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
Thank you faithful Father for loving I and my family, I pray for the revelation of this love of my Father.