This is Love
Just as 'faith' is defined in Hebrews 11:1 and the 'gospel' is defined in I Corinthians 15:1-4, so 'love' is defined in I John 5:3 and John 14:23. Simply put - love is obeying the Father. He said, "This is love, that you keep my commandments (or My words).
Several years back, the Lord started revealing to me, by His Spirit, what love is. You can read the Word of God and never have a revelation (revealed to your spirit by His Spirit) of what it says. And in II Corinthians 3:6 it says that the letter of the Word killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. Needless to say, it was a real shocker to have the Spirit of God reveal to me what love is according to the Word of God. Definitely not anything close to what I had been taught by the world's standard. But nothing has been, or ever will be for that matter - when it comes to the things of the Spirit.
The first couple of years of being at Water of Life ('85-'86), God was delivering my heart of many evil spirits and bondage's in my life that really were in preparation for the next eleven to eleven and a half years of walking down some 'righteous paths' that God had ordained for my life, that at times seemed very 'unrighteous'. And no, after those first two years I was not totally free from all evil spirits and all bondage's. It would have been nice, but it just did not happen. I am still overcoming the powers of darkness in my life daily - eleven and a half years later! But as I stated, the Lord was preparing my heart and revealing to my spirit about walking in love - and walking in love is walking in obedience to the Father. And if you believe the gospel (trust in, rely on and adhere to the death, burial and resurrection power of the Lord Jesus), you will be doing what He tells you to do, going where He tells you to go, speaking what He tells you to speak - no matter what anyone else thinks or says - and I will warn you now, they will 'think' and 'say'. I will also say, that this is not instant Christianity - it is a process.
In the beginning of my walk with the Lord, He put up with alot of my rebellion and unbelief and had much mercy and grace on me. But as time went on, He put up with less and less. The day will come where He will demand obedience, or you ultimately will be cut off. Read Romans 11:20-23 - very sobering if you have any fear of God. Verse 22 says, "Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God.... We might believe the goodness of God, but do we really believe His severity? A warning is given in Hebrews 3:12-13 to "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." So it is wise to stop kicking against the pricks and just obey Him. His mercy and grace will always be sufficient for you. He knows a heart that wants to follow Him, and He for sure can change one that doesn't, and when my rebellion and unbelief and Jezebel outbursts would manifest, I would say, in fear and trembling, "Jesus, forgive me and have mercy on me because you know I want to obey you, and I don't want to be cut off." I would pray in tongues and put to death the deeds of the flesh through the Spirit (Romans 8:13), until I finally overcame to where the things in my soul did not rule me like they once did. I will be honest and say, it does take work and determination - and that work will be in prayer - many, many hours of praying and reading the Psalms out loud, believing that Jesus overcame every single thing in your heart that is manifesting. You may say, "Well, I just don't have that kind of time to give to this." If you will believe the One who was raised from the dead for YOU, He will make the time available!!
Now getting back to walking in love - I absolutely thought a person walking in 'love', was always nice and kind and always smiling, one that was helping the little old lady across the street - doing good deeds, speaking kind words, etc. I am sure you get the picture... But I am here to tell you - love is obeying the Father - and it may not appear to be 'nice and kind' and there may not always be a 'smile' on your face. And I am getting ready to share some things with you about the Man of love, and how He has led me to walk in love.
I have been accused over the years of not having any love and how I used to be nice, but now I have a haughty, prideful spirit, that I am distant and aloof, and so forth. There was a period of time (for several years, and even up to the present time) when my mother and I would be talking on the phone on different occasions, and the Lord would have me confront evil spirits speaking out of her mouth. She would inevitably bring up about Jesus being a Man of love, and how He was kind and compassionate, and she just did not see those qualities in me. Jesus would always have me tell her about when He came into the temple and found those that were selling doves and oxen and sheep, how he made a scourge of small cords and drove them out of the temple, and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables (John 2:15). And then He would have me tell her how he called religious people 'vipers' and 'hypocrites'. This just came up in my spirit now - Revelation 1 and 2 where it said He had eyes like unto a flame of fire and His feet were like fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters. In Revelation 2 where He spoke to the church in Thyatira, He probably did not appear to have much love, kindness and compassion then, either! Anyway, I would say, "Now that mother, is the Man of love!" And she would always be quiet after that. The Spirit of God in me would shut that religious spirit up every single time. And most people are like her - they think Jesus just walks around 'petting' people and telling them how nice and kind they are, and how they love Him with all of their heart, when the fact is, they honor Him with their mouth, but their heart is far from Him!
I was shocked to learn that the word 'kind' (in I Corinthians 13) means 'beneficial'. That was beneficial what Jesus did in the temple and at that church in Thyatira. And it was 'beneficial' when I told my mother what I did. Religious people would say I had no respect for my mother - but religious people are wrong. Jesus is the only one who is right, and I have learned to agree with Him. It also says in the 'love chapter', that love does not rejoice in iniquity, but love rejoices in the truth. Love will speak the truth. Do you have that kind of love? Or are you afraid you might offend someone and they won't like you anymore, so you tell them what they want to hear?
There have been times when I have had so much pressure on my body, as well as on my spirit, and there were many wicked spirits set against me, and I was fighting with everything that was within me to overcome the powers of darkness (even things in my own soul), and then the devil would try to condemn me and tell me I did not have any love (just like he has with my mother, as well as others) and that I for sure did not have love for people. And in all honesty, these spirits would make me feel like the devil himself (seduced my faith is what they did), and the only way I was convinced I loved anyone was because of what Jesus would say to me, and that is, "This is love - that you obey Me." And I would be reminded of I John 5:2, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments (His words)." If it had not been for that scripture, I might not have known I loved anyone - not even myself. But one thing I knew - I was obeying the Father - and I still am!
Love will obey what God tells you to do - not what your dad, mother, sisters, children, husband, wife or friends want. There have been different occasions come up where we were invited to go here, or go there, and the Lord would tell me not to go, but instead to go and pray. You will find out real quick how much love you walk in when God has you go in one direction and the rest of your family in another. Could you do that? God will prove every individual person to see if they will obey Him, or if they care about pleasing others around them. I believe I shared this scripture in an earlier testimony, and it just came up in my spirit, and that is Galatians 1:10 - "Do you seek to please men? If you do, then you are not a servant of Christ." If something comes up to go to at your children's school, and God says, "I don't want you to go, I want you to go and pray." Could you obey the Man of love? Or would you have to go because, after all, 'they are my kids', and this surely could not be God telling me 'not' to go. Or you get a letter asking you to be a room mother in your daughter's class, because all the other mother's work outside the home and they desperately need a mother, and Jesus says, "No, I want you to pray." And the list goes on and on. I have been proven in these things, as well as many others, on numerous occasions, and I have taken much 'heat' in obeying the Father, and there have been times when God 'ripped' my heart out because of it. But what He was doing, was perfecting my faith and my love to obey Him - not anyone else - not even my own desires.
Jesus is coming back after a people that have been tested and tried, and that have had their faith and love proven. I am reminded of Abraham in the book of Genesis (chapter 22). After he and Sarah had received the child that God had promised them, God had Abraham take that child and offer him for a burnt offering. And Abraham obeyed and went to offer him. When he was about to take the knife to slay him, an angel of the Lord called to him and told him not to - because now he knew that Abraham feared God because he had obeyed Him. If you fear God, you will obey Him. "This is love, that you obey my words." It is amazing, but God did not say to Abraham what a great man of faith he was, but He said, "Now I know you fear Me, because you have obeyed Me." And we are to walk in the steps of faithful Abraham (Romans 4). If you fear God, you will obey God, and there will be changes in your life because of it. If you do not have any changes in your life, it is simply because you do not fear God. (Psalm 55:19)
Galatians 5:6 talks about faith which worketh by love. I came to see that if you are walking in love, obeying the Father, whatever God tells you to do He gives you the faith to do it. You can see in I Corinthians 13 that you can have all faith to remove mountains, to give all your goods to feed the poor, give your body to be burned, understand all knowledge and all mysteries, have the gift of prophecy, etc., but if you do not have love - if you are not doing these things in obedience to the will of the Father - you are nothing and all those things will profit you nothing. So taking your faith to do, or get, whatever you want in Jesus' name is totally unscriptural. I can honestly say that I have not taken my faith to get anything. I let God tell me what He wants for me, and then I know He has given me the faith to obtain it.
I was just reminded of something that happened about twenty years back. My older sister and I were invited to go to a ladies' bible study by my dad's wife, at Highland Park Methodist Church in Dallas. The lady who was teaching the bible study knew my dad's wife and knew that she drove a Mercedes, and if I remember correctly she made a comment about it. It was a small group of people there and she said something to the effect that she was going to get God to give her one. I remember thinking to myself, "Well, just what if God didn't want you to have a Mercedes, what if He wanted you to have some other kind of car?" It was really a turn off to me (and my sister), because knowing as little as I did about the things of God, I knew that it was not right to use God to get what you wanted. It was the mercy of God that I did not get caught up with the 'Faith' preachers - the name it and claim it, blab it and grab it group. I was involved with the charismatics, and I had enough of their lies and deceit ministered to me, and I mean that. Anyway, if you are obeying God, being led by His Spirit, you have the faith to do whatever He tells you to do, and have whatever He desires you to have.
These righteous paths God has led me down have exposed much fear in me, and I have had (and still do to a degree) my share of fears - more than most, or at least it has felt that way! But that has been the purpose of these 'righteous paths' - to deal with, and deliver me from, my fears. I John 4:18 says that perfect love casts out fear. As you obey the voice of God, and do what He tells you to do and speak what He tells you to speak, your faith and love will be perfected each time, and the fear will come out. Thank God!
I would encourage you this day to obey the Father in everything you do, because the rewards for obedience are eternal - as are the ones for disobedience!! I Corinthians 13:13 says, "And now abideth faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Until next time - God bless you, and remember that Jesus died, was buried and rose again for YOU. Believe that and see God's salvation manifest in your life THIS DAY!
