It's Supernatural

Sid:  You know when you think about a family you think about love, you think about envy aspect of love.  And there is a love relationship that many of you want, many of you intellectually understand but you’ve never made that leap of experiencing God’s love, of experiencing His heart.  That’s why I’m so excited about my guest teacher this week SJ Hill. I’m speaking to him from Kauai, Hawaii in a city called Princeville.  And I’ve got his latest book it’s called “Burning Desire” subtitled “The Story of God’s Jealous Love for You.”  And on yesterday’s broadcast we were talking about that most people think that God of the Old Covenant is so different than the God of the New Testament.  They’re wrong of course, and they don’t even understand the romance that is going on.  Would you teach a little about that SJ?

SJ: Sure as I said yesterday I believe human history as we know it began with a wedding and human history as we know it is going to conclude with one. And with our western world view it’s just hard to picture the Bible as this eternal sacred romance. And I use the word romance in its purest sense, I don’t think we should have all kinds of hang ups about that word because it was God’s idea for a man and a woman to experience romance and passion and to me it’s not insignificant that in Ephesians Chapter 5 the Body of Christ, the Church, is actually referred to as the bride.  But any way what transpired between Adam and Eve has tremendous prophetic significance.  To me it’s no small thing that the Apostle Paul referred to Jesus, Yeshua, as the last Adam because what was going on in Genesis Chapter 2 was so much more than just that that spoke of a love relationship between the first original couple.  You know for example God the Father put Adam to sleep and from his open side came forth a bride.  We look down through the centuries and during a period in history God the Father put His own unique Son Yeshua to death and from His open wounded side on the cross came forth the bride, the Body of Believers.  I think it’s incredibly significant what was taking place in the garden and what would be fulfilled in the life of Jesus.  I mean there’s so much more to this you know II Corinthians 11 says that “Eve was deceived and not Adam.” Yet Adam couldn’t stand the thought of living without her so with his eyes opened he followed her into death.  And in a very similar way Jesus was not deceived he wasn’t seduced by the sin of the world but because He couldn’t stand the thought of living without us forever He followed us into death, paid the ultimate bride price so that we could live with Him and enjoy Him forever.  And the theme continues, I mean as you go into Genesis chapter 24 and you’re introduced to the story of Isaac and Rebecca it’s a beautiful type and shadow of what was fulfilled through Yeshua. You know just to highlight a couple of things about that story, a story that actually took place.  Abraham send his servant into another country to find a bride for his unique son Isaac and without going into a lot of detail the servant brought with him gifts and there was a certain criteria that had to be fulfilled. And Rebecca met the criteria and to make a long story short her parents gave her permission to go with Abraham’s servant into a place she had never been before to meet someone she had never seen before to be married to him. And I just absolutely love that story because it so reminds me of what we experience as believer’s in Yeshua.  Father God has sent the Holy Spirit into another country into the earth, He’s come bearing gifts and He’s now choosing a bride for Father’s unique Son Jesus from both Jews and Gentiles.  And we’re now on a journey Sid, we’re going someplace we’ve never been before to meet this one we’ve never seen before but the Holy Spirit has been warming our hearts to the beauty of this God-man Yeshua and even though we’ve never seen Him before; even though we’ve never met Him our hearts even now are burning and longing to see Him face to face.  And we’re going to a place to be married to someone that we have never seen yet this One who has touched us deeply,  and keeps egging us on. You know and as you continue through the scriptures you have the story of Boaz and Ruth which is a beautiful story of how God the Father was going to open up the good news to Gentile people and allow Gentile people from all the nations of the earth to make up a part of the bride.  The whole book of Hosea is a very graphic picturesque illustration of God’s marriage to Israel and how her adultery and unfaithfulness grieved his heart and so he calls on one of his friends Hosea to actually marry Gomer, a woman given to harlotry. And I honestly believe that he fell in love with her because he had to feel to some degree the broken heart of God when Gomer betrayed him.  But all that toke place in that book is such a dynamic illustration of God’s burning heart because when Gomer left Hosea the word of the Lord comes to him and says “I want you to go and redeem her, I want you to go and buy her back because this is what I’m going to do to My wife Israel.”  And then I love the prophetic language of Hosea chapter 2; I believe it’s a word for us today.  He said “You will no longer call me master, but you will call me Husband; I’m going to lead you into the desert, I’m going to speak to your heart, I will give you your song back and in that day you will no longer call me Master, but you will call me Husband.  And the word Master there is from the word Baal and that word can mean Husband but it means Husband in the sense of Lord, or Master.  It’s not a good term in other words, we’re talking about a cruel task master so what God is saying is “I don’t want you to compare Me to the Baal’s of the other nations, I’m not a hard cruel task master, your still scared of Me but you still don’t understand my passion, my consuming fire of love.  Your misunderstanding my  judgments and there is coming a day when you will call me Husband as your heart is melted by the revelation of My beauty and My love for you and You will no longer try to serve Me out of fear.  And so as I look at the Older Covenant Sid I just keep falling in love with the Torah, with the scriptures, I just…

Sid: And you know what’s coming to mind “Have you ever had occasion to teach God’s love for the Jew in Israel from the perspective of what you’re speaking from Hosea to a Jewish person that doesn’t believe in Jesus?

SJ: You know I never have, but my heart burns to do that.

Sid: I can see you doing that and I can see you really fulfilling the scriptures of provoking the Jew to jealousy.  You know SJ some Gentile Christians can listen to our discussion and actually feel second class and that’s why I love the parable of the prodigal son. And I see the older brother as a type of the Gentile Church that’s been working so hard for 2000 years and the father is a type of God the Father, and the younger brother that squandered his inheritance is a type of the Jewish people. And when that Jewish person comes back there is a bit of a jealousy and a rivalry that is going on, and actually in a sense I can see the heart of the older brother he’s been working so hard and now the big fuss, what’s this big fuss over the Jewish son that’s coming home.  And the great love the Father has for this Jewish Son and I can see the father who is a type of God the Father looking in the eyes of the older son and he’s saying “Son why are you jealous” and this is an exact quote from the parable he says.  “Everything I have is yours.”  I’ve got to say that again,

SJ: (Laughing)

Sid: “Everything I have is yours.”  SJ I just think we can’t grasp the love of God can we?

SJ: No we can’t, no even before we were talking on the radio today I’m saying to Father “You know who is even qualified to even talk about Your fathomless love? It just blows you away, but I love that slant on the prodigal son I’ve never heard that before but if you don’t mind I’m going to use that.

Sid: Go for it in fact I’ll send you a copy of my book the “The Race to Save the World” in which that’s in there. But I’m very, very interested in your book “Burning Desire.” My passion is in fact this morning I was saying something similar to you I was saying “God, I don’t love You enough, I want to fulfill the Shemah.  I want to love You with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my strength but I can’t do it unless You help me.  Yet your book the story of God’s jealous love for you I believe is a catalyst for that.  Have you gotten feedback from others?

SJ: Yes, people love the book, it’s an easy read it tackles some pretty tough issues but it’s simply written, and as I said earlier “I just really think that this is going to open up the older covenant, the scriptures.

Sid: Listen, I believe it’s going to totally cause anyone that reads this to rethink their traditional unfortunately Greco-Roman mentality.  It’s going to change, it’s going to be a whole new paradigm for them and they’re going to fall in Love with God!  They are going to be partake of this great divine romance.

SJ: Absolutely.