In recent weeks the Holy Spirit has been leading me to pray for a greater understanding of God's love for us all. After reading 1 John 4:16, I realized how very little I knew about living and walking in God's love, John wrote in his epistle. I believe most Christians know about God's love for them only theologically. They have learned the Scriptures on love and have heard them preached - and yet their understanding is limited to a line from the children's chorus: "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so..."
We say we believe God loves us, the world, and the lost. But it is an abstract faith! Not many Christians can say with authority, "Yes, I know Jesus loves me - because I have an understanding of what His love is. I have apprehended it - I live in it. It is the foundation of my daily walk."
The daily life of a majority of Christians, however, is not one of walking and believing in God's love. instead, they live under a cloud of guilt, fear, condemnation. They have never really been free - they have never rested in God's love for them. They may be able to sit in church, raise their hands and rejoice - but they carry secret baggage with them at all times. There has never been a time when they were totally free from a nagging sense of never really pleasing the Lord. They say to themselves, "Something is lacking in me - I'm not measuring up. Something is wrong!"
Listen to Paul's words: "Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us" (Ephesians 5:2). The apostle urged the Ephesians, "Jesus truly loves you - so walk as one who is greatly loved by God!"
I have heard the confessions of many "older" Christians - people who have walked with the Lord for thirty or forty years - who confessed they never knew the joy of being loved by God. They appeared happy and contented outwardly - yet, inside, they dragged onward, always carrying heavy burdens of doubt and fear. I believe these brothers and sisters simply never understood, deep down, the love that God has for them. They never experienced the peace that knowing God's love brings to the heart!
You Will Never Go After a Revelation of God's Love to You Until You Become Sick And Tired of Living With Fear, Guilt, Condemnation, a
nd Confusion!
You have to wake up one day and say to yourself, "This is no way to live! I can't go on serving God with this sense of wrath on me, always feeling condemned and unworthy. As much as I love Jesus and believe my sins are forgiven, why am I so heavy-hearted?" The fact is, God did not save you to allow you to live in guilt and condemnation. Jesus said: (John 5:24).
One meaning of the word "condemnation" here is "wrath." Jesus is saying you won't come under His judgment - that on the Judgment Day you will be free from His wrath. But condemnation also means "the feeling of never measuring up to standards." And Jesus is saying the believer shall not come under the feeling of never measuring up!
(Romans 8:1). All guilt and condemnation are clearly of the devil. And Paul warned of "fall(ing) into the condemnation of the devil" (1 Timothy 3:6). He was saying that when you fall into condemnation, you've fallen from grace - from the security that God has offered us through the blood of His own Son. Beloved, the Holy Ghost convicts but He never condemns. His ministry is to convict of sin. But He does this only to heal - to bring men and women to a place of peace and rest in Christ. And He does this redemptively, not with wrath. (Romans 8:34). The Lord is saying, "Who condemns you? Why are you walking around under condemnation, when your Savior is before Me right now, pleading your cause?" The only condemnation remaining is upon those who refuse the light of the gospel: (John 3:19).
If you love to have the Word of God come and expose everything in your heart, then you are no longer condemned. Condemnation remains only for those who hide sin and love darkness! You do love the light, do you not? So why allow condemnation? Yet perhaps you are assaulted by a temptation you can't seem to shake off. Or maybe you carry a sense of never measuring up, of unworthiness - a fear that the devil is going to trip you up and you're going to fail God. Christians who live in guilt, fear and condemnation are not "rooted and grounded" in the love of God: (Ephesians 3:17-19).
"Rooted and grounded" here means "to build under you a deep and stable foundation of knowing and understanding the love of God to you." In other words, the knowledge of God's love to you is the foundational truth upon which all other truths must build!
For example, this is what the fear of God is built upon. A holy fear of God isn't a dread that He is ready to strike you down if you're caught in some little fault. Rather, it is the dread of His holiness against rebellion - and of what He does to those who love darkness rather than light!
Our heavenly Father sent His Son to die for our sins and weaknesses. And without knowing and fully understanding that kind of love to you, you will never have a stable or permanent foundation! "That ye .. may be able to comprehend the love of Christ." The Greek word for "comprehend" here suggests "to eagerly seize or lay hold of." Paul means for you to seize this truth and make it the foundation of your Christian life. He is saying, "Put your spiritual hands out and say,'I'm going to lay hold of this!'"
Let me share with you three things that the Holy Spirit has been teaching me about the love of God to us.
1. The Love of God to Us Has to Do With His Treasures in Glory!
You cannot divorce God's provisions from His love. His love to us has to do with the abundant riches laid up in glory for our use. He has given us provisions for every crisis in our life - to help us to live victoriously at all times!
God spoke to me in a simple little verse: "God so loved ,,, that He gave..." (John 3:16). His love is tied to His riches in glory - His bountiful provisions for us!
The Bible says our love for the Lord is shown by our obedience to Him. But His love for us is evidenced in another way - by His giving! You cannot know Him as a loving God until you see Him as a giving God. God so loved us, He invested in His Son Jesus all the treasures, glory and bounties of the Father - and He gave Him to us! Christ is God's gift to us, in whom is wrapped up all we need to be overcomers. (Colossians 1:19).(2:9-10). In other words, "In Him you have all provisions - everything you need!" The problem is, very few Christians appropriate what God has freely offered. We don't go after it or take possession of it - and the treasures of Christ lie in glory unclaimed! What a shock we're going to have when we get to heaven! At that time, God will show us all the riches His love had provided and how we didn't use them. We see an example of this in the parable of the Prodigal Son. This story reveals God's love in a profound way - and it proves that His love to us has to do with His abundant riches and provisions!
2. God's Love Insists We Come to the End of All Our Human Resources -and Claim and Appropriate His Bountiful Treasures!
This is what the parable of the Prodigal Son is all about. It is the story of two sons - one who comes to the end of his own resources, and one who would not claim his father's resources.
The younger son came to his father and said, "Give me the portion of goods that falleth to me" (Luke 15:12). The substance he received - and then wasted - represents his own interests: his talents, abilities, all the things he used to face life and all its problems. He said, "I've got intelligence, good wits, a good background. I can go out and do it on my own!" That attitude describes many Christians today. Yet, when things get hard how soon we come to the end of our own resources! How quickly we spend all that we have within ourselves! We can figure our way out of some problems and find inner strength for some trials, But a time comes when famine strikes the soul!
You come to the end of yourself, and you don't know which way to turn. Your friends can't help you. You are left empty, hurting, with nothing left inside to draw upon. You are spent - all your fight is gone! All that's left are fear, depression, emptiness, hopelessness.
Are you still hanging around the devil's pigpen, wallowing in emptiness, starving to death? That is what happened to the Prodigal Son. There was nothing left in him to draw upon! He had exhausted all his own resources. And he realized where all his self-reliance had brought him. But what was it that finally woke him up? When was it that he came to himself? It was when he remembered all the abundant provisions in his father's house!
He said, "I'm starving here. But in my father's house there is bread enough and to spare!" (see Luke 15:17). He decided to go back and appropriate his father's bountiful provisions!
The Heart of God's Love Is Found in the Father's Invitation to Come and Enjoy a Banquet of His Provisions!
There is not one word in this parable that indicates the Prodigal came back because of love for his father. True, he was repentant - he fell on his knees, crying, "Father, I'm sorry! I've sinned against you and against God, I'm not even worthy to come into your house," But he never said, "Father, I came back because I love you!" Rather, what is revealed here is that the love of God to us is without strings; it is not dependent upon our loving Him. The truth is, He loved us even when we were far away from Him in our hearts, still sinners. That is unconditional love!
When the Prodigal came back, his father didn't go over a list of his son's sins. He didn't say, "Where have you been? How many harlots did you lie with? How much money is in your bag? I want an accounting!" No - instead, he fell on his son's neck and kissed him. He said to the servants, "Kill the fatted calf! Put a new robe on him, a ring on his finger and new shoes on his feet. Let's have a celebration - let us rejoice and be merry!"
Where is the revelation of the Father's love in this picture? Is it in his ready forgiveness? his affectionate kiss? the fatted calf? the robe, ring and new shoes?
Indeed, these are all expressions of His love - but none of these is the heart of it! "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propititation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "We love him, because he first loved us" (verse 19). He was not under a cloud of fear. He wasn't listening to the old lies: "You're going to go right back to that pigpen! You are unworthy of such love...." No, he accepted his forgiveness - and he had obeyed his father's word to come in and take for himself all he needed. He heard his father whisper to him, "All I have is yours. There is no need ever to be hungry again. You need never be lonely, a pauper, cut off from My store-house."
Here is the fullness of God's love, the very heart of it! It is that even in our darkest times, God not only embraces us and brings us back in - but He also says: "Bring forth the fatted calf, and let us eat and be merry! In My banqueting house, there is a feast of plenty for My loved one!"
Yet today we have an even better promise: (Ephesians 3:19-20). Here is God's love to us: "I offer you exceeding, abundant fullness - provision for every crisis, joy throughout your entire life. You may go to the storehouse and claim it all!" Now, the older son was out in the field, hard at work doing his father's business, when suddenly he heard music, laughter, dancing. When he came near the house, he discovered it was all a feast for his wayward brother - the one who had wasted his father's substance on harlots and riotous living!
As the older son looked through the window, he saw his father rejoicing over the younger brother, full of delight. He couldn't understand how his no-good brother could get so free, happy and blessed in such a short time! Scripture says of him, "He was angry, and would not go in" (Luke 15:28).
Finally, the father came out and urged him to come in. But the older son said, "Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends" (verse 29). He was saying, "This is not right! All these many years I've served you well. I never disobeyed you at any time."
The Older Son, in All His Years of Service, Had Never Known True Gladness - Because He Had Never Taken Advantage of His Father's Invitation to Appropriate All He Needed!
I believe the older boy went right back to his lowly shepherd's shack, thinking of the day when he would have his inheritance: "Just wait. One day, after death does its work, I'll come into great blessings. I'll have a great storehouse!" This is the one who is waiting to get to heaven before appropriating all the good things of God.
His father must have been heartbroken. I believe he had told this son over and over: "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" (verse 31). In other words, "You have been with me all these years, and all I've owned has been yours for the asking. You know I would have given you anything - and yet you did not come in to lay hold of it!"
I ask you - how many years have you been on the outside? You have a Father who has been laying up a great treasure of provisions for you. And yet you have left it unclaimed!
This parable shows us that by going in and enjoying his father's treasures, the Prodigal Son had it both ways. He could live his earthly life with the abundant forgiveness, joy, peace and rest that were his. And when death brought him into his inheritance, he would fully enjoy what he had already known on earth.
3. God's Love Insists We Stop Focusing on Our Failures and Sins, and Instead Focus on the Riches Offered to Us in Christ!
The runaway son was not chastised, rebuked or reminded of his sin - because God would not allow sin to be the focus of restoration!There had been true repentance and godly sorrow. And it was time to move on to the banquet hall of love - to the feast! The father said to the older son, "He was lost, but now he is in the house again. He is forgiven - and it's time to rejoice and be happy!" Are you tired of living like a pauper when you have been provided everything you need? Perhaps your focus is wrong. You tend to dwell on your weaknesses, temptations and past failures, And when you look inside your own heart, what you see discourages you. You allow guilt to seep in. You are to be looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of your faith! When Satan comes and points at some weakness in your heart, you have every right to answer: "My God already knows it all and He still loves me! He has given me everything I need to get victory and keep it."
"For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things" (1 John 3:20). He knows all about you - and He still loves you enough to say, "Come on in and get all you need. The storehouse is open!
Indeed, the doors to His storehouse are wide open, and His riches are full to over-flowing. God is urging you: (Hebrews 4:16).
Here is how you go into the storehouse and get what you need:
1. Come boldly to His throne and ask largely for all the grace and mercy you need to see you through every temptation and trial. The devil has a million ways to make you feel guilty, fearful, condemned and confused.
2. Remind God that it was His idea for you to come in. You didn't go to the Lord saying, "Father, I want everything You have!" No - it was He who invited you in, saying, "All I have is yours. Come and get it!"
3. Take God at His Word! The Bible says that everything He has for us is obtained by faith, You need only say in faith, "Lord Jesus, flood me with Your peace because You've said it is mine! I claim rest for my soul." You can't work this up. You can't sing or praise it down. No - it comes from being rooted and grounded in a revelation of God's love to you. This comes not in a feeling but rather in the Word that He Himself has spoken: "In My house is bread and enough to spare!"
4. Take God's Word, and hammer all your fear, guilt and condemnation to pieces! Reject it all - it is not of God! You can say, "Let the devil come at me with his lies. My Father knows it all already, and He's forgiven and cleansed me. There is no guilt or condemnation toward me. I'm free!"
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