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If Love Me, Keep my Commandments

If Love Me, Keep my Commandments

 

John 14:15 If you love Me, keep My commandments.

Obedience for a believer who is growing in the knowledge and grace of God is more of a desire than obedience. If you are born of God and abiding in His Word, your desire to do His will is strengthening because you are growing in love with Him.

It is important to recognize the ones maturing are the ones who experience this desire and not the burden of obedience. Many Christians aren’t growing and still think and act like carnal men. Therefore deep down they don’t desire the ways of God. They may act certain ways because they feel they have to but it is out of pure obedience and not love. Romans 8:7 What they have is a religion of rules and not a relationship of love. They lack a strong inner spirit to walk as a free spiritual being who isn’t rule bound but love bound. 1 John 2:5 Unfortunately, those rule bound people who think they are mature can be quite destructive and misleading to others about what the Christian faith is all about.

Kids are given the rule, don’t run into the street, because they can’t yet grasp the deeper truth that running into the street means you might get killed. It is the same with an immature spirit – all they can grasp are rules so they cling to them. But staying in this condition isn’t what God intended when He sent Christ to us. God desires a bride in love with Him and following Him because of love not a maidservant following the rules because that is what you should do.

This is why in the verse above love comes first. Obedience as God desires, with our hearts not just our actions, has to come from love not brute discipline. When we love Him, we want to follow Him.

Because Christ stands in our place, we have completely fulfilled the law now and always as He did. Covered in grace, we could go about sinning – however if you are truly born of God that isn’t your desire. Romans 6:14-16 You desire what God does because now you are a part of Him. God took care of our sin at the cross. Being free from the judgment of sin, the lessons of our lives are about walking in God’s will because that fosters intimacy and love with Him. He teaches and leads us down paths to accomplish that closeness; paths that instruct us what is His way and what isn’t. When He reveals a path we are walking that is counter to His, it isn’t to condemn us we have already been judged in Christ – it is to lead us closer to Him because sin distances us from being united to Him in truth, love and will.

And at its core, His will is about love, loving Him and loving others. Every command of God is what it is because that is the most loving thing to do. As a maturing believer you desire to grow in love – not a love of this world but a love beyond what we as flesh humans are capable of. John said that by our love others would know we are His – that means it is a love that mere men aren’t capable of giving – otherwise why would it set us apart? John 13:35

God’s love is much greater than ours. Most of us assume we know what love is, but what we know is a tainted version of His. We have to seek what is true love and what isn’t. And from what I am learning it is beyond what I ever considered as loving. The extent of His love – just the purity and selflessness alone and what that looks like in my day to day – is amazing. As you grow in love you begin to understand the depth and the reasons behind His commands and you desire to walk in them.

If you love God you want to do His commands of love therefore they aren’t burdensome. 1 John 5:3 If you want to do something it isn’t a burden but a joy. This is the experience for those spiritually maturing. It isn’t about following the law, trying to be perfect, or following some rules. It is about seeking God’s heart in each situation with a desire to love others with the power of His love flowing through you. You aren’t focused on following rules. You understand that Christ is your righteousness so you cease from trying to earn your own. You do what you do because you want to. And the closer we draw near to God the more this desire grows.

Since I started seeking God, I have seen this transformation in myself. It doesn’t happen over night it is a process of growing in love with Him by spending time with Him. From that time comes a true desire to follow Him. I want to do His will. It isn’t that I’m not tempted. I am. We all get blindsided by our Mr. Hyde personas – but the Spirit waves a flag shows me how that isn’t the most loving thing to do and I think oh, yeah, I don’t want to do that.

If we love God then we will obey Him because we desire to abide in His love. John 15:10


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Hypocrisy vs Immature Spirits

Hypocrisy vs Immature Spirits

 

Hypocrisy, saying one thing and doing another, is one complaint I hear more than most about Christians.

In their brethrens defense, Christians often reply with a chuckle that is why they are in church, they need it!

Hypocrisy on any level shouldn’t be tolerated. Jesus didn’t tolerate it and neither should we among each other. (Matthew 23:28-29, Romans 12:9. James 3:17) Yet, I feel too often we overlook it. We will whisper behind Susie’s back about what she is doing and wonder how she can claim to be a “good Christian” . . . but to her face in private exhorting her in truth and love? We don’t see this accountability very often and possibly because of the fear of appearing self-righteous. It isn’t self-righteous it is love, and we should expect Susie to hold us accountable as well.

However, what I think happens more often than not is what non-believers are witnessing are immature spirits more so than hypocrisy. Immature spirits live mostly in their flesh lives and not of their spirits. And with the mistaken identity of “goodness” hanging over Christians’ heads when others see us not acting in the expected manner then we are called hypocrites. If we don’t claim to be good then we aren’t hypocrites. People misunderstand what authentic Christianity (not the copycat religion of Christianity of following rules, trying to be a good person, and following a strict code of behavior) means; we have to share with them the truth.

1. It is a huge fallacy that being a Christian means you are good. Conversely, it means you realize you aren’t good and never will be and therefore need the goodness of Christ so you can intimately abide in the presence of a Holy God.

2.  Authentic Christianity entails becoming a new creation by having a new spirit born within and from that spirit true life blossoms. The new spirit is born small and needs proper nourishment to grow and mature. When the new spirit grows then it desires to do the will of God. It isn’t a forced obedience but a natural desire. However, because the new spirit co-exists with our old, we will never perfectly do the will of God that is faultless and good, but hopefully we become more inline with it.

3. Christianity isn’t a performance based religion of good works like every other religion. It is a union with God that is made possible when we become a living spirit as He is spirit. The world and religious Christianity imposes rules and behaviors on us, but true Christianity isn’t about rules but being connected to God, us in Him and Him in us. As a result, good things may come from us, but is has nothing to do with us. It is the fruit of God’s Spirit flowing through us because we are connected to Him.

4. This flowing fruit that comes as we surrender our will to His isn’t instant. It takes years of abiding in God’s truth, learning, growing. And even then our flesh is a strong contender to our spirits’ wills. In my experience to live as a new creation is a long process that I imagine will last a lifetime.

5. Authentic Christianity teaches people have no goodness of their own. No one is good but God. Matthew 19:17 The key to understanding this truth is how we define goodness and how God does is different. His goodness is defined by His omniscience, pure love and complete truth – three things no human has. Therefore only He is truly good. The rest of us have warped versions and ideas of goodness. Christians who praise, claim, or try to be good don’t get this truth. They have a copycat religion of because we can’t have our own goodness.

We, Christians, need to be comfortable with who we are and who we are not, and stop claiming, giving and accepting the praise from others that we are good. We all have a desire to be good that is why there are so many performance based religions but that desire is to draw us to God’s goodness not our own. We need to stop focusing on goodness like every other religion and put our energy into cultivating a relationship with God, what the gospel is all about.

Our response to the accusers shouldn’t be to excuse our brethren, but to say to you are right, hypocrisy is wrong and educate them on who we truly are – we aren’t about goodness we are about abiding in a relationship with God and if good flows from that then give credit where credit is due.

Psalm 71:16 I will go in the strength of the Lord GOD; I will make mention of Your righteousness, of Yours only.


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Religion of Love

Religion of Love

 

Authentic Christianity isn’t a religion in the sense that we gain merit and acceptance from God when we obey various rules and regulations and carry out certain duties. Christianity stands alone in that our worth, value and acceptance is derived from God’s love and grace, not our performance. Christianity is a religion of love, and nothing like religion. However, religion has crept into most of Christianity making it what it was never intended to be. His love and grace are hard concepts to accept because everything we do is based on our performance to some extent. To help renew our minds to this new way of thinking, we need to stop worrying about what man dictates and focus our energies on what Christ instructs.

Matthew 22:37-40 Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets

This commandment sounds simple, but we can easily misunderstand it and neglect to fulfill it unless we understand the type of love we are talking about. God’s love far exceeds anything we have experienced or have given in this carnal world. It only comes from Him. For this reason, God said in John 13:35 that others would know us by our love because it is something this world or we can’t give on our own even if we wanted to.

Our initial understanding of love is born out of the world therefore it is of a carnal nature. The love of God is spiritual. We know that these two entities are in opposition. Hence the love of the world opposes the love of God. Consider the multitude of perversions of worldly love. It is overly sexual, demanding, needy, detached or restricted. It is used to control, manipulate, dominate, suppress, deny, and sabotage. These distorted understandings come from various venues; families, first loves, boyfriends/girlfriends, friends, spouses, magazines, movies, music, books, and religion. All these sources converge to define our concept of love and rarely do we question the final outcome. We recognize that we may have not of been loved or given love as we feel we should have but our understanding of love remains an unquestioned force in our lives. Without much consideration, we transfer this carnal love onto God.

Knowing and accepting God’s love takes time because it is so different from what we know. God’s love is based on Him, not us. It is unchanging, unconditional, consuming, perfect, pure, complete, selfless, in truth, and in harmony with all that He is (all knowing, holy, just, and righteous) and that is only the beginning.

God’s love goes beyond our human capability to fully understand and contain it. It is defined by who He is, therefore it is much much greater than ourselves. We are a little lagoon and God is all the oceans of the world and beyond. His love is more than what we could ever contain and we can only experience and give His love if He fills us up first. And that is the cornerstone of Christ’s command – we can’t fulfill it unless we are born of His spirit that has the ability to hold and give such a love.

Once we are spiritually born, in proportion to the growth of our spirit is our ability to hold and give His love. Our spirits are an expanding reservoir in our bodies that hold the treasures of God. It is from this new spirit within us that the love of God flows. If our spirit is small then it holds a little and gives a little, and the rest of us, the flesh, will dominate our actions most of the time. But as that spirit grows taking over territories of our soul then we are capable of holding and giving more. The kingdom of God, God’s territory in our souls, is compared to a mustard seed, it starts very small but is capable of grower larger than everything else. Matthew 13:31-32 Giving true love is a natural outcome of our spirit’s life. We can’t give what we don’t have. We need to seek a love beyond ourselves.

So, how do we experience more of God’s love? We get to know Him like we would a spouse. We dive into Him and His revelation of Himself to us, the Bible. If we love God or desire to love Him, then we will spend time with Him in His Word getting to know Him.

Being God’s child means we have the ability to know and give His love, a love greater than ourselves. Our religion is relationships of love; love from God, love for God and love for others and it is all of God’s work in and through us, not of ourselves.

John 15:5 I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.

1 Thessalonians 3:12 And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, just as we do to you,

We have to seek to know His love because it is so different from what we have experienced in the past. As we seek Him, He will reveal His love to us in an intimate way then we will make a difference to the world because His love will flow through us.


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Temporary Reign of Our Self Will

Temporary Reign of Our Self Will

 

I was thinking how this world is saturated with “evil”; philosophies, ideas and beliefs full of deception that cause all kinds of pain, destruction, horrific acts, and death to our spirits. The extent of evil became overwhelming, but then I realized, most of the world is going to be evil because for the time being God has put Satan, the personification of our self-will, in charge of this world. 1 John 5:19, Ephesians 2:2 I think for two main reasons; to show us that following self doesn’t work and the power of God’s love to redeem us out of this world into His Kingdom.

Satan, our self-will, doesn’t submit to God therefore he can’t bring about anything that is truly good, pure and of love because only God’s ways produce these things. As prince of this earth, our self-will governs all the major powerhouses; politics, education, business, media, and religion. (Here I am defining religion as the man-made system and doctrine supposedly established on truth which creates a belief structure dictating certain behaviors.) Most of us don’t think about our religion, our safe haven, as overrun by evil, but if you open your eyes you will see it is one of the worst as the Bible states repeatedly.

For example, in the man-made system that blankets true Christianity lies bondage, legalism, focus on self, and customs that separate us from God – the formula of religion, which reads: if you were a good Christian you would be in church, tithe, baptized with the right amount of water, walk the aisle, honor this day, don’t drink that, and so on. Evil, anything contrary to true goodness, disguised as good is the worst form of evil – because people are easily led astray. Any belief system that goes against God’s truth is evil.

Evil in religion is most damaging because people put their trust in it. It forms the foundation of people’s beliefs and views about them, others and God. When it is full of lies and deception it is incredibly destructive leading to spiritual decay and death.

We are here in these bodies to learn that following self or man’s will, in religion and everywhere else, doesn’t work. For creatures with a free will, we have to learn whose will to follow. We are all seeing the ramifications of the reign of self in our lives and the lives of others and it isn’t a pretty picture. God created us to be united to Him, dependent on Him and for Him to be in charge not us. Any other way destroys life, physically and spiritually.

So what do we do to avoid being consumed by the evil around us particularly in religion?

1. Cultivate a relationship with God not with religion. Many of us have spent more time nurturing a relationship with the church and ministries than with God. This flip flop leads to one thing, spiritual death. God called us out of religion and into a relationship, because religion, man’s list of should do’s and have to’s, is easily corrupted.

2. Develop a relationship with God so we can submit to His will. We can’t submit to someone we aren’t personally acquainted with. Without intimacy, there is no true knowledge or trust and therefore no submission.

3. Abide in the truth, the Word of God. Self-will, the cornerstone of evil, is built on a foundation of lies because it promises things it can never deliver because only God can; truth, freedom, peace, rest, joy and love. Therefore the only way to come out of it is by countering it with the truth. The truth sets us free. Without reading and meditating on the Words of God on a daily basis, we won’t know the truth to be able to discern what is true and what isn’t. When we do abide, we gain discernment in all areas including religion.

God’s people are the ones He called out to show those lost in deception that His ways lead to true life, joy and love – everything we desire. However, without the Word as the cornerstone of our lives, our self-wills will reign and our spirits will be overtaken by the world and we won’t stand out. Without the Word there isn’t truth and without truth we remain in bondage to our self-will. We will continue to live in fears, afflictions, lies, depravity and lack of love manifesting our own evil.

The result of Satan’s governance in religion is churches have put our life source, the Word of God, at the bottom of the priority list. It has been tossed aside, interpreted instead of read, and is no longer the priority. Why? Because it has power, life, and transforms lives – the one thing Satan doesn’t want. Most churches are bypassing the requirement for our lives that Christ is our Lord. People have tunnel vision about what the Word says about Christ’s Lordship. Because they are listening to their leaders and not in the Word themselves, they believe the gospel is about a ticket to heaven and that is a lie that causes death to our spirits. Going to heaven is a result of His Lordship in our lives. We need to examine what it means for Him to be Lord. When He is Lord of our lives, then the Word is at the center of our days because He is the Word, and we stand outside of evil as a beacon of light, truth, hope and love.