CCF International Church

YOKED TO CHRIST – MISSING THE VOICE OF GOD

Song of Solomon 5:2-7 NKJV [2] I sleep, but my heart is awake; It  is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying, “Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” [3] I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them? [4] My beloved put his hand By the latch of  the  door, And my heart yearned for him. [5] I arose to open for my beloved, And my hands dripped with myrrh, My fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the lock. [6] I opened for my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. [7] The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls Took my veil away from me.

A yoke represents on-going connection.

1. The Shulamite recognised the voice but responded too late. The Shulamite knew that it was the voice of her beloved, but she delayed opening the door. By the time she responded, he had departed.

Hearing God’s voice is not enough. We must respond promptly and obediently.

Luke 11:28 – Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it.

Psalm 119:60 – “I made haste, and did not delay to keep Your commandments.”

2. God may speak at an inconvenient time

The beloved came at night, when the Shulamite had already prepared herself to go to sleep. His arrival interrupted her comfort.

God works according to His time, not ours. The knock may come when we are tired, busy or uncomforttable. All our time belongs to God.

Mark 13:35–37 – Watch, because you do not know when the master will come.

The servants did not control the master’s arrival. They had to be ready according to his timing.

In the same ways, God does not always speak or move when it is convenient for us. His timing may interrupt:

• Our comfort • Our plans • Our sleep • Our routine • Our personal priorities

The Shulamite expected the beloved to come according to a convenient schedule. However, he arrived during the night.

The message is clear: we must adjust ourselves to God’s timing rather than expecting God to adjust Himself to ours.

3. Wrong yokes cause spiritual exhaustion

Believers may become tired because they are carrying yokes that Christ never gave them.

These may include: • Entertainment • Career demands • Family concerns • Financial pressure • Social expectations • The cares and distractions of this world

These things are not always sinful in themselves, but they become dangerous when they consume our strength and interfere with our relationship with Christ.

Luke 21:34 – Guard against hearts being weighed down by the cares of this life.

4. A fragmented relationship causes us to miss God

Many believers have an interrupted and casual relationship with the Lord. They visit Him occasionally rather than abiding in Him continually.

When fellowship with God is inconsistent, believers may not be spiritually prepared when He speaks.

John 15:4–5 – Abide in Christ in order to bear fruit.

Psalm 91:1 – The person who dwells in the secret place abides under God’s shadow.

Acts 17:28 – In Him we live, move and have our being.

5. Delayed obedience can result in a missed opportunity

The Shulamite responded only after her beloved had departed. She was left with myrrh on the handle—the evidence that he had been there.

We must not become satisfied with signs of a past visitation when God desires a present relationship.

Isaiah 55:6 – Seek the Lord while He may be found.

2 Corinthians 6:2 – Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.

6. Missing God’s voice exposes us to wrong voices

After failing to find her beloved, the Shulamite encountered the watchmen. Instead of helping her, they struck her, wounded her and removed her veil.

When people are disconnected from the voice of Christ, they may become vulnerable to the wrong voices.

YOKED TO CHRIST – MISSING THE VOICE OF GOD

The Shulamite missed the Voice

Song of Songs 5:2 I sleep, but my heart is awake; It is the voice of my beloved! He knocks, saying,“Open for me, my sister, my love, My dove, my perfect one; For my head is covered with dew, My locks with the drops of the night.” 3 I have taken off my robe; How can I put it on again? I have washed my feet; How can I defile them? 4 My beloved put his hand. By the latch of the door, And my heart yearned for him. 5 I arose to open for my beloved, And my hands dripped with myrrh, My fingers with liquid myrrh, On the handles of the lock. 6 I opened for my beloved, But my beloved had turned away and was gone. My heart leaped up when he spoke. I sought him, but I could not find him; I called him, but he gave me no answer. 7 The watchmen who went about the city found me. They struck me, they wounded me; The keepers of the walls. Took my veil away from me.

God visits at an inconvenient time. The knock is in His time – not our time. What has made you sleep? The believers are exhausted. They do not carry the yoke consistently. Instead of an abiding relationship, believers have a fragmented, interrupted and casual relationship with the Lord. The Lord is forced to see them after hours. He knocks, but we are too exhausted from the yokes of entertainment, career demands, sports, shopping, family cares etc. All these worldly yokes are burdensome and sleep inflicting. The heart is willing but the body is tired.

In our exhausted and drowsy state we miss the knock and the voice. The visitation is crucial and timeous. We need healing but God visits at an inconvenient time. We say the time is not yet. All time belongs to God. Being tired is our fault. We have been consumed with the cares of this world. We respond after He has departed. All we get is the myrrh on the handle – the signs of His departure. Many are satisfied with this. Some run into the street – into all kinds of bogus meetings. The opportunity is gone. We become victims of abuse. Too bad you missed the voice – it is now too late. 

“took away my veil from me”

This is a symbol of rape. If you miss His Voice, then you have to listen to the voice of the watchmen or the keepers of the wall. You will be abused by the wrong voices. Many folks are the victims of false voices and false prophecies. These voices abuse their passion for the Lord. These voices don’t empower – they dishonour and rob the individual of dignity and fail dismally in pointing to Christ. 

Jeremiah 23:16 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD. 17 They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace” ’; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, No evil shall come upon you.”

Micah 3:1 And I said: “Hear now, O heads of Jacob, And you rulers of the house of Israel: Is it not for you to know justice? 2 You who hate good and love evil; Who strip the skin from My people, And the flesh from their bones; 3 Who also eat the flesh of My people, Flay their skin from them, Break their bones, And chop them in pieces Like meat for the pot, Like flesh in the caldron.”

The voices of these watchmen are the false doctrines they preach. They rob the believer of rest.

These  doctrines make God’s people worthless :

• Superstitious blood application
• Christ is a created being
• The Holy Spirit is just a force
• Christ is not risen from the dead
• Trinity is unbiblical and Babylonian
• Accepting Jesus as Saviour and not as Lord
• Disappearance rather than the manifestation of the sons of God
• Heaven-centric instead of a Christocentric gospel
• Sectarianism through denominationalism
• Extra biblical practices and human traditions 
• Legalism

The yoke implies a continuous connection. This is an abiding relationship. The Lord is with us all the time. He does not have to knock anymore. This is not visitation but habitation. 

Our close proximity to Christ within the yoke gives the believer access to the voice of the Lord. His voice is critical for our navigation in times of peril and darkness; when we hear His Word, we hear His voice.

The spiritual reality of the believer is that we are HOME IN CHRIST, and that CHRIST finds His HOME IN US – Christ in us, the HOPE OF GLORY – this is our spiritual reality because of us being yoked with Christ; that by the grace of God He has “raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6)

The Shulamite woman (symbol of the Church the Bride of Christ) must quickly realise that Christ is not coming to have a discreet, clandestine affair in the darkness of the night ……. He wants to dwell with her, to love and cherish her in an eternal relationship. She needs to come HOME. She can hear HIS VOICE at all times. 

The prophet Hosea reveals the heart of the Father concerning absolute devotion and consecration ……

Hosea 9:1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. 2 The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.

Please refer to my comment in this article on the spiritual dysfunction of the Laodiceans who were unable to hear Jesus knocking on the door of His own church

THERE WILL BE NO VOICE, THERE WILL BE NO RESPONSE FROM OUR WORSHIP OF IDOLS

1 Kings 18:26 So they took the bull which was given them, and they prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying, “O Baal, hear us!” But there was no voice; no one answered. Then they leaped about the altar which they had made. 27 And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. 29 And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention.

This was a demonstration of radical worship that include “corporal mortification”, inflicting upon themselves physical injury and pain. Yet, with all this, there was no voice, no one answered, no one paid attention.

Jesus had instituted the Lord’s Supper with His disciples and He comes to Gethsemane where He gives His disciples, His trusted inner circle which was Peter, James and John the explicit instruction to “stay here and watch” which meant that they should remain spiritually aware, alert and vigilant.

This is the “voice of the Lord”. Jesus was “extremely sorrowful” revealing His vulnerability to personal anguish.

Mark 14:32 Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” 33 And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed. 34 Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch.”

After His prayer Jesus returned to find His  trusted disciples sleeping. These disciples represented those in the inner circle of Jesus; they walked with Jesus, they were eyewitnesses of His Majesty, of all the miracles, yet they were unable to spiritually discern the agony in His voice and in His Word for them to share in His deep distress and sorrow. Being obedient to His voice is evidence that we are yoked to Him. Believers demonstrate their “yoke with Christ” by making Christ their place of habitation… their HOME.

THE CHURCH IN LAODICEA

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.

The Lord loves His Church (His Bride). Jesus demonstrates His Divine intention to correct the vision of the Church in Laodicea because their devotion is fragmented and divided. This is His observation….

Revelation 3:17 Because you say, I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—

To any observer, this church is the “pattern and image of prosperity”. The material wealth of the church caused them to become distracted from their faith which led to apostasy and spiritually blindness. Whilst the world may evaluate and measure the state of the church in Laodicea using external features (natural sight), Jesus was able to see the spiritual condition in Laodicea, through the lens of His Father. 

Deception, apostasy, idolatry (worship of mammon) and misrepresentation may escape the discernment of a Laodicean community that is spiritually blind , but it will not escape the attention of Christ Jesus, the Lord of His Church.

Jesus demonstrates His respect for the leadership and those who are gathered in this church by knocking on the door and waiting to be invited into His own church. It has always been the prerogative of an individual to respond to HIS VOICE (if ANYONE hears My Voice – Verse 20). 

Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. 21 To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

May we clearly HEAR HIS VOICE from the multitude of voices that we are exposed to daily. It is our obedience to this VOICE that demonstrates our “yoke with HIM”. We are His sheep who listen to His voice.

Whenever, we sit under His Word, we hear His Voice. Our obedience to His Voice will determine our blessings. Also refer to His voice being heard through the preaching of His Word spoken by His servants  (Romans 10:14,15)