Love Versus a Critical Spirit – Part 2

Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Michael continues, God has revealed His truth to everyone through the glory of the handiwork of His creation.  Romans 1:20 says, "For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."  Even the Demons believe and tremble.  However, the devil is the deceiver and the accuser. His critical spirit deceives us to question God and His motives. He distracts from the glory of our Sovereign God by telling us that the purpose of our life is to be "self actualized" with the emphasis on “self”. The original sin is when Eve believed the devil's lie that "ye shall be as God ... she doubted God and believed Satan when he said,  “God's not God, you are."

Although my heart says it's hard to surrender, the spiritual love of God says that surrendering to His will is my only option.  As Peter said, "to whom else shall we go Lord?  Only thou hast the words of eternal life."  In Matthew 11 Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:  and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  The ultimate freedom is the ultimate captivity ... for ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. From the heart of Christ in us, our first priority is "make me a captive Lord, and then I shall be free." 

Therefore, delight thyself also in the Lord and he will give thee the desires of thy heart.  When we "set our affections on things above" and deliberately make his delight our delight, then God will work in us and through us to will and to do of His good pleasure. Prayer is aligning our heart with His heart ...  aligning our good pleasure with his good pleasure. Our joy is in the next step in the journey of life:  I can't wait to see what God has in store for me. The joy is to live by faith, and to let go and let God work His miracles in our lives. A heart of love and gratitude will defeat the critical spirit in everything we say and do. God calls us to surrender under the shadow of His mighty hand ... this is the doorway to the more than abundant life. As the prophet Micah said, but what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God.  Living under God's grace, forgiveness, and loving kindness is living in the joy of the Lord.  

The two kinds of Christians are "carnal" Christians, who walk according to the flesh and spiritual Christians, who walk according to the Love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. Jesus said, "In this shall they know that ye are my disciples, that they love one another."  The love of God suffers long and is kind.  It gives unconditionally and forgives the unforgivable.  To know the love of God and the joy of the Lord, I forgave and set the prisoner free only to find that the prisoner was me.

May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ, Michael