Ephesians
2: 8-9 “For by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God not
of works lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship created in
Christ Jesus unto good works which he has before ordained that we should walk
in them.”
This week Michael writes: To approach the Throne of Grace, we must forsake our pride and enter into His presence with a heart of humility, brokenness and meekness. Love wins. The biggest enemy to the love of God is our prideful selves. According to 1 Corinthians 13, the love of God "seeks not her own." In order to end strife and contention against our own sin nature and against the sin nature of others in the church, we must swallow our pride and meet each other at the foot of the cross.
In John 13: 34-35 Jesus said that his disciples were ready for a new commandment: To love one another. There are no conditions on loving one another. Love is not contingent the other party's deserving love. Love is to live in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Our pride is the only thing standing in the way of our fellowship with God our Father, Jesus Christ his son, and one with another in the household of faith.
The natural, unregenerate, fallen man understands brotherly love and familial love. However, only Christians can understand the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. A key to understanding 1 Corinthians 13 is to read it and to substitute our own name for "love" in the "charity checklist" in verses 4 through 8. According to verse 13, For now abides faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is Love... Love takes the preeminence: it is outstanding in rank, supreme, superlative, rising above the norm. Love supersedes "giving my body to be burned." Without love, anything that we do will come to naught ... it will be of no value whatsoever. Jesus Christ's is the standard for loving according to the love of God in the renewed mind. Focusing on anything except Jesus Christ will cause division within the body of Christ. If you're justifying your actions, you've missed the point. The point is to love unconditionally, not because they deserve it, but because in the act of loving, we exemplify the very nature of God himself.
Love is genuinely patient, and genuinely kind. It demonstrates a gentle nature with a genuine desire to help others. Love is the nature of God, for He gave His only begotten son, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The love of God is not jealous...it never suspects unfaithfulness. Love exemplifies trust. To see through the eyes of Christ, grace and mercy must overcome our fleshly desire for "just retribution." The standard of love thinks no evil, is not easily provoked, seeks not her own. Agape love is the only kind of love that loves without conditions. All other types of love are capricious, and can change on a whim. If love is conditional on performance, it is an earthly love and not the “Love of God”. The only condition for Agape Love is the spirit of God in Christ in us. The spirit of God will love through us unconditionally when we tap into the supernatural heart of Christ in us. Others loving us cannot dictate whether we love them in return. Unconditional “Agape” Love activates believing according to the Word of God that appropriates the power of God into manifestation. Our commandment is to love even also as we are loved by God. Jesus said, "In this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another."
In the immortal words of the poem "The Love of God" by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai: “Could we with ink the ocean fill; and were the sky of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.”
Beloved of God, May God richly bless you,
Your brother in Christ, Michael
This week Michael writes: To approach the Throne of Grace, we must forsake our pride and enter into His presence with a heart of humility, brokenness and meekness. Love wins. The biggest enemy to the love of God is our prideful selves. According to 1 Corinthians 13, the love of God "seeks not her own." In order to end strife and contention against our own sin nature and against the sin nature of others in the church, we must swallow our pride and meet each other at the foot of the cross.
In John 13: 34-35 Jesus said that his disciples were ready for a new commandment: To love one another. There are no conditions on loving one another. Love is not contingent the other party's deserving love. Love is to live in such a way that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Our pride is the only thing standing in the way of our fellowship with God our Father, Jesus Christ his son, and one with another in the household of faith.
The natural, unregenerate, fallen man understands brotherly love and familial love. However, only Christians can understand the love of God in the renewed mind in manifestation. A key to understanding 1 Corinthians 13 is to read it and to substitute our own name for "love" in the "charity checklist" in verses 4 through 8. According to verse 13, For now abides faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is Love... Love takes the preeminence: it is outstanding in rank, supreme, superlative, rising above the norm. Love supersedes "giving my body to be burned." Without love, anything that we do will come to naught ... it will be of no value whatsoever. Jesus Christ's is the standard for loving according to the love of God in the renewed mind. Focusing on anything except Jesus Christ will cause division within the body of Christ. If you're justifying your actions, you've missed the point. The point is to love unconditionally, not because they deserve it, but because in the act of loving, we exemplify the very nature of God himself.
Love is genuinely patient, and genuinely kind. It demonstrates a gentle nature with a genuine desire to help others. Love is the nature of God, for He gave His only begotten son, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The love of God is not jealous...it never suspects unfaithfulness. Love exemplifies trust. To see through the eyes of Christ, grace and mercy must overcome our fleshly desire for "just retribution." The standard of love thinks no evil, is not easily provoked, seeks not her own. Agape love is the only kind of love that loves without conditions. All other types of love are capricious, and can change on a whim. If love is conditional on performance, it is an earthly love and not the “Love of God”. The only condition for Agape Love is the spirit of God in Christ in us. The spirit of God will love through us unconditionally when we tap into the supernatural heart of Christ in us. Others loving us cannot dictate whether we love them in return. Unconditional “Agape” Love activates believing according to the Word of God that appropriates the power of God into manifestation. Our commandment is to love even also as we are loved by God. Jesus said, "In this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, that ye love one another."
In the immortal words of the poem "The Love of God" by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai: “Could we with ink the ocean fill; and were the sky of parchment made; were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade, to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry; nor could the scroll contain the whole though stretched from sky to sky.”
Beloved of God, May God richly bless you,
Your brother in Christ, Michael
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