One day while praying asking for forgiveness of a habitual sin I asked God why He continually forgave people and gave them second (and third and fourth etc.) chances whenever He knew that they were just going to sin again, thus hurting Him again. His response to me struck me in a profound way. He said, “For that one chance that you will choose to truly love me and stop hurting me.” I realized that day that Christ so longs to have an intimate bride that He willingly places His heart on the line to receive immeasurable pain just for the small chance that we will finally choose Him over satisfying the selfish desires of our flesh. I was completely captivated by how deeply Christ desires intimacy with us even when we are completely undeserving of His love. As the realization of His unwavering pursuit for intimacy with me even at the cost His own pain struck me I decided that day that I wanted to be the bride (not gender, but position) that He deserves. A bride that chooses to truly love Him and that stops hurting Him. A bride that is fiercely loyal, devoted, faithful and that seeks above anything to protect His heart from all pain. A bride with clean hands and a pure heart.
Many people don’t think of Christ as having emotion, but we do and we were created in His image. Christ actually has a greater capacity to hurt than we do because He has a greater capacity to love. It is impossible to love and not make yourself vulnerable, and because His love is so great the pain He feels at times is greater in one day than we could ever experience in our entire lifetime. One night the Lord woke me in the middle of the night (3am) and told me that He had just been rejected by someone that He had been in close relationship with for a long time and that He wanted me to get up and love on Him because He was hurting. It was the greatest honor that I have ever received. This encounter showed me that there is a level of intimacy that Christ desires to reach with us where Christ not only comforts us but that we also comfort Him. Ephesians 5:25 says that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. This scripture shows us that natural marriage is to be a picture for us of the relationship that Christ desires with the church (us). In natural marriage we would never think anything strange of a wife caring for and comforting her husband. So why should we think it strange that we can (and should) comfort Jesus.
A lot of people know Jesus as their savior, but very few know Him as their lover. A lot of people seek Him for what He can do for them, but too few seek Him for what they can do for Him. It is the goal of Divine Romance Ministries to raise up men and women that are true God-lovers that live and seek after one sole purpose: To touch God’s heart. Men and women that will embrace lifestyles of holy consecration ridding themselves of all mixture and devote themselves wholly to the purposes of God. A generation that is willing to go below the surface of selfish “convenient” Christianity and plunge themselves into the depths of selfless love and develop a passionate romance with the king of kings. They will be supreme intercessors, men and women that stand in the gap for God’s heart and completely lay down their own dreams in order to see the dreams of the king fulfilled.
The reason 12 men were able to effectively evangelize the world is because when Christ said, “follow me” they left everything in their life not counting the cost to follow Him. Nowadays a person could get confused into believing that the point of the gospel and main goal of Christianity is to get out of debt so you can by the latest greatest new vehicle. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the prosperity message and I believe that Christians should not live in lack but should be blessed in order that they can be a blessing. However, the point of the gospel is not to get a new car. If we want to see the results that the 12 disciples had as we read in the Bible than we have to be willing to live the way they lived. To see greater works we have to first be willing to do the same works, such as complete surrender and obedience to the will of God on your life. I believe that true Christianity is radical and extreme by nature (in love and obedience) and it was intended from the very beginning to cost you your life, not to be a trendy add on to your life. (Matthew 13:44) If twelve men could evangelize the world imagine what thousands of people could do that would leave everything in their lives not counting the cost to follow Him. It is the goal of Divine Romance Ministries to see this type of sold-out obedience to Christ become a reality in this generation. It is not proper for us to decide our destiny, it is our responsibility to discover it.
Divine Romance Ministries is dedicated to awakening, mobilizing, motivating and unifying an army of radical, totally surrendered and sold out God-lovers. An army that will battle against the deepest darkness of our time, bring down the mountains of injustice in our day, destroy God’s loneliness by living lives of fierce loyalty, devotion, and faithfulness to Christ and reap the greatest harvest of souls for the kingdom of God in history. An army with clean hands and pure hearts before God.
Years after the conversation I talked about in the first paragraph and after God had separated me from the addiction by His grace. I was again having a conversation with Him asking Him why He had chosen to do things that way and continuously risk so much pain. I was telling Him that I thought I would have done things differently if I were Him when He interrupted me and said, “It worked on you didn’t it?” He said this with a smile on His face and after laughing together about this a moment He continued, “Yeah Chris, you were worth the risk.” He feels the same way about you!
Living to touch God’s heart,
Chris Ulery
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