Garden Enclosed...... Revisited

My roses are struggling!!! I have two rose bushes in my front yard, they are called "American Beauty" roses. When they bloom the bloom is this beautiful bud of red and white. It is quite stunning. This year the bettles have been terribly hard on my rose bushes and they are really struggling. It has been a month since I have seen healthy leaves much less some buds on the bushes. But, now after some delicate care they are beginning to look healthy again.
This has made me think once again about being a "garden enclosed". What exactly does this mean, and how does one acclomplish it? Back in May I caught a glimpse of what I think a "garden enclosed" looks like. God speaks to me me visually, so I took a picture of what I saw.

Buried in one of my rose bushes was this beautiful bloom encompassed, surrounded, and protected. Huh! When I saw this bloom it took my breath away, it was what God was trying to say to me. Go with me to Song of Solomon 4:12-16, "A garden enclosed and barred is my sister, my [promised] bride-a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Your shoots are an orchard of pomengranates or a paradise with precious fruits, henna with spikenard plants. You are a fountain [springing up] in a garden, a well of living waters, and flowing streams from Lebanon. [You have called me a garden, she said] Oh, pray that the [cold] north wind and the [soft] south wind may blow upon my garden, that its spices may flow out [in abundance for you in whom my soul delights]. Let my beloved come into his garden and eat its choicest fruits." (Amplified version)
Earlier, in one of my posts I had written about this "garden" that God desires us to be for Him. I had entitled the post "The Secret Garden". These passages are so deep and so full of spiritual meat it takes continuous studying to glean all God wants us to know from this important scripture. I often go back and reread this passage and get something new from it every time.
As the summer has progressed and the memory of that enclosed rose in my rose bush has dimmed I have fought just to keep my rose bushes alive. Each time I have lovingly tended to them, water them, and sprayed them with pesticides I have thought of God. The beetles and mold have been bad this year, my rose bushes on some days have looked like nothing other than a brown decrepted thorn bush. I have often thought what a great analogy these bushes are for us- the people of God, and me the gardener that despite all ugliness and fault is trying desperately to save her beloved rose bushes- well that would be God. My thoughts have often been brought to this place as I have tended my rose bushes this summer.
What a beautiful place it is too! It is the place where I realized the true meaning of being a "garden enclosed". It is the place that made me cherish even more that visual that God gave me of the actual rose that was enclosed and protected. It is the place where I began to see that those pesky beetles were symbolic of all the sin and ugliness we allow into our lives. That same sin and ugliness is what prevents us from being the "garden enclosed". Instead much like the beetles it eats us alive and takes over our beings, until the unrecognizeable remains (like the plant that is left after the beetles have destroyed and eaten all they can).
Sin, takes a different form in many of our lives. At times it creeps in so silently and without much discomfort that we don't even know it is there. Beloved, sin will destroy your very being! Much like the beetle it will eat you up from the inside out.
In the times we are living in most often we do not hear much from the pulpit about sin. We often we try to act as though sin is not the uninvited guest looming in the room. Beloved that is a lie! The sin we live with and allow in our lives prevents us from living the life God wants us to lead. The sin in our lives prevents us from flowing in the Holy Spirit, it prevents us from being close to God. Let me tell you the truth, sin is real and we all carry it around in our hearts. It is the one thing that prevents us from being Christlike.
Beloved! We can all walk free from sin. I have come to a place where I unashamedly ask God to cleanse me, purify me, and refine me everyday. I ask the Holy Spirit on a daily basis to reveal to me the things I need to change in order to be more Christlike. It has become something that is apart of my walk with Jesus. You see in order to be that "garden enclosed", that place where the well will spring with living water I have to ask God to cleanse me and empty me of all my junk. So, many of us desire to be used of God and to move in power and authority in the Kingdom. But, we often skip a step. In, order to move in power and authority you have to be springing forth with the flow of the Holy Spirit. In, order to be springing forth and wading in the water of the Spirit you have to be a clean and righteous vessel. A vessel that is worthy of God moving through, a vessel prepared to listen to the Holy Spirit, a vessel free from self, and a vessel ready to be filled of God (because it is already empty).
The rose that was in my garden was protected by the thorns on the rose bush. I have thought of those thorns in relation to us in the Kingdom of God.....when we are pressed in to Jesus, and we have set ourselves apart then the Holy Spirit is there protecting us, encompassing us, and surrounding us. As, long as we stay pressed in to Him, and we remain humbled before Him (an empty vessel) He will enclose us. You see beloved, it takes you letting go of things in order to empty yourself but the enclosure of the garden of your heart comes only from one place.....the well spring of the flow of the Holy Spirit in you as God continues to transform you into who He wants you to be!!
I pray my friends that each of you takes the time to go before God and ask Him to start revealing the things in you that hold you back from being a "garden enclosed"!