The Supreme Request: Living a Life of One Thing
I. THE DIVINE KISS: THE BRIDE’S SUPREME REQUEST
Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth (Word)- For Your love is better than wine…
A. To be a person of ‘one thing’ is to realize that our primary identity is to love God and to be loved by Him (making the
first commandment first). It is about using our time, energy, and money to grow in love for God. There is power in having
one thing as the highest position of our life. It's a very important psychological principle; when our power and our strength
is diluted, weakened by the many things that are in the primary position of our heart, there is emotional fatigue. We were
designed to be a people of one primary thing. We become a people of one thing as we seek to receive spirit of revelation
in order to see the beauty of Jesus through His Word, and as we seek to receive power to be wholehearted lovers of God.
B. The Song of Solomon gives a picture of our journey as believers from immaturity to wholehearted love (being a
people of ‘one thing’). At the beginning of her journey the maiden reveals her supreme request, the thing that she desires
above all other things including earthly position or prosperity. She asks for that which will empower her to love God and
to say no to sin in her life.
C. Her desire is to know the Son of God in a deeper way. She cries to the Father, the One with authority over the
heavenly King, asking for an encounter with Jesus, the Prince of Peace. For the next eight chapters, she experiences
aspects of His character and personality such as the Counseling Shepherd, Affectionate Father, Conquering King, Safe
Savior, Prophetic Bridegroom whose heart is ravished with desire for His Bride, Suffering Servant, and the Consuming
Fire.
D. The maiden’s supreme request is for the kisses of His mouth, or the kisses of His Word. The Word of God is what
proceeds from God’s mouth. Our heart can only live by that which comes from the mouth of God. For 3,000 years, rabbis
have referred to the “kisses of the mouth” in this verse as the “kiss of the Torah”. The Bride cries out to receive the Word
of God in a way that would reveal and impart God’s love to her heart. This is her theology of how to grow in wholehearted
love for God.
3 That He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from
the mouth of the LORD. (Deut. 8:3)
I opened my mouth and panted, For I longed for Your commandments. Psalm 119:131
E. In a similar way, the Lord has invited the Church to ask for anything in His will. As the Bride, we stand in the
Father’s presence to ask for what we want most. We ask for the deepest things that God will give us.
22 And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive. (Mt. 21:22)
23 Whoever…does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will come to pass, he will have whatever
he says. (Mk. 11:23)
13 Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in
My name, I will do it. (Jn. 14:13-14)
And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.
Matthew 11:12
II. BEHOLDING THE BEAUTY OF THE LORD: DAVID’S SUPREME REQUEST
One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life,
To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple. Psalm 27:4
A. David is a picture of someone with the Song of Solomon 1:2 heart cry. David also had a supreme request. His
request was that all the days of his life he would be able to see the things that were in the heart of God (the beauty of the
Lord). This was his primary preoccupation and focus throughout his life. David knew that the pleasure of the Spirit of God
revealing God to our spirit (1 Corinthians 2) is the greatest pleasure we can know as human beings. This was the thing
that God drew David back to; it was the central truth from which he lived his life. It is likely that David lost sight of this at
times, but returned each time and focused his heart to go again after the Lord.
B. David desired the beauty of God. This is what gripped David for his entire life. David encountered seasons of
victory, seasons of compromise, times of despair and times of exhilaration. I believe that through each emotional or
circumstantial change, David’s secret motivation; the secret to his power in the Lord and his consistency through 70
years of walking with the Lord was this cry.
C. David sought the beauty of God. God has ordained that He would hide the deepest things related to His heart.
Solomon declared it would be our glory to search these things out (Prov. 25:2). In His wisdom, the Father ordained that
His beauty would be found by seeking it with diligence. It pleases His heart when we live a life of faith (Hebrews 11:6)
that is given to consistent, persistent reaching for the knowledge of God as revealed in His Word.
III. WALKING OUT THE SUPREME REQUEST: MARY’S LIFE OF DEVOTION
A. Mary is a picture of the one who lived her life in order to experience Song of Solomon 1:2. She wanted to hear the Word
inasmuch as it empowered her to love. There is nothing wrong with an academic approach to the word, but we want to come to
Jesus in the Word so that we might have life (John 5:39).
B. A thousand years after David, Jesus entered into the house of Martha and Mary in the town of Bethany
(Lk. 10: 38-42). One of the few times He came down to Jerusalem He went to Martha's house, which is in Bethany,
only two miles from Jerusalem. The house was probably Martha’s inheritance from her parents.
38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him
into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was
distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to
serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.” And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and
troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken
away from her.” (Luke 10:38-42)
C. Mary was sitting at the feet of Jesus, hearing His Word. All three occasions in the Word where Mary is mentioned
she is at the feet of Jesus (Luke 10/Mark 14/John 11-12).
D. Martha was distracted with much serving and preoccupied with other issues. She was not corrected for serving
but for doing it in a wrong spirit. Being distracted is not penalized, but staying distracted is after the Lord confronts it.
Martha was in a time of visitation, but she was worried and bothered and it cut off her life in God.
E. Jesus revealed to Martha that only one thing was needed. Only one thing actually impacts us at the heart level – sitting
at His feet and hearing His Word. Mary chose the good part, which would not be taken away from her (Lk. 10:42).
F. The Lord wanted Martha flowing in servanthood out of the reality of walking in love, identified as a wholehearted
lover and being loved. If the issue of extravagant devotion (active intimacy) is established in us, then all the other issues
of our life in God will be in their place. It will minimize the worry in our spirits and the anxiety in our thought life.
IV. POSITIONING OUR HEARTS TO RECEIVE
A. There are three components necessary for the power of the Word to live in us. First, we use our choice to pursue
God with a spirit of obedience, faith and loving devotion. Second, we feed our heart continually on the Word (implant it in
our heart) through mediation. Third, we need the activity of the Spirit to turn meditation into living revelation (turn water
into wine, Jn. 2) to save or deliver us from sinful desires. We must fellowship with the Holy Spirit by talking to Him.
Summary of the three components: we must obey God, feed on the Word and talk to the Spirit.
21 Lay aside all filthiness…and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save (supernaturally deliver)
your souls. (Jas 1:21)
7 If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you…ask… and it shall done. (Jn. 15:7)
B. The Word is meant to create a living active dialogue in our hearts with God. We pray-read the Word or we converse
with Jesus as we read it. We thank Him for certain truths as we ask Him to reveal them more. We commit to obey other
truths as we ask Him for help to fully obey them.
12 For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of
soul and spirit… (Heb. 4:12)
C. If we have regular times in the Word, then we will be able to meditate on the Word through the day as our hands
are occupied with service. Our spirit need not wither in our journey in God.
1 Blessed is the man...2 (whose) delight is in the law (Word) of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.
3 He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit…, whose leaf shall not wither; and
whatever he does shall prosper. (Ps. 1:1-3)
D. It is necessary for us to re-align our hearts on a regular basis in order to enter into this. The Holy Spirit is in us
(Col. 1:27; John 14:16-17; John 16:7) to help us and empower us on the journey.
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells wit
you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:16-17)
7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you;
but if I depart, I will send Him to you. (John 16:7)
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age,
who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained
before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have
crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For
the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit
of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us
by God. (1 Cor. 2:6-12)