The church in this generation needs overcomers. These overcomers are those who see a vision that has never been seen before, a revelation given to God’s called-out ones. They are overcoming in life and overcoming with vitality. They are those to whom the Lord can reveal Himself.
As overcomers, we receive revelation through God’s shining. Has He shined on you in revelation? And where does He shine? In the Bible, we often see that, spiritually speaking, visions require us to go up the mountain. This revelation of God is costly — not only must you go up to a mountain, but it is also a burning, hot flame. In Exodus, on Mount Horeb, Moses saw a burning thornbush (Ex. 3:1). When Moses went up Mount Sinai after bringing the Israelites out, the nobles halfway up the mountain saw a vision of sapphire; at the top of the mountain, Moses received the blueprint of the tabernacle amidst what appeared to be a consuming fire to the Israelites at the bottom of the mountain (24:17). Revelation comes by shining; it enters us through the shining of light from the top of our spiritual experience. It’s a vision man had never seen before. If it’s something you already know, then that’s not revelation to you.
Interestingly, the Bible is very consistent. The visions God gives to His called ones, like the thornbush and the tabernacle, are according to a very specific structure of God’s heart’s desire: they point to the lived-out church that is organically operating as His dwelling place and household. Our church life experience should be progressively revealed to us like this. The visions do not stay mere pictures or good doctrines, but become themselves, in our maturing, a true landscape for our walking about and enjoyment. The Lord is not only calling His people out, but also bringing His people in to encounter an overflowing landscape, a mountainous region. When we come to the church, although our shoes are still full of sand, we’re stepping out of the desert into the land of milk and honey, full of mountains, valleys, and the seasons for life to grow. Sometimes there is sunshine, and sometimes there is rain. Here we have the highest peak of Mount Zion, typifying our spiritual experience coming into a peak or a higher ground. Here we also have the valleys, where even while going through the lowest points of our life, we find our source of water; we find nurturing and comfort, where the many tears shed become the fountain, the source of your life, to make you a believer walking boldly on the good land. Whether highs or lows, these experiences supply us for and point us toward the vision.
The daily living of the brothers and sisters — our life in the church — is just like this picture. It started with a high vision, but it should also be a kingdom reality becoming tangible to us day by day. At least once in our lives, have we seen a burning thornbush, a paved work of sapphire, the tabernacle — His church? This vision changes you, transforms you, makes you grow. Every time you come to a gathering of the church, there should be some change in you. If there is no change, then there is really no point to “come to the meetings” anymore. Oftentimes, in a meeting that is very dead, a person who is shining can bring God’s very presence from the top of a mountain into a room. So for us to come out of the first stage of a believer’s life, we need shining, and we need that burning flame. How we receive this shining — either as a burning flame or as our Shining One — depends on our maturity in life, but the ultimate destination never changes. From the transformation through His shining, we become a true household of God — we find home in, and even become, a mountainscape that is costly, fragrant, and sweet: the mountains of spices.
The last verse of the Song of Songs ends on this mountain: “Make haste, my beloved, / And be like a gazelle or a young hart / Upon the mountains of spices” (S.S. 8:14). What are these mountains of spices? What are the spices being produced? In the Song of Songs, the mountains of spices illustrate a place of dwelling for God and His people that results from a process of death and resurrection in love so they may be bursting with life.
“Awake, O north wind; / And come, O south wind! / Blow upon my garden: / Let its spices flow forth; / Let my beloved come into his garden / And eat his choicest fruit.” (4:16)
Atop the mountain of spices in Song of Songs, the Lord’s lovers not only see the burning thornbush, the vision of the church, but are themselves the redeemed vessel for God’s very dwelling and satisfaction. We and our Lord are home on this culmination of a universal mingling, an enjoyment of human and divine life being crushed and artfully processed and layered into a high-peak experience. Without these practical experiences of our collective spiritual maturing, being ground up and flowing forth as a sweet-smelling savor in the church life — an alabaster flask of our mutual submission and consecration — there is no reality of “high-peak truths.” These are the key things behind the language of the Song of Songs.
“The mandrakes give forth fragrance, / And over our doors are all choice fruits, / New as well as old. / These, my beloved, I have stored up for you.” (7:13)
Coming to the mountains of spices has to be a revelation to you. That revelation is not just cerebral, but it is experienced by our senses — the touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste are unveiled through our churching. That mountain is not just a love story or a description of love, but greater and deeper in our experience as the home we’ve found in the church. Why does the entire book of Song of Songs end with mountains of spices? As a believer, as a Christian, do you understand this spiritual language? Have you arrived on the mountain of spices? I remember when I was young, I came to a very old-fashioned church life. But as I joined those gray-haired people singing, actually, the old became new. We sang a song talking about our “home in the church, where we’ve ended our search.” Such an old-becomes-new experience of the church will end your search. That is your mountains of spices.
(Above are notes of fellowship taken from a gathering on 9/15/2024, not reviewed by the speaker.)