Test of Love 2

Hello Everyone,

For the Spirit Filled saint love shines out of his eyes. It is on his face, and it is in his actions.

Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live,

As this seed from the Spirit of God germinates in the garden of my life it will begin to thrive and mature.

Ripened fruit will eventually emerge. In some lives this will produce fruit thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times the amount originally planted.

Listen if a cluster of grapes contains nine individual fruits, they will each be the same sort of fruit, but some may be different in size, shape, and taste.

One grape in the cluster may be fully ripened, full of sweet juice, pleasing to the eye and good to the taste.

But in the same cluster there may be several grapes that are not as ripe, green, still sour or maybe even shrunken and shriveled. 

Still they are all the same grapes growing on a single stem from the same vine.

Same as in our life with God, we may have a vine growing and all nine fruit characteristics are present we see the life of the Spirit of God in us.

The individual grape, of JOY maybe fully mature in our life, but at the same time that of LOVE is sour, small, and green.

Thinking of it in that light maybe it will keep this practical instead of theory or theology are some kind of religious teaching that sounds good but we never ripen.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8a

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

⁸ Love never fails.

The love of God is essentially selflessness finding form in nine different facets.

Galatians 5:22-23                                                                 1 Corinthians 13:1-7

1. Love                                   Does not seek its own, is not selfish or self-centered.

2. Joy                                      Love does not rejoice in iniquity but rather rejoices in the truth.

3. Peace                                Love is not easily provoked, but is serene and stable.

4. Longsuffering                    Love suffers long, perseveres, and is patient.

5. Kindness (gentleness)     Love is merciful, thoughtful, and concerned; it envies not.

6. Goodness                          Love is great, gracious, and generous; it is kind and good.

7. Faithfulness                       Love thinks know evil but has faith in God and others.

8. Meekness                          Love is humble and gentle, does not vaunt itself.

9. Temperance                      Love is disciplined and controlled, does not behave unbecoming.

We are dealing with a divine dimension of living, a radical life style.

What is the most irresistible force on the earth? LOVE!!!!

And the more I have Christ the more I have HIS LOVE.

I hear the Spirit of God saying: “If you will comply with My wishes;

carry out My commands; cooperate with My desires I will give Myself to you in abundant measure.

I give Myself- My life- My Love- My Spirit wholeheartedly to those who obey ME!” 

LOVE!

Greater things are still to come!     

Test of Love 1

Hello Everyone,

1 John 3:9-24

⁹ No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been born of God. ¹⁰ This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister.

¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. ¹² Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. ¹³ Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. ¹⁴ We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. ¹⁵ Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

¹⁶ This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? ¹⁸ Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

¹⁹ This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: ²⁰ If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. ²¹ Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God ²² and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. ²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. ²⁴ The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

John in his first epistle chapter three brings out the point that our nature shows our spiritual lineage.

In other words it shows who our FATHER is.

Those who are like God are His children and if we are His children then we will display His characteristics.

And Gods number one characteristic is HIS LOVE.

That was ultimately shown in the cross of Christ.

John 5: ¹³Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 

Jesus while He was on earth communicated the character of His HEART: LOVE!

To quote one writer:

            “It is the response of the heart of God to the preciousness of each lost human soul that results in the infinite love God shows at Calvary”.

This kind of love is a love of self-sacrifice and it is based on the preciousness of the object loved.

Love is Selflessness

This “agape” (love) is:

·        self-giving

·        self-sharing

·        self-sacrificing

·        self-losing

·        self-abandonment

·        self-serving others

1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.

I fill that God is challenging us who love each other with a friendly love because we enjoy each others fellowship, to love each other also with a self-sacrificial Love because of how precious we are to Him.

It is this love that is listed in the list of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.

And it is produced in the heart of the saint who is yielded to the Holy Spirit.

One thing is certain-fruit never grows on dead trees.

I believe we could say with as much faith that fruit does not grow on unhealthy trees.

• The Father WILLS life.
• The Son IS life.
• And the Spirit GIVES Life.

This is the life that brings the Love that God is.

Greater Things Are Still to Come!  

Growing in Goodness 4

Hello Everyone,

So what? Why does goodness matter?

Goodness is an indication that we are allowing the Holy Spirit to guide and control our lives because our actions, our attitudes, and our speech give evidence of that guidance and control.

The other fruit or evidences of the Spirit find their expression in goodness that changes the nature and type of attitudes, actions, and speech in our lives.

A Good life demonstrated.

There is a song that Teresa use to sing titled broken and spilled out.

In John 12:1-8, we read a story about Mary showing goodness through an act of great cost and humility.
She comes and pours very expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet then wipes it off with her hair. (Think about what Jesus’ feet had been through)
Judas gets upset that such an expensive perfume was wasted when it could have been put to better use.
The original text says that it was probably worth a full day wage. (Think about your full day wage).
What’s the point?

Goodness, like the rest of the fruit, requires sacrifice.
They required sacrifice

Of our time:
Of our agenda:
Of our priorities:
Of our entire life:

Are we willing to pay that price?

For these qualities to be a part of our lives, we must surrender to the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work in us to the extent that He leads.

These are the Fruit of the Spirit, not the Fruits of our best efforts, nor the Fruits of our good intentions.
These are the results of letting God truly guide our lives and affect every aspect of it.
These Fruit are both evidences of and the results of our commitment to God.
But, they begin to develop as we surrender ourselves to Him.

If we are frustrated with our faith, maybe it is because we have tried in our own strength to live it, when what we need to do is to give up and let the power of God’s Spirit help us to live for God.

An old hymn says, “Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power, O be washed in the blood of the lamb, are you fully trusting in His grace each hour, O be washed in the blood of the lamb.”

We need to be washed by the blood of Christ and made right with God.

We need to be washed by His Spirit to truly be changed deep with our character. Have you done this?

Think of your favorite apple. What do you expect it to be like when you bite into it?

What are the qualities of a good apple?

Now, think about what you are like when someone bites into you.

Do they receive goodness from you?

Remember, only God in you is good.

Tonight, I invite you to. Surrender, give up, and let the fragrance of God come pouring out of your life as you surrender to the Holy Spirit.

And GROW in Goodness.

Greater things are still to come!           

Grow in Goodness 3

Hello Everyone,

Goodness is also expressed in our actions that reflect what our motives and priorities are in life. – Ephesians 4:28, 31 and 32 and 5:5-7

Ephesians 4:28

²⁸ Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need.

³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. ³² And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

Walk in Love

Ephesians 5:⁵ For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. ⁶ Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. ⁷ Therefore do not be partakers with them.

Walk in Light

Goodness is expressed in honest work not stealing.
Goodness is expressed in a life that is not controlled by bitterness.
Goodness is expressed in a life that kindness, compassion, and forgiveness is the norm.

Our speech is another way of expressing either goodness or something else Ephesians 4:29, 31, 5:4

4: ²⁹ Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.

4:³¹ Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

5: ⁴ neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.

Jesus said in Matthew 15:18, But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man 'unclean.'

Our speech reveals a lot about us.
Goodness exists when words of kindness, not words of disrespect and dishonor, are expressed.
A heart and life that is committed to God and is being made more and more honoring to God is revealed in speech that reflects the work of the Holy Spirit.

Greater things are still to come!