I have arrived to the ending of this mini-series I've conducted on the basic principles that unsaved brothers and sisters and even believers should know. Many are rejoicing that I am not talking about my religious mumbo-jumbo; others are ambivalent. Whatever your thoughts may be, I assure you that what I am speaking of I had not only experienced them firsthand, but I am knowledgeable regarding my subjects. Despite the power, victory, triumph, and dominion we have as Christ's heir, the most important thing is love. God's greatest commandment is to love. Matthew 22: 37-40 expresses this: Jesus replied: 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' God doesn't want power, faith, and results from us without receiving love first. It is, after all, the reason why God sent His Son for us, because He loves us. God's love is inexplicable, innumerable, and immeasurable. Ephesians 3:18 beautifully tells us the incalculable love of God: 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. The core of the Gospel is to spread the love of Christ to all nations. People want love before they see the power of Christ. They don't want to see an all-powerful deity before they see an unconditional, authentic, pure, and real-loving God. The love of God is what attracts people to Christ and why they ultimately want to surrender their lives to Him--because He gives a love, a supernatural love, that is not of the world. And people sense that. They sense that the love that you have burning inside of you, that is a consuming fire, is not the type of love that is found within people on this earth. It is a supernatural love that cannot be explained through the 5 senses, cognitively, qualitatively, quantitatively, or scientifically. However, when this love washes over you and you are in that moment when the love of God is over you, you know it's real. That because God is love. 1 John 4:7 illuminates this reality: He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love. addition, because we have Christ inside of us, we are told to love like Christ loves the world. Christians are required to walk in unconditional love. Without unconditional love, the anointing doesn't operate, you don't achieve the results you wait for because your heart is not in the right place and it is in spitefulness (the opposite spectrum of love), and you become a target for the enemy because unconditional love is an invisible forcefield against the enemy. When you walk in unconditional love, everything aligns up to what you speak because you walk in the unconditional love that God requires you to walk in. That speaking, unconditional love means loving regardless of the circumstance, and that oftentimes means tough love. Being a Christian doesn't mean going with the flow; being a Christian means being Christ-like, and Christ always displayed love but not in the way some people wanted (such as the Pharisees). Unconditional love means refusing to give money to a child that is reckless and foolish with money; unconditional love means speaking the truth even in troubling circumstances and environment ; unconditional love means walking in the road that provides results, even if you are lonely...but not alone; unconditional love means doing good, not nice. You love the person as a being, but you may not necessarily love what he or she is doing or how that said person is living his or her life. You love all the time, but you don't give in to people based on maudlin sentiments that appeals to one's emotions. Christ loves all the time, since He is love, but He often displayed tough love. The man at the pool of Bethesda who trifled getting well, Christ could have healed Him; He is powerful enough to do that. But, displaying unconditional love, Christ asked him is he truly wanted to get well, testing him. Why do Christ tests us sometimes? I admit, the walk of a Christian, or Christ ambassador, is not easy. It is filled with trials and tribulations, but Christ has overcome the world (the world in Greek translations means the burdens of the world, which includes sickness, debt, challenges, everything). John 16:33 says this truth: I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. So why does God tests us if He loves us? He tests us because He wants to make sure that our love for Him will remain and grow even in troubling times, when the sun isn't always shining. God wants to know that our love for Him, in return, is authentic, unconditional, pure, and real. God loves us when we were sinners, when we were in a hole that we couldn't climb out. The God of all the earth saw our insignificance and loved us and rescued us. God created the earth so He can have a family--you and I. God loves you. Never question that. Never doubt it. And if you do, then you know that it is from the enemy because the evil one is not love and does not give love. Since love is perhaps the central message of the Gospel, here are additional Scriptures to help you comprehend the abounding love of Christ.
If you [really] love Me, you will keep (obey) My commands.
John 14: 15
Whereas the object and purpose of our instruction and charge is love, which springs from a pure heart and a good (clear) conscience and sincere (unfeigned) faith.
1 Timothy 1: 5
And walk in love, [esteeming and delighting in one another] as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God [for you, so that it became] a sweet fragrance.
Ephesians 5: 2
[Let your] love be sincere (a real thing); hate what is evil [loathe all ungodliness, turn in horror from wickedness], but hold fast to that which is good.
Romans 12: 9
Love one another with brotherly affection [as members of one family], giving precedence and showing honor to one another.
Romans 12: 10
Little children, let us not love [merely] in theory or in speech but in deed and in truth (in practice and in sincerity).
1 John 3: 18
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being and with all your might.
Deuteronomy 6: 5
Know, recognize, and understand therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keeps covenant and steadfast love and mercy with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations.
Deuteronomy 7: 9
How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
Psalm 36: 7
Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he knows and understands My name [has a personal knowledge of My mercy, love, and kindness--trusts and relies on Me, knowing I will never forsake him, no, never].
Psalm 91: 14
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him].
1 John 4: 7
He who does not love has not become acquainted with God [does not and never did know Him], for God is love.
1 John 4: 8
Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us.
Romans 5: 5
But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us.
Romans 5: 8
Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law.
Romans 13: 10
For God is not unrighteous to forget or overlook your labor and the love which you have shown for His name's sake in ministering to the needs of the saints (His own consecrated people), as you still do.
Hebrews 6: 10
Let love for your fellow believers continue and be a fixed practice with you [never let it fail].
Hebrews 13: 1
But if one loves God truly [with affectionate reverence, prompt obedience, and grateful recognition of His blessing], he is known by God [recognized as worthy of His intimacy and love, and he is owned by Him].
1 Corinthians 8: 3
But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all--love].
1 Corinthians 12: 31
For whom the Lord loves He corrects, even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.
Proverbs 3: 12
I love those who love me, and those who seek me early and diligently shall find me.
Proverbs 8: 17
But God--so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us.
Ephesians 2: 4
I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.
John 13: 34
By this shall all [men and women] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing love among yourselves].
John 13: 35
He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love [for love waved as a protecting and comforting banner over my head when I was near him].
Song of Solomon 2: 4
And this I pray: that your love may abound yet more and more and extend to its fullest development in knowledge and all keen insight [that your love may display itself in greater depth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment].
Philippians 1: 9
Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].
1 Peter 4: 8
Show respect for all men [treat them honorably]. Love the brotherhood (the Christian fraternity of which Christ is the Head). Reverence God. Honor the emperor.
1 Peter 2: 17
Who shall ever separate us from Christ's love? Shall suffering and affliction and tribulation? Or calamity and distress? Or persecution or hunger or destitution or peril or sword?
Romans 8: 35
For I am persuaded beyond doubt (am sure) that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things impending and threatening nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8: 38-39
May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deep in love and founded securely on love.
Ephesians 3: 17
[That you may really come] to know [practically, through experience for yourselves] the love of Christ, which far surpasses mere knowledge [without experience]; that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!
Ephesians 3: 19
And may the Lord make you to increase and excel and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you.
1 Thessalonians 3: 12
And above all these [put on] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].
Colossians 3: 14
As a father loves and pities his children, so the Lord loves and pities those who fear Him [with reverence, worship, and awe].
Psalm 103: 13
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but [reverently] to fear the Lord your God, [that is] to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your [mind and] heart and with your entire being.
Deuteronomy 10: 12
But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
Matthew 5: 44
If you [merely] love those who love you, what quality of credit and thanks is that to you? For even the [very] sinners love their lovers (those who love them).
Luke 6: 32
Therefore I tell you, her sins, many [as they are], are forgiven her--because she has loved much. But he who is forgiven little loves little.
Luke 7: 47
I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].
John 15: 9
No one has greater love [no one has shown stronger affection] than to lay down (give up) his own life for his friends.
John 15: 13
Let everything you do be done in love (true love to God and man as inspired by God's love for us).
1 Corinthians 16: 14
Hatred stirs up contentions, but love covers all transgressions.
Proverbs 10: 12
May the Lord direct your hearts into [realizing and showing] the love of God and into the steadfastness and patience of Christ and in waiting for His return.
2 Thessalonians 3: 5
Beloved, if God loved us so [very much], we also ought to love one another.
1 John 4: 11
Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God's love in me), I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13: 3
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
1 Corinthians 13: 4
It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
1 Corinthians 13: 5
It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
1 Corinthians 13: 6
Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
1 Corinthians 13: 7
Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
1 Corinthians 13: 8
And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.
1 Corinthians 13: 13
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The enemy hates love because he knows that love (God) is power. So when we utilize the powerful that has been distributes to us through the Holy Spirit, it equals defeat. Coupled with the anointing and power of the Word of God, he screams and pulls his hair out (figuratively speaking) because he doesn't know what else to do to bring you down, to bring the defeat to you. And he hates that.
Well, I hope this gives you a new but real perspective to what living for Christ is all about. It's not about having Jesus but living messed up lives; it's about living in Jesus and obtaining results wherever we go. We have freedom, deliverance, and power in Jesus--we need to live like it. If you have any more questions or are still wondering about certain things, please click the following links to certified preachers who have give me this knowledge so that I may disperse it elsewhere.
Creflo Dollar
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