Living to Touch God's Heart
Understanding our Profound impact on the emotional heart of God
A book by Chris Ulery
Overview
Did you know that in the Bible God talked about being heartbroken by the unfaithfulness of His bride? Or that He expressed feelings of sorrow as He was forgotten about by His chosen people?
The Bible reveals God’s original and ultimate purpose for mankind was to provide a family for Himself and a Bride for Christ. In Ephesians 1:4-5 we see that even before the foundations of the earth were laid God had already chose us to be the focus of His love and to be adopted into His family. By choosing to make us the focus of His love, God, in His sovereignty, chose to enter into a vulnerable love relationship with us. Thus making Himself susceptible to rejection and all the emotions that come with it, or conversely to the ecstasy of shared intimacy and love with a covenant partner. Lack of understanding of our impact on the emotional heart of God has led to a mass abandonment of the divine intimate relationships we were created for. Therefore, this message is an effort to awaken a generation to the depth of heart level relationship we are intended to share with God.
The fresh revelation shared in this book will open your eyes to view God in a way you never have before. You will gain insight into the emotional side of God that experiences pain and heartbreak caused by the rejection of His beloved creation. As well as the ecstasy and joy caused by our extravagant love towards Him. The truth of our impact on God’s heart will train you to be a student of His emotions as you come to understand our position to be either God’s greatest joy, or His greatest pain.
introduction
In 2007 country music legend Ricky Skaggs prophesied that I was to be a communicator for the kingdom of God. Operating in the gift of prophecy he told me to communicate the things that God tells me and not to doubt. Minutes later another prophetess, not hearing what Ricky had previously said, also prophesied over me that I was going to receive words and messages from God. This prophetess prayed that I would have a pen and pad when the messages came, and likened me to a scribe with a feather quill pen documenting and recording the holy messages and words from God. And again, for a third time all in one night, another minister told me he received the words “profound evangelism” for my life. He told me that I would receive profound messages “so from God that they would cause people to be taken aback and overcome.” None of these prophets had heard what the others had said. That night I received three similar prophecies from three separate sources all within a single hour.
And sure enough these messages from God began to come. In such a way I completely understood the words of Jeremiah when he said, “…his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot” (Jeremiah 20:9). These messages from God began to consume my thoughts to the point that it was difficult for me to sleep at night until I found a way to release them to others. So I began to write. And as I wrote these articles began to be read and spread by thousands. These articles were sent by others to church groups, used in Bible studies, and even inspired the work of published authors. I started receiving emails from people literally all across the world telling me how the things I had written had dramatically changed their lives. Yet I believe it was not until the publication of this book that the prophecies I received in 2007 fully came to pass. I believe you now hold in your hands the fulfillment of the things foretold that night.
This message has been burning so hotly in my heart for the past five years that it has literally consumed my life: The message of “Living To Destroy God’s Loneliness” and understanding the emotional heart of God. In my search to find an effective way to release this fresh revelation I have preached sermons and written articles, but these forms of communication proved too brief to do anything beyond just grazing the surface of this deep subject. Thus this book was born. Before now I never had a desire to be an author, but the Holy Spirit showed me that writing this book was the only way to comprehensively cover such a multifaceted, paradigm shifting revelation. This book is a systematic unveiling of God’s ultimate and eternal desire behind the story of creation and explains God’s driving plot line through natural history. The message is a simple, yet profound one that connects with you at the most primal level of your heart.
The original inspiration for the concept of this book was not the product of my own personal intellect, but rather was the result of a series of personal intimate encounters that I shared with the Lord (I will share those with you later in this book). The implications of what the Lord said to me during these encounters left my mind reeling as I began to catch a glimpse of the quality and depth of relationship we were created to share with God. I was overwhelmed by many of the concepts now parading through my mind as a result of our conversations. It seemed unfathomable and to good to be true. I had never heard anyone preach on or even allude to the ideas that now threatened to altar the entire paradigm through which I viewed God. I wanted to believe what He was showing me, but I was having difficulty wrapping my mind around this idea of an intimate, relational and emotional God. If I was going to believe something so radical and life changing than I was going to have to see Biblical proof first. So I began to humbly plead with God, “Lord, everything you’ve said resonates with me deep in my heart, but if I’m going to preach this message than I’m going to need you to show me the proof of it in your Word. If I don’t have strong scriptural backing and support than I can’t accept these things as truth.” The Holy Spirit gladly responded to my request. He began to gently guide me through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation giving me the scriptural foundation that I needed in order to have confidence in this message.
Living to destroy God’s loneliness: for the past 5 years this phrase has been my life’s (and ministry’s) motto. It has caused many a people to ponder this idea of God’s loneliness. It was probably this title that caused you to open this book up, questioning the validity of such a bold statement. The World English Dictionary defines loneliness as, “unhappy as a result of being without the companionship of others: a lonely man.” Now according to that definition is God lonely? Well the seemingly obvious answer would be no. He has the other members of the God head, not to mention all the saints already in Heaven, and of course those of us still on earth that have chosen an intimate relationship with Him. He is not alone. He is a self sufficient, all encompassing, omnipotent God. He is His own Trinitarian Community (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), and it is not a lonely community. However, I think the error occurs when people mistakenly assume that since God is omnipotent that He must not have any desires, wants or emotions. That is not at all the image the Bible paints of God.
The Bible says that God yearns for us. The word yearn means to “long for intensely.” In His sovereignty God chose to make us the focus of His love, thus making himself susceptible to rejection and all of the emotions that accompany it. In the Bible God even went so far as to describe Himself as being heart broken due to a failure to experience the quality of relationship that He desired to share with His bride. And the term “heart broken” is not a paraphrase of mine, the literal translation from the original text is exactly that: heart broken. Yes, the self sufficient, all encompassing, omnipotent God of the universe experiences heartbreak. Furthermore, He experiences heartbreak due to a lack of intimacy with us.
God purposely chose to make it so that we have the ability to directly affect His heart and emotions. He purposely chose to make us the focus of His love and the apple of His eye. He purposely chose to make us His bride. In fact, it’s why we were created in the first place and natural history culminates there. As His bride we have the ability to be either His greatest joy, or His greatest pain. Again, because He purposely chose to make it that way. So if we take the definition of loneliness and focus it to say “unhappy as a result of being without the companionship of your bride: a lonely groom.” Then that definition would be an accurate description of our Bridegroom God that is so often forced to live without the intimacy of His deeply desired bride (us). From a personal view point of our individual relationships with Him, lack of companionship with us does make Him unhappy. The loneliness that we have all experienced in our desire for committed love is but a pale reflection of the searing longing He feels for intimacy with us. Not out of His need, for He has no need, but out of His passionate desire.
In Martin Luther’s day it was said that the Heaven’s were closed due to the difficulty to access true Biblical enlightenment. It was illegal for a common man to own a Bible and the majority of priests didn’t read it. Basic spiritual principles and truths that we know and understand today were unheard of in that time period. People held widespread belief in man-made doctrines such as purgatory and indulgences, believing that if they spent enough money for an indulgence that the clergy would grant them access into Heaven. Even foundational and elementary concepts, like Jesus came to reconcile us to God, were not taught to believers of that day. As a result the paradigm through which they viewed God was skewed. The prevailing attitude was that God was angry and that Jesus was a difficult to please judge who delighted in sending people to Hell. It was in the midst of this darkness that Martin Luther arose and introduced the world to the simple concept that a man is saved by grace. It was this truth that revolutionized the world. We now enjoy the benefits of what Luther and other reformers gave their lives to achieve, and we can now learn in one service what would have taken them years to discover. I believe that God is again beginning to raise up men and women that will challenge the way the masses view God, and encourage them to measure their perception of God against the way He portrayed Himself in the Bible.
I believe many people understand God as Father, and that many understand the Holy Spirit as our teacher, counselor, and friend. But unfortunately many people have neglected and rejected knowing Jesus as husband. Maybe not consciously, but their lifestyles reveal a failure to acknowledge the emotions of Christ, and a lack of understanding of the personality of Jesus. I don’t believe it is intentional, but rather a lack of knowledge on the subject. Whenever some people, especially men, hear the term “bride of Christ” it makes them uncomfortable. They can’t wrap their minds around the concept of being a male and being a bride. And since they don’t understand it they just ignore it. And so this fulfilling, life changing revelation gets thrown to the wayside. That’s why I have written this book: to explain in simple, easy to understand language our impact on the emotional heart of God, the original and eternal purposes for mankind, God’s relentless pursuit and undying desire for us, and what it means and practically looks like to live as the bride of Christ.
It is not coincidence that you are reading these words. God is wooing you and desiring to speak to your heart. Hosea 2:14 says, “Behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.” God is wanting to speak to you like a man speaks to his lady when they walk away from the party into the garden. He is drawing you to a place where He can speak to you intimately. Go with Him into the wilderness and listen with your heart. God is giving you an invitation to intimacy with Him.
Before we begin this journey into the heart of God let’s agree together in prayer:
Heavenly Father I ask that you would open our eyes to understand the passion and love you have for us and the relationship that you desire to share with us. I ask that you would prepare our hearts to receive the truth of your Word and that every evil mental stronghold would be torn down. May your Word go forth producing the fruit of life and reaping a harvest of intimacy. May light be shed on all the dark places of our understanding and may vision for becoming a pure and spotless bride of Christ be birthed in our heart. Thank you in advance for the transforming work that you are going to do in my life! We pray this in the matchless, all powerful and unstoppable name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now turn the page and prepare for your heart to ignite into a brazen passion as we set sail on the adventure to touch God's heart!
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