“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39
When we get the revelation of how much God loves us, it becomes so much easier to believe Him for all the good He has planned for us. When we realize that His love for us is not contingent upon anything we have or could ever do for Him, but rather on what He has done for us; then we can freely receive all He has for us. His love and grace towards us, His desire to give us every good thing, is not based on our goodness…but on His goodness . 1 John 4:19 says: “We love Him because He first loved us.” Notice the order of that. It is not: “He loves us, because we first loved Him.” NO! That is how the natural, carnally minded man works. Instead, God showed His love for us when we were unlovely, when we were in sin and had made bad decisions for our lives. Yet HE still loved us and gave His Son as a payment for our sin; not because of anything we had done, or because we are so good, but because He is so good.
When we realize that He loves us no matter what we have done, it becomes so much easier to receive the healing He has for us, or the abundance of provision. There is nothing we could have done to earn His love. Jesus says in Mathew 5:43-48: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
This is a description of God’s character — LOVE! GOD IS LOVE! God doesn’t just love, He is love! In order to be like Him, we have to love unconditionally, because He has loved us unconditionally. We have the ability to love unconditionally because once we are born again, receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior, not only do we have a newly recreated spirit with the fruits of the spirit already deposited in it, but the Holy Spirit Himself comes to dwell on the inside of us and the love of God has now been shed abroad in our hearts. Romans 5:5 says: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
When we realize the Love our Father has for us, it becomes so much easier to do those things He would have us do because we are motivated by love, not fear. When we get the revelation of how much He loves us and how much He’s done for us, we don’t want to sin. When He commands us to love others, it becomes so much easier to keep this commandment because we understand how much grace and love God has shown us. We are then more easily able to pour out that love on others; even when they don’t deserve it, because God has poured out His love on us.
When we treat others with love, respect, kindness and consideration, we are being like our Father. When we are kind to those who don’t deserve it, then we are a reflection of Jesus in the earth. When they’ve been unkind to us, or spoken badly about us, and we respond in love towards them, we are acting like our Father in Heaven, who loved us even when we were unlovely.
Let us make a commitment to become ever more like our Father and to walk in the love of the Father. As we allow love to fill our hearts and our lives, to be the motivating factor in our decisions and how we interact with others, we will find that it is much easier to receive the good things God has for us.
The biggest hindrance we have as believers to receiving from God is fear. Perfect love casts out all fear. There is no fear in love. Let’s take time this year to truly reflect on the love of God. Let us become ever more like Him in word and in deed. Let us walk in love toward all those around us. FAITH WORKS BY LOVE. As you develop more and more in the love of God you will see your faith increase like never before! “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4
1 John 4:7-21
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein 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 ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in Him, and He in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgement; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment we have from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.”
Mathew 22:35-40
“Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”
1 John 2:5-11
“But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.”
Romans 5:8-17
“But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift: For the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)
1John 3:1-2 & 10-18
“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is…
In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother’s righteous. Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you. We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
1 John 3:23-24
“And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”
John 3:16
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Further reading: 1 Corinthians 13, Luke 10:25-37
