NEWS Walking in Love
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. (Ephesians 5:1-2)
"Walk in love." What does this mean?
What is love? How do we walk in love?
God walks in love. God is love (1 John 4:8). When we walk in love, we imitate God. We are urged by the Spirit to imitate God and walk in love.
When we are brought into the world, we are born with hearts that are capable of walking in love. Sadly, many people never learn how. They don't teach us how to do this at school or university. You cannot get a Ph.D. in 'Walking in Love."
Even more tragically, many people throughout the world who call themselves Christians and attend church regularly have no clue how to walk in love. They do things for the Lord, but they do not possess His heart of love.
There is only one way to walk in love and that is through Christ.
Only when our hearts are pure and we see Christ Jesus do we enter into Him and His love. Our faith in His love allows us to begin walking in love. Walking in love requires faith - faith expressing itself through love.
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6)
Most people have no idea what love is and how powerful it is. Many think love is an emotion or feeling. Love is not an emotion. Love is what God is!
Love is a powerful energy - a force, a light. Love is far more potent than any technology in the universe. God is love, and there is nothing more powerful than God.
So we ask the all important question: What is love?
Scriptures tell us clearly what love is:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
With love in our hearts, nothing is impossible. With His love, we become potent technology capable of performing supernatural feats and acts. Our love threatens those that have not this love. Indeed, when we walk in God's love - the powerful love described in 1 Corinthians 13 - we become a menacing threat to Satan and his dark world. Love defeated Satan. Love triumphed over evil. It always does and always will. Contrary to what you may have read in the New York Times or some other publication in the past, God is not dead. Satan will die, as he must, but Christ reigns for eternity. You cannot kill God's love. It is Eternal Light.
For ages, people have tried to extinguish God's love from the planet. John the Baptist was beheaded, but they could not kill his heart of love. Try as they might, through murder, crucifixion, and other means of evil, people have tried to kill God's love.
Silly humans...
Walking in love is a battle because there are so few people on this planet that do it. Evil lurks in the hearts of men, women and children everywhere in the world. That said, when we enter into Christ and His love, we have victory over evil and darkness. The Lord is undefeated. He cannot lose.
We stand our ground with shoes of peace, armed with our shields of faith and powerful swords (God's Word - His truth). The battle continues, but the outcome has already been determined. Love wins. It cannot lose. In fact, loving hearts pray for evil hearts to be delivered from the evil one and purified. Why are pure hearts necessary? Because, as the Lord tell us, pure hearts see God. (Matthew 5:8)
It is ironic that Satan - through the dark hearts of men and women, and yes even some precocious children - have many people on the planet concerned about "global warming" in the atmosphere, when the real problem in the world is global cooling in hearts around the world. We should not be surprised at the global cooling we see with respect to love in the world. The Lord told us that the future would see love turning cold:
"Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold."
(Matthew 24:12)
The solution to "global warming" (whatever that means) and every other problem on this planet is Love - walking in love. Imitating God. It's not more government this or government that. It's more love in the hearts of people everywhere on earth!
Satan does not want people to know that if everybody walked in love, there would be no problems in the world. Life everywhere on earth would be a practical expression of heaven. Hell on earth (and there can be no doubt most people are living in hell here on earth) would be extinguished.
"and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain." (Revelation 21:4)
Walking in love reproduces heaven on earth - precisely the kind of world God intended in the beginning.
There is a glitch in the Matrix. God's program for human hearts got corrupted through the free will He gave us. God is all about freedom. But freedom in Christ is not free. There is a cost. That cost is what the Cross is all about. There is no freedom in Christ except through the cross.
Tragically, many Christians view the Cross as something that Jesus did for them. They are saved when they recognize Jesus died for their sins. Note this conventional view of Christians is all about them - not Christ. They are saved.
However, it is not about us at all. It is about Christ Jesus. If you are walking in love, you have been crucified with Christ. You are dead and He is alive in your heart.
"I have been crucifed with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)
There is a time for lawlessness to increase, as the Lord told us, but this cannot continue indefinitely. There is a patch for the corrupted software that prevents people from walking in love. The software patch is intimately tied together with God eternal plan - Christ as all in all. Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus came, died, and rose again with God's love because Christ must increase, and we must decrease.
He must increase, but we must decrease. (John 3:30)
He must increase! His love must increase. He will increase no matter how hard people try to prevail against His love. Lawlessness will rise up, but eventually it will be defeated. In the meantime, while this global cooling of love continues throughout the world, rest assured the Lord has those who choose and are chosen to walk in love covered:
"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
(Matthew 5:11-12)
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you." (John 15:18)
We receive His heart through faith in Him and the work He does through us on the cross. The Cross is the place where our hearts are filled with His never-failing love and Spiritual fruit. The Cross is the gateway to the Kingdom of God. Satan cannot go beyond the Cross. There is no place for evil and darkness in the Kingdom of God. We walk the narrow path to eternal life through the Cross.
Our faith in Christ and His love connects us to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the light that powers our hearts. With the Holy Spirit, we shine. We become lights of the world. (Matthew 5:14).
The Spirit connects us directly with an open heaven. With an open heaven, there is nothing in the way of our hearts and the Lord's heart. Nothing - no things, no man-made churches, priests, pastors, ministers, evangelists, tithes, or rituals. Nothing!
An open heaven is a heart connected directly to God's heart through Christ via the Holy Spirit. With His Spirit in our hearts, nothing is impossible. All the miracles recorded in the Scriptures were performed by the Lord through the Holy Spirit or by Him directly. Every single one of them! We don't perform miracles. HE DOES!
The Church that the Lord is building is built on love. A love that never fails, cannot fail, and will not fail. Nothing can overpower this love. With His love, nothing is impossible. If we have not His love in our heart, we are nothing. Hell cannot overpower His church.
"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." (Matthew16:18)
We walk in love because that is our purpose in life. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Before the Lord went to the Cross, he commanded His disciples to do one thing. The Lord said:
Love one another. (John 15:17)
When we walk in love, the Lord is with us. Always. We are One with His loving heart.
Walking in love requires a heart of Christ. We must see Christ first before we can walk in love. Seeing Christ requires a pure heart. Pure hearts see God (Matthew 5:8). When we see God, we believe His word. When we believe Him and trust Him, our faith grows. As our faith grows, and we express this faith through love, we become fruit on His vine. We become One with the Son. One with Christ.
There is a conflict in the world: Lawlessness versus Love. Darkness versus Light. Evil versus Christ.
Walking in love guarantees victory over lawlessness - over darkness and evil. The Lord's love cannot be overcome. It cannot fail. He has secured victory for us. All that is required is that we walk in the light of His love. The world is against us but God is for us. We press in and we press on into the Great Life - into Christ.
It is a battle, but we have won. Stand your ground and live to love.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
(1 Corinthians 13:13).
The greatest of these is love.
May you have great faith in the Lord's love and may you learn to walk in His never-failing love.
Agape,
Steve
"Walk in love." What does this mean?
What is love? How do we walk in love?
God walks in love. God is love (1 John 4:8). When we walk in love, we imitate God. We are urged by the Spirit to imitate God and walk in love.
When we are brought into the world, we are born with hearts that are capable of walking in love. Sadly, many people never learn how. They don't teach us how to do this at school or university. You cannot get a Ph.D. in 'Walking in Love."
Even more tragically, many people throughout the world who call themselves Christians and attend church regularly have no clue how to walk in love. They do things for the Lord, but they do not possess His heart of love.
There is only one way to walk in love and that is through Christ.
Only when our hearts are pure and we see Christ Jesus do we enter into Him and His love. Our faith in His love allows us to begin walking in love. Walking in love requires faith - faith expressing itself through love.
"The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love." (Galatians 5:6)
Most people have no idea what love is and how powerful it is. Many think love is an emotion or feeling. Love is not an emotion. Love is what God is!
Love is a powerful energy - a force, a light. Love is far more potent than any technology in the universe. God is love, and there is nothing more powerful than God.
So we ask the all important question: What is love?
Scriptures tell us clearly what love is:
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
With love in our hearts, nothing is impossible. With His love, we become potent technology capable of performing supernatural feats and acts. Our love threatens those that have not this love. Indeed, when we walk in God's love - the powerful love described in 1 Corinthians 13 - we become a menacing threat to Satan and his dark world. Love defeated Satan. Love triumphed over evil. It always does and always will. Contrary to what you may have read in the New York Times or some other publication in the past, God is not dead. Satan will die, as he must, but Christ reigns for eternity. You cannot kill God's love. It is Eternal Light.
For ages, people have tried to extinguish God's love from the planet. John the Baptist was beheaded, but they could not kill his heart of love. Try as they might, through murder, crucifixion, and other means of evil, people have tried to kill God's love.
Silly humans...
Walking in love is a battle because there are so few people on this planet that do it. Evil lurks in the hearts of men, women and children everywhere in the world. That said, when we enter into Christ and His love, we have victory over evil and darkness. The Lord is undefeated. He cannot lose.
We stand our ground with shoes of peace, armed with our shields of faith and powerful swords (God's Word - His truth). The battle continues, but the outcome has already been determined. Love wins. It cannot lose. In fact, loving hearts pray for evil hearts to be delivered from the evil one and purified. Why are pure hearts necessary? Because, as the Lord tell us, pure hearts see God. (Matthew 5:8)
It is ironic that Satan - through the dark hearts of men and women, and yes even some precocious children - have many people on the planet concerned about "global warming" in the atmosphere, when the real problem in the world is global cooling in hearts around the world. We should not be surprised at the global cooling we see with respect to love in the world. The Lord told us that the future would see love turning cold:
"Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold."
(Matthew 24:12)
The solution to "global warming" (whatever that means) and every other problem on this planet is Love - walking in love. Imitating God. It's not more government this or government that. It's more love in the hearts of people everywhere on earth!
Satan does not want people to know that if everybody walked in love, there would be no problems in the world. Life everywhere on earth would be a practical expression of heaven. Hell on earth (and there can be no doubt most people are living in hell here on earth) would be extinguished.
"and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain." (Revelation 21:4)
Walking in love reproduces heaven on earth - precisely the kind of world God intended in the beginning.
There is a glitch in the Matrix. God's program for human hearts got corrupted through the free will He gave us. God is all about freedom. But freedom in Christ is not free. There is a cost. That cost is what the Cross is all about. There is no freedom in Christ except through the cross.
Tragically, many Christians view the Cross as something that Jesus did for them. They are saved when they recognize Jesus died for their sins. Note this conventional view of Christians is all about them - not Christ. They are saved.
However, it is not about us at all. It is about Christ Jesus. If you are walking in love, you have been crucified with Christ. You are dead and He is alive in your heart.
"I have been crucifed with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." (Galatians 2:20)
There is a time for lawlessness to increase, as the Lord told us, but this cannot continue indefinitely. There is a patch for the corrupted software that prevents people from walking in love. The software patch is intimately tied together with God eternal plan - Christ as all in all. Christ as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Jesus came, died, and rose again with God's love because Christ must increase, and we must decrease.
He must increase, but we must decrease. (John 3:30)
He must increase! His love must increase. He will increase no matter how hard people try to prevail against His love. Lawlessness will rise up, but eventually it will be defeated. In the meantime, while this global cooling of love continues throughout the world, rest assured the Lord has those who choose and are chosen to walk in love covered:
"Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."
(Matthew 5:11-12)
"If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you." (John 15:18)
We receive His heart through faith in Him and the work He does through us on the cross. The Cross is the place where our hearts are filled with His never-failing love and Spiritual fruit. The Cross is the gateway to the Kingdom of God. Satan cannot go beyond the Cross. There is no place for evil and darkness in the Kingdom of God. We walk the narrow path to eternal life through the Cross.
Our faith in Christ and His love connects us to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the light that powers our hearts. With the Holy Spirit, we shine. We become lights of the world. (Matthew 5:14).
The Spirit connects us directly with an open heaven. With an open heaven, there is nothing in the way of our hearts and the Lord's heart. Nothing - no things, no man-made churches, priests, pastors, ministers, evangelists, tithes, or rituals. Nothing!
An open heaven is a heart connected directly to God's heart through Christ via the Holy Spirit. With His Spirit in our hearts, nothing is impossible. All the miracles recorded in the Scriptures were performed by the Lord through the Holy Spirit or by Him directly. Every single one of them! We don't perform miracles. HE DOES!
The Church that the Lord is building is built on love. A love that never fails, cannot fail, and will not fail. Nothing can overpower this love. With His love, nothing is impossible. If we have not His love in our heart, we are nothing. Hell cannot overpower His church.
"I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it." (Matthew16:18)
We walk in love because that is our purpose in life. Love the Lord Your God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Before the Lord went to the Cross, he commanded His disciples to do one thing. The Lord said:
Love one another. (John 15:17)
When we walk in love, the Lord is with us. Always. We are One with His loving heart.
Walking in love requires a heart of Christ. We must see Christ first before we can walk in love. Seeing Christ requires a pure heart. Pure hearts see God (Matthew 5:8). When we see God, we believe His word. When we believe Him and trust Him, our faith grows. As our faith grows, and we express this faith through love, we become fruit on His vine. We become One with the Son. One with Christ.
There is a conflict in the world: Lawlessness versus Love. Darkness versus Light. Evil versus Christ.
Walking in love guarantees victory over lawlessness - over darkness and evil. The Lord's love cannot be overcome. It cannot fail. He has secured victory for us. All that is required is that we walk in the light of His love. The world is against us but God is for us. We press in and we press on into the Great Life - into Christ.
It is a battle, but we have won. Stand your ground and live to love.
"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
(1 Corinthians 13:13).
The greatest of these is love.
May you have great faith in the Lord's love and may you learn to walk in His never-failing love.
Agape,
Steve
posted by Steve at
9:54 AM
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