“Let Him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!  

For your love is better than wine;

your anointing oils are fragrant;

your name is oil poured out…”  

Song of Songs 1:4

 For years I struggled with teaching on “bridal love”, have even been offended with some of the teaching I believed that came from IHOP. It seemed like many of their worship songs I heard had the words “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” somewhere in the melody.  I would cringe whenever I heard those words sung!  I believed that teaching bordered on the wrong kind of intimacy many intercessors fall into, especially women.  Over the years of my leading intercession for Connecticut I’ve met many an off-balanced intercessor who reveled in unbiblical teaching that made them feel good.  This “intimacy” thing was a bit too much when there was a lost and dying world out there that needed our concentrated prayers and intercession.  I believed we need to focus our intercession on “those out there”, not on ourselves or our relationship with the Lord.  I believed in that old church cliche: “if we take care of God’s business, He will take care of ours”.

Then there came the day when the Lord directed me to take another look at IHOP, listen more closely to their teaching.   I realized if I am called to raise up a house of prayer, I need to learn from those who were successful at it.  International House of Prayer in Kansas City MO has been in existence for over 13 years and is growing.  Also, many of those who I respect held a high regard of IHOP, some even told me of amazing experiences they had while visiting them in Kansas City.  Not only that, “IHOP people” from all across the eastern United States had been contacting me, offering me their prayers, their help and support.  They didn’t even know me!  Yet they supported and encouraged me in my efforts to raise up this local house of prayer.  I was touched by  all of their prayers, concerns and generous love they poured on someone they didn’t even know.  All because I hear the Lord calling me to build Him a house of prayer!

As I listened to the teaching come from Kansas City, I was amazed at how similar the teaching I heard Bickle and others preach was so close to my own theology.  So I kept listening to the IHOP online teaching, ordered books and DVDs, even introduced some of the teaching to those who came to my prayer house; but always with caution. I never wanted the intercessors to go off thinking I was teaching Jesus is their “boyfriend”!

Then slowly, the Lord began to correct me, He began to show me the errors of my thinking.

About a year ago, when I was at church one Sunday, sitting in front of me was a man who looked like he either was newly saved or not a believer. He was covered in tattoos and body piercings, and he shaved his head. While we worshipped, I had a vision of that man. I saw him lying in bed asleep, or he may possibly have been dead. It was completely dark. Then suddenly The Lord burst into this man’s room, He was Light and Light shown all about Him. The Lord, the Holy Spirit was suddenly on top of this man, eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, mouth to mouth, face to face.  The Holy Spirit suddenly breathed His breath into this man’s mouth and nose. As He did this, the man’s eyes suddenly popped open, a look of utter surprise appeared on his face!  He was suddenly very much awake and alive where before he was asleep, possibly even dead.   There was something mezmerizing about that whole picture; the picture of the Holy Spirit on top of this man, so close, so uncomfortably close!  The picture of the Holy Spirit breathing His breath into this man, which woke him up with a look of shock and surprise kept pulling at me.  At first I thought the vision was for this man, so I shared it with him after the service. He looked a bit uncomfortable when I spoke to him, looked like he wanted to get away from me.  He probably thought of me as this eccentric woman who goes around speaking about visions to whomever she meets. His answer was “I have asthma. Maybe The Lord wants to heal me”.  Then he left before I had a chance to ask if I could pray for him.

For some reason I couldn’t shake the impact of that vision. It kept appearing again and again in my thoughts and in my sight. I shared this with the intercessors and one of them tried to draw it. My mind kept going back to that vision of the tattooed skinhead man.  As I meditated on that vision, the Lord then reminded me of an experience I had years ago when I watched Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion”. Like many others, my church rented a theater and we all watched it together as a congregation. When we watched the scene of Jesus crying out,“IT….IS…..FINISHED!!!!”, then breathed His last breath, I suddenly felt moisture on my lips. I felt as if I had been kissed on the mouth!  I looked up, thinking the air conditioner was leaking over my head. But there was no air conditioner.  It was such a weird sensation.  I couldn’t understand why I had the feeling of my being kissed as I watched a graphic image of a bloodied and tortured Christ dying on the cross.  To me, the two didn’t come together, it didn’t make sense.

Recently, during my daily Bible reading, I read again the book of Song of Solomon, it was part of my daily Bible reading I had followed for decades.  I found myself again reading: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth”. There’s that “kissing” verse again!  There is that verse again that makes me very uncomfortable. The verse all those singers sing over & over at IHOP that makes me squirm!  The verse I find repugnant. But then as I read the verse that morning, I saw written next to this verse, in my own handwriting: “BREATHE Your breath into me, oh God!!!”  To this day, I don’t remember writing that!  

Suddenly revelation dawned on me.  As I re-read the passage and my prayer next to it, I again remembered the vision I had of the man at my church, as well as the sensation of my being kissed as I watch Jesus dying on the cross. I also remembered specific Bible passages; like Genesis 2:7 when God breathed His breath into man, which gave him life.  Or in 2 Kings 4:8-37, when Elisha raised up the dead teenage boy by his lying on top of him, eyeball to eyeball, nose to nose, mouth to mouth.  Then I remember John 20:22, when the resurrected Christ breathed His breath into each of His disciples, saying “Receive ye the Holy Spirit” before He ascended into heaven.  

I am slowly getting it!  Sometimes I can be quite dense, jumping to wrong conclusions.

I suddenly saw the vast need for us to allow the Lord to get up close and personal with us. I see our need to allow, even invite the Holy Spirit to get into our personal space and breathes His Breath into us. I suddenly saw that I am that tattooed man, my body marred and pierced by the stain of this world, I am sleeping in darkness. Then Holy Spirit comes and breathes His breath into my mouth and nostrils. In a sense, He performs mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in me!  He “kisses me with the kisses of His mouth”.  

BREATHE Your breath into me, oh Lord!  I cry out for more of You…..in me!  Invade my personal space!  I give You permission to get close to me, uncomfortably close where I can hide no secrets.  

Let this be the cry of all of our hearts!

Tomorrow night we will start a study on the Song of Songs.  Through this, we hope to understand the vastness of the Lord’s  love for us, allow Him to get into our personal space and breathe His breath into each of us.

You are invited to join with us as we start on this journey of allowing ourselves to become one with The Lord.

We meet at 7:00pm every Monday night at House of Good Hope, 320 Brown Street, Hartford CT.