We have already discussed what love is not. So now let's discover how God's love interacts
with our inner man and how we learn to cooperate with it. In our continuing in defining the love of God which is found in
1 Cor. Chapter 13, I will paraphrase as we go along, it says. "God's love at work in us is able to endure without
becoming annoyed or upset. It shows courtesy or caring about somebody and it does not want what somebody else has and it doesn't
become resentful causing unhappy feelings by wanting other people's success, good fortune or possessions. It does not
boast by having an exaggerated opinion of personal worth or abilities. It does not
bring shame on yourself or on people associated with you by being self seeking which can cause a person to become easily angered
and in turn become addicted to keep inner records through vain imaginations of not yet proven facts; that have been committed
against ones person. Love does not get any pleasure when it encounters evil but rejoices with the truth. It always tries to
keep somebody or something safe from being harmed or damaged and it always has hope with a trust or confidence in the eventual
fulfillment of a promise or in the eventual success of a plan on a persons good qualities, especially fairness and in believing
in their abilities and it is their personal goal to maintain this attitude.
Love
never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is
knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.
When I was a child, I talked like a child; I thought like a child, I reasoned
like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a REFLECTION IN A MIRROR; then
we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain:
faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
You must be reading
these verses with a great hunger to walk with an already given power and learning ability that must be recognized by us to
mature. Love allows the Holy Ghost to give you a vision of the potential God sees in you as His child and by experiencing
God's love it is the motivating power that allows us to walk in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. This is our reason
to live and what man was made to live for.
Paul in these verses goes back and
reminds us what love is not when he tells us that; prophecies, tongues and knowledge will pass away. These qualities and giftings
are the inner working of the soul of man in their attempt to communicate and participate with God who is love. God's love
never passes away for He is our eternal Father. His love is an eternal entity of the presence and power and authority of the
universe which is the foundation of our righteous state in Christ Jesus and what defines and shows us how to use our Godly
inheritance He gave to us His children when we became born again.
Now the real
issue that must be defined and understood is this; when we stay in a child like undisciplined behavioral patterns and want
to play in the sand box of life building sand castles; our inheritance in God stays dormant and although it is available for
use; the born again believer is not being trained and equipped to run their race of faith because; their life is not being
built on the love that God has for them. Remember faith is built on love. It is us experiencing the love of God that persuades
us to do the impossible by operating in the faith of Jesus that has God's power.
Peter
would have never stepped out of the boat on the water if he was not experiencing the love of the Lord. If you read the encounters
Jesus had with him; you realize that; he was not an easy man to love and Jesus had to give him special attention to win him
over. Do you know anybody in your life that is not easy to love?
The reflection
we see in the mirror will stay a reflection of us having a poor self image until; we look and love our self as God's does.
Until our reflection becomes mature; we judge our maturity as either having a cause of blame or credit in self evaluations
of our efforts. Our judging our self of having a failure in performance; should not be a reflection put on us by our self
or by others. It is the results of the sin cursed nature that we were born with due to Adams deception in the garden.
It is what Paul the Apostle stated in Romans 7 when he said; "I am a slave to the sin principle
and it continually causes me to judge my self that when I want to walk in obedience I have no power and I am continually doing
wrong. I want to do right but I fail and do wrong. I have become a wretched man and I ask the question; who will deliver me
from this constant quilt and condemnation?" This has always been the struggle for mankind to live in the love of the
Lord. If we can only come to realize that: "we do not have to earn God's love because; Christ Jesus died for us while
we were still alienated from Him and we were cursed and unlovely heading for hell because; scripture tells us that; the devil
was our father and we were a slave to do his bidding." God's mercy says; "I don't hold this condition against
you" Living under the spirit of condemnation won't allow you to believe and except God's evaluation of this condition.
A wretched man is in a state of great hardship by being deprived of the elixir of life. In turn;
it causes a hopelessness in him that should be arousing a loving sympathy in others. True God love is the only medicine to
heal this demonic affliction. This curse is us carrying in our sub consciousness a troublesome burdensome unrest with a feeling
of incompleteness and it rears its ugly head in our will and emotions through encounters we have daily in our market place
of life as we search for our identity and fulfill a calling on our life which should not be in our own efforts but by; us
surrendering to the love of God our Father and the leadings of the Holy Ghost.
Let
me make this as plain as I can. A person who will not admit that this problem might exist in them and let the Holy Ghost deliver
them from this condition by letting His love heal their inner man; they will never have a true loving sympathy to identify
with their brother and sisters growing pains and have the empathy and compassion to lay down their life for any one.
Christ stepped out of heaven as our example and became a man in Jesus and when we pray and truly
know that He was our mediator to God our Father. He not only laid down His life for mankind but in His life time; He suffered
all the emotional growing pains as we do and through experiencing the love of God the Father; He ran His race of faith to
completion and when we call on God our Father for more of his love and affection; he hears us as He heard Jesus His first
Son who was the first heir of salvation.
A growing maturing Christian must be
emotionally stabilized in truly knowing that when they pray; God hears them because; Jesus was tested as we are and knows
how we feel yet; He did not sin. He was with out sin because; He had Christ living in Him and not because he fought temptation
in His own strength with super human power of His own. How much of a reality do you have of your connection to your older
brother Jesus? He must be our poster boy in heart, will and emotion that lifts us to a place of rule and reign with Him. It
boils down to; do you know that God is holding on to you and no power on earth or under the earth will pluck you out of His
hand or are you working hard to do all you can to fix your self up and reach some standard of acceptance from God and others.
People who live under this hardship age quickly and it shortens their existence on the earth.
There is this false concept being taught for years with in the born again community and for sure in all the
other communities that are not born again that being; that when we leave this earth and go to heaven; we will have arrived
and everything will then be perfect. However; until then we are incomplete and can not dare think that God has given us everything
we need to rest in his care and that He already sees as being perfected. We are perfect in his sight however; we are growing
children learning how to manage God's affairs in the earth.
NOW HEAR ME. Our
daily walk in receiving God's love acts as a barrier and surrounds us from the fears of life that the devil tries to inflict
on us as we look for security. He did the same to Jesus when he walked the earth. God prepared and equipped us for warfare
the day we became born again however; unless we are growing and understanding our righteous state in Christ by being a God
seeker and letting Jesus Christ be our first love; we never understand how to live in Jesus faith that scripture defines as
being a living faith of Christ Jesus (NOW) at this very moment as you are reading this news letter and not something we are
promised that comes later. Our faith in Christ is built on love and has great substance if you are experiencing the person
who is the author of the substance who is Him Self.
The physical substances that
we need in life only stays invisible until; you have a witness in your heart from the Holy Ghost of the promise and by confessing
your acceptance of the need as met causes it to come to pass. God has convinced me that I am a wealthy son and that I have
to submit to a Father's love so I can take over His estate and get what I need to be his ambassador in my arena of life.
My whole focus of life is on this promise and all that goes with it.
A born
again Christian must be focused on His heavenly calling and not get caught up and deceived on earthly accolades and accomplishing
some great wealth and prestige's empire in their short dispensation of time on the earth. We were created in God's
image and born from his loins and are peculiar people as compared to the world and we must embrace our peculiarness as Jesus
did.
It is us experiencing God's love that causes us to have a face to face
relationship with Christ Jesus. Understanding this concept and truly knowing how the devil hates these kinds of encounters
that God's kids are having with God the Father; will empower us to be able to deal with the cares of life and identify
the devil's tactics. When we get deceived and we lose our face to face relationship with God; that old spirit of denial
comes and we lose our transparency in our naked walk with the Lord. You must understand the laws of the battle field and be
on guard against the onslaught of demonic attack. Our true battle is in our mind and that is why we must be having love reminders
of renewing wonders of the love of God that calms the storms of life.
Peter in
1 Pet 1:13 states this. "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober and hope to the end for the grace that God has given
you is because; you came to truly recognize who Christ Jesus is." A person can only cooperate with what Peter said here
if they understand him and that only happens by them having an inner witness of who Jesus is and know that he is the son of
God. As I have said hundreds of times knowing who Jesus is and being born again can be the only foundation that can build
any kind of love relationships. Now the Greek Concordance translation of this verse reads like this. When a person girds something;
they through intense repetition participate in a loin's relationship which is God procreative ability and power.
God's love creates and renews at all times. Let me again say; God's grace is His unmerited
favor that he has for us and we must realize that God's love reaches down to a weak and feeble infant to encourage and
invigorate with His entire being because that's what God's love is and how a father loves His children.
If this concept is not solidly planted in the hearts of man; they will always be trying to reach
up to God and try to make Him into their image and work out their salvation in toiling and burdensome endeavors.
Jesus in Matt. 11:28-30 said it very clearly. "Come to me all you that are laboring and are
heavily burdened down and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn about me. For I am meek and humble of heart
and this will cause you to rest in your mind, will and emotions, for my yoke is easy and my burden light." A yoke is
a bond or a tie that keeps people together by God's holding power and not by any obligated works that we need to make
up in our own ability in trying to measure up. In part 5 we will learn what Jesus meant when he said he was meek and humble
and how God's love creates and causes this attitude to grow in us.
Cont in p. 5
