Hello Dear Reader,
Yesterday we discussed the incredibleness of God! The incredibleness of Love Himself. In 1st John chapter 3:1 we read from the Amplified Bible, " See what an (incredible) QUALITY of love that God has bestowed upon us, that we should be (permitted) to named, called and counted the children of God. And so we are...

Yes, beloved God is incredible far beyond anything we can ever dream and imagine which makes LOVE far beyond anything we could ever dream or imagine. God (Love) is incredible. But what makes Him so incredible is His QUALITY! The Quality of God or the Quality of LOVE that He is!

I remember an old Ford commercial they used to promote their cars. It said, "the QUALITY goes in, before the NAME goes on!" The idea was that they made their cars with the greatest perfection and highest standards before they would put their "name" upon it. Another words, the name was to be a reflection of that QUALITY!

The word quality means:

An attribute was originally a quality attributed, usually to a person or something personified; more recently it has meant a fundamental or innate characteristic: an attribute of God; an essential or distinctive characteristic, property, or attribute: character or nature, as belonging to or distinguishing a thing: character with respect to fineness, or grade of excellence: high grade; superiority; excellence:

God's nature and person is of a distinctive character, that distinguishes Him above all others. He is of the finest grade of excellence that ever was. God (Love) is the highest grade, superior to all others in personality or character and of the highest excellence. Another words there is no higher love than God Himself. There is no higher experience than to be loved by God and filled with the highest most excellence love that He gives to us. When He loves us, He gives us who He is, Love Himself.

Beloved God's love is not something separate from Him. He can't give love without giving totally of who He is. So every act of love we receive, every impartation of that Love is God Himself in his most excellent, superior character imparting His personality and character to us. That is why it is incredible.

The Love God is, and desires for us to dwell in is of the richest and most perfect kind. It is perfect, flawless, untainted, life sustaining in every manner. We could not be loved anymore perfectly than we are by Him, because He is incapable of loving us to a lesser standard than He is PERFECT!

This is the love that will overcome every sin, blemish, hindrance, and anything this world would have to destroy us. His love is perfect in everyway. It is of the highest standard and quality. It is so powerful that in it there is not one drop of condemnation. Listen to His word, Romans 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus."

The quality of His person, (LOVE) is so perfect and excellent that nothing in all creation can separate us from it. Romans 8:35-39," Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

He is perfect love that never lets go, never gives up on us and able to keep us and finish the good work He started in us if we will stay abiding in Him! That is the conditional part for us. We must continue to abide in Him. He won't make us or force us to, because then His love would not be perfect. Perfect love waits for the object of that love to love Him freely in return.

This is the great need in the Body of Christ here in the United States. We must learn to abide and live in that perfect love. The Lord desires to reveal that Love in us and through us so we can stand in anything and everything that comes. This is what Quality is all about! The Quality of never having to be afraid as we live in the Secret Place of the Most High God. The Quality of never having to worry or be fretful or resentful, because we know that all things are working together for the good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

Yet, even greater than that, is the Quality of God (Love) cast out all fear in our ENTIRE being. That is how powerful, excellent and magnificent God is. Most people see God (love) as something He chooses to do or give, but this is so below His excellence. He doesn't give love, He is love. He doesn't do love as a choice, He imparts His nature (loce) to that which He loves!
Like a branch that abides in a vine and gets all it will ever need to live and bear fruit from the vine, is the relationship of Love that God desires for us to have. We must "abide" in the vine to receive all we will ever need to live and bear fruit. Jesus said, "apart from me you can do nothing.' We are not to abide in "our idea" of God, because then the quality of that love is reduced to measure of human beings idea of love, and our ability to love or not.

Many believers see God from the human perspective and not from the QUALITY of the PERSON He is. Our idea of God limits Him and puts Him in the box of our human understanding and brain.

Beloved, He does not fit, nor can the excellence of His nature ever be received in the human mind. That would make us bigger than God Himself! So many don't know the Lord as Love Himself. They see Him as the "big guy upstair" who makes a choice to love or not love if we are good enough. They even swrote a song about it which says, "God is watching us from a distance." This is a testimony of someone who does not even know who God is, yet that song is played on Christian radio stations.

He does not watch us from a distance, He wants to inhabit us, sup with us, dwell in us and us with Him. Right here and right now, every moment of our life. It is this abiding in Him alone that enables us to know Him for who He really is? It is abiding in Him we begin to receive the QUALITY of that LOVE which is nothing less than His person and this is the only way we can be changed into His image and likeness. When we develop this intimate love bond relationship with Love Himself then the fruit of that relationship cast out all fear and pain out the door in our hearts.

The BBE edition testifies of this perfect love: 1st John 4:17-19, "In this way love is made complete in us, so that we may be without fear on the day of judging, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is pain; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love. We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us."

What an excellent quality of love! A love that heals, restores and removes all the pain from our heart. A love that leaves no room for FEAR! This is not something He does, but something He is! He is beautiful beyond description, to marvelous for words!

I don't know where you are in your relationship with God, but what I am testifying of is bigger than religion, church or anything else. It is God Himself (Love) that wants to be known in you and through you. Even more, He wants to inhabit you completely, and fill you with the most fullest measure of that divine presence(love) until you are filled with His all in all!

This beloved reader has to be the shift the Body of Christ must take in America. We must get beyond our "idea of God" to be filled with God's idea of love shed abroad in our hearts. Then we will be empowered to fulfill the great commission and "Preach the Good News to the poor, and heal the broken hearted." Then the world will know we are His disciples because we will truly love one another as He has loved us.

My prayer for all of us today is to know the deepest QUALITY of who God is (LOVE)! That we would dwell in Him, and allow us to be changed from one degree, or moment of Glory to another! In this way, we will become the city on the hill, or the light shining in the midst of darkness. Press on Beloved, He is worth knowing and abiding in. He is LOVE ITSELF!

Labels: What does Love look like (series)

Hello Dear Reader,
I pray that this Christmas season is revealing to you what Love looks like and what Love is? God Himself? Today, I want to look at simple scripture found in 1st John 3:1 Amplified version: "See what (an incredible) quality of love the Father has given us, that we should (be permitted) to be named and called and counted the children of God! And so are we! The reason the world does not know (recognize, acknowledge) us is that it does not know (recognize, acknowledge) Him."

It says, see what an incredible quality of love the Father has given us. The incredible quality of love! The word incredible means: so extraordinary that it seems impossible, hard to believe. Beyond belief or understanding. What a perfect word to describe the nature of God Himself. Love looks like a person who is so extraordinary, hard to believe, beyond our human belief or understanding. Thus, you have God who is so extraordinary that a human mind can not fathom the depth of who He is or what love really is.For God and love are one in the same person and purpose.

During this past year a deep cry has come from my heart and spirit. I didn't know why I had to pray it, but I had to. The prayer was this, "Father, I have known you and your love from my human understanding, "I WANT TO LOVE YOU BEYOND MY HUMAN UNDERSTANDING. I WANT TO KNOW YOU BEYOND MY HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, AND I WANT TO BE WITH YOU BEYOND MY HUMAN REASON!"

Then another part of a prayer began to come forth from me. "I want to love You, the way you want to be loved. I want to know you the way you want to be known. I want to be with you the way you want to be with." Lord, not my idea of who you are, and what you want, but yours!

I don't think I realized at the time what I was asking, but I think the prayer was the modern day prayer of the Apostle Paul, found in Ephesians chapter 3, that we would know the height, width, and depth of His love. I believe most of the problem in the church in the USA is that we have reduced God's love to our own "human" understanding and our own limited "human" experience. For most people that experience begins and ends with being saved.

When most believers talk about God, and I mean that literally, they thank Him because they saved them from...? That is wonderful and ought to be done. Sadly, that is all the Love they really ever know of God except in theory. Many have stopped here and have not "pressed on to know the Lord for the person He is." Others have gone on a little further and been baptized in the Holy Spirit and even experienced the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and received spiritual gifts from God. However, their knowledge of God's love ends there and is measured on "how God used me today."

In many Charismatic circles today, God's love is revealed by doing something for God, and then we can testify of God's love by how God moved through us to touch others. This is also necessary and a part of our relationship with God. But how many people can tell you who He is apart from what He has done or doing? Why is it that most Christians can only testify of His hand, and not His face?

It is this very fact that the Holy Spirit is trying to bring His church today, In Revelations chapter 2 verse2-4, I know your works and your patient endurance, and that you works have increased to this day, but nevertheless, I have one thing against you, you have deserted me your first love." The Lord goes on to say, REPENT, and do your first work, or I will come and remove the candlestick from your midst." The candlestick represent God's very presence in our midst. His presence represents His person. Remember Jesus said, "where two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them."

It is difficult to truly know the "quality" of Love Himself by just knowing His hand, salvation, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit or by how He has used us to minister. The church has been satisfied staying in this present revelation of love up to this time. However; God is beginning to cause many who truly are seeking Him, not to be content with just salvation and Baptism of power as their experience of the love of God. As Church leaders we must come and recognize this paradigm shift that God is bringing about in this hour.

There is a stirring in the heart of the Lord's Bride, to come out from among them, the Daughters of Jerusalem as found in the Song of Solomon, to find the Shepherd/Lover of their soul. There is a quiet dissatisfaction growing in millions of believers all over the earth to know God more deeply and intimately. They are looking at church leadership to guide them higher into the very heart of God. Unfortunately, many leaders are not recognizing this shift and are continuing to bring God's people to their "church vision", or "church outreach."

This will never satisfy the heart of the Bride, Her cry is joining the Holy Spirit and saying, "Come Lord Jesus." There is a passionate love awakening in the Bride of the Lord, that must know this "incredible quality of love that He is in real experience!" They won't settle for anything else! This is going to cause a great upheaval in the church as we know it today if we fail to recognize this shift of the Holy Spirit. Church was never designed to be a place where we fill ourselves up with ourselves or spiritual homosexuality. It was to be a gathering of believers to be with Him, and for Him. A gathering to dwell in His presence, hear His voice, and do His will for our time together.

It was meant to be a gathering to grow deeper in love with Him, together as a full functioning Body. A gathering together to get His instruction, to renew our strength and mount up on the wings of eagle and to soar wherever the wind of the Spirit was to blow. The experience of this beautiful quality of His love individually andcorporately will lift us up higher into His heart and deeper into His thoughts and purposes. It is here, Jesus will and can build His church.

For this is the true meaning of what Jesus said to Peter, "Upon this Rock, I will build my church." The rock Jesus was referring to was that Peter answered Jesus question in Mathew chapter16:16-19. Jesus ask, "who do men say that I am? Peter replies, " you are the Christ the Son of the living God." Jesus answers, Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven, and I tell you, upon this rock I will build my church."

Notice something very important here. FLESH AND BLOOD HAS NOT REVEALED THIS TO YOU! Remember our definition of incredible: So extraordinary as to seem impossible! Jesus tells John, "your human understanding can never understand who I am." Do you hear His thoughts fellow ministers? But my Father in heaven HAS REVEALED THIS TO YOU! Yes, Jesus must revealed to each heart by the Father and the Holy Spirit. We as leaders are to prepare " a way for the Lord to come in our midst." This is not church service as usual, but a real and tangible waiting upon the Lord and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us as He desires.

This does not mean we don't teach, preach or minister to God's people, exactly the opposite. We do all that in the power of the Holy Spirit in the love that God desires to reveal to His people for that meeting. If experiencing what Love looks like (God) itself is the purpose for our gathering togeher, Love, (God Himself) will meet every need of those who gathered. Also, those who have gathered in His name will meet the need of Love (God Himself) by loving Him as He desires.

God is a Spirit and those who worship Him, must worship Him in Spirit and Truth! This God is so beyond our human understanding that He must reveal himself to us and in us. The human mind is incapable of understanding who God is, thus it is also incapable of understanding what LOVE LOOKS LIKE! God the Father must reveal love to and in us by our continual communion and fellowship with Him.

Let us review John chapter 15:4 Jesus says, "Dwell in me, and I will dwell in you." Beloved this takes a real thirsting for God, and a returning to our first love in experience by making time to be with Him, everyday! It goes on to say in the amplified, "Live in Me, and I will live in you, just as no branch can bear fruit of itself without abiding and being VITALLY UNITED, to the vine, NEITHER CAN YOU BEAR FRUIT UNLESS YOU ABIDE IN ME!" This vital uniting with the Lord is revealed here in Mathew 16 when Jesus says, "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." This is where you can truly begin to know the incredible quality of that love, that we might be called the children of God.

So important was this truth, that Jesus tells Peter that by allowing the Father to reveal who Jesus was in him, it gave him and us the power to grasp the keys of the Kingdom. Listen to the word of God, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the Keys to the Kingdom of heaven, and what ever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and what ever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Mathew 16:18-19

This incredible quality of love can not be learned intellectually or by just doing some religious work, it comes from "abiding in the vine (love itself)." So important is this truth that in Revelation chapter 3:14-22, we see a picture of the last days church and Jesus standing in our midst.

There are many pictures of this scene painted on canvas and they call it the invitation. Most teachers believe this represents Jesus reaching the lost, as He is knocking at the door. But in fact, this scene has nothing to do with the lost, but the church of Jesus Christ, King of Kings!

Rev. 3:14 is written to the church at Laodicea. Jesus tells them their true spiritual state: Verse 15-17: I know your record of works and what you have been doing, you are neither hot or cold. Would that you were cold or hot. So, because you are LUKEWARM, and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of my mouth! Did you hear that? This is an accurate picture of the end-time church here in America and many other places, filled with the world and filled with God, lukewarm! A church that has lost their passion for Him, because they never really grew to know Him as He wants to be known, or loved the way He wants to be loved. That is what He told the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2:4, "you have deserted me your first love."

The fruit of this lost quality of love, has made us work hard for God, but only Luke warm in passion for Him. Why did we get this way? Jesus tells us in verse 17, "for you say you are rich and in need of nothing, and YOU DO NOT REALIZE AND UNDERSTAND THAT YOU ARE WRETCHED, PITIABLE, POOR, BLIND AND NAKED.” Sure glad I didn't write that or you would all be mad at me. LOL!! Seriously howerver!!

It is to this church verse 20 and 21 are written, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears and listens to and heeds my voice and OPENS THE DOOR, I WILL COME IN TO HIM! (Do you hear that beloved?) Jesus will come in by revelation and reveal in you that incredible quality of love." AND WILL EAT WITH HIM, AND HE WILL EAT WITH ME!"

Eating together is one of the highest forms of fellowship as in the Last Supper. That is why there is a "marriage supper" of the Lamb representing a continual fellowship of the Bride and the Bridegroom. This continual fellowship is where you begin to receive the height, width, and depths of His love and you become deeply rooted and ground in what love looks like, God Himself. Does this mean we don't study the Word, or pray, or fast?

No, beloved it empowers those very things with love! It gives those things their true power to be bread for our souls and water for our spirit! This continual abiding in Him opens us to receive the life of the words of the bible and not just the intellectual understanding of His word void of their power. It is love Himself that causes the word to burn in our hearts like the two men on the road to Emmaus!

So what will you do beloved reader? Settle for business as usual in your spiritual life or even in your church? What will we do as church leaders as God awakens this desire in His people for God Himself? Will we keep giving them "our present understanding" of God? Will we keep them going in our programs or plans? Or will we hear His voice and lead his people to the very cry of God's heart in Isaiah chapter 66 verse1.

This is the only place you can know what Love looks like, because it is the only place you can see His face and change from one degree of glory to another. This is the place you receive the incredible quality of love that the Father has given us, because flesh and blood can not reveal it to you. Do you understand. Love is God, God is love and only He can reveal who He is and what love looks like in you! It is the very work of the Holy Spirit to do in you. Romans chapter 8 verse 5 says, "and hope putteth not to shame; because the love of God hath been shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which was given unto us."

Let this scripture become alive by the revelation of God's heart in it, believer or church leader and let us go on together to know the Lord. I close with Isaiah 66:1 until tomorrow. Please let the Holy Spirit breath this cry of God's heart into yours!

"THUS SAYS THE LORD, HEAVEN IS MY THRONE, AND THE EARTH IS MY FOOTSTOOL, WHAT KIND OF HOUSE WILL YOU BUILD FOR ME? AND WHAT KIND CAN BE MY RESTING PLACE?"

Labels: What does Love look like (series)

My heart is heavy today! I watch everyone preparing for the Christmas Holiday coming up next week, yet I just can't rest in my spirit. As I search and listen to what the Holy Spirit has to say, I heard this sentence, " the lost life of love."

Last year I was blessed to be invited to pray for a tent meeting revival in Milliken Colorado. My friend who is a Pastor invited me to come with a group of intercessors to pray for the meetings. He wanted to get all the churches in the area together to pray for the meetings. He sent out word through the area, and unfortunately not one Pastor showed up for the prayer times.
I wondered why we were there. The Lord said to me, " He is your friend isn't he, just pray for him and the meetings." We did joyfully and God moved in a mighty way in these meetings. Much was birthed there with great persecution with it, but it was a start of something new for them and for all of us.

At the request of several people there, we were asked to come and teach more on prayer. So we held an impromptu conference on prayer and without any advertising people from the whole area started to come. I could spend an hour telling you about it, but the "present word of God" that came out of this conference was "What does love look like?'

That conference changed me in such a profound way even until this day. Even though I was one of the main speakers, I was just an instrument to the MAIN SPEAKER, the HOLY SPIRIT! In this wonderful time of fellowship with the Lord, He asked over and over, what does love look like?

A year and half later, as I travel this country and Mexico and look at the world and the condition of the church, I still hear, What does love look like? In another week, everyone will focus on the birth of Christ and yes that is part of what looks like. In a few more months we will celebrate Easter and that will be part of what looks like. But, do you beloved reader know personally what LOVE really looks like?

1Jn 4:8 He who has no love has no knowledge of God, because God is love. 1Jn 4:9 And the love of God was made clear to us when he sent his only Son into the world so that we might have life through him. 1Jn 4:10 And this is love, not that we had love for God, but that he had love for us, and sent his Son to be an offering for our sins. 1Jn 4:11 My loved ones, if God had such love for us, it is right for us to have love for one another. 1Jn 4:12 No man has ever seen God: if we have love for one another, God is in us and his love is made complete in us:

I tried to address some of this in the last blog, but I hopefully am provoking all of us to go deeper into what love really is? God is love! What a powerful verse of scripture.

God is love? What does love look like? As you ponder on 1 John 4:8-9 I want you to notice it says, HE THAT HAS NO LOVE HAS NO KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, BECAUSE GOD IS LOVE. AND THE LOVE OF GOD WAS MADE CLEAR TO US... SO THAT WE MIGHT HAVE LIFE THROUGH HIM!

He that has no love has no knowledge of God! Humm! Why? Because God is love! And love has been made clear to us: made visible to us, so we might have life through him, Jesus Christ. Ponder on that thought for a moment?

The bible tells us in 1Jn 4:17 In this way love is made complete in us, so that we may be without fear on the day of judging, because as he is, so are we in this world. 1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love: true love has no room for fear, because where fear is, there is pain; and he who is not free from fear is not complete in love. 1Jn 4:19 We have the power of loving, because he first had love for us.

We love, because He first loved us. I call this the "first love principle." I think I am going to write a book about this later. But the word for today is "the lost life of love!" Where is that abiding love of God in us beloved?

We read we have the power of loving, because he first loved us in verse 19? But why does the words of the Apostle James ring to clear for the church here in the USA:

Jas 4:1 Whence come wars and whence come fighting’s among you? come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members? Jas 4:2 Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and covet, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Jas 4:3 Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may spend it in your pleasures. Jas 4:4 Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Jas 4:5 Or think ye that the scripture speaks in vain? Doth the spirit which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? Jas 4:6 But he gives more grace. Wherefore the scripture says, God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Jas 4:7 Be subject therefore unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Jas 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Jas 4:9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Jas 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall exalt you.

What happened to the lost life of the love of God in us, that proves we are His true disciples by the love we have one for another? In verse 4 from above it says, "Whoever would be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." He describes what being a friend to the world is in verses 1-3.

Jas 4:1 What is the cause of wars and fighting among you? is it not in your desires which are at war in your bodies?

Jas 4:2 You are burning with desire, and have not your desire, so you put men to death; you are full of envy, and you are not able to get your desire, so you are fighting and making war; you have not your desire, because you do not make request for it.

Jas 4:3 You make your request but you do not get it, because your request has been wrongly made, desiring the thing only so that you may make use of it for your pleasure.

We so desire to fit into the world and it's system so very much. We want the world to like us, understand us, accept us, and to often even as leaders we want to do things the way the world does it. We want to use marketing surveys to build the church. We want to find out what the people want, what the people like. We want our churches to be user friendly instead of Holy Spirit friendly. Sadly, we all have done it even without realizing it.

I don't believe we do this intentionally or to be destructive to the Gospel, though some might. I believe out of ignorance of really understanding WHO love is and what God (love) looks like causes us to look to the world for the picture of what God is or worse what our "idea of God is." This is the very issue Jesus has to deal with the woman at the well. She had an "idea of God" by where is the right place to worship God.

In the book of John chapter 4, Jesus is speaking with the woman at the well. The whole conversations comes down to her asking one question of Jesus. The question He had longed to answer. She asks this question. We Samaritans worship in the mountains and you Jews in Jerusalem, where is the RIGHT PLACE TO WORSHIP? This question begs an answer for our statement today, The lost life of love. You see, she said we worship God in the mountains. That is where we look for love. You Jews worship in Jerusalem, the place you look for love. Which one is it?

Jesus answers her, about where she could find what love looks like, and where true life is. Beloved reader, He already told her, that He had living water, or water of life to give her. He already told her the water he brings will spring up into everlasting life in her. Remember our scriptures. God is love, and He first loved us that we might have live through Him! Eternal life,is eternal love? Perfect love cast out all fear!

Love is not found by going to a place to worship, it is found by BECOMING A PLACE OF WORSHIP! "KNOW YE NOT, YE ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE LIVING GOD!

Jesus tells her the truth, listen! John 4:21 Jesus said to her, Woman, take my word for this; the time is coming when you will not give worship to the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. John 4:22 You give worship, but without knowledge of what you are worshipping: we give worship to what we have knowledge of: for salvation comes from the Jews. John 4:23 But the time is coming, and is even now here, when the true worshippers will give worship to the Father in the true way of the spirit, for these are the worshippers desired by the Father. John 4:24 God is Spirit: then let his worshippers give him worship in the true way of the spirit. (spirit and truth!)

God is a Spirit, A person, someone who we can intimately know. Let his worshippers give him worship in spirit and truth! Notice, He never mentions a place, but a life of what true worship is and the place to experience LOVE, (GOD)! Worship is the expression of love being exchanged! We worship Him, basically because he worships us. Worship mean the Worth Ship of something greater than yourself! God says we are worthy (worth ship) to be loved because He made us. He is worthy (worth shiped) to be loved because He is the love that made us!

Love must be experienced personally. You can find it as you meditate in the word, or prayer, bible study to a degree, but if you want to experience it deeper you can by just hanging out with Him in adoration! Yes, Love is a life! Life is love, because God is love! If you want to know love, than you must continue to hunger and thirst for Him as a lover of your soul! He is more than a place to go to on Sunday.

Truthfully, Church should be a gathering together time, not a place, we come together to love him together, to dwell in that love together. We assemble together to spend time in that love, receive from that love, allow that love to speak and write His laws upon our hearts. We must allow that love to heal, set free, strengthen, encourage, lift us up as we wait upon Him in sweet fellowship. Love must lift us up until we have eagles wings!

Love can then speak tenderly to your heart, teaches, guide, directs instruct, correct, and leads us as Sons and Daughters of God. Yes, love is a life, it is not something we do, it is something we are, when we are in Him! We try to love people and do good things, but often our real temperament is more like what we found in the book of James. Why? We look to what our "idea of God" is, and not taking the time to find God has He really wants to be known.

I pray in the next several blogs, we can discuss this together. Make comments if you like, I will try to respond, but I hope you get the answers directly from God himself. God wants us to know Him. Read John 17:3 God's definition of eternal life, "that you may know Him, the one true God and Jesus Christ that He has sent.' The word know in that context means to know as intimate as a Husband would know His wife in intercourse. That is how close God wants to be with us! This is where we find the "lost life of love." Learning to abide in Him, is the only place we can find what Love really looks like. You won't find in the mountain, nor will you find it in Jerusalem. God is a Spirit, and He must be found in Spirit and Truth.

Press on beloved reader with me. I hardly know Him as He wants to be known, but I press on to this high calling of God with all my heart and I pray you will do the same with all your heart.

Blessings to you until next time.

Labels: What does Love look like (series)

When people ask me what does love really look like, I get a big smile on my face and I answer in one word: God! Most of the time they give me that look! You know that look don't you? " You know what I mean, what does it really look like?" I usually wait a little bit more, smile and say, "GOD!"

Then they say what does God look like? Most of the time they are waiting for a deep theological answer to come. So I get real serious looking and put that pondering face upon my look. LOL! Then with the most serious face I can and get ready to appear like a dissertation is coming forth, and then I smile and say, "LOVE!"

By now I have totally exasperated them into great frustration. So I very calmly speak God is Love! Then they usually ask, " but you can't see God, he is invisible." Then I reply, "then you will never be able to see or know what LOVE look likes!" I tell them, God and Love are one in the same. If you truly want to know what "real love" is, you must know who the "real" God is."
Isn't interesting we usually describe what we think love is or the actions of what love may look like, but we can't describe what LOVE really is, God Himself? I wonder why this is so! Most of preachers can sight John 3:16 and get people to pray the sinner's prayer, but why don't most people including Christians really know WHO and WHAT LOVE really is?

Why is there so much division and confusion in the church today in America? My very humble opinion is that we really don't know God as He really wants to be known, LOVE? We may preach about what He does, what He provides, and even what He wants us to do, but what about Who He is?

Isn't true that most of our ministry is trying to tell people that God loves them? Don't we try to do things to help people to show who God is? We even help people and tell them God loves them? But do they really know LOVE for themselves. The Love that will fill their heart to overflow.

Sadly to say, and with the greatest respect for us as church leaders, we have taught the Body of Christ to work very hard for God, but fallen short in revealing who God is by welcoming His presence in our midst, our hearts, and lives. We no longer cultivate the presence of the Lord, or wait upon Him for intimate fellowship with Him. We often expect people to find "real love in works, meetings, or in our gathering together. But have you noticed that over time love runs out there.

Someone gets mad at someone. The elders often rise up against the Pastor and create church splits. Or ministers who have such a need to prove their call and love for God, usurp His authority and hoard the sheep for their own need to be needed. This is false ministry idolatry which is based in our need to be needed. Often this type of ministry smothers the people and keeps them dependent upon them instead of God Himself.

A long time ago, the Lord told me that my work was to reach down and grab a persons hand, lift it up and place it into His hand. When they could hold onto the Lord for themselves, to let go and get out of the way! In this way, I would only be a tool to bring them to Him to see and experience love Himself. As Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 3, " to they get firmly rooted in love and experience love for themselves which far surpasses knowledge without experience." Amplified paraphrase.

We are to be rooted and grounded in love. Love is a person! When we get our roots down deep in Him, then we see Him as He really is. Then our eyes are opened and our hearts are filled with all the fullness of who God is in our hearts. Then we truly know what LOVE looks like and what it is.

Only a deep abiding in God, or in the vine can truly to allow you to know God. John chapter 17: 3 says, "And this is eternal life, that you may KNOW, the one TRUE GOD, and Jesus Christ he sent." Eternal life is knowing what "True love look likes and what is."

Sadly, in Revelations chapter 2: Jesus says, "I have this one thing against you, you have deserted me, your first love!" At the end of the age, the church that was to be a reflection of that love, loses their first love. They lose it because Christianity has turned into being "work bond" relationships instead of "love bond" relationships. The first love bond must be between you and the Lord. This is the true meaning of covenant love. Covenant is not a dirty word! It is not an exchange or working for each other. It is an exchange of love to one another even to the giving up of your own life, and all that you have for the other. That is why people don't want to get married or stay married anymore. They don't understand the exchange of real love because that can only come from knowing God Himself!

The love bond of marriage is easily broken because of the losing of or never knowing our first love Jesus Christ. Thankfully the Lord is patiently waiting for us like a Prodigal Father for us to "return to our Father's house." This is our first love!. The Bible tells us that we love Him, because HE FIRST LOVES US!

My prayer for all of us in 2008 is that we won't try to see what love look likes by abiding in the branches. Yes, to much of our walk with God is dependant upon other Christians or even other people. Others praying for us, teaching us and leading us makes us depend upon them and never finding him ourselves. We need the 5 fold ministry, I am one of them. But effectuve fruit bearing ministry begins when we don't ever need to make people dependant upon us. This is usually how cults form and is very dangerous. Our responsiblity is to bring them to God to know Him as their God and true source of love.

Going to church alone can not be a substitute for a deep abiding relationship with God alone because you can never fully understand what love is just by going to service. The late Keith Green used to say, "going to church does not make you any more of a Christian than going to McDonalds makes you a hamburger. Cute saying, but appropriate. If all you ever know of love is going to church Sunday and Wednesday and that is your experience alone with God you won't stay or last in the church anyway. We all fall very short of God's love to many times. None of us have enough love to complete another. That place God alone is to fill. He is very jealous over us! He won't allow a human being to take His place in our hearts above Him. He alone is Perfect LOVE! Plus, we have to much stuff still in us for them to abide in us. Also it is contrary to the word of God in John chapter 15.

I am going to close this little blog with the ONLY TRUE WAY TO KNOW GOD! THE ONLY TRUE WAY OF KNOWING WHO AND WHAT LOVE IS? Yes, the world will know that we are His disciples by the love we have one for another! However, without us abiding in the vine, and experiencing and living in that love daily, we can't give that real love to anyone. He said, "no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for his friends."

I encourage each of you to meditate and ponder on these scriptures and allow the lifting presence of the Lord to reveal the power and life in these words to your heart.

Joh 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Joh 15:2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.

Joh 15:3 Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.

Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye abide in me.

Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for apart from me ye can do nothing.

Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be my disciples.

Joh 15:9 Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Joh 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

Joh 15:12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.

Joh 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Joh 15:14 Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you.

Joh 15:15 No longer do I call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I heard from my Father, I have made known unto you.

Joh 15:16 Ye did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.

Joh 15:17 These things I command you, that ye may love one another.

Labels: What does Love look like (series)