Keep Your Love On!

It is undeniable that loving the way that God loves is part of our inheritance. 

• We are called to love: "God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him." (1 Jn. 4:16)
• We have access to love: "God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." (Rom. 5:5)

We have been given everything necessary in order to love like Jesus loved. It is God's heart to make provision for us to love like Him, but His provision includes the choice to do so or not. So once we understand that we possess everything needed to love the way that God loves the only thing left is to "keep your love on". I'll explain that more in a second, but first it is important to keep in mind that this requires a conscious decision to be others focused, even in the face of inconvenience to yourself. Loving like God means that "counting others more significant than ourselves" (Phil. 2:3) is a necessity. 

If you have been a Christian for any length of time you know that daily we come face to face with the decision to deny ourselves in light of serving others, and if we are being honest we have all blown it a time or two. What many have failed to understand is that these daily opportunities are a major part of our inheritance as well. These opportunities are not just random happenstance but were actually designed in wisdom by God for His children to walk in (Eph. 2:10), and thus they need to be stewarded well.

So how does a believer steward well over their inheritance of those daily opportunities to love? I believe the answer to this question is found in "keeping your love on". This is what I believe the apostle Paul is communicating in 2 Corinthians 6:11-13 where he tells the Corinthian church that his heart is "wide open" but that they are "restricted by their own affections" and that they are to "widen their hearts also".

Paul walked with an incredible measure of discernment and wisdom regarding God's supernatural avenues of victory over the schemes of the enemy. This is one of those instances where we get a glimpse into what Paul saw was happening in these people that he loved so much. What Paul recognized was that the people of the Corinthian church had become self-focused - meaning they were worried, anxious, fearful, self-centered, etc. Basically, they had turned inward and thus restricted the flow of God's love through their lives to alter the environment around them - especially the lives of people. This is one of the enemies tactics - he desires to make you self-focused by attempting to steer you towards worry, fear, doubt, etc. Satan knows that by doing so your affections will be closed off and you will hinder the anointing of God's love from affecting the lives of those around you. But, in the words of Paul, "that is not the way you learned Christ!"

When Paul encourages the Corinthians to "widen their hearts" he is saying that they no longer have to live under the weight of deception. Instead they have been equipped to both enjoy and impart the love of God, provided that they are not turned inward, but rather they live "wide open" - AKA they "keep their love on"!

My conviction is that if together we would live with our love on, this world will experience the love of God through His church the way He intends it. We owe the world an encounter with Jesus - an encounter with the great Lover of our souls. Each and every person was fearfully and wonderfully made with a desire to love and to be loved, and prepared before us today is an inheritance of opportunities for us to live in that reality as well as usher that reality into the lives of others! So if you haven't already: turn your love on and keep it that way! There is no better way to live!

The Holy Spirit is Your Friend!

“Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…” (Jn. 16:7-8)

You will find these verses above to be red letter in your bible – meaning that it was Jesus Himself that said them. He was teaching His disciples about the person and work of the Holy Spirit just hours before He would be lifted up on a cross while bearing the weight of all sin on His shoulders. Listen; when Jesus said to His disciples that it was to their advantage that He would go because then the Holy Spirit would come He was not exaggerating in the slightest. As followers of Jesus it is important that we comprehend why!

“the Helper...”

The bottom line is that the Holy Spirit has been given to us in order to help us – which is great news! His willingness to help us in everything is beyond measure; He simply waits for our surrender.

“He will convict the world…”

Jesus goes on to describe three aspects of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in our life. Don’t be troubled by the word convict, it simply means that He will convince us of certain truths about God. The Holy Spirit is in the business of persuasion, not accusation. There is one who sits in the seat of accusation, and I assure you that our God is not him (Rev. 12:10, Jn. 3:17).

1. First, the Holy Spirit desires to convince us that sin is destructive – it is deadly. This is a foundational revelation of the Old Testament: that the wages of our sin is death. This persuasion of the destructiveness of sin is the only way that you and I could become aware of our need for a Savior! Praise God for the persuasiveness of the Holy Spirit concerning sin!

2. Second, the Holy Spirit makes it His mission to convince you of your righteousness – your right standing before God through Christ. The realization that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 5:21) is just as supernatural as the realization that you were once lost. Many believers are so conscious of their old sinful nature that they refuse to embrace the truth that they have been declared righteous! The nature of sin is to always cling to hopelessness and shame; it always gravitates downward, never upward. That is the disposition of the mind that is not under the control of the Holy Spirit. If this describes the way you think about yourself, now is the time to surrender to the righteous persuasion of the Holy Spirit!

3. Lastly, the Holy Spirit has been sent to continually remind us that the ruler of this world (Satan; Jn. 12:31, Jn. 4:30) has been judged - that Satan has been crushed under the feet of Jesus! He is an outlaw and no longer has authority over our lives. Come on, that is good news! Thank you Holy Spirit for convincing us of the demise of our enemy!

All this being said, the Holy Spirit is your friend and you have no reason to be afraid of Him. He has been given to help you to live victorious in Christ. The abundant life that Jesus promised can be yours through an intimate friendship with God, the Holy Spirit.

Do You Carry the Proper "Atmosphere of Heart"?

Lately I have been convicted by the Holy Spirit to spend significant time studying and meditating on the subject matter of “the heart”. There is a heavy emphasis on the heart throughout scripture, and particularly in the teachings of Jesus (“kardia”, which is Greek for heart, is used 40+ times in the Gospels alone). None carrying so great a force as when Jesus declares in Matthew 22:37, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart...” This statement alone should be enough compel each of us into a dialogue with the Holy Spirit over the issue of “the heart”.

That being said, I’ll let you in on something I have been learning – my hope being that it provokes you to go deeper on this subject as well.

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him.” (2 Chron. 16:9, NIV)

What does it mean to have a heart that is fully committed to God? I’m certain that I do not have the full answer to that question yet; nevertheless, there is one particular thing that I feel that the Lord has opened my eyes to that I want to share: a key aspect of having a heart that is fully committed to God is carrying the proper atmosphere of heart to receive truth (by “atmosphere of heart” I mean the prevailing attitude that your heart possesses). The different attitudes one’s heart can carry is illustrated through a parable of Jesus found in Luke 8:4-15. I highly recommend reading through and meditating upon this passage. But what I want to focus on is a short statement made in James that teaches us specifically what this “atmosphere of heart” ought to be: 

“…receive with meekness (humility) the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.” (Js. 1:21) 

The proper atmosphere of heart that we are to carry is meekness/humility (there are slight variations in the definitions of these two words, but for this purpose they are practically the same). Put simply, to “receive with meekness” implies a surrendering of your rights while elevating the rights of another. Keeping in mind that, among many other things, the Holy Spirit has been given to us in order to "guide us into all truth" (Jn. 16:13) we can come to a conclusion on what God is communicating to us through this verse in James. In a nutshell, what I believe God wants to teach us is that in receiving the Word of God, one must surrender their “right” to put their interpretation what the Word says and instead allow the Holy Spirit His right to impart to you what is being said; all so that you would experience the salvation that the Word of God is capable of, and that God would receive the glory He is deserving of.

This impartation by the Holy Spirit will happen as we give ourselves to meditation upon God's Word. Meditation is a diligent search through a humble heart and a directed mind. In contrast with other religions where people are taught to empty their minds as a means of meditation, the bible teaches us to fill our minds with God's Word while carrying a humble heart that allows for the work of the Holy Spirit.

There is so much to say about this subject - and I already feel like I am rambling - so I am going to end with this: Is your heart fully committed to God? Do you carry the proper atmosphere of heart for encounter with God? I want to encourage you not to settle for anything less today. Our heart was built for divine encounter. Carry the proper atmosphere of heart as you fill your mind with the Word of God and experience the transformation the Lord Himself works in your life.

Be Blessed!

Andrew

PS - Comments are be helpful and appreciated!

"Let there be blog"

I haven’t done this in about 6 months, but Jon told me that he and I needed to start blogging again. Seeing as I always do what he commands and seldom do I disregard what he suggests, a new blog post is in order. (The title of this post has nothing to do with what I am about to write; it is simply an amusing twist on an otherwise ordinary suggestion by Jon).

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I am a son of God. Lately, what God has made available for me as a child of His has been rocking me.

Here are just a few things that are true of a son of God:

• The Spirit makes it His daily priority to convince me of my sonship (Rom. 8:16) – which means that every day I can have confidence that the Spirit Himself makes it His aim to convince me of my incredible value to my Father. Awesome!
• Where I once was hopelessly unable to, I now possess the privelege of being an imitator of God as His son (Eph. 5:1-2) – which means, among many other things, that I get to become Love like Him (1 Jn. 4:16-17). Yes!
• I have come into an inheritance that includes everything that pertains to life and godliness (2 Pet. 1:3-4) – which means that all that the Father has is mine (Lk. 15:31). Come on!
• More awesomeness.
• Even more awesomeness.
• Way more awesomeness than I understand right now – although I will get there, I assure you (Phil. 1:6, 1 Jn. 3:2).

These are remarkable statements, I know – but don’t let their extraordinary nature dissuade you from their certainty. Too many have allowed their intellect to get in the way of what is undeniably true, simply because it was too great for them to comprehend. Don’t be fooled, your heart can wrap itself around things that your mind cannot yet. This is the essence of walking by faith. Faith has never required understanding to work; it simply rests in what God is saying because there is life there.

If you have received Christ, I encourage you today to continue to expose yourself to the truths about who you are as a child. After all, you have every right (Jn. 1:12-13)!

Be Blessed!
Andrew

NOTE: Looking up the verses to see them for yourselves will be far more beneficial to you than simply taking my word for it!

Walking By Faith (Part 2): Why?

I’m learning that one must be intentional about keeping up a blog, and that it hasn’t come as easy as I thought it would :) It’s all good though; I’m going to continue post as often I can.

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Walking by faith is a concept that spans both the Old and New Testaments. In the Old Testament Abraham had faith that was counted to him as righteousness around 2000 years before Christ came. In fact, all of Hebrews 11 is devoted to this topic of real men walking by faith before Christ came to this earth. Then, as I documented in my last post, this concept also had profound significance in the lives of those living during the time the New Testament was being penned. The steady testimony of walking by faith from the bible must cause us to realize its implications for us today – we too are called to walk by faith.

Before moving on, however, it is important to ask the question that must be on our minds when dealing with this topic: Why walk by faith? This is what I want to focus in on for this post.

First off, and most importantly, God says in the beginning of Hebrews 11:6 that “without faith it is impossible to please Him”. Therefore, we walk by faith because God calls us to. But more than that we need to realize that anything that God calls us to do is for our good – as the rest of verse 6 states, “for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him”. So walking by faith not only pleases Him, but it is for our good.

Even with understanding these truths, the problem arises when we fall victim to the lie of ease. Our flesh cries out that it’s easier to live by what we can “see and feel” – or more simply by what we can measure using our human faculties of sight, touch, smell, taste, and hearing. The truth is that all of these faculties are God given, and meant for our good. They can, however, be deceptive if we don’t understand the why behind the what. The reason God has given us these faculties is to enjoy what He has made – in His way (this is another topic for another time perhaps), while faith is given to us in order to enjoy what hasn’t been made – Himself.

Undoubtedly, Satan wants us to believe that it is better to live by what we “see and feel”. But the reality is that it really isn’t. It is God’s design for us to live by faith in Him because it compels us interact with Him during every moment of the day in order to experience His power and benefits. He runs His Kingdom using this wisdom because at the heart of everything God wants relationship with His people – and not just any relationship, but a deep and abiding one. By interacting with Him in every moment by faith, we have what He intended for us to have: relationship.

Also, if we only live by what we “see and feel” then we run the risk of falling into the deception that God feels about us the way that we are feeling about Him in any particular moment. This causes our emotions to become the gauge for how confident we are in God, instead of the gauge being God’s Word appropriated into our lives through faith for how confident we ought to be in Him. There is a huge difference here that must be grasped by every disciple of Jesus. What I am saying is that we can live anchored in the truth of God’s Word – free from the emotional traffic that so often tosses us around – if we would learn to “walk by faith, and not by sight”.

Alright, I’ve typed enough for one post. Stay tuned, more to come!

Be Blessed!

Andrew

Walking by Faith (Part 1)

I’m going for it - my next few entries will mark the first series of posts I’ve done. I don’t have it planned out or anything (except for the topic), but we’ll see how I feel inspired to write each one, as well as how many to write. Feel free to follow along and comment on each/any of them!

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To start, Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, makes a statement that has profoundly impacted my life over the past half a year or so. It is a statement that I had certainly heard before 6 months ago, but to my regret had given very little attention to it.

2 Corinthians 5:7 reads, “for we walk by faith, not by sight”.

This theme of walking by faith is much larger in the New Testament than just this verse, but I believe that it gives a succinct description of how Paul lived his life; and I am certain that it is how God expects every disciple of His to live. Paul actually expresses this same principle in a few different ways, and with different emphasis’, throughout His letters:

 “…who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Rom. 8:4)

“Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” (Col. 3:2)

Jesus himself speaks to this same principle twice in the book of Matthew (as far as I can tell thus far anyway). I found it rather interesting that both are actually in the context of a rebuke directed at Peter:

“For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matt. 16:23)

 “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matt. 26:41)

I think I’ll let you chew on these scriptures for now. If there is anything that you feel lead to share concerning this topic (revelation, more verses, etc.), please don’t hesitate to comment – personally, it will help me out tremendously as I continue to go deeper in this.

3 Essential Elements of Godly Conduct

I want to share something I was thinking about the other day in regards to Godly conduct. It's pretty simple really, but the ramifications are immense when considered.

Every trace of truly Godly conduct that has ever been a part of history, is currently in motion, or will be yet in the future has 3 elements to it:

1. God initiates with grace.
2. An individual responds in humble obedience (by cooperating with grace through faith).
3. God receives glory.

If any one of these three elements is absent, then it will not be something endorsed the day we stand before God and give an account for our lives. God must initiate with grace, we must respond in humble obedience, and finally He must receive glory as a result if something is going to fall under the label of "Godly conduct". 

Speaking candidly, there have certainly been things that I have done in the name of Jesus that have lacked one, if not more, of these elements. Those things will not last on the day I give an account to God. But as I type this today, it is my sincere intention that every aspect of the way I carry myself for the rest of my life would embody these three elements - and by God's grace it will. It is my firm conviction that the bible teaches that the chief aim in Him giving me grace is Him receiving His glory. And His grace given turns out for His glory received when I humbly obey. It's as simple as that.


Romans 11:36, Colossians 1:16-17

Be Blessed!

Andrew