(CONTINUED…)

The love of God as seen in believers:

(1) God loves us with His great love:  “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (Eph. 2:4).

(2) God’s love is seen through regeneration:  “…even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) (Eph. 2:5).

(3) God’s love is perfected in us: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has seen God at any time.  If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us” (1 Jo. 4:7-12).

(4) We can abide in God’s love:  “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 Jo. 4:16).

(5) There is security in God’s love:  “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ” (2 Thess. 3:5).

(6) We are not to love as the world:  “Do not love the world or the things in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father, but is of the world.  And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (1 Jo. 2:15-17).

(7) We need to be obedience in our love:  “But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.  By this we know that we are in Him” (1 Jo. 2:5).

(8) We can love through grace:  “Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and our God and Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope by grace” (2 Thess. 2:16)

(9) We can be bold in our love without fear:  “Love has been perfected among us in this:  that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  We love Him because He first loved us” (1 Jo. 4:17-19).

(10) God’s love is revealed through glorification:  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!  Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.  Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jo. 3:1, 2).

(11) Love and joy are perfected: “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.  These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.  This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends” (John 15: 9-13).

(12) Love is the qualifying factor for spiritual gifts:  Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.  And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Cor. 13:1-3).

(13) The qualities of love:  “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-8).

While deliberating about writing this article on The Love of God, the song “What’s Love Got To Do With It?” kept coming up in my Spirit.  The discipline of agape love requires a lot from the believer.  It has everything to do with our Christian walk—how we see God, and how we see others.  As we grow in our love relationship with Jesus Christ and better understand and appreciate His selfless gift to us, we will desire to grow in our ability to show love to others.

Nelson’s Topical Bible says that there are two primary Greek words meaning “to love” in the Bible.  The word phileo means “to have ardent affection and feeling”—a type of impulsive love.  The other word agapao means “to have esteem” or “high regard.”

The word “agape” is a characteristic term used for love in Christianity.  Agape love is totally different from any human kind of love.  It denotes unconquerable benevolence and undefeatable goodwill.  The world does not understand this kind of love, because it is totally selfless and a spiritual kind of love.  Unlike the world’s love, agape love is pure and giving, and it is used in several different ways in the Bible:

All the laws given at Sinai hinged on these two great commands of God:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:5); and “…You shall love your neighbor as yourself…” (Lev. 19:18).

Agape love indicates the nature of God’s love toward His Son:  “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them (Jo. 17:26).”

Agape love conveys God’s will to His children about their attitude towards one another:  “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).  “Beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one another” (I Jo. 4:11).

Agape love is the mark of a true disciple.  It is more than a feeling—it is an action.  God’s sacrifice of His Son on Calvary is an example of this kind of love, and it points the way to true love.  When we are willing to lay down our lives (our own desires and plans) for one another, this proves our love for one another.

God wants to teach His people to love with an agape kind of love that comes from choosing with our will to let the Holy Spirit love others through us.  Agape love draws on the resources of the Holy Spirit in order to love the way God loves people.

Agape love is not only one of God’s attributes, it also expresses His essential nature:  “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 Jo. 4:8); “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.  God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (1 John 4:16). Deut. 7:8-9:  “but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”

Agape love is:  (1) Everlasting:  “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’” (Jer. 31:3); (2) Free: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him” (Hos. 14:4); (3) Sacrificial:  “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” (Jo. 3:16).  God’s love is an “unconditional love”—”love by choice and by an act of the will;” (4) Enduring to the end:  “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (Jo. 13:1).

God’s love surpasses our powers of understanding:  “To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).  The word fullness “pleroma” means “full number,” “full complement,” “full measure,” “copiousness,” “plenitude,” “that which has been completed.”  God has love for us and wants to pour His love into our hearts.  The Holy Spirit wants to fill every single believer with the fullness of God and the overflowing presence of Jesus Christ.

Don’t Give Up . . . Your Breakthrough is Near!

Did you know that you are only prayers away from receiving your breakthrough? Most of us recognize the importance of prayer and intercession, and we have most likely seen the fruits of such sacrifices.  So, why then do we often shy back in prayer and intercession when we know that it brings breakthrough?

The source of such prayer weariness or even prayer ceasing often stems from discouragement.  If the enemy can keep us discouraged then perhaps we will slow or stop our prayers. We are warned that the enemy comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10).  He knows the power of your prayers and the authority in the words that you speak.  So, do not be fooled – your prayers are mighty weapons of warfare.  2 Corinthians 10:4 says, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.”

We are promised, as written in Matthew 7:7-8, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”  Our Father hears our prayers, and it is His good pleasure to give you the Kingdom (Luke 12:32).  When we pray according to His word, will, and purposes we can be confident that our prayers are breaking through to establish His Kingdom in the earth.  His word will not return void, and it will accomplish everything that He has sent it to do (Isaiah 55:11).

Prayer may seem difficult at times, especially when you are pioneering or breaking through new territory.  However, do not stop and do not waver.  Your prayers are spiritual weapons of power, and you will breakthrough if you don’t give up.  So, be encouraged, and rise up in His truth and promises.  Regardless of what it may look like in the natural, your prayers are breaking through; and you will receive victory, for He has already won the battle for you!

Join the Email Prayer Response Team: prayer@xpmedia.com

Patricia King – csa-xp.com