too holy to be put into words. If the symbols, as living expressions in which we particpate, are themselves sacred, what must be the spiritual reality which the metaphors both reveal and veil?
I will talk first about the Lord’s Father.
What does it mean that Jesus is the Son? In the Trinity, He is not the Father, He is not the Holy Spirit, He is the Son. Doesn’t part of being a son mean that you are the child? You may be the grown child, but you are still the child. And even grown children appreciate love and affection from their parents.
Furthermore, we know that the Son of God does whatever He sees His Father doing. We know that He’s the expression of the Father. And what does He see the Father doing?
No one has ever seen God [C God the Father, who is pure spirit; 4:24]. But ·God the only Son[a] [God the one and only; the only Son who is himself God; T God the only begotten] is ·very close to [by the side of; close to the heart of; T in the bosom of] the Father, and he has ·shown us what God is like [made him known].
John 1:18 EXB
What Jesus sees the Father doing is holding His Son, Himself, close in His arms. You might dare to say or to suggest, that this may be Jesus’ eternal point of reference. In which case, He will wish most of all or most deeply, to give expression to that Himself.
In His farewell prayer, Jesus says this: (bold font added):
I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one:
John 17:22 AMPV
If we switch the order of the phrases in the sentence, it will read thus:
“So that they can be one, just as you and I are one, I have given these people the glory {honor} that you have me.”
Keeping that perspective in mind, we then consider this:
“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given to Me [as Your gift to Me], may be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
-John 17:24 AMV
I do not dare assert this to be true, but it seems possible that one aspect of the glory of God, or perhaps even the most profound aspect, is to be in union. The union of the Trinity is glorious simply by nature of Their existence. We are invited into the glory of God through our union with the Son of God, through His death and resurrection.
With this in mind, Scriptures like this deepen in meaning:
And if we are [His] children, then we are [His] heirs also: heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ [sharing His inheritance with Him]; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory.
Romans 8:17 AMPC
In this view, of course we must share in Christ’s suffering if we are to be in union with Him- sharing in His inheritance, to be glorified with Him. Even humanly speaking, you cannot have a meaningful connection with someone who has not suffered in the same way you have.
I remember once a coworker who was also an Army wife, whose husband was also deployed to Iraq for a year, complaining to me that her coworker whose husband was home every night and never in that kind of danger, could not understand her.
Well, of course that coworker couldn’t understand her! How could she? She hadn’t lived it. It is the same if we are called into union with Christ. We share in His sufferings because we long to have a full communion with Him. The reason we long for it is because the Son is longing to do what He sees the Father doing: which is to hold a beloved tenderly and closely in His arms.
I have spoken a little about God’s Father. Now I will dare to talk a little about His mother. The Son of God was conceived in the womb of a very real and human young woman. The flesh and blood of His incarnation came from Mary and always will. This, in its physical, historical reality never happened before and will never happen again.
And I assure you that if Jesus thought of His mother with concern and love even when He hung in agony on His cross, then He certainly still thinks of her with tender affection and love as He sits in power and authority on His throne. She doesn’t cease to be the one who gave birth to Him, nursed Him, cradled Him and watched over Him all the years of His infancy and young childhood. And if she hadn’t, He wouldn’t have thrived.
However, when Mary and Jesus’ brothers and sisters came to see Him, worried that He was out of His mind crazy, He said this:
Jesus asked, “Who are my mother and my brothers [and sisters]?” Then he looked at those sitting around him and said, “·Here are [Look; T Behold,] my mother and my brothers [and sisters]! My true brother and sister and mother are those who do ·what God wants [the will of God].”
Mark 3:33-35 EXB
“Behold, My mother…” He said, looking to His disciples, those who do the will of God. It is possible to be like a mother to the Son of God, even a true mother, to use His own words. Simply put, we can mother the Lord, and in my experience, He has no false dignity to get in the way of this.
From these things we can know that the Lord is a warmly loving and affectionate Person both in His divine nature and His human nature. Now I will speak about ministering to the Lord.
The first thing I learned was to let God be God. Otherwise, I would constantly be chiding Him about what He wasn’t supposed to be doing, and how He wasn’t supposed to be appearing.
For example, the Lord loves to rest. At first, I found this unacceptable.
“Don’t You know that “You who watch over Isaiah never slumbers and never sleeps,” I reminded Him anxiously, and “He who watches over you never closes His eyes?”
I rested on the seventh day, He reminded me. What do you think that means?
“I don’t know,” I had to admit. “But God never sleeps. He can’t, because He’s God.”
I’m also fully human, He pointed out.
I had to admit that was also true. But it troubled me until I decided to just let God be God. Obviously, in His divine nature Jesus is all powerful, knows all things and is everywhere present, but how that exists alongside His human nature now that He is resurrected and glorified is a mystery I don’t pretend to understand.
Mystery or no mystery, now if He wishes me to provide a place in my spirit to rest Him in love, which He certainly does, I am happy to do so at any time. After all, He had no place to lay His head when He was in the midst of His earthly ministry, and that always tugs at my heart to hear Him say that.
Later on, I understood a bit more about this when I read Psalm 132:
For the Lord has chosen Zion;
He has desired it for His dwelling place:
“This is My resting place forever” [says the Lord];
“Here will I dwell, for I have desired it.
-Psalm 132:13-14 AMP
The other thing I learned was that He is often suffering. I had to let God be God about His suffering as well. I didn’t see how it was possible that the Lord could still suffer after His ascension, and I thought it was outrageous.
But when He converted Saul into Paul in one blinding moment of light, He said this: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting and oppressing Me?” (Acts 9:4 AMP) Jesus didn’t ask Saul why he was persecuting His people or His church. He said, why are you persecuting Me?
The Lord also gave me this passage to help understand it:
“When they ·suffered [were distressed/afflicted], he ·suffered [was distressed/afflicted] also.
·He sent his own angel to save them [L The angel/messenger of his presence/face saved them; Ex. 14:19].
Because of his love and kindness, he saved them.
·Since long ago [L All the days of old] he has ·picked [lifted] them up and carried them [Deut. 32:10–12].
Isaiah 63:9 EXB
Only a few days ago, I was with Him and talking.
“Come back,” I was pleading with Him. “Please just come back. Just come back right now.”
They haven’t all come in, He replied in His quiet voice. Do you want some to be shut out?
“No,” I admitted. I don’t want anyone to be left out.
Then be longsuffering with Me.
He meant this:
The Lord does not delay [as though He were unable to act] and is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is [extraordinarily] patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
-II Peter 3:9 AMP
We will not be able to be at the center of His suffering, just as it was in Gethsemane, because only He can bear that weight. But we can be just a little distance away, staying awake and praying with Him.
To minister to the Lord is also to know that His heart has been rejected, scorned, trampled on and ignored, and that He longs for and treasures the friends who don’t reject Him, but accept Him and faithfully love Him as He is and for Himself.
His heart is wide open to us. For example:
“He said, “[L Surely] These are my people;
my children will not ·lie to [deal falsely with; betray] me.”
So he saved them.
-Isaiah 63:8
Surely… my children will not lie to Me. This is a shocking thing for God to say, and it’s not the only time He says something like that. “And I thought that you would call Me My Father…” He says in Jeremiah 3:19 He allowed Himself to hope for things which, in His omniscience, He knew would not be!
Furthermore, once they are forgiven, the Lord does not bring to mind the sins we commit against Him. He doesn’t remember. This means that He doesn’t guard His heart against those with whom He has cut a covenant. It is a shockingly vulnerable thing for the Lord to do.
To put all this together, one of the most important ways of ministering to the Lord is to protect His heart at all costs and to bless His heart in any way possible and to worship and adore Him and only Him. I will tell you a few things that I know deeply bless Him.
One can pray this throughout the day or whenever needed. It’s an old, traditional prayer for purity, usually called the Collect for Purity:
Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid; Cleanse the thoughts of my hearts by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, that I may perfectly love You, and worthily magnify You holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.
However, to perfectly love God and to worthily praise His name is not humanly possible. It’s completely beyond our reach. Knowing this, one can go to Jesus and look up into His face and say this:
“Lord, You promised that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness are blessed because they will be filled. You promised! And I hunger and thirst for righteousness, I hunger and thirst for righteousness, for I don’t have it and so bless me, My Lord, bless me according to Your word and fill me with righteousness so that I might perfectly love You and worthily glorify Your great name!”
This will certainly move Him. However, an even better act of worship is to stand before Him and declare:
“Here is Your little handiwork of flesh and blood and spirit, of free will and sentience. Here is what is Your own by right of creation, by right of continuance of existence, of breath, of light, of life, all of which are Yours, but which You have given her. Here is what is Your own by right of redemption, by Your death on the cross, by the breaking of Your body and the spilling of Your blood.
“Here I am, spiritually alive through Your life, made by You and purchased by You, and with the will that You gave me, I return myself to You! I accept, I agree, joyfully, to Your ownership. I, myself, do so! I am Yours, and no one, but no one, can take me out of the Father’s hand!”
*****
The heart of her husband trusts in her [with secure confidence],
And he will have no lack of gain.
She comforts, encourages, and does him only good and not evil
All the days of her life.
-Proverbs 31:11-12 AMP
The sheep that are My own hear and are listening to My voice; and I know them, and they follow Me.
And I give them eternal life, and they shall never lose it or perish throughout the ages. [To all eternity they shall never by any means be destroyed.] And no one is able to snatch them out of My hand.
My Father, Who has given them to Me, is greater and mightier than all [else]; and no one is able to snatch [them] out of the Father’s hand.
I and the Father are One.
-John 10:27-30, AMPC