Language of Love
The more time I spend with Jesus, the more I see, bit by bit, the brilliance of the plans of God to make all things new. He is making all things new because rebellion broke His perfect creation. He allowed rebellion to be an option for love. Love requires a choice to rebel against love...otherwise, its not love. Love is the "programming language" God wrote all of creation on.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Faith, hope, and love are never going away. It will ALWAYS take faith, hope, and love to remain in relationship with God. It is tempting to think it will get easier someday...it won't. Knowing God REQUIRES I cultivate my relationship with Him...by design. Jesus is more and more real to those who cultivate a relationship with Him by reaching for faith, hope, and love.
The trouble is not with the CIRCUMSTANCE of me knowing God, it is with my lack of Faith, Hope, and Love. This is what Great, Great Grandpa Adam chose that needs to be worked out of my heart...seeing or not seeing God is not the problem, hearing His voice, enjoying life without death...these are all wonderful promises, but they won't make life in God's presence easier. Just ask the disciples!
The disciples walked with Jesus. They spent 3.5 years with the greatest preacher ever. No one reveals God like God. They literally saw Jesus release the raw power of the Spirit on earth numerous times...some of them watched Him transform before their eyes in glory....then, when the pressure was on, they ALL ran away!
John 16:29-33 Then his disciples said, “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively. Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
This is the problem, as Jesus saw it: a deficit of faith, which sprang from a lack of hope, and resulted in a failing of love. He used Peter as the prime example, but they all fell into it:
Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
It was Peter's and the other disciples FAITH that was tested. Faith is confidence that God's leadership is effective and good...that following Him and obeying Him is actually what will bring me the power to live the best life. This is how satan got Eve's FAITH to fail...He attacked her HOPE. Hope is my vision for what life looks like submitted to God. Love is the outworking of faith...we also call it obedience. Laying down my own faulty idea of what leadership should look like and yielding to God!
John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.
The fall of mankind was a chain reaction that resulted in disobedience! Satan attacked HOPE and suggested a "better" vision than the main and plain one God offered, Eve's FAITH was set aside by an act of her own free will, and LOVE failed...she disobeyed and so did Adam.
Genesis 3:1-7 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Because of love...because of free will...returning love to God was always OPTIONAL. We are God's garden as much as the earth is. The Holy Spirit was dwelling in the spirit of Adam and Eve just as real as the Father who walked in the garden. Adam and Eve kicked God out of His garden in their hearts well before He was forced to make them leave His physical garden. Shame...the knowledge of lack...the concrete realization of the lack of faith, hope, and love which resulted in the Spirit yielding to their desire for Him to leave...is what came and occupied the spirit of man once the Holy Spirit left. You don't get God's presence without His leadership. He will never come to occupy second place.
Right now, we are in the middle of a 6,000-plus year process of restoring faith, hope, and love as the foundation of our relationship with God.
Hope requires I set my mind on things above...get a vision of what life could be like walking in the fullness...hearing God clearly, obeying fully, and seeing heaven manifest on earth are just the broadest strokes of this vision. There is so much Jesus wants to fill my mind with...excite me about...and propel faith with... if I will turn my eyes from the counterfeit "reality" and set my gaze on Him. This is HOPE that will restore FAITH.
Faith is being willing to take risks in trusting God's leadership...to give UNTIL it hurts, to love when no one else would dare, to say what no one else would say, just because God told me to. FOREVER, according to the Bible, faith will be required. It was required of Adam and Eve who lived in an open heaven!
Faith CAN fail. Since faith is confidence, it needs to be built over time so that it may stand in that evil time coming...there is a time of threshing...global sifting...coming. I pray your faith would not fail.
Love is simply the "fruit" that grows out of the soil of hope and faith...it is the concrete action of obedience born out of a heart set to know God and take risks trusting in His leadership.
This faith, hope, and love formula for knowing God is NEVER going away. It will never get easier, but my capacity for these will grow, and so will my encounter with the One who arranged it this way. This is love. This is how free will works in a relationship with God!
Psalms 37:1-20 Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret— it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord , They shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, For He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword And have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.
A little that a righteous man has Is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, But the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the upright, And their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord , Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.
1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Faith, hope, and love are never going away. It will ALWAYS take faith, hope, and love to remain in relationship with God. It is tempting to think it will get easier someday...it won't. Knowing God REQUIRES I cultivate my relationship with Him...by design. Jesus is more and more real to those who cultivate a relationship with Him by reaching for faith, hope, and love.
The trouble is not with the CIRCUMSTANCE of me knowing God, it is with my lack of Faith, Hope, and Love. This is what Great, Great Grandpa Adam chose that needs to be worked out of my heart...seeing or not seeing God is not the problem, hearing His voice, enjoying life without death...these are all wonderful promises, but they won't make life in God's presence easier. Just ask the disciples!
The disciples walked with Jesus. They spent 3.5 years with the greatest preacher ever. No one reveals God like God. They literally saw Jesus release the raw power of the Spirit on earth numerous times...some of them watched Him transform before their eyes in glory....then, when the pressure was on, they ALL ran away!
John 16:29-33 Then his disciples said, “At last you are speaking plainly and not figuratively. Now we understand that you know everything, and there’s no need to question you. From this we believe that you came from God.” Jesus asked, “Do you finally believe? But the time is coming—indeed it’s here now—when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
This is the problem, as Jesus saw it: a deficit of faith, which sprang from a lack of hope, and resulted in a failing of love. He used Peter as the prime example, but they all fell into it:
Luke 22:31-32 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”
It was Peter's and the other disciples FAITH that was tested. Faith is confidence that God's leadership is effective and good...that following Him and obeying Him is actually what will bring me the power to live the best life. This is how satan got Eve's FAITH to fail...He attacked her HOPE. Hope is my vision for what life looks like submitted to God. Love is the outworking of faith...we also call it obedience. Laying down my own faulty idea of what leadership should look like and yielding to God!
John 14:15 “If you love me, obey my commandments.
The fall of mankind was a chain reaction that resulted in disobedience! Satan attacked HOPE and suggested a "better" vision than the main and plain one God offered, Eve's FAITH was set aside by an act of her own free will, and LOVE failed...she disobeyed and so did Adam.
Genesis 3:1-7 The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’” “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.” The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.
Because of love...because of free will...returning love to God was always OPTIONAL. We are God's garden as much as the earth is. The Holy Spirit was dwelling in the spirit of Adam and Eve just as real as the Father who walked in the garden. Adam and Eve kicked God out of His garden in their hearts well before He was forced to make them leave His physical garden. Shame...the knowledge of lack...the concrete realization of the lack of faith, hope, and love which resulted in the Spirit yielding to their desire for Him to leave...is what came and occupied the spirit of man once the Holy Spirit left. You don't get God's presence without His leadership. He will never come to occupy second place.
Right now, we are in the middle of a 6,000-plus year process of restoring faith, hope, and love as the foundation of our relationship with God.
Hope requires I set my mind on things above...get a vision of what life could be like walking in the fullness...hearing God clearly, obeying fully, and seeing heaven manifest on earth are just the broadest strokes of this vision. There is so much Jesus wants to fill my mind with...excite me about...and propel faith with... if I will turn my eyes from the counterfeit "reality" and set my gaze on Him. This is HOPE that will restore FAITH.
Faith is being willing to take risks in trusting God's leadership...to give UNTIL it hurts, to love when no one else would dare, to say what no one else would say, just because God told me to. FOREVER, according to the Bible, faith will be required. It was required of Adam and Eve who lived in an open heaven!
Faith CAN fail. Since faith is confidence, it needs to be built over time so that it may stand in that evil time coming...there is a time of threshing...global sifting...coming. I pray your faith would not fail.
Love is simply the "fruit" that grows out of the soil of hope and faith...it is the concrete action of obedience born out of a heart set to know God and take risks trusting in His leadership.
This faith, hope, and love formula for knowing God is NEVER going away. It will never get easier, but my capacity for these will grow, and so will my encounter with the One who arranged it this way. This is love. This is how free will works in a relationship with God!
Psalms 37:1-20 Do not fret because of evildoers, Nor be envious of the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, And wither as the green herb. Trust in the Lord , and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord , And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord , Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, And your justice as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord , and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way, Because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger, and forsake wrath;
Do not fret— it only causes harm. For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the Lord , They shall inherit the earth. For yet a little while and the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more. But the meek shall inherit the earth, And shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
The wicked plots against the just, And gnashes at him with his teeth. The Lord laughs at him, For He sees that his day is coming. The wicked have drawn the sword And have bent their bow, To cast down the poor and needy, To slay those who are of upright conduct. Their sword shall enter their own heart, And their bows shall be broken.
A little that a righteous man has Is better than the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, But the Lord upholds the righteous. The Lord knows the days of the upright, And their inheritance shall be forever. They shall not be ashamed in the evil time, And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.
But the wicked shall perish; And the enemies of the Lord , Like the splendor of the meadows, shall vanish. Into smoke they shall vanish away.
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