When we get a revelation of the overwhelming love from God, it cannot be contained or remain hidden in our human shells.
It’s too big!
When His love fills us, it becomes a powerful force that has to come out of us, impacting the world around us, pushing out darkness as the light of His love takes over.
Think about it, when people were touched by Jesus, they RAN back to tell others what He did for them. It was a natural response to a supernatural experience. Even when Jesus said, “don’t tell anyone,” they did anyway.
Why?
Because when Jesus’ love touches our lives, we can’t stay silent! We become true disciples, learning to walk connected to the Vine and what it means to live by His Spirit.
Unfortunately, with very good intentions, discipleship has been reduced to that how-to checklist that we try to accomplish in our own strength. Our God encounters either seem to fade to the back of our memory or become just an occasional experience rather than a constant flow straight from the Source.
Throwing off our old nature seems like a painful and overwhelming process that needs constant ministry and prayer when we constantly look at all we’ve done (or where we’ve fallen short), rather than remembering what Jesus already did on the Cross. We keep trying to throw off the “old self ” in our own strength instead of simply yielding to His Spirit, walking in His Truth and grace, continually filled with His love and power.
Please don’t misunderstand the perspective I am coming from. Prayer is vital and ministries can be helpful, but oftentimes we are desperately asking for prayer and ministry for the flesh that we need to crucify so we can walk in the Spirit, saturated in God’s overwhelming love. This love frees us from the chains of our flesh so we can access life in the Spirit.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
But whenever someone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. For the Lord is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. So all of us who have had that veil removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.
— 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 (NLT)
This scripture is not something to read and brush off as a nice idea.
This spiritual freedom is supernatural, and it empowers us to live in hard situations without being in bondage to the circumstances or our human nature so we can actually go from glory to glory.
We either believe God at His Word or we don’t.
Our responses in hard situations will reveal what we believe and become an opportunity to get our hearts lined up with His. We are supposed to be living in this rhythm, where we are literally (not figuratively) reflecting the glory of God.
It’s time to live confidently from God’s amazing love and freely run to Him. Let’s stop hiding the parts of ourselves that need changing in fear that God will reject us and live accepted. Let’s get honest with ourselves and with God.
Jesus came to walk this earth, fully man, releasing the Kingdom of Heaven and then sacrificing Himself so He could take back the authority Adam handed over to the devil and give it back to us. Jesus came to restore what Adam gave up because God loves us that much!
Because of love, Jesus came to fulfill the law so that we are no longer bound to an unrealistic checklist that NO ONE could live up to WITHOUT His power.
God put His Spirit in us, empowering us for life like Jesus lived.
Freed from our sinful nature.
Filled with His grace and power.
We are born again, the righteousness of Christ, all because of love.
Christianity was never supposed to be a religious checklist. It’s an invitation to a life-changing relationship with the Creator of all things who loves us passionately. When we ditch the checklists and learn to live in God’s amazing love, our attention is off of what we’ve done wrong, (which leads to shame and condemnation), or right (which leads us to pride and self-righteousness), and our full attention is on everything He’s done to make all things right all for the sake of love!
From there, it’s a natural desire to get into His Word daily as we sit at the feet of Jesus. We aren’t doing it to prove anything to anyone or even ourselves. It’s coming from a deep longing to live as Christ, connected to the Vine at all times.
It’s not a duty.
It’s a deep burning desire that cannot be quenched otherwise.
This opens us up to receive a love that cannot be measured by our human understanding because it is so vast no one can fully understand it. Self-awareness becomes unimportant because we are now focused on all that God gave up for us. It breaks the need to measure ourselves against one another, which in turn empowers us to freely love others unconditionally, the way Jesus did. A selfless, overflowing, unconditional love that we can’t hold back!
There is an urgent call for the Church to know the depth of His love.
A love encounter is what we, the body of Christ, so desperately need.
When we turn to Him wholeheartedly, His love fills us, becoming a constant well that naturally flows out of us. Our new lives in Christ becomes a direct effect of what we have through our Heavenly Father as His immeasurable love changes us from the inside out.
A supernatural force of love, straight from the throne room of Heaven, that has completely changed our view of ourselves, our old way of seeing and living has died. We unashamedly run into His arms as He saturates us with more of Him.
When His love is in us, we are truly free.
I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will empower you with inner strength through His Spirit. 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. Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to Him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
—Ephesians 3:16-21 (NLT)
