Solomon wrote in the Message translation of the Song of Songs 2:15-17 –
“Then you must protect me from the foxes, foxes on the prowl, Foxes who would like nothing better than to get into our flowering garden. My lover is mine, and I am his. Nightly he strolls in our garden, Delighting in the flowers until dawn breathes its light and night slips away. Turn to me, dear lover. Come like a gazelle. Leap like a wild stag on delectable mountains!”
Song of Solomon 2:15-17 MSG
The Song of Songs happens to be the most romantic writing in the Bible. It is about the love affair between an unnamed Shulamite woman and her Lover. This writing by King Solomon actually paints a romantic picture of the relationship, that does exists between Christ and His Bride (the Church).
In the above excerpt from the book, we can see the Shulamite woman (the Bride of Christ), asking her Bridegroom (Christ) for protection from the “foxes”; that were on the prowl looking for access into their prosperous garden of love.
The Church and Christ are both prospering with the blessing of God, the Father who had placed them both, in this beautiful garden of His Kingdom. The foxes are the enemies or the Satanic forces, who are bent on destroying the fruit of this beautiful garden. The Devil seeks to do this, by trying to frustrate the relationship between Christ and His Church, from mutually prospering together.
This has always been the plan of the enemy. It has never changed even today, as the Church is eagerly waiting for Christ (her Lover) to return.
Faith in the name of Jesus is your protection
Prosperity is the will of God for every Christian. The Devil is the one who behaves like the foxes, to hinder Christians from prospering. Christ has given you and I the authority, to call upon His name in prayer for protection from the enemy. When a Christian uses the name of Jesus in prayer, it brings a supply of the Spirit of Christ into his situation (Philippians 1:19).
King Solomon emphasized this when he wrote:
“The name of the LORD is a strong tower; The righteous runs to it and is safe and set on high [far above evil].”
PROVERBS 18:10 AMP
Anytime that your ability to prosper as a child of God is threatened, you can always call on the name of Jesus. He will show up to give you all the protections that you need. You are kept away from harm and protected in the name of Jesus, who is your strong tower.
And in the above writing (Song of Songs) we can see Christ, as the Groom responding to the call for help from His Bride (the Church). Christ showed up walking around the vineyard or garden, while it was still dark to do what His Bride asked Him to do.
When you pray in the name of Jesus; He will come to do exactly what you are asking Him to do for you, in protecting your prosperity. You are never alone. Jesus is always close to you. He longs to see His beautiful Bride prosper in the Kingdom of the Father.
He told the Father just before giving His life, to prove that He really loves you:
“While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power of your name, the name you gave me. I protected them, and not one of them was lost, except the man who was bound to be lost — so that the scripture might come true.”
John 17:12 GNB
He gave an assurance before the Father here, that you are protected and safe from harm by the power in His name. His name is the most powerful in heaven and on earth. Jesus never looses any one who loves Him and believes in His name. That’s why He loves to walk around your garden of prosperity, to not only protect it. He loves to walk around your prosperity, because He desires to enjoy it with you. He always wants to share in the joy of your prosperity with you also. He takes great pleasure in enjoying with you, everything that you are enjoying in it right now. Are you allowing Him to share in the joy of your prosperity with you?
Whenever you call upon His name, He will always show up for you.
Remember that He said:
“And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:13-14 NIV
And again:
“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”
Mark 11:24 NIV
These are the words of the lover of your soul. The man who truly loves you enough, to actually give His life for all your shortcomings in life. Whenever you use the name of Jesus in prayer, His Spirit moves into action to answer to your call immediately. He hears every call of your heart, which no one else understands.
The scriptures says about Him:
“This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.”
Hebrews 4:15-16 NLT
Remain unshakable with your prosperity
But you do have to believe in the love of Christ Jesus for you. There is no Bride-in-waiting who doesn’t trust and believe the promise of her Groom. Otherwise there will be no need to be wait on him. No one waits for someone who is known, for not fulfilling his promises. Jesus does has a track record of fulfilling everything that He promises. No one in the world has ever been able to break His record. And there will never be, or can there ever be any one, to break this record of promises kept by Jesus. The scriptures are there for you to check Him up. People may fail you; but Jesus will never fail or disappoint you. Yes, you can definitely rely on His words.
Trust is the guarantee of any successful marital relationship. That’s why He said:
“If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
John 15:7-8 NIV
By keeping His words of promises in your heart always, you are remaining or abiding in Him. And in your relationship with Christ (your Groom), you can basically take Him seriously for His words, to come back for you. But if you don’t believe in His love for you, it’s going to be hard for you to believe in His second coming. His love for you is the basis for your trust in His words to you. You have faith in Him, because you have faith in His love for you. And He had proved His love for you already, by giving His life on the cross (1 John 4:9). That’s the ultimate love sacrifice that He made for you. No human on earth can ever do this for you. Jesus proved His love for you, by sacrificing His own life. This is the good news.
That’s why you have to always be on your guard, against the lies of the enemy concerning your ability to trust in that love. His strategy is to undermine the trust that you have in the promises of Jesus to you.
Remember that Jesus will only come into the situations that He is invited into. You can’t blame Him for not answering your prayers, if you are not correctly using His name for the right reasons. If you are not keeping His words in your heart, you will have a problem in getting your prayers across to Him.
He has given you the authority in His name to use against the enemy. That’s why you can’t possibly be asking Jesus, to bind and loose the Devil for you. He can’t do what He has given you the authority to do. You will be waiting for eternity on Him; and nothing will ever happen in answer to such a scripturally baseless prayer.
But if you are actually in love with Him; His promises to do what you are using that authority for, will be in you also. That is what gives you the boldness against the Devil. Remember always that you will always need boldness, to use your authority against the Devil, in protecting your prosperous life.
Jesus has already given you the authority in His name, to bind and loose on the earth. It is only when you are using your authority here on the earth, that He will see to it that the Heavens does, what you are asking for when you pray. Jesus will not come from the Heavens to bind the Devil for you on the earth. It is your responsibility to do this. If you need the supply of His Spirit in any situation right now, you must begin to use the authority that He gave to you.
He already said:
“I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
Luke 10:19 NIV
And also:
“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Matthew 18:18 NIV
When you are abiding in these two promises by Jesus (as an example); you will be bold against the enemy. It is when you use your authority on the earth, in binding the forces against your power to prosperity, that the Spirit of Jesus will release the permission to every forces in the Heavens, in making sure that your words stands and comes to pass.
That’s why you must be spiritually on the alert for “the foxes”. These are Satan and his forces of evil. They will always show up, once they notice that you are prospering in what the Lord has committed into your hands. Don’t keep quiet whenever they show up. Fight the good fight of faith, by using your authority in the name of Jesus. You are in a covenant relationship with the Mighty One, who will always fight along with you to protect what is yours. You are unstoppable. Your faith in His name works at all times. Use it with authority and be bold with it.
Christ will always pasture you into prosperous places
Now the Amplified translation puts the scriptural texts in the Song of Songs 2:16-17 like this:
“My beloved is mine and I am his; He pastures his flock among the lilies. “Until the cool of the day when the shadows flee away, Return quickly, my beloved, and be like a gazelle Or a young stag on the mountains of Bether [which separate us].”
SONG OF SOLOMON 2:16-17 AMP
Christ is the Beloved of the Church who pastures His flock, in the most prosperous places of the garden. The lilies symbolizes the place of devotion to one other in this romantic relationship. Christ takes His Bride (the Church) to the very best place of experiencing intimacy in the relationship.
This is the place where Christ and the Bride (the Christians) will begin to bring forth fruit in this relationship. The desire of Jesus is to see the Church prosperous, and saved from the assault of the “foxes” (the enemy) of their prosperity. Your place of intimacy with Jesus is the place, where the enemy or “the foxes” can’t touch you, or touch anything that belongs to you.
As Proverbs 18:10 says in the Amplified translation; it is the place where you are “far above evil”. Christ will always take care of His own, while at the same time protecting them from the enemy’s attack. That’s why you have His name. He wants to have intimacy with you in this relationship. Are you open in your heart to let Him lead you, to that place of your prosperity?
As long as you are remaining in Him, by abiding in His words and in His love; the protection in His name for you is guaranteed. Christ will always protect His Bride (the Church) with the swift speed of a “gazelle”; on the mountain of love that belongs to Him and His Bride. This is the romantic place where, your heart begins to long for the One whom you love. But it is also a reference to those moments, when it may seem to you as if He is not responding to your cry.
In reality Jesus sees you on this mountain of love. He longs to hear your voice, as you call on His name. When you call, He will respond with the speed of a gazelle to your call. A gazelle is very fast with speed on the mountains of Israel. This mountain as suggested in this translation, is what figuratively separates the Church and Christ, in those moments of longing for one another in this relationship.
Even though the Church is engaged to Christ, there however still has to be a legitimate union between us before God in Heaven. God, the Father will be the One to join us together with Christ forever (Revelation 19:7-9). At that point whatever separates you from Christ will be completely removed. You will be forever in union with Him.
How excited are you in waiting for that time? The One who gave His life for you, will finally be together eternally in union with you. It’s going to be a glorious moment of union with Him.
Christ – the Mighty Warrior always protects your prosperity in His name
We need not ignore the role of Christ as the Defender of His Church, in this romantic exposition by Solomon. Christ is not only the greatest Lover of all. He is also the greatest Warrior of all. He has never and will never loose a battle. Whenever you allow Him to fight your battles of faith for you! You will always win. That’s how you win in the good fight of faith always. When you are allowing His promises to do the fighting for you; you will just have to be standing by faith on the words, which has gone out of your mouth in prayer.
The Prophet Isaiah prophetically spoke of Jesus as the Greatest Warrior of all, when he wrote:
“Who is this coming from the city of Bozrah in Edom? Who is this so splendidly dressed in red, marching along in power and strength?” “It is the LORD, powerful to save, coming to announce his victory.” “Why is his clothing so red, like that of someone who tramples grapes to make wine?” The LORD answers, “I have trampled the nations like grapes, and no one came to help me. I trampled them in my anger, and their blood has stained all my clothing. I decided that the time to save my people had come; it was time to punish their enemies. I was amazed when I looked and saw that there was no one to help me. But my anger made me strong, and I won the victory myself. In my anger I trampled whole nations and shattered them. I poured out their lifeblood on the ground.”
Isaiah 63:1-6 GNB
Jesus is the Mighty Warrior coming out of the city of Bozrah in Edom. Bozrah in Edom during the time that the Prophet Isaiah spoke these words, was famous for its dyed clothing. Many from Israel used to get the best quality dye and clothing from there. Bozrah was a very prosperous commercial city in the time of the Prophet Isaiah.
Are you involved in ministering at the market places or to business leaders? See Jesus here coming out in the victory for you. He had already won for you. You just need to take hold of the victory that He got for you.
This picture of Jesus fighting alone here to get for us, all that we need to be prosperous in life is remarkable. This was another image by Isaiah of all that Jesus did for you on the cross. It was a really bloody battle; but Jesus won in that battle.
In this image of Christ by the Prophet, he saw Him coming from the most prosperous city of his time, dressed in a blood soaked garment. How can any one else express such a great victory by Christ?
It is also amazing to see the Prophet Isaiah here, engaged directly in a live dialogue with the Victor (Jesus). The Spirit of the Lord opened the Prophet’s spiritual eyes to see Christ’s coming and victory on the earth. He fought and won. But you now have His name, to fight the good fight of faith.
Jesus has given you His name to use by this victory, even before He was manifested in the flesh. And normally the Bride will not take the name of the Groom, until they are legally united in marriage. But God sees the end from the very beginning in this love relationship with Christ. He knows for sure that this union will eventually be solemnized in Heaven. There can never be anything like the breaking up of the relationship, between Christ and the Church. Forget it. It will never happen. That’s why Jesus was allowed to give you His name to use, until He returns back to get you to be eternally with Him.
Be bold to always use the name of Jesus
That’s why you need to be using His name, to get everything that you need here on earth. The use of His name is a guarantee that, your Heavenly Father will give you whatever you ask for in that name. Be bold therefore to call upon the name of Jesus in your time of need.
Remember that it’s not only Jesus’ name. It’s your name also. You inherited the name by virtue of your new creation birth. You are now in your Beloved; and your Beloved is in you. You carry His name also everywhere you go.
Paul told the Ephesians:
“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,”
Ephesians 3:14-15 NKJV
The name of Jesus belongs to every member of the whole family of God, in the heaven and on the earth. You are never alone. You are part of the largest family in the heaven and on the earth. The name of Jesus was given to you by God, the Father in heaven. This is one of the greatest mysteries of our redemption that terrifies the enemy, whenever he sees you in Christ Jesus.
Remember what Jesus said before He went up:
“Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and I will take you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also. And [to the place] where I am going, you know the way.”
JOHN 14:1-4 AMP
Don’t be afraid, and don’t be a coward. Be bold and courageous always, to take possession of what the Devil had stolen from your prosperity. You must use your faith to get everything back. And he will never give it back to you without a fight of faith. That’s where your ability to use the violence against him; with the faith confessions of your mouth is important (Matthew 11:12).
Jesus (your Lover) and the One that you long for, has gone to prepare a new place to live in Heaven for you. You are going to be living in the same place with Jesus and your Heavenly Father forever. Now, that’s another good news.
And if you know what the Bible tells us about Heaven; everything that you are now enjoying in this world, as you are prospering is a joke in comparison, with what He has in store for you in Heaven. You don’t want to be too surprised when you get there. Start getting used to living with all that Christ has made available for you in Heaven here on earth. You are here now practicing how to live in Heaven. Live like a truly prosperous Christian, and not like a beggar or a pauper.
Jesus has given you His name to use in commanding the enemy. Use His name with authority and boldness, knowing fully well what is yours in Christ Jesus.
He said:
“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:14 NIV
And again:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
There is nothing that you need, which is not available for you to receive by faith. You are blessed. You are the beloved of the Lord. Every time you use His name in prayer, a spiritual sword comes out of your mouth against your enemy (see Revelation 19:11-16). You are victorious. You are an overcomer. And never forget that you are fighting the good fight of faith. So stand up in the good fight of faith for your prosperity, and take all that belongs to you now.
