1 Corinthians 13:1Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity (divine love), I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2And though I have the gift of prophecy (a discourse emanating from divine inspiration and declaring the purposes of God,), and understand all (total, whole) mysteries, and all knowledge (to know by perception); and though I have all faith (conviction of the truth of anything, the revelation of God’s will that comes to our spirit), so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing (not the least).
3And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth (be of and divine use) me nothing.
4Charity( divine love) suffereth long( to be of a long spirit, not to lose heart, quality of spirit that ruleth over soulish emotions), and is kind( to show one’s self mild, to be kind, use kindness); charity envieth( to burn with zeal) not; charity vaunteth( to boast one’s self) not itself, is not puffed up( to inflate, blow up, to cause to swell up, to puff up, make proud,
5Doth not behave itself unseemly( to act unbecomingly, to behave in an ugly manner), seeketh not(full negation) her own( himself, herself, itself, themselves), is not easily provoked( to irritate, provoke, arouse to anger), thinketh( to reckon, count, compute, calculate, count over) no evil (of a bad nature not such as it ought to be);
6Rejoiceth( be glad) not in iniquity( unrighteousness of heart and life, deceit), but rejoiceth(two words 1-with 2-rejoice. Impartation through God’s Spirit to our spirit, to rejoice with other believers) in the truth;
7Beareth( to cover over with silence, to conceal-hide, bear with-endure) all( the total, whole) things, believeth all things, hopeth(confident expectation with desire) all things, endureth( to preserve: under misfortunes and trials, to maintain a right spirit) all things(radically means “all.” Used without the article it means “every,” every kind or variety).
8Charity (divine love) never faileth (occurring now, to fall from or out of a spiritual condition, to get off course, to be without effect, to be in vain): but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease (to come to an end); whether there be knowledge (partial knowledge), it shall vanish away (to render idle, unemployed, inactivate, inoperative).
9For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10But when that which is perfect (brought to its end, finished, wanting nothing necessary to completeness, perfect) is come (momentary tense, subject to a condition, motion from God to a person), then that which is in part shall be done away.
11When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became (spiritual condition brought about by the action continued to the present, to become, to come into existence, begin to be, receive being) a man( used to distinguish maturity), I put away childish things.
12For now we see through a glass(a mirror), darkly(two words 1-intimite union 2-an obscure thing); but then face(countenance-presence, nothing intervening, to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly, to know accurately) to(to, towards, with, with regard to) face: now I know in part; but then shall I know(intimacy-oneness even as also I am known(specific point in the past, to become thoroughly acquainted with, to know thoroughly, to know accurately).
13And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest(most important) of these is charity(divine love).
Love is one of the most important subjects people talk about, especially the intimacy found in marriage. Everybody wants to be loved. The greatest human desire is to find someone to fall in love with and get married. If they don’t have it they want to get it. It is one of the most tremendous aspects in the fulfillment of life.
As fulfilling as love is on a human level, the divine love of God cannot be compared to anything we could ever experience on a human level. When we experience divine love we are experiencing the very essence of God, just being in the presence of this love (God’s Spirit) is joy unspeakable. There is no word in the human language that can describe it, it must be experienced.
When the Spirit of God draws us to surrender every area of our human life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, God imparts His uncreated eternal life to our spirit, and when we are filled with His Spirit (Where God’s Spirit occupies our heart-“spirit and soul”), we experience Him. We taste of His Presence, and are fully satisfied, and nothing else in this life can compare to it.
Our spirit can be filled with God, but very few Christians have ever been totally filled with the Spirit; this is where the Spirit of God descends from heaven and rests upon us-occupying our soul, where we experience His manifest Presence. God is not only filling our spirit but also our soul. And our soul can feel God.
Our body also can receive healing through contact with God’s Spirit. The Spirit of God can so fill our body, that we literally cannot stand, or He can translate us to a different location, or give us supernatural strength like He did Elijah and Sampson, or David leaping over a wall.
The divine love of God is much deeper-or higher than human love.
In 1 Corinthians, we get a description or definition of the characteristics of this kind of divine love. This is a holy, divine love that is released in our spirit when it is fellowshipping with God’s Spirit-God’s very nature and life are flowing into us and then out of us towards other’s.
This is not our love, but God’s love flowing in and through us. It is the Spirit of God moving in our heart.
Love is long suffering or patient; it is willing to wait patiently before acting or responding. It is very patient in relationships with other people and over circumstances. The idea here is that it is merciful toward people. When someone is offended toward us, it is slow to speak and will not respond in the self-life (from the soul). It is not thoughtless or unkind in what is said.
Love is kind (showing generosity or compassion, not harsh, unpleasant, or likely to have destructive effects, but showing courtesy or caring about somebody, it is very compassionate, very caring, very generous, very agreeable or safe to be around). It is very tender and sympathetic and understanding and it will continually magnify virtues and not faults. It is the opposite of having a critical spirit, or complaining and nagging (being persistently painful to be around or bothersome). It is not harsh.
Love does not envy (the resentful or unhappy feeling of wanting somebody else’s success, good fortune, qualities, or possessions). It is self-less, it knows no envy. It is not envious of possessions or of others’ blessings or other peoples success; it is not even envious of other people’s relationships.
Love does not boast-It gives all the glory to God! It is not always talking about self. It listens to other people instead of always talking. When God’s love is filling our heart we are not even thinking about ourselves.
Love is not puffed up; there is no pride in it. We don’t feel self-important or self-sufficient.
Love does not behave unseemly; it literally means it does not behave gracelessly. It behaves gracefully, polite, full of courtesy.
Love seeks not her own; it is dead to the self-life. God’s love puts God first. It does not seek its own at the expense of others, it always tries to embrace and help more and more people. Love is always concerned about the other person’s blessing and the other person’s life.
Love is not easily provoked (to be the cause or occasion of an emotion or response, to make somebody feel angry or indignant). To make someone love’s for a person irritated or angry. Love is not exasperated (to make somebody very angry or frustrated, often by repeatedly doing something annoying). It is only as our spirit is in fellowship with God’s Spirit that we have control over human anger. Divine anger is something different and another subject. When through our spirit we can control soulish anger, we can rise up and master anything in our consciousness, the subconscious mind and bad words are something deeper in us, it is a subconscious reaction. Only when we are continually filled with the Spirit to overflowing do we praise God when we accidently knock something over, or hurt our body accidentally. The divine love of God cannot be defeated.
Love thinketh no evil. It does not entertain or feel sorry for ourselves over evils of the past. Love will forget personal injustices of the past. Love does not allow the past to be a stumbling block to the future. Suspicion (a feeling of mistrust or doubt, especially because something wrong has happened and has not been explained) is irrelevant to love. If we love someone, we are not going to be suspicious of them; we are going to think no evil of them.
Love rejoiceth not in iniquity. There are some people that are secretly glad when moral evil overtakes another person. When we see a person who is deceitful, or lying it deeply grieves or hurts us. Love rejoices when the truth prevails and has nothing to fear from the truth. Love seeks the truth at person cost and personal sacrifices. If we really have Gods love flowing in us, we will seek for the truth even if it hurts us or our position.
Love bears all things; it will endure anything for the sake of an unclouded testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ. It will bear insult, it will bear injury; it will bear disappointment without murmuring or complaining. Love can put up with almost anything because love bears all things.
Love believes all things. Love takes God at His word. Love believes what it has worked in our brothers and sisters in the Lord, and is not always suspicious of it. Love travels the second mile in trusting people and trying to help them.
We make people what they are many times by what we believe them to be. We speak negative words instead of speaking God’s word over them, which can give place to the enemy to work. By always speaking negative to the person we can actually drive them into doing it. We do not yet know the power of intercession, God will move as we intercede even if he has to send an angle to appear to a person, or speak to them in an audible voice.
Love has hope for all things, It doesn’t see any man or woman as hopeless, and will keep believing for them unless the Lord tells us to stop. Love does not have a closed mind; love sees and hopes for great potentials in all the people upon the earth today.
Love endures all things-it will remain when others have given up on people. Love endures all things; it will stay with it after everyone else has become discouraged and gone home. The love of God in our heart is a joyous, aggressive and persistent moving in our heart reaching out to others.
Love is the more excellent way. As the love of God is shed abroad in our heart, it opens up our perception of spiritual things. Love will develop a perfect awareness and consciousness of the Lord.
Because of the self nature (soul-life) there are many manifestations of self, which break our spirit’s connection to God’s Spirit, so that Love is not flowing through us.
Until we understand a little about the human nature, we are not going to be able to get to the root of the problem.
If we do not learn how to die to self, the gifts of the Spirit God has given us are not going to be as effective, if God’s love is not coming through them.
When we come into a greater flow of this divine love, the more revelation we are going to have about our self and about our own needs. There is a very definite relationship between divine love and our progress in revelation. The more we love our brother or sister in the Lord, the more revelation we are going to have about ourselves and our own needs. When we have deep love and begin to move in that love our revelation is to going to come up into a higher level.
Everything that the Holy Spirit speaks through us can bring revelation to another person’s heart if we have divine love for them. Yet one of the deepest sermons in the world will not reach a person if we do not love them in the Spirit. They are going to take offense at things which should not offend them unless we inject divine love into what we do and say. If we do not express love in our words we end up hurting people.
Poverbs 27: 5Open rebuke is better than secret love. 6Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. As we begin to operate in this divine love, and those under our Authority in the Lord, know we love them; then we can rebuke them in the Lord, they know absolutely our love is an unfailing love. We are told to provoke one another to love and to good works. Divine love hurts when the Lord rebukes us through another, but there is also a comfort in us because we know they are not rejecting us but loving us in the Lord.
The more divine love grows in our heart, the more revelation of His word we will receive, the minute we are limited in this love, we are also limited in our capacity to comprehend spiritual reality. We do not accurately discern or comprehend without this divine love moving in our spirit.
If we want God to reveal the mysteries of His written word, or receive direct revelation from the Holy Spirit, we need to really start manifesting God’s divine love to people. It is human nature to build walls towards people. The word forgive is a very powerful word-it means to send the force and the power of the sin against us away. The thought of the harm against us is not allowed in our mind. To forgive is to forget it ever happened. This is the nature of God’s love, and only He can impart this to us. God does not remember our sins, when He grants us His repentance. He has the power to forget. And He has the power to heal our hurts, so that if the thought does come to mind it no longer hurts because we Love people with His love.
When the quality of our love is limited-and we say, they did certain things to me and I forgave them, but I’m not going to forget about it, we just limited the light of God that can shine in our heart; we have very limited revelation in spiritual understanding.
To the degree that we walk in the love of God, to that degree God is enabled to inhabit our heart. It is the love of God that breaks down the barriers and the walls that are in our heart. Without the love of God flowing in our hearts we do not see things clearly.
If we want people to open up their hearts to us, the love of God has to fill our words or they will never receive revelation from God. It is the revelation of God’s love that opens the door to further revelation. It is this divine love of God that is the sign that we have passed from death into His life. To whatever extent the love of God is limited in our life; to that extent we are limited.
Relationships are limited because of the love of God not being perfected in us. We have certain thinking patterns in our soul (mind) that have to be renewed. So I think it will help us to realize what divine love is not.
Divine love does not always get crabby, grumble and complain. It does not get impatient and unkind. It never gets jealous. It never brags and become arrogant. It is never always doing some dumb, stupid, and unbecoming thing. It never always puts self first and the other person next. It never is always pursuing its own personal interests. It never gets mad all the time, and is never very easily provoked. It always forgets when someone does something wrong, as matter of fact it never even thinks of making plans to get even. Divine love never laughs or is even a little happy when it see’s someone’s guilt is being exposed. It never despairs, or wonders if things will ever work out. It never expects the worse, or gives up hope. It never lashes out or strikes back. It never fails.
The love of God is something we grow and develop in, it is something we have to work at. Every revelation the Lord gives us is something we have to practice until it gets into our subconscious mind. The mind does not become renewed overnight-but as we recognize the things the Holy Spirit convicts us of; in time we find that we grow out of them.
When we begin to learn how to divide our spirit from our soul, most of the time we have to stay out of our mind. When we start learning how to walk with God, we find out that our mind is at enmity with God, until we learn how to think God’s thoughts. So our walk with God starts by the Holy Spirit showing us the thoughts in our mind that do not originate from Him.
As long as we are pursuing an intimate relationship with the lord, the Holy Spirit can start transforming us quickly as we keep our minds focused on the Lord. We learn how to live in the life flow of the Spirit of God in our spirit, instead of leaning upon our own understanding. We are either living unto the Lord or we are living unto ourselves.
Problems shrink, diminish and disappear as our spirit learns how to commune with God, which lifts us up into a higher level. Whenever we are struggling, it is because we are living on to low of a level; our spirit is not communing with God.
We need always to spend time with God first and find our fulfillment in Him, and then the other things we need to do or want to do. In time we will find our inner being changing and the things we use to enjoy are empty if God is not in them.
We cannot take any credit for all the changes that God has made in our life, which is why we give Him all the glory!