The greatest of these is love
As we sat in Prayer on Tuesday morning (27/11/18) the LORD gave me a great Revelation, it was regarding HIS Love, and the Revelation was that everything HE does, and everything HE is, is determined by LOVE.
This is something that we knew already, but somehow the LORD took me deeper into this knowledge. What I became aware of was that we can have a head knowledge of what GOD's love without a heart knowledge. That is why we must have the spirit knowledge about GOD's LOVE.
Most of us know that well taught scripture found in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." But do we truly know the depth of the love that GOD speaks about here. My personal belief is that if we had all of eternity we still wouldn't know the depth of GOD's love for us. However, what we need to do is, at least try to gain a better understanding of that love. In that way, we can grow in our understanding of the relationship we have with GOD.
Let us look at the word Love and what the LORD showed me regarding that word.
L: LOVE: Mat 22:37 And Jesus said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind." Mat 22:38 This is the first and great commandment. Mat 22:39 And the second is like it: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
We must Love GOD, others and ourselves.
Whenever we read about JESUS in God's Word we never see HIM putting Himself down, or putting anyone else down, nor must we. It is true that HE told those who refused to follow HIM exactly what their faults were, such as we see in Mat 23:15 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you go about the sea and the dry land to make one proselyte; and when he has become so, you make him twofold more a son of Hell than yourselves.
Here HE was rebuking those who took the scriptures and used them as a controlling tool over the people that HE had come to save. These kind of rebukes that we see in the Word of GOD are a result of LOVE, HIS Love for us.
Those Pharisees had a choice, to listen to that rebuke, and turn from their wicked ways. We see an example of this in John 3:1-2 when one Pharisee came to him in the dark of night. This Ruler came to the LORD and acknowledged that JESUS had been sent by GOD. This showed where his heart truly lay. John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: John 3:2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
JESUS came to this earth for the explicit reason of being the incarnation of the FATHER's LOVE.
GOD so loved the world that HE gave HIS only begotten SON, JESUS
O: OBEDIENCE
JESUS was sent from GOD, to be the LAMB OF GOD,
but the way that JESUS chose to reveal that HE was the Lamb of GOD, was through OBEDIENCE. HE had to be OBEDIENT, and HE was OBEDIENT.
"NOT MY WILL BUT THINE BE DONE"
It was HIS Love for us which enabled HIM to do just that.
Isa 53:7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.
When JESUS gave of HIMSELF by leaving HIS Heavenly home and coming to this sin ridden world He came with a very definite purpose; to die for the sin of Mankind, HE was born to die.
It was for this very reason that the FATHER sent him.
Mankind had sinned as far back as the Garden of Eden resulting in the separation of Mankind from GOD. The only way that Mankind would be able to be reunited back to GOD would be for a unblemished man to die for all of the sin of Mankind. Some member of the Human Race, that is, one who was born of Woman had to be the Sacrificial Lamb that would be sacrificed upon the Altar of GOD. And GOD made it happen just in that very manner. JESUS was born of Woman for that specific purpose.
Right throughout the Old Testament we see the laying out of God’s very strict requirements for Sacrifice and the kind of animal to be sacrificed. The animal had to be without spot or blemish. Exo_12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: In the same way the LORD will return for a Bride also without Spot or Blemish.
The Bride is the one who has laid down her life for the sake of GOD's Kingdom. Not necessarily the physical dying or cessation of life as we know it but the laying down of all of hopes, dreams and plans for the future for the sake of GOD's plans. These are the ones who also have become a sacrifice just as JESUS did on the Cross; sacrificing everything for the sake of others
Being the Bride of Christ requires the laying down of your life and picking up the life that GOD gives through obedience, just as JESUS did, HE was obedient even unto the death of the Cross.
It was through HIS Obedience to HIS FATHER that JESUS showed us that HE is the Lamb of GOD. Not only was HE obedient to the Laws of the Father but HE also was without fault in following Man's Laws. So much so, Pontius Pilate found no fault in JESUS when he interrogated HIM: That is why he wanted to release JESUS, but the strength of the mob (led by the activists from the Temple Rulers) shouted even louder that they wanted Barabbas set free, not JESUS. And so the will of the FATHER was accomplished.
V: VALUE To attribute value to anything is to give it worth. JESUS died upon the Cross of Calvary so that we would all have worth in the eyes of GOD, and also in the eyes of Mankind. So the question is, "how worthy do we feel that we are and how worthy do we make others feel"?
GOD believed, and still believes, that we were and are worth the life of HIS Son JESUS. That is truly something of great worth. When we help others to take hold of their true value, then we are doing just what JESUS did, HE died to give us value, to make us worthy. Therefore the very least we can do is to help others to see their own worth, in GOD's eyes, and in our eyes.
E: EMPATHY To have empathy is to feel the feelings of others: To grieve with them when it is time to grieve, to laugh with them when it is time to laugh and to understand what it is that they are going through, as they go through it.
JESUS knew the feelings and perceived the thoughts of others. John 14:12 tells us that we too can do this also. JESUS understood the heartache of the Widow in Luke 7:12 – 15 and as a result went to her and met her needs. HE gave her back her only means of financial support as well as giving back her beloved son.
Therefore, we must have Empathy for other people and the troubles that they are going through.
GO IN LOVE AND LOVE GOD, OTHERS, AND YOURSELF.
In CHRIST JESUS, Don Phillips, 09/12/2018