A Throne Forsaken for Love

A vision received by Christina Kemper

Before I share with you my vision, I would like to share with you some background on what God had been doing in my life. God had really been teaching me that the walk was not about feelings and that it is about obedience. The night that He revealed to me His love He had called me to go to the altar. I didn't want to because there were no other people at the altar worshipping, but God told me to do it anyway because it isn't about feelings, it is about obedience. After that I ran up there and worshipped with all my heart. I believe that going to the altar was a symbol of obedience in my life and my rebellious side dieing that night and, in return, the Lord blessed me beyond measure.

I saw the Lord's Throne room. There was a glow that lit up the center of the room leading to the throne. The outskirts of the room where dark but I knew the angels were all there watching. Big mighty powerful angels. Angels like Michael and Gabriel.

Looking where the light was focused I see the Lord's backside. His train drags on the ground but it fills the throne room. It was the most luxurious fabric I could never imagine. A deep red with a fake fur type outline that was white with black spots. His crown was gold with jewels of every kind. All I can do is watch in awe as the Lord walks towards the throne. As He sits down His train is still half way down the throne room. He is sitting completely still, back straight...the picture perfect King. I hear a Voice in me saying go to Him. I am appalled," Who am I? Why would I ever disturb this King who is greater than any other? He wouldn't want me to bother him." Again I hear the Voice saying Go to Him. Reluctantly I very slowly take a small step. As I go to take another step He looks up and sees me. Part of me wants to run...but all I can do is watch. As I watch He unclasps His train and takes His crown and tosses it aside as if it meant nothing. Then He jumps up and runs to me.

As He runs to me His elegant clothes become tattered rags. When He gets to where I am standing He embraces me like I have never been embraced before. There is love unimaginable in that hug.

I broke.

I fell to the floor crying realizing what just happened. Realizing that He gave up everything to be with me. Not only did He give up His kingdom, riches, and every other thing that He has to pamper Himself with, to be with me....He did it to love me. He went even further than that and served people...washing their feet, feeding them, and so on. I couldn't believe it. I don't know how long I was crying, but eventually The Lord picked me up and took me to the throne to see His crown and train. He kept trying to show them to me and let me feel the train but I would just break even more and freak out at the thought of touching such precious things. How could I ever touch such heavenly things, I was feeling so unworthy I was still trying to fathom the thought of The Lord giving up everything He had to be with me...to think He wanted to share these things with me was beyond any kind of comprehension.

Then the Lord took me many places. First he took me dancing. We danced and danced and danced around a huge ballroom for what seemed like hours. Then we were lieing on a blanket under a beautiful blue sky just gazing into each others eyes. Then were were running on a beach splashing each other playfully in the tide. Then we were back on the blanket just gazing into each others eyes. I jokingly asked the Lord why he was trying to woo me. He said to me that's it, don't you get it? I am jealous for you affections. I love you more then any boyfriend could ever love you. I want to do all the things any boyfriend would do with you. I am jealous, for you. Then he revealed this to me. There is a song "Draw Me Close to You." If you don't know the song it goes:

Draw me close to you.

Never let me go.

I would lay it all down again to hear you say that I'm you friend.

You're all I want, You're all I need.

Whenever I have sung this song before I would think of it as me singing to God but here is the kicker: God sang this song to me that night.

Draw Me close to you (Christina).

Never let Me go (please don't let Me go).

You are My desire. No one else will do.

You (Christina) are all I need. You (Christina) are all I want.

I would lay it all down again (go to the cross again) just to hear you say that I'm your Friend.

I was so broken by those words that night. I couldn't believe that the Lord was telling me He would go to the cross again for just me. That's crazy! That night Jesus took me many places and showed me His love. He revealed to me that night that He is jealous for my affections. He revealed to me that no one can even begin to love me the way He could love me. There is no one who could or would give up their throne to be with you. Not only would they not give up their throne but they would never go to the lowly level that we are all at below God or go even further and die so that you may go and join him at the throne. Isn't that crazy?!?!?! I will never conceive of His love. It blows everything that you know right out of the water.

So on an ending thought, If you struggle with obedience as I did, If you are quick to obey...God is always eager to bless and share things with us in return. Obedience is God's song...if you obey He will stop everything to dance with you.

Posted by: JeriRose12

I have felt the Lord wooing me this way before. It is awesom! This is where "Be still and know that I am God" comes in. We have to stop long
enough to enjoy His presence. I have "danced" with the Lord before.
Thanks for the confirmantion of what I have experienced.

Posted by: robertcyders

Christina, what you have shared in this post has really blessed me. Thank you for who you are and the gift that God has given to bless others through you...

Blessings, Robert Cyders...

Posted by: JesusFreakCK

Jesus is so way cool! After all this happened I just walked around with the biggest grin on my face forever. I felt like a million bucks. I am so glad that lately he has been meeting me on my level to reveal things. He revealed another thing to me which I might put up to share, I need to spend some time praying about it though. These things are just so cool though, I just want to go around shaking people and be like have you heard?!?!?! and tell them how and why God is so cool. I am glad that people are reading this though, and I am glad that it has blessed you

I am just glad that I can't even begin to take credit for this stuff. God is just so awesome, he is always revealing things to me that I never would have thought of or begun to have comprehended until recently when he has come to meet with me personally on my level. I am just asking for more revelations of all his different characteristics each day :-D

Posted by: JeriRose12

Draw Me Close

Story Behind The Song
by Mark Smeby

Have you ever thought that your relationship with God hinged on doing things for Him or for your church or for other people? Worship leader and songwriter Kelly Carpenter learned the hard way that sometimes just being is more important than doing.

You can find "Draw Me Close" on Songs From The Great Adventure

It's easy to get bogged down doing things for God, for your church, for other people, and start to think those things constitute your relationship with God. While God desires to be in relationship with us, we sometimes think doing is more important that just being. Kelly Carpenter's worship prayer, "Draw Me Close," was birthed during a time like this. In the midst of being busy serving God, he was feeling that God wanted more of him.

Kelly Carpenter's worship anthem "Draw Me Close" has connected with hundreds of thousands of people all over the world.

Kelly caught "the worship bug," as he calls it, about 12 years ago while attending a worship conference at his California Vineyard church. He was on the worship team and was able to spend some time with Canadian worship leaders Andy Park and Brian Doerksen. A couple of years after the conference, he started leading worship, as well as writing worship songs.

One of those songs was "Draw Me Close."

As it happened, Kelly had just finished a church service in late January 1994, but his heart was not quite in it. "My heart was heavy that day because I had come to the realization that I had put my ministry in front of my relationship with the Lord. So I literally cried out to Him, "I lay it all down again to hear You say that I'm Your friend." Within 20 minutes, he says, "the song just spilled out."

"This song has always been intensely personal for me," Kelly adds, "and continues to bring me back to my knees, that my relationship with God should come first before the call, the vision, and the ministry that He has given me."

At first, he didn't actually use the song at his church because it was such a personal song. "I cried when I wrote it," he explained. "Still, I actually thought it was a really different song, like something Barry Manilow would write." Worship leader Andy Park was the first to hear the tune, oddly enough, while he was busy replacing the kitchen floor in his house. "He had it playing on a boom box," Kelly says, "and when he heard the line, 'I lay it all down again,' he broke down."

Park then asked him to play on a live record in July of 1994, and asked if he would lead on the original recording of the tune. Over the next couple of years, Kelly was invited to do a lot of conferences, where he would be asked to present his song. But because it was so personal, he rarely did it.

The years following these were filled with struggle and disappointment for Kelly "We've gone through some tough times in the last five years. Times when I felt God was calling me to full-time ministry. Honestly, it's been very difficult figuring out my faith and my walk with God. During these years, 'Draw Me Close' became much more to me than an 'I'm in ministry' kind of song. It became much deeper for me. Life, and all the stuff we wind up going through makes it really hard to keep the Lord at the center. God ends up using pain and brokenness to draw us to Him. The song became very germane and poignant to those moments--a 'come home again' kind of song."

Kelly says brokenness, as he's come to understand it, is a universal experience throughout life. "The song connects with anyone who is going through brokenness." He continues, even years down the road to hear from people who've been impacted by the song.

Over the past few years, a couple of high profile Christian music artists have recorded his song. The Katinas recorded his song for Rocketown Records' Exodus project, taking the song to number one on Christian radio charts. Most recently, Michael W. Smith recorded "Draw Me Close" on his Worship project, which has sold over a million copies in just about a year. It's also on Smith's Worship live video and DVD.

Kelly, a soft-spoken man, is in awe of what's happened, yet at the same time he doesn't follow the charts or keep tabs on where the song is being played or how wide reaching the impact of the song has gone. "I don't even think it's important to know the hugeness of what has happened. I see it as only a gift from God to me...and it's turned into the gift that keeps on giving. People in ministry like to know that what they're doing is making a difference."

He also said he doesn't revel in the uniqueness of the song, choosing to look at this song's success in the larger context. "I've written 75-80 worship songs, probably had about a dozen published, and this is the one that has done well. It's really a bit of a phenomenon, if you ask me."

Mark Smeby is a freelance writer who lives in Franklin, TN.

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Posted by: robertcyders

"Kelly Carpenter's worship anthem "Draw Me Close" has connected with hundreds of thousands of people all over the world." - JeriRose12

You know that great old hymn "It is well with my soul"? It would be really neat to have the lyrics and background history of this old classic...

If you do not get to it before I do...It would be really cool!

Thanks for sharing this history with us...

Blessings, Robert Cyders...

Posted by: JeriRose12

IT IS WELL WITH MY SOUL

“Praise the Lord, O my soul.” Psalm 146:1

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Courtesy of American Colony Hotel Words: Horatio G. Spafford, 1873.
Music: Philip P. Bliss, 1876 (MIDI, score). The tune is named after the ship on which Spafford’s children perished, the S.S. Ville de Havre. Ironically, Bliss himself died in a tragic train wreck shortly after writing this music.

This hymn was written after two major traumas in Spafford’s life. The first was the great Chicago Fire of October 1871, which ruined him financially (he had been a wealthy businessman). Shortly after, while crossing the Atlantic, all four of Spafford’s daughters died in a collision with another ship. Spafford’s wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, “Saved alone.” Several weeks later, as Spafford’s own ship passed near the spot where his daughters died, the Holy Spirit inspired these words. They speak to the eternal hope that all believers have, no matter what pain and grief befall them on earth.

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When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Refrain

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Posted by: sewart

Oh thank you for writing this! I was blessed by it.