It is often a struggle to believe that God really loves you, although you may be convinced that He loves others, for you see His love flowing to them. Many problems stem from this mistrust of His love: a basic mistrust of the love the Lord has for you.
Hebrews 12:5–8 tells us: “Whom the Lord loves, He chastens. He scourges every son whom He receives. He is dealing with us as with true sons, not as with illegitimate sons.” This is a good Scripture to preach to others, but it is very difficult to apply to yourself. God wants you to believe in the love He has for you and in the love He has put in your brother for you. An awareness of that love will bond people together in the Kingdom more than ever before.
Galatians 5:6 tells us, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. What counts is faith working through love. I John 4:16 states very plainly: And we have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. This is a simple truth, but it is very powerful.
Do you ever have problems relating to your brothers and sisters in the Lord? You would not have those problems if you truly believed that God loves you. Whenever a married couple are having difficulties and seem to be neglecting one another, an expression of love from one to the other immediately minimizes all the problems and difficulties they are having. You can quarrel and argue a great deal about issues, but actually that is just a superficial emotional symptom of something deep down inside which is troubling you.
Your problems could be cut in half by your realizing that “in Christ it is faith that works by love.” The first thing you must do is believe that God loves you and that your brother loves you. Like John, you must have this revelation: “We have come to know and to believe the love which God has for us.”
Do not be insensitive to this love. How can you move in God unless you first have a revelation of it? If you do not believe the love that God has shed abroad for you and for the brethren (Romans 5:5), and you are not sensitive to that love, then something colors everything you do. Every time you prophesy, every time you exhort, every time you speak the Word, every time you have a conversation, it is colored because something is missing. To the extent that God is in a communication (the conveyance of anything by the gifts and ministries of the Holy Spirit), to that same extent His love comes forth in it. The ministry is so designed that there can be a conveyance from one person to another—not of words, but of spirit and of life. Remember that Jesus said, “My words are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63).
Faith that works by love will get the job done. Believe! Love! Believe in God’s love for you! More of God will be found in everything you do, and say, and minister, if you just believe that He loves you. Does this seem to be oversimplifying it? It is not. The most effective way Satan can get through to you is to make you feel that you are not important to the Kingdom of God, that no one really cares, or that a relationship is broken down because there are issues and problems at stake, when, in fact, all that is needed is an expression of love.
At the present time, a greater body of accepted revelation exists among those who are contending for God’s Kingdom to be established than has ever existed in any denomination or in all of the denominations combined. As far as doctrines and teachings are concerned, we are more agreed on a body of truth than would ever seem possible, especially since much of it is contrary to the orthodoxy of the present Christian world. We have no basis or reason to split over anything. If we have any problems, it will be because we do not trust the love a brother has for us.
I wonder how much further this move of restoration would have advanced, if from the very beginning there had been a greater emphasis on ministering to our brother a conviction that we love him. It is startling, isn’t it? We minister everything else to him—blessings, gifts of the Spirit, truth, revelation, perception—and if that is not enough, we can even give our bodies to be burned (I Corinthians 13:3). We make great sacrifices for one another, but still we have not dealt with the basic insecurity that affects us even at this stage of our spiritual growth, that nagging doubt that causes us to wonder what a brother really thinks and feels about us.
As God deals with us and we feel as if we are being chopped down, we often wonder, “Does God really love me at all? Why is He treating me like this if He loves me? With God blessing me like this, I don’t need any demons to bother me. I have all the troubles I can handle!”
We must be aware that God loves us. This may seem like a very simple truth, but it will really work. Love will cover the multitude of sin that God makes obvious to us (I Peter 4:8).
Problems which arise in your relationship to God and to members of the Body of Christ generally have a satanic force added to them: you know that something is wrong within your own spirit, and you cannot believe that anyone could love you with such a spirit because you do not even love yourself. This is the cause of many of the problems that are within our own homes. It applies to everyone. We often feel, “That brother does not know what I have been doing, or he would not love me.” However, our love for one another is not based upon our perfection. It is not that kind of love. Romans 5:8 tells us, “The Lord loved us while we were yet sinners.” This kind of love is not deserved, nor is it withdrawn if imperfections arise in a situation. Just because we make a mistake does not mean that we are no longer in good standing with the Body.
Let our actions, our words, and everything we do be filled with the love that God is shedding abroad in our hearts; and let that love be expressed. The only way we can look at what God is doing in our midst without drawing back is to understand that the key is faith working by love. We love one another, and we have faith for one another.
It does not matter what you have been thinking or what name you called someone when you were angry. A husband and wife may argue at times and call each other all kinds of names; but if an outsider steps in between them, they will both turn on him. In spite of all the things they say, they love each other. It is more than loyalty; it is a response of love. Let that same response of love be found among the brethren. Reach in for a fresh revelation to your own heart of your brother’s love for you. Pray also that your brother will have a fresh revelation of your love for him. Let it be something new and alive.
It does not matter what kind of problems arise. Love will work out those problems in a miracle level of fulfillment. Problems will remain problems and will never become miracles until this love and faith are truly flowing. Love and faith change the dimension of a problem and lift it into the realm of God.
There are more Scriptures along this line; and the more we get into them, the more disturbing they are. However, what we need, instead of more teaching, is to apply this truth and act upon it. We must believe that God loves us.
In the wilderness God told the children of Israel, “You have forgotten how I took you on eagles’ wings and bore you to Myself” (Exodus 19:4). In spite of all that God was doing for them, they were blaspheming Him, saying, in effect, “Who does He think He is, letting us walk on these rocks in this burning sand with no water to drink and no flesh to eat.”
Love goes out the window when you start counting offenses and the things that have been done wrong. What is a wife saying when she reminds her husband of all the things she has suffered and the things she has been deprived of? In effect she is saying, “The problems are greater than my love for you.” When love is present in the home and in the family, they tend to remember the many precious things that have happened and to forget all of the hardships they have faced. What you remember in your relationships, and what you bring forth in communication about them, reveals whether or not you are allowing the love in your heart to overwhelm all the problems. With the frosting of love on the bread, it is surprising how much it tastes like cake. The old familiar saying is actually true: “A little bit of sugar helps the medicine go down.”
In the New Testament we are commanded to love (Matthew 22:37–39). This means that it is well within the realm of possibility. If God tells you to give another person some money, He has to be sure that you have it. He will not tell you to give something that you do not have. When God tells us to love one another, it is because we have it in our hearts and we can do it. God never torments us by commanding the impossible. Rather, at every phase of His demand upon us, He makes the provision of Himself to be drawn in and appropriated for the fulfillment of that demand.
You can draw His love. If you do not have enough love, draw more of His love. You can love someone until he is actually overwhelmed by it, because you can draw that love from God. If you do not love enough now, you can love enough. The Lord has not made it to be an impossibility. He does not tease you with sadistic commands. God does not tell you to do something which you are not able to do.
The Lord tells us to love one another; therefore, we can love one another. He tells us to believe in the love; therefore, we can believe and know the love that God has for us. We can stand on that Scripture. What about all of the problems? A little less focus on the problems will cause them to shrink. Love is a fantastic ointment that shrinks the sores of discord.
Open your heart to love and to believe in that love. How can you apply this? You can beam love to one another. In the world, witchcraft and hatred are beamed; but in the grace of God, love is beamed.
I Thessalonians 4:9–10 tells us, Now as to the love of the brethren, you have no need for any one to write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; for indeed you do practice it toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, to excel still more. You can excel more and more. You can increase and abound in love and faith (I Thessalonians 3:12). Whatever you presently have, you can have more. If we really started appropriating these seemingly abstract qualities, we would be surprised at the rich increase of quality in our works and in our communication in the Spirit.
Let there be more love and faith in what you do. Find a way to let your brother know that you love him. When you look at him, know that he loves you. Get rid of the insecurity, which is nothing more than unbelief, that causes you to constantly question your relationships and your communications with one another. Let your faith be so strong that even if a brother rips you to shreds, you can look beyond what he is saying and see the love in his heart.
This knowledge of love will preserve the bond that unbelief would otherwise tear apart. This is the key and the secret to our walk with God. To abound in love means that we will abound in the Kingdom.
Once the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Which is the great commandment in the Law?” From Deuteronomy He replied, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength” (Mark 12:28–34; Deuteronomy 6:5). We quote that Scripture very accurately; but somehow it gets twisted in our minds so that we think He said, “You shall worship the Lord, or serve the Lord, or do many other things, with all your heart.” However, the correct word is love. Love the Lord your God. All worship and service to the Lord becomes effective when there is love. Everything of the Law and the prophets hangs on that one issue: Love Him intensely, and love your neighbor as yourself.
The sooner we learn to flow in this love, the sooner we will move in the effectiveness which brings forth the Kingdom. His Kingdom will not come by our hatred of religious Babylon; it will come by our love for the Lord and our love for each other. But, of course, when love is there, the other will be there too. We cannot love Him this intensely without loving what He loves, hating what He hates, and serving Him with all our heart. The violence of spirit is a purposeless explosion unless behind it there is the quality of love and faith that reaches into God and believes for one another. Every manifestation of the Spirit can become objectionable if love is not in it. That is what I Corinthians 13 is all about. Verse 1 tells us that without love, tongues can be a sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. Everything is obnoxious unless it is filled with the love of God and the knowledge of the Lord.
We have that love! John said, “Whoever is born of God loves” (I John 4:7). You received a measure of faith and an impartation of love when you opened your heart to the Lord. May God forgive us for the slowness of heart to express that love and to turn it loose. Determine now to stir it up. Excel in it! Abound in it! Increase in it! You can do all that God commands you to do.