What is a threshing floor? Why is it so significant? And once again, what does this have to do with intimacy?
“Meet me at the threshing floor, Lord.”
A thought that came through my heart the other night. I didn’t really even know the meaning of it. I know the story of Ruth and Boaz. I know the threshing floor is where Boaz slept that night, and I know Ruth was bold enough to follow Naomi’s wise advice.
Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. Wash, put on perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
Ruth 3:2-4 NIV
Maybe you’re like me and you ask God a thousand questions when you read things like these.
Why was Boaz sleeping on the threshing floor? Seems like an odd place to sleep. Why does it say later in this story that women weren’t supposed to be on the threshing floor? Yet here comes Ruth… bathed, perfumed, and ready to place herself at his feet. After he falls asleep. And when Boaz wakes up, he tells her what she has asked him for is a kindness!
I’m not a Bible scholar or theologian, and I’m not going to pretend like I know the answers to these questions. Several Google searches and a Bible study later, and I have some ideas about these. But they’re not the point of this story.
“Meet me at the threshing floor, Lord.”
What did I mean? This was the question I was really trying to answer. Why did this phrasing arise out of my spirit?
Winnowing is a process by which chaff is separated from grain. It can also be used to remove pests from stored grain. Winnowing usually follows threshing in grain preparation. In its simplest form, it involves throwing the mixture into the air so that the wind blows away the lighter chaff, while the heavier grains fall back down for recovery.
Wikipedia
Separate me. Help cleanse me. Help me clean my hands and purify my heart. Help me live a life that is holy, sanctified, and set apart Lord.
Show me my pride. And in Your great mercy help me walk humbly with You Oh God.
Show me everywhere where I don’t look like AGAPE LOVE. Everywhere where I don’t look like YOU. Make me look like LOVE. Make me look like YOU.
Intimacy, in that deepest of deep places with God when I found Him that day I lost my life… Intimacy was fully expressed to me.
It wasn’t that I ceased to be. It is that I also was.
Oh Lord help me put into words with such limited meaning the limitless Love You allowed me to see.
See now I understand Paul’s plight in 1 Corinthians 13.
Words just will never be enough. The best we can do is but try.
I AM because He IS the Great I AM.
I LIVE because HE LIVES.
I RISE because HE AROSE.
I AM because HE IS.
And this is the very best I can do to describe to you what intimacy is.
In an encounter with Jesus in prayer one day, He began to help me understand. When you are married in this life, their sins become your sins. Their crimes are your crimes. Their wins are your wins. Their fights are your fights.
Makes you want to be really considerate of who you yoke up with.
But I also began to see another Truth.
I am One with Christ. In Him I abide. And He abides in me. And We Are. And We Live. And We move and have Our being together. Because of Him.
So His sins are my sins.
He has none.
My sins are His sins.
And so He died on that cross.
His shame is my shame.
He has none. So I have none.
My shame is His shame.
So He took it to the cross that day.
His Love is My Love.
His Word is Mine too.
Who I Am is Because Of You.
“What is the point of elevation?”
This is a question the Father asked me one day when I said I wanted to walk humbly, but that I wasn’t in it for Him to exalt me. I just wanted to be fully in His presence.
“What is the point of elevation?”
So you can see from a higher point a greater distance.
“Exactly.”
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
James 4:10 NIV
Separate me. Not just me from the world. But separate ME. Separate the things out of me that don’t look like YOU Christ! Make me look like YOU.
Make me look like that LOVE that LIGHT that was so ever infinitely engulfing there was no difference between me and You.
I just Was. And I Was With You. And I Was You. And I Was Yours and You Were Mine.
I Was and You Were and We Will always BE.
Some of you may read this and find revelation. Some of you may think I trifle dangerously upon statements that should not be made.
But you do not know what I have seen. Where I have been.
And I am telling you. This. These are the only words I have to describe this great intimacy.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
John 1:1-2 NIV
This.
This is intimacy.
And I have seen it.
And I NEVER WANTED TO LEAVE IT.
But here I am! Very much alive. And after more than a year of trying so desperately to understand WHY YOU SENT ME BACK TO THIS LIFE I think I am FINALLY beginning to MAYBE understand.
Because I REFUSE to live a life without that intimacy with you Christ. I DONT CARE WHERE I AM.
Alive or dead. Which one is life?
It’s a trick question from the enemy, Dad. THEY’RE BOTH LIFE.
So separate me like you do wheat and chaff. Winnow me until I look like Christ.
Until everything fades away, and it’s just me, and it’s just Christ.
Until I live everyday in this life the same way I will live in the next life.
One With You.
One With Christ
ONE WITH YOU HOLY SPIRIT FOR WE ARE THE SAME.
The deposit of our inheritance!
What will you DO with this incredibly divine partner we have been given by being given the Holy Spirit.
Not a tool. Not a trick. Not an escape from death.
HE IS GOD.
But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned. “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”
John 16:7-15 NIV
I am HIS and HE IS MINE.
And indeed HE is already with me. Holy Spirit. You Are. And so AM I.
Why my God, oh, why? You have been so merciful to me. So gracious. So kind. And last night, Your presence fell on me so hard I don’t even remember everything You said to me. I just recall this one statement.
“Because you always ask Me to meet you at the threshing floor.”
Then may I ever be found AT YOUR FEET worshipping before You at the threshing floor!
May We EVER More and ALWAYS BE.
Help me show the world THIS kind of intimacy!