Do not underestimate the love and jealousy of God. He is pursuing each of us with wisdom and zeal. He doesn’t just tell us to love Him with all we have, but He gives us strength and help to do so. Because He wants us to love Him. The seal of God strengthens us to keep pursuing God until the end.
We - as Christians - are already sealed upon the heart of Christ. We are already inscribed on the palms of His hand. In Song of Solomon 8:6 Jesus speaks to us and asks us to join with Him and to let Him seal our heart and arm.
Set me as a seal upon your heart, 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.
The Seal of God helps keep us in the emotions and affections of God. Keeping our pursuit of Jesus as ‘affection based.’ His love keeps us in times of trial and tribulation. Even unto death.
As we learn to lean and trust in God He gives us divine might in our inner-man. He strengthens us to stay steady in the ups and downs of life. Pursuing Him. The seal of God is the only thing that can keep us steady. Not even all the spiritual edification of others could be a sufficient means of persistent progress, but only the Lord’s own constant grace and power.
The seal of God also speaks of God’s ownership of us. It is a guarantee of His Word and promise over our life. This seal is made of divine fire. I think of this seal as something that ‘ruins’ us for anything less than God. Once we have experienced the love of God and been sealed with fire then nothing else tastes as good.
“Thy love to me, and thy jealousy over me, are as a vehement flame or as a flash which burns up all that is valueless and combustible, all that is of time and corruptible, all that is of the world and is mortal and temporary.”
- Watchman Nee
To live in maturity and victory as Christians we need the seal of God: the very flame of God which helps us to love God. It is a powerful flame that can dominate even the most powerful perversions when we yield to it consistently. We do this by turning Song of Solomon 8:6 into prayer and asking God, “Be set as a seal on my heart. Set your seal on my heart. Seal me in your love.”
[This post is part of a series on Life in God through Song of Solomon. You can read the intro here, and view all the posts here.]
Steph said:
How apropos. The choir is singing “special music” based on this text at the service tonight.
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 9:10 am
Ryan Couch said:
Recently I’ve been thinking -
Truly knowing God (eternal life) leads to truly loving God (first commandment) which leads to truly obeying God.
Knowing God leads to love in my heart, which naturally flows out in obedience. I find the more wonder and fascination stirred up in my heart through the revelation of Christ in the scriptures, the more my love and affection for Him grows and the more my obedience flows.
On the contrary, my first few years in Christ were marked by the opposite. I tried to legalistically follow God’s “commands”, hoping that I would then be proving my love for Him, which would, in turn, lead to God revealing Himself to me. It was totally reversed, and I was dead on the inside!
How important, that He and His jealous love be set as a seal on our heart that we may never try to earn it our own way!
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 2:51 pm
Chelsea said:
For some reason, this seems much easier to pray than to actually live…
Posted on March 30, 2007 at 9:20 pm
Robin said:
Shawn, this ’seal of divine fire’ is so true. I am watching it at work in my life.
If you have been ruined by Him, and you find yourself unable to go backward, you are forced to keep struggling forward. All your desire is to pursue Him and you simply cannot go backward, even in moments of weakness and immature frustration. It is only a struggle because it is unfamiliar to your flesh and the Lord has to teach you. When you learn it, you know it was in your spirit all along.
I am finding my struggle to be against the status quo. As I encounter God more and more, He is radically changing me. I feel my genuine devotion that has tended to be on the quieter side becoming loud and radically expressive. I am waiting on the Lord to teach exactly how to live this out. He is definitely teaching me to be led by the Spirit, and that I can be. But I find myself in an spiritual atmosphere, where I am definitely supposed to be, that God is preparing for this same move of revival. It just hasn’t happened yet. I only want to walk out this life of Jesus, this life of extreme devotion and I want all the fullness. Through the struggle, my greatest encouragement is to just look again at all God is doing in me, around me, and through me.
Though the going may seem slow, it is going. And God is fulfilling His purpose on the Earth and in my life.
Posted on April 2, 2007 at 2:20 pm