The Love Challenge (Part Two)

We are discussing love from the perspective of 1 John 4. To get the context, please read part one first if you haven't already. We have reached 1 John 4:8: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love".

So, how do we know we are born again and are like God? We examine our behaviour, interests, priorities, how we interact with people, our desires, and so on, and we test and compare them against who God is, as described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. 

According to these passages in 1 John 4, if you do not walk in love,  you are not
born of God and do not know Him. You may have said the sinners' prayer,  you may be active in a lot of Christian and religious activities, be active in church, but Paul puts it as follows in 1 Corinthians 13:1-2: If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. [2]If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If all Christians love enough to actively make a difference in other people's lives, the world would be a much different place. We don't need to be world missionaries or trained as pastors. We only need to touch people where we are - in the shop, on the street,  in the parking lot, at work. We only need to be witnesses,  telling our stories. We need to comfort, encourage, exhort, motivate, and teach people what we have learnt in our walk.

Jesus told His disciples in Acts 1:8: "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." His disciples could reach parts of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, but needed their downline of disciples (that's us) to reach the ends of the earth. Who did Jesus speak to in the above passage? He spoke to all His disciples, including all those who would follow Him throughout the ages. Are you a disciple of Jesus, His follower? Yes? Then He spoke to you as well. What are we to do? We are to be witnesses of what we have seen the Lord do and what He taught us. We need to care. Satan will throw circumstances your way to keep you busy and so focused on yourself and your problems that you would use it as an excuse not to act in love. 

Jesus said in John 13:35: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” It's not by your church-going, or your religious duties, or even your good works that people will connect you with Jesus. Lots of unbelievers do good works. It's by our love. It's by being Jesus for others, doing what He did and having the attitude He had that links us to Him in the minds of observers. Love is not a feeling, the warm heart we often confuse with love. Love is an action, an activity, something you do. How else can we love our enemies as Jesus commanded us in Matthew 5:44? We cannot feel love towards them. How can you feel love towards someone who wants to harm you, someone who hates you? How would you love your enemies then? By doing good things for them. The Lord made it easy for those attentive to His voice. Ephesians 2:10 tells us: For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The Lord prepared your love activities for you even before you were born and presents them to you daily as opportunities to show off His love. What are you doing with those opportunities? Colossians 4:5-6: Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. [6]Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

What will Jesus do about your opportunities? On the day of judgement of the believers, He is going to call you to account for the good works God went to the trouble of preparing for you and presented to you as opportunities, and is going to require an explanation of what you have done with them. What are these opportunities? They are opportunities to love, so the world can see who Jesus' disciples are and therefore who He is. They are opportunities to make a difference in people's lives, to the glory of God.

To be continued

The Love Challenge (Part One)

Together with our precious and faithful Holy Spirit, I am going to attempt to bring clarity on the reality of love, mostly from the writings of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved. It is evident from John's writings that he had a deeper understanding of who Jesus was, and I can only presume that it came from his close walk with Jesus. I imagine him hanging onto every word and movement Jesus uttered while the others were picturing Jesus as an earthly king to set them free from Roman oppression. He had deeper insight into who Jesus was and what He came to do. He certainly had great insight into God’s amazing love, and he put a lot of emphasis on it in his writings in both the gospel of John and in his letters, the Epistles 1, 2, and 3 John.

Let us start with 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

I thought one had to say a sinner's prayer to be born of God. 

When we are born of human parents, we inherit their characteristics - our features, talents, nature, and personality. Have you ever been told, "I can see your mom in you," or "you remind me so much of your dad"? When you do certain little things, such as clearing your throat, making certain facial movements, or speaking, aren't you often reminded of one of your parents you see in yourself? Even weaknesses your parents have/had show in you.

What is the sign of being born of God? 

May I quote a description of God to you?

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Amplified: [4] 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.

[5] 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].

[6] It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

[7] 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].

We'll read in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. We can, therefore, replace the word love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 above with the word God. These are all of God's characteristics. We said earlier that you were born to your parents and inherited some of their characteristics.

Therefore, if you are born of God, you would have inherited His characteristics, which are summarised in one word: love.

Can you change the mannerisms, strengths, and weaknesses inherited from your parents? No, you can't. You are stuck with them.

Can you change the characteristics that you inherited from God? No. So what if you don't act in love, which is who God is? That brings us to 1 John 4:8: "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love".

Oops! So, how do we know we are born again and are like God? We look at our behaviour, interests, priorities, how we deal with people, our desires, etc., and we test them against and compare them to who God is as described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. 

We will continue next time.

I am Healed!

More than a blog article, this is a testimony that hopefully creates faith in you to remain healthy or be healed. 

I had some training in effectively and briefly praying for healing. I have seen several healings and have concluded that the fewer words you use in prayer for healing, the more power you experience. I'd love to testify about this one result.

I was working in a pharmacy, and after I had served this lady, I asked her if I could pray for her for her illness. She agreed, and I took her aside and prayed the brief, powerful prayer I had prayed so many times before. She was healed, and I felt prompted to ask her if she knew Jesus.  She said no. So, I asked her whether she'd like to know Him. She said no. Her abruptness took me aback a little, but I heard the Holy Spirit tell me the church had hurt her. Then a wonderful thing happened. 

"Do you pray for everyone you serve here?" she asked,  meaning in the pharmacy with medicine.

"No," I said. 

"So, do you only pray for those God tells you to?"

"Yes," I said.

"So God told you to pray for me?"

"Yes."

"So God cares about me."

"Yes, He does."

"Then I'd better make things right with Him."

That was it. The Holy Spirit took over, and she preached the gospel to herself. I was blessed by the joys one can experience when you allow the Holy Spirit to lead.

This, however, is not my story and the purpose of this testimony, but is meant to show how alive and present the Lord is for those who believe. 

The time came that I needed prayer for healing, and I realised that if others get healed when I pray for them, why not me? Laying hands on myself would, however, be silly. 

Jesus said in Mark 11:24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. He also said in Mark 16:18 ...they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” The latter, He said as part of the Great Commandment.

Note that Jesus used two important terms. In Mark 11, He said "have received" and in Mark 16 ", they will be healed". There are no ifs and buts.

So, I decided that if I call healing of my illness, I have received it and I shall be healed.

From then on, every time I get symptoms of any illness, I simply declare "I am healed by the blood of Jesus" or "this pain has gone away by the power of Jesus". Without fail, I get healed. Some healings take longer than others, but I get healed.

The condition, however, is faith in God's words as recorded in the Bible. There are no "what ifs", "buts", or "is it the will of God?" He stated His will clearly in Mark 16:18 and various other places in the Bible. He wants people to be healed. I simply don't accept illness. Many patients I serve in the pharmacies seem proud of their illnesses. I often hear people say, 'I suffer from this' and 'I suffer from that'. In my mind, I then say, 'If you want to suffer, then suffer, but I'm not going to suffer. Jesus died for my illnesses and promised to heal me, so I seek healing until I find it.'  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you (Matthew 7:7). God said it, I believe it, that settles it.

Then again, I tell everyone about it, giving the Lord the glory. He loves glory, and every time you do it, He looks for the opportunity to help you so you can give Him the glory publicly again.

We read at the end of the account where Jesus healed the man at the pool of Bethesda in John 5:14: Later, Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, "See, you are well again. Stop sinning, or something worse may happen to you."  From what Jesus told the man, I have learnt that if illness doesn't leave, I look into my life for sin to repent of and let go, so healing is not kept from me due to sin.

How about you? Are you going to take the Lord by His Word? Do it, and be healed of all your illnesses as you call your healing.

Silencing the Barking Dogs - a Testimony

When the Lord said in Proverbs 3:5 & 6, "[5] Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. [6] In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths,"  He meant it. Here is how I know it.

On two occasions in my life, my neighbours' dogs have barked endlessly in the middle of the night. Eventually, I got fed up and phoned them in the middle of the night to ask them to silence their dogs. That was the end of both of the relationships. The last neighbour refused to speak to me for 7 years and found all kinds of silly things to complain about.

I then decided a barking dog is not worth a broken relationship, and the Holy Spirit gave me this brilliant plan. Every time the latter dog barked, I simply asked the Lord to give it peace and to remove the trigger. Within seconds, it stopped barking. This happened without fail.

We then moved home, and guess what? My neighbour has three barking dogs among the hundreds of others across our little town. Guess what else. God gives them peace instantly every time I pray, causing them to stop barking.

Wouldn't you say that the above counts as making my path straight, as Proverbs 3 puts it?

Another thing I love to do is to tell everyone about it, giving the Lord the glory. He loves glory, and every time you do it, He looks for the opportunity to help you again so you can give Him the glory publicly.

If we examine human nature and honestly reflect on ourselves, we can understand why verse 5 above was added. Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 'All your heart' means with your entire heart, but it also means with everything your heart is concerned with. 'Leaning on your own understanding' often tells us we think it's petty. "Why would God concern Himself with irritating, barking dogs. He has much greater worries than those."

The Lord loves us so much that our concerns are His concerns. If barking dogs irritate me, they do Him as well, for He feels for me. To Him, empathy with His loved ones is part of His love for us. That is why He sent Jesus to empathise with our state.

The other thing is that good relationships between neighbours are important to Him. His Word refers to it all the time. So, if He could resolve my problem with barking dogs before I mess up the relationship with my neighbour in my attempt to solve it, He redeemed a relationship.

The barking dogs issue is only one practical example. There are many petty things in your life that the Lord wants to help you with if you just call on Him. Like the hijack attempt on my car. Men smashed my car windows, and in my fear, I only managed to cry, "Help Jesus!" The next moment, they ran away.

Faith is not something you say, it's something you do. What's the point in serving the Lord and reading the Bible if you don't apply it practically in your life? God said it, I believe and apply it, that settles it..

Take the Lord at His Word and believe Him.

Where to Find Faith

The famous chapter on faith in Hebrews 11 starts with these words: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  — Hebrews 11:1 (KJV) Hebrews 11:1 in the Amplified Bible reads: NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].

The above passage says that if we hope, i.e., have an expectation for something we asked the Lord in

prayer, faith is the reality we hold on to until we receive what we expect. It's like a ticket to a concert. When we bought the ticket long before the time, we hadn't seen the concert yet, but the ticket is evidence of the concert we hope to see.

Faith is not only needed for things asked of the Lord, but in general life, such as in business deals and when something is planned, produced, etc. The same principles apply to the faith we need for the latter. We have hope, an expectation of how something will work out. We apply faith, which is the evidence that it will work out, until we see the result. Without faith that the hope will manifest, we will not persevere.

Where does faith that the Lord will come through for you come from? How do we get faith? According to Ephesians 2:8, we are saved through faith, which is a gift of God: "For by grace you have been saved [through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God..." This passage refers to salvation, but faith, in general, is a gift from the Lord.

How does He give it, and how do you receive it?

We read in Romans 10:17: "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." The Word of Christ is the Bible, the written Word, everything recorded about what Christ has said and done. What has He said and done? John 1:1-5,14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” The entire Bible is about Jesus Christ.

We read the written Word, the Bible (the Logos, in Greek). It contains a lot about the Creator and His relationship with His creation. Yet, although we have all this knowledge, we still find it hard to believe because faith comes from God. We need to receive this faith from Him to have the ticket, the title deed of what we hope or expect.

Romans 10:17 mentions hearing, which comes from the Word, the logos. What is this hearing? Is it hearing the preacher or the pastor's message?

Let me illustrate what I understood. When your employer walks into the general office announcing that one of the employees there will be promoted, will you take it for yourself, having faith that you will be promoted? No, you won't. It could be any of the employees. This is like the logos, the written Word; it's for everybody. It does not necessarily create faith in the reader. However, if your employer comes to you telling you that you will be promoted, will you then have faith?

Have you ever had a specific passage jump out at you while reading the Bible? You just knew it spoke to you, touching your heart. It meant something special to you, creating faith in your heart. What happened is that you were reading the Word of Christ, the logos, when you heard the Lord speak to you through the passage that jumped out to you, the rhema, and it created faith in you. The latter is the 'hearing' as per Romans 10:17.

"So, faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17). God has given you faith through the message He gave you personally from the written Word, the logos, the Word of Christ.

An example from my life. Many years ago, I was reading Psalm 91 when verses 14-16 jumped out to me. I heard the Lord say to me: “Because he loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honour him. With long life, I will satisfy him and show him my salvation.”

At the time, I didn't know why the Lord gave me faith for protection, but I made this passage my own by memorising it and praying it whenever I was scared. The Lord was faithful to His promise and protected me innumerable times, even when I did stupid things that deserved the consequences.

One day, however, when I prayed this Rhema passage, the Lord stopped me and told me, "Why should I protect you, for you're not loving me?"

"What do you mean, Lord?" I asked.

He took me to John 14:21 and 23, another rhema I received that prompted me to constant obedience. John 14:21, 23:

V21: "Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”

V23: "Jesus replied, 'Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.'"

He told me about something specific in which I was disobedient, and I repented.

Can you see where faith comes from and why "the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, and penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart"? (Hebrews 4:12).

This is what Christianity is about - a living, active relationship with the Word, the Creator of everything that exists (John 1:1).

Therefore, if you need faith for something, ask the Holy Spirit what passage, chapter, or book you should read and then read until you hear the Lord speak to you from the Logos. Sometimes one needs faith at the spur of the moment to do something difficult, make a challenging decision, or take a bold step. One doesn’t necessarily have time to read until God speaks to you. Then, knowing the Bible well helps you to receive faith in that moment because the Holy Spirit can bring a passage to mind from your memory, which will give you faith. Continue reading the Bible so it can take root in your memory. I find listening to the audio Bible, which is freely available on phone apps, very profitable.

Let's go and find faith in the Word of Christ through hearing what God tells you as you read it.