Mark 14:15 And he will show you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there make ready for us.

A large, upper room furnished and prepared - God always makes ready a place to enjoy fellowship and intimacy with us! He is patient with us, waiting for us in that secret place. It is in this place of communion that the Lord lavishly pours out His unfailing love and grace upon and toward us.

This is the beauty of the Lord - He keeps overtaking us, out-giving us in this area of sweet and growing intimacy. Without fail, He woos us into His heart - desiring that we respond as passionately as He is - to His ever-burning desire for us! His Bridegroom love for His cherished Bride! Glorious!

The Lord invites us to a growing, daily encounter with Him inside the upper room. This is the place where we deliberately choose to brush aside the cares of this world, in order to prepare our hearts to meet Him in a specially intimate way. It is a place we don't abruptly break into, for it is required that we enter it prepared and fully ready to encounter and enjoy Him. Just as Esther did not rudely approach the presence of the King, we ought not do the same, but rather see to it that we enter the room prepared in every way we possibly can.

(from Finding Favor with the King, Tommy Tenney)

IT COSTS YOU SOMETHING TO PREPARE

It costs you something to prepare for the single most significant day and night of your life.

There is a need for us to understand the cost that's involved in this particular revelation. And yet, the payment for such a cost must be taken within the perspective of comprehending the extravagance of God's intimate love. The sacrifice that goes with pursuing intimacy has already been paid for by God - it does not actually come from us - but is already provided for by God! To the mature lover of God, to be anointed with power to love God - is such a rewarding experience in itself, that the sacrifices or difficulties associated with it become negligible and almost non-existent.

Because nothing can ever separate us from the love of God, then if follows that in all of life's circumstances, whatever form it may be, we can be assured of this one thing: we can always (choose) to enjoy the love of God and enjoy loving Him back! Yes, this will be the source of our highest joy! Glorious! Hallelujah! Nothing comes close to enjoying the love of God and loving Him back (pouring precious oil into our alabaster jar): for it is the sum of all desires and the fullness of all joy! Jesus said He came so that we may have life and that we may have this life abundantly!

Sacrifice - changes its face when you begin to do it because you'd want to do it (that is, you enjoy doing it, and so it doesn't come to you as a sacrifice at all). To a mature lover of God, there really is no such thing as a sacrifice because the only one and perfect sacrifice was offered up once and for all, through the Cross! The woman who broke the alabaster jar never measured the cost of the expensive perfume! She simply enjoyed anointing the Lord with it! The truth is that she was first anointed (with the love of God) to anoint the Lord Jesus (our Bridegroom God) with her bridal love! Amen!

The Bible says that Esther spent twelve months preparing for one night with the king in some unique ways:

Each young woman's turn came to go in to King [Xerxes] after she had completed twelve months' preparation, according to the regulations for women, for thus were the days of their preparation apportioned: six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with perfumes and preparations for beautifying women.

I do believe that one key in getting oneself prepared is by enjoying the time span of the preparation itself! This can come as a unique insight though the concept is actually as obvious as it may seem: that the joy of the preparation is equal to the joy of the encounter!

The oil in Mary's alabaster jar represented her intimacy with Jesus - and the oil brought her the same unspeakable joy that she had as she anointed the Lord with it! Glory!

The strength to wait upon the Lord equals the strength that His Presence would bring, when we get to meet Him face to face (after the waiting period)!

And so we can be sure of this one thing: that our labor (of preparation) in the Lord is never in vain - for we shall reap the harvest if we will not give up!

Queen Esther enjoyed the year-long preparation inasmuch as she enjoyed her one-night encounter with the King! For preparation would always lead to an encounter!

For without the Encounter, there would be no need for Preparation, inasmuch as without the Preparation, there would be no Encounter;

The question we ought to answer, time and again, is this: what do you enjoy more than your intimate encounters with God?

Esther's preparation took a total of one whole year! There was never a time within that preparation year when she diverted (or was sidetracked) from her main focus of being made ready to meet with the King.

Grabbing hold of an encounter without preparing for it, only leads to disaster! We can clearly learn this lesson from the five foolish virgins who brought no extra oil with them.
They tried to enter but they were not allowed to.

There is an understanding that we must wholeheartedly hold on to these days: that if given the chance, the enemy can quickly inject impurities in our devotion if we are not careful enough to discern and prevent it altogether. And so there's a call for us to empower or strengthen our focus by directing our hearts towards the reality of falling in love with our Bridegroom God deeper and deeper, in every way possible. This is the only antidote to the enemy's deceptive schemes. There is no other way. Amen.