Excerpts from The Desire of God's Heart by Rick Bewsher

Posted: 2006-11-30 17:57:46

Excerpts from The Desire of God’s Heart,  Rick Bewsher,  Kingdom Publishing, Indianapolis, IN,  1987.    (7-3-06)

P. 3  (Introduction)  The Father longs to have fellowship with us, he yearns for us to know and enjoy Him.  His heart aches for us to wait for Him, be attentive to His whispers, responsive to his promptings, captivated by the beauty of his character.

P. 6   Cease with our activities to hear the Lord.

P. 12   In 1979 he asked me, “Do you love Me?  What thrilled me was not Christ but the work, the dreams, the plans, the self centered fantasies I coddled regarding my role in His kingdom and what I might be able to accomplish “for Him.”

P. 13   Over the next 10 years I came to realize more what loving Him meant. (What love for the Lord is and what being loved by Him is).  And that I could love him as much and as often as I wanted to then and there (right now).  I could enter immediately into the central purpose of my creation. No need for delays, frustration or waiting. He is waiting for our love and we can immediately delight his heart. This is what the Lord is longing for, genuine hearts loving Him.

P. 15   In Genesis 8:9 when Noah sent out the dove from the ark (the world covered by water, even as the Spirit brooded over the chaotic waters at creation), it found no resting place. The Holy Spirit, even now, is particular about whom (or where) He will settle upon. The dove came and rested (or remained) on Jesus (Is. 11:1,2 and Jn. 1:32,33). The Spirit was hovering over the chaos of the waters even as He now (hovers over the ramblings and chaos of the flesh in the church).

P. 16   What purpose did God have for man prior to the fall? Not salvation, he was already saved.  Now we have returned to His purpose of intimate fellowship with the Lord. The Spirit and the Bride are both saying to the Lord Come (they are one voice and one desire).

P. 17   Home is the place where we relax. The Father wants to relax at home, a place where he is received and enjoyed as He is, of course greatly reverenced for His majesty and holiness, but also not subject to constant demands, and where he is free to share his heart. He wants a sanctuary, a tent of meeting, a dwelling place. Church meetings are not primarily to meet our needs. Church is for the Lord. The Bride is for Christ. “Let them construct a sanctuary for Me.” (Ex. 25:8)  They shall come near to Me, to minister to Me, to offer to Me the fat and the blood.  And this is exactly how I want the furniture in my house.

P. 18   My house shall be called a house of prayer. (Is. 56:7)  The specific purpose was to be communication between God and man, a sharing of hearts.

P. 19   The central objective of our corporate life should be to provide God with a house. (Eph. 2:19-23)  We are built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.  The tabernacle of God is among men and He shall dwell among them. (Rev. 21:3)

P. 20   There is no place for the natural man in the Church, that which is born of the flesh, no matter how refined or self-sufficient is still the flesh.

P. 21   Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her Beloved? (Song of Songs 8:5)  (Who is this Bride, look how she depends and walks so close to Him?)

P. 24   Don’t appoint elders so quickly just copying a pattern, but as the Lord leads the Scriptures will be fulfilled.

P. 27   The Lord will for a time withhold his guidance.  The great temptation is to plug the gap with our own reasoning and adopt some course of action because we find it too painful or exposing to wait and do “nothing.”  The church is not a democracy, the majority can be wrong, the older Christians can be wrong. If we deny the idea of one person we may miss what the Lord wants. The Lord may even express himself through an inconspicuous brother or sister.

P. 29   The longest recorded prayer of the Lord is in John chapter 17. Would this not show the heart of our Lord? He prays about us being one with the Father as He is and us being one with each other.  This supernatural unity is love, it exists within the God-head and it is infinitely beyond anything this world or our natural abilities can produce. Only Christ can give it, release it, produce it (the woman (Bride) is made from the rib of Adam (Christ)).

P. 30   “Father, I desire that they also be with Me, where I am.” (Jn. 17:21,24)  The Lord wants to be with us.

P. 33   A spectacular dynamic of the church is the supernatural knitting together of believers who differ substantially in culture, social status, economically, etc. It’s relatively easy to gather believers who have a natural affinity for one another and who share similar lifestyles.  The surrounding community can’t get over these differences but they see that the church can. The Lord wants to cut through our barriers to display the fullness of his character and the depth and power of his love. “See how these Christians love one another?” It will amaze people. We are to surrender self-desires to a greater love.

P. 37   To come close to God means giving up our pet sins. (They are exposed when we come close to His light)  But if we want to stand off, afar from Him, we may say we want to serve him from a safe distance (Moses can be close to the Lord, let him speak to us, not God). We are willing to relate to God on our terms with a go-between to stand in their place (like having a pastor?). But the Lord wants to be close to everyone, all of us are to be priests. Instead of a whole nation close to Him, He only had a few priests and prophets who were near Him and with whom He could share His heart.

P. 39   God doesn’t want to be close to just a few. It is not meant to be a closed holy of holies (intimate relationship) or only to be once a year but the curtain is rent (torn, not to be repaired) from the top down (the Lord tore it down).

P. 40   In Revelation 2:6,15 it says that God hates the deeds and doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The word Nicolaitans means victory over the people (laity). We need to be careful about the distinctions between church leadership and the people. In some translations Matthew 23:10 reads, “Don’t be called leaders, for you have one Leader, that is , Christ.” The word pastor is only used once in the Bible (Eph. 4:11) and even there it is plural (possibly referring to elders).

P. 42   The idea of freeing any believer to rise up and contribute at a church meeting, may seem an invitation to chaos for those in oversight, especially if they have little experience in this area, or if they fear losing control. But we must have the full expression of every believer as the Spirit leads to see the fullness of Christ expressed.

P. 43   All too often the church program is deliberately fast-paced to maintain our interest, and because there is a fear of silence and the vulnerability that silence invites. But this is like having a phone conversation with the Lord and when we are through talking we hang up. The Lord is cut off continually and is prevented from expressing himself through the Body.

P. 48    As an oyster puts layers of pearl around a tiny grain of dirt or sand, so the Lord is putting layers of beauty around us to prepare us for his kingdom. Nothing is wasted, every trial, every bit of suffering allowed to come our way, every act of faith, every attitude of trust (when little can be seen), every sacrifice, every victory (even the small ones), every step toward the Lord for a deeper relationship is gathering around us layers and the Lord is building a treasure one day to be displayed in that City for His glory.  “Oh afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold I will set your stones in antimony and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. Moreover, I will make your battlements, rubies.” (Is. 54:11,12)

P. 51   “Let us make bricks (man-made blocks as opposed to natural rocks), let us build a tower (our own efforts and works), let us make a name for ourselves” (our name in lights not God’s name).  

P. 53   To leave the city of Babylon where we have started to feel comfortable and go back to a broken down Jerusalem, the Lord will have to encourage us. “Everyone whose spirit God stirred to go back” to make Jerusalem their home and build the house of God there again rose up and left Babylon. This is the new thing God is doing. There is no attractiveness in the broken down Jerusalem (except the dream that it will be a city whose builder and maker is God and we will cooperate to work with the Lord for the ends He desires). There are no walls, no homes, no protection, no security, no provisions, no comfort. Only we know the Lord is calling, “Go thru, go thru the gates. Clear the way for the people (who will come after you), build up, build up the highway. Remove the stones, lift up a standard over the peoples.” (Is. 62:10)

P. 55   Some argue that to separate oneself from the artificial institutions of Christianity but not really from the Christians within (to leave Babylon) is simply to add to the division within the Body of Christ. In fact, the reverse is true. The only way divisions can ultimately be healed is to abandon all that the flesh has created which maintains division, exclusiveness and separatism and meet on the basis of Christ alone, inclusive of all believers.(Not to make a new denomination called the “Christ alone disciples” but only wanting what is purely from God, and that will be recognized in your town, in your home, from your mouth by all others who know Him).

If we will pull up to the Lord’s table we open ourselves up to great treasures, old and new, that come from many types of people. We will be one with all saints of all ages of all backgrounds recognizing His Spirit and His truth in them. Thus we are able to receive and benefit from their lives and ministries. This is what it really means to be “inclusive.”

If we are to bear the ark of God (uphold the testimony of the Lord) it must be at the expense of our own natural affections. In I Samuel 6:7,8,12 it speaks of a new cart with two cows to pull it and that their calves must be taken home, away from them. Then it says they took the straight way, lowing as they went (calling out the message, or singing, or praying and interceding as they go) not turning to the right or the left.

P. 56   The cows were sacrificed when they arrived, our eyes not being on the cows and what they have done but on the Lord’s presence. We must die and disappear before His glory and not be praised by men. With this attitude (not to be recognized, but see Him), we will be able to endure and overcome what is ahead.

P. 57   Remember the individual, “to him that overcomes, and to him that has an ear to hear….”  We should not have the “overcomer club” mentality.

P. 58   If a man is what gives cohesion to a group the Lord may remove him so that the Lord can take his place.

P. 65   If you think the war is too big and your own resources too small, may your eyes be opened to see as Elisha’s servants eyes were opened to see the hosts of heaven on the mountain tops available to help us. And the Captain of the hosts of heaven is before us and behind us to overwhelm all enemies and destroy all obstacles.