God is Love

God is love: Learning to Live by His Spirit

So, the Lord has been speaking to me in a variety of ways recently (some of those have been so real that i have tasted the salt from my tears ---others have been based on time i have had quiet before the Lord AND HE "SPOKE"-- then i was in scripture and HE affirmed what I "heard") all of this has been so scriptural/spiritual that my life cannot be mine alone any longer!!

Let me share what i came to this blog to share. First off, Friday night during our time of prayer/discussion/seeking the Lord on behalf of and for the portion of Christ that we belong to...this Church that is precious to us because it is so very precious to Him. During our time together the Lord spoke to me about LOVE. He expressed Himself as love to me and opened up my eyes to the fact that i have been trying to bottle up and hoard the love that He has given to me. I have been trying to keep it to myself. I have been selfish. I wonder if i am the only one....

It was amazing because while God was speaking i began to feel love. I began to feel love for brothers and sisters that i am not "close" to. I began to feel love for his people in a way that i did not realize was possible. In fact, it didn't occur to me that i wasn't already feeling "love" for them until i received His very heart of love for them. I began to cry out in pray for brothers & sisters whom i am now capable of loving with His love because He has chosen to reveal Himself to me about this place where i had been attempting to hoard his love -or at least not consider sharing it. In more than an idea sort of way. In a way that empties me of my selfish desire and ambition and makes me available to serving this one whom God loves and wants to love through me. So, this is Friday night. This is what God is speaking to my heart Friday night.

Saturday and Sunday the Lord pours out compassion and love on me and my family through brothers and sisters in a way that i didn't think was possible. He showed us mercy and grace and love through the eyes and actions of a dear sister and brother. We experienced the abundant flow of love that the Father had just asked me to be willing to give. Wait, so i am willing to love and what happens? I am LOVED.....how does that work? That works because we are talking about the amazing and wonderful love of God. God is love and His love grows...it multiplies, it feeds, it nourishes, it surprises us, it brings forth miracles, it heals marriages, it came in the form of a person, it/he cannot be defined.

So, God's talking to me about love and i am experiencing it first hand. Then on Sunday God reminds me that He's been talking to me about how the fruit of the Spirit isn't something to be "achieved" rather it is a natural result of living by the Spirit? What Spirit? God's Spirit...JESUS!! Living by the Spirit of the Life of Christ within me is the life that will yield the good fruits. i don't need to attempt to achieve the "fruit" it will be a natural result of living by His Spirit.



Now, here is where it gets really good! i mean i think that it has been good thus far, but check this out. So, God is talking to me. He's talking to me about loving His people, I am being loved by His people, then He says remember to live by my Spirit. Okay, got that God. Well so, Monday morning i am thinking let me go ahead and read some of what it says in Galatians about life by the spirit. So, I began by reading in verse 16 under the caption, "Life by the Spirit" because after all that's what i am looking for. It reads:

"So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. 1But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

"The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

Okay, so there's lots of good stuff their. In fact, i thought plenty of it was very relevant to our Sunday morning discussion. After reading this i read into Chapter 6 which really seems to carry this theme on some. After that i thought, let me begin in the beginning of Chapter 5 and see what it might say leading up to the part about "Live by the Spirit".

So, here's the portion of that that really blessed me:

5But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope. 6For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love....13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." 15If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

Okay, so wait a second here. Are you telling me that this passage speaks directly to the things that God has has been "speaking" to me about loving my brothers and sisters as well as living by the spirit? I mean first He "spoke" to me; Then He gave me real-life examples; and finally He leads me to a passage of scripture that affirms everything He has been telling me. WOWSERS!!!

What an amazing God!!! Hopefully you have hung with me through. Let me encourage you that HE Speaks!!! He is Love....and He longs to display His Love for His Church. His People. His Bride. May we allow Him to use us at the vessels of His love by living by His Spirit!!!!

Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love

Psalm 107

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.

2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say this—
those he redeemed from the hand of the foe,

3 those he gathered from the lands,
from east and west, from north and south.

4 Some wandered in desert wastelands,
finding no way to a city where they could settle.

5 They were hungry and thirsty,
and their lives ebbed away.

6 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.

7 He led them by a straight way
to a city where they could settle.

8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,

9 for he satisfies the thirsty
and fills the hungry with good things.

10 Some sat in darkness and the deepest gloom,
prisoners suffering in iron chains,

11 for they had rebelled against the words of God
and despised the counsel of the Most High.

12 So he subjected them to bitter labor;
they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.

14 He brought them out of darkness and the deepest gloom
and broke away their chains.

15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men,

16 for he breaks down gates of bronze
and cuts through bars of iron.

17 Some became fools through their rebellious ways
and suffered affliction because of their iniquities.

18 They loathed all food
and drew near the gates of death.

19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble,
and he saved them from their distress.

20 He sent forth his word and healed them;
he rescued them from the grave.

21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men.

22 Let them sacrifice thank offerings
and tell of his works with songs of joy.

23 Others went out on the sea in ships;
they were merchants on the mighty waters.

24 They saw the works of the LORD,
his wonderful deeds in the deep.

25 For he spoke and stirred up a tempest
that lifted high the waves.

26 They mounted up to the heavens and went down to the depths;
in their peril their courage melted away.

27 They reeled and staggered like drunken men;
they were at their wits' end.

28 Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,
and he brought them out of their distress.

29 He stilled the storm to a whisper;
the waves of the sea were hushed.

30 They were glad when it grew calm,
and he guided them to their desired haven.

31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his unfailing love
and his wonderful deeds for men.

32 Let them exalt him in the assembly of the people
and praise him in the council of the elders.

33 He turned rivers into a desert,
flowing springs into thirsty ground,

34 and fruitful land into a salt waste,
because of the wickedness of those who lived there.

35 He turned the desert into pools of water
and the parched ground into flowing springs;

36 there he brought the hungry to live,
and they founded a city where they could settle.

37 They sowed fields and planted vineyards
that yielded a fruitful harvest;

38 he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased,
and he did not let their herds diminish.

39 Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled
by oppression, calamity and sorrow;

40 he who pours contempt on nobles
made them wander in a trackless waste.

41 But he lifted the needy out of their affliction
and increased their families like flocks.

42 The upright see and rejoice,
but all the wicked shut their mouths.

43 Whoever is wise, let him heed these things
and consider the great love of the LORD.