God Is Love – 1 John 4:7-8

Hesed-agape is God’s loving kindness ~ His intense and unconditional love. Those words cannot ever be adequately described or defined. There must be a revelation of them before they can be understood and received. When you receive a revelation of real love, you receive a revelation of God, and vice versa.   God has faith, but He is love (Hebrews 11:1-6; 1 John 4:7-8) Love is not an emotion. It is a person. God is Love.

God the Father sent Jesus into the world to reveal His great love (John 3:16; 17:18) and to connect to His Name all who would receive Him (John 17:12). He made that connection through eternal unchangeable blood covenant ~ in essence, to ‘marry’ them (John 17:26; Ephesians 5:30-32). That’s why, in the same way, marriage is a covenant between a man and woman (Genesis 2:21-25). God made man and then woman from a rib from Adam’s side. Adam said, “’This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she will be called Woman, for she was taken out of Man’. Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they will be come one flesh” (Genesis 2:23-24). Marriage is to be a picture of the hesed-agape love relationship between Christ and the Church. The Apostle Paul, quoting this verse from Genesis said, “For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.’ This is a great mystery but I am speaking about Christ and the church” (Ephesians 5:30-32).

Jesus, praying to His Father, said, “I have declared Your name to them, and will declare it, that the love (hesed-agape) with which You love Me may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). Jesus is the delivery channel through whom the Father’s hesed-agape passed to get into you so you could stand in full covenant with Him. And He wanted believers to have hesed-agape with each other in the Body of Christ so the world could witness God’s covenant love through us (verse 20, 23).

Many assert that we can never understand God and the depth of His love. But the Apostle Paul said in Ephesians 3:14-19: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, power to be strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.’ God desires for man to know and understand His hesed-agape love. If this were not true, the Apostle Paul would not have prayed in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection”. And Jesus prayed to His Father for His disciples and all who would believe in Him through their word: “..that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent” (John 17:3). In Exodus 33:18 Moses cried to God “I pray, show my Your Glory.” God did show Moses His glory (Exodus 33:18-23; 34:5-7). His love is His Glory.

God’s compassion, mercy, and love have been His motivation all along. All of Creation, including man, was made and blessed by God because of His great love and mercy. Love can only beget love. Man was created from the very inside of God (Genesis 2:7), who is Love, to be a love being (Genesis 1:26). Jesus continually showed all who were around Him the love of the Father. The plan of Redemption was God’s love in action, restoring His fallen man to loving fellowship with Him. He is a giver, not a taker. He gave His only begotten Son, the ultimate sacrifice, for you because of His great love for you (John 3:16). And His spirit, who came to live inside you at the new birth, brought God’s own love to dwell in you (Galatians 5:22-23). He has only good plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11; John 10:10). Believe and receive His love for you (1 John 4:16), and realize He loves you as much as He loves Jesus (John 17:23; 2 Corinthians 6:18; Hebrews 2:11)

From Kenneth Copeland’s Study Bible

Love Is A Force – Galatians 5:6

Love is not a feeling. Love is a Person. God is love (I John 4:8). He has faith, but He is love. Love is a spiritual force, and along with the other spiritual forces, the fruit of the re-created human spirit abides in every born-again believer by the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The force of compassion – love – moved Jesus to heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils, and walk on water. And it was the mighty power that raised Him from the dead.

In Matthew 14:1-21 we see Jesus after His cousin, John the Baptist, a mighty prophet of God (Matthew 11:7-11), was beheaded by Herod because of a drunken promise to a young woman who provocatively danced before him and his birthday guests. Even though it looked as if Jesus never retaliated against this brutal and senseless murder, He actually did. He retaliated mightily that day against the real enemy – the devil (Ephesians 6:12).

John the Baptist was the only person who, by the Holt Spirit, knew who Jesus really was and what He had come to do (John 1:26-36). After John’s disciples told Jesus about the murder, Jesus went out to the wilderness to be alone (Matthew 14:13). But numbers of people saw Him leave and followed Him. When Jesus saw the great multitude waiting for Him, rather than acting in anger, “He was moved with compassion toward them, and He healed their sick” (v14). That day Jesus struck a powerful blow against the devil that sent him reeling. The miracle-working, yoke-destroying force of love operating through Jesus healed the sick, preached the kingdom of God to the multitude, and that evening fed more than five thousand people with five small leaves and two fish. As if that weren’t enough, later that night Jesus walked on the Sea of Galilee to go to His disciples and spoke The Word that enabled Peter to defy the natural force of gravity and walk on the water too.

The same force of love took up residence in you when you made Jesus The Lord of your life (Romans 5:5). In fact, the mountain-moving, miracle-working, casting-out-devil faith of God given to you when you received the new birth will not work without it (Galatians 5:6). It is essential for your success and victory as a believer that you walk in this God kind of love as Jesus commanded (John 13:34). He said love is the greatest commandment, and that all the law and the prophets hang on loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:40). James 2:8 calls it “the royal law”.

What does the God-kind of love look like? 1 Corinthians 13 gives us a checklist: “Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude and does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything. Love never fails (never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end)” (verses 4-8)

When you settle it in your heart and make the quality decision to live by this God kind of love, there is no demon in hell that can stop you because the power of God’s love in you never fails!

From Kenneth Copeland’s Study Bible

Faith Works By Love – Galatians 5:6

Faith, hope, and love are a team. Faith works by love, and it is the substance of things hoped for. But love is the power charge behind faith. It’s impossible to please God without faith, and since it works by love, without love faith can’t function. Why? Because God has faith, but He is love (1 John 4:7-8). First Corinthians 13:13 says, “So now abide faith, hope, and love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.” Abide means “to stay, dwell, or remain”. Faith, hope, and love are living spiritual forces. They are the forces by which God operates.

Hope is the blueprint of faith. It is the picture or vision of the thing promised in God’s Word that’s earnestly desired or needed, like healing or the finances to pay a debt. Without hope, faith has nothing to work with to bring the thing desired from the unseen into the seen world of the five physical senses. Without the force of love, faith and hope won’t work because Love is a Person. If you’re born of God by making Jesus the Lord of your life, you’re born of Love. 1 John 4:7 says, “…love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” And Romans 5:5 tells us, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.” The person of the Holy Spirit comes to indwell us at the new birth. God’s own love is shed abroad into our hearts when we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. That’s why love is the foundation of each of the fruits and gifts of the Spirit and the basis for every operation of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said the commandment of love is the first and greatest commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 37-40)

The Apostle Paul prayed for the believers at Ephesus that “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in Him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19 NLT) Having an intimate knowledge of the width and length and height and depth of God’s love for you enables you to love others with His love. So, if you’re rooted and grounded in His love, you’ll be quick to forgive and slow to take offense.

When we choose to walk in His love, then as He is, so are we in this world. No wonder satan is after our love walk? Walking in God’s love releases great power. The devil’s strongholds are broken, and ‘the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing” (Isaiah 10:27). Stepping out of love and yielding to strife and division violates the love nature of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us and produces condemnation in the heart of the believer that destroys confidence toward God. No confidence toward God, no faith. No faith, no victory. “..for whoever is born of God overcomes the world, and the victory that overcomes the world is our faith. (I John 5:4) A life full of the power of God’s covenant agape love, (Greek translation – His everlasting love) , will never fail.

From Kenneth Copeland’s Study Bible

God Loves You!

Something’s missing! You feel it. You know it. You trust God’s power. You know His promises. But inside you’re wavering. How can you be sure He will come through for you?

To answer that question, you need more than a knowledge of God’s power and promises. You need a personal relationship with Him. You need a personal revelation of His love.

     “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” John 3:16-17 NLT

Everlasting, unconditional, never-failing love. God’s love. Our natural minds cannot grasp it. Yet Paul prayed in his letter to the Ephesians that we might “experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully”. (Ephesians 3:19) How is that possible? How can we comprehend the incomprehensible?

We can’t! At least not with simple human understanding. To know something as vast as the love of God requires a revelation from the Holy Spirit.

Revelation is comprehension imparted into our spirits from the Holy Spirit and transmitted into our minds. It doesn’t pass from the head to the heart. It must come from the heart to the head.

God wants to give that to you. It is His desire that every person know His vast love for them. If you’ve never known God’s unconditional love, start today by asking Him for a personal revelation. If you’ve never asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life, ask Him into your heart. You can pray like this: “O God in heaven, I come before You and ask for Your forgiveness for my sins. Jesus, I ask You to come into my life and save me. I make You Lord of my life. I give myself to You. I receive You into my life. I am a believer. Thank you, Lord!”

“But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love. God showed how much He loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through Him. This is real love ~ not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, as a sacrifice to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and His love is brought to full expression in us. And God has given us His Spirit as proof that we live in Him and He in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in His love. God is love, and all who live in love live in God and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face Him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced His perfect Love. We love each other because He loved us first.” 1 John 8-19 NLT

Walk by faith into His arms of love. Receive the revelation of His unconditional love for you. God really does love you.

Excerpts from Pursuit of His Presence Devotional