A Father's Love

If God is love, then why isn't His church? One of the reasons that the church has such a tough time walking in love is because you can't walk in something you don't understand. We ,in our flesh, love conditionally, based on what we get out of the relationship. It is hard for us to understand any other love outside of conditional love. I mean, yeah, we talk about it all the time. We love to use the word "agapa" and we are well aware of what it means, but do we believe it? The love of the Father embraces you no matter who or where you are in life. Nothing, not even sin, can separate you from His love.

1 John 4:8 

He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. 

In this verse the word "knoweth" is the word ginōskō in Greek. It means to understand. 

So, the verse is saying that the only reason that people are not walking in love is because they do not understand God or His love for them. 

Once you begin to understand His love for you it will make you want to express the same love and grace that you are experiencing from your Father. When you live in that understanding of His love it allows you to grow and move in love, because His love is made perfect (matured) in you ( 1 John 4:16-17). 

We are called to walk in love and not just toward Christians. I was raised in a denomination that placed more emphasis on an eternal dwelling place than a relationship with God, through the finished work of Jesus Christ. They would spend most of their time motivating people by fear rather than by love. We went to "Judgment House" and "Heaven's Gates, Hell's Flames" every year, and every year we would weep bitterly with tears of .... FEAR. 

This is not an effective method, because when the fear wears off then often times, so does the "salvation experience". Jesus motivates people by love, not fear. One of my favorite stories in The Bible is when they bring the adulteress to Jesus to be stoned. He told the crowd that if there was anyone present who had never sinned, they may throw the first stone. The powerful thing about that story is that there WAS someone there who had never sinned... Jesus! He was the only one there who had the right the throw a stone, but His answer to sin, was love. He said neither do I condemn you go and sin no more. This is the love of God in action. 

When you see people who are not in the same place in life as you are try loving them instead of judging them, you don't know what they have been through. Maybe they just need to experience the love of God.

Favor for life.

The word favor in the bible is the same as the word grace. It means "to be found favorable and acceptable."

If we can understand favor for what is really is, we will be able to understand God and our relationship with Him even better. When you don't understand where you stand in relation to God then it can cause unnecessary strain on your entire relationship with Him. There are a lot of people that have accepted this unrealistic idea of God. We have been taught that our relationship with God is based on what we do for Him rather than what He did for us. Understand that God is not mad at you, He's mad about you!

Let's see what His intentions are for us.


#1.His intention for us is Good will (good choices, delight, pleasure,satisfaction.)

Luke 2:14- Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men.

This was a declaration of the heavenly host referring to the birth of Jesus. They were letting us know what the birth of Jesus was bringing.

Peace and Good will TOWARD men... They were telling us that Jesus was coming with favor FROM God TOWARD men. He put an end to the friction between God and man.

Now we know that God does not want us to be miserable, and we don't always have to figure a new way to get Him to favor you.

#2. His intention for us is to have life.

John 10:10- The thief cometh not, but for the steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and they they might have it more abundantly.

Here Jesus Himself tells us what He came to earth for. He came to give us life. We all know that Jesus came to give us eternal life with Him for those who believe, but Jesus wants us to know that our new life begins when we receive Him. You don't have to wait until you die before you can benefit from the life that He has imparted to us.

The word life here in John 10 means "active vigorous blessed life".
That's the kind of life He wants you to have, but is that the life that you are living?

We have to change the way we think God sees us. We need transformation in life and transformation comes when we change the way we think. (Romans 12:2)

God loves you and has the best intentions for you. Allow Him to lead you out of a life of oppression  fear, and intimidation and into a life of freedom, blessing, and excitement.

Who is killing your vision?

   Every time I meet a new person, one of my favorite things to talk about is their vision for life. I like to see what they are passionate about, what makes them tick, and what makes them take risks that they would never take otherwise. One thing I have noticed about dreams is the fact that everyone has one. We all have this idea in the back of our mind that we really believe we should be doing. We don't always know what it is or how to interpret it, but it's there. We always start out strong ready to take on the world if need be, but somewhere along the way something happens to us. Discouragement starts to set in and that's when things begin to take a turn for the worse; until finally you have stopped trying and start blaming someone else. It's time to take your vision back. We need to learn how to fight discouragment and understand that no one can kill your dream but you. People can come into your life and say anything they want to about you, but that doesn't change the course of your destiny unless you allow it to.

1. Be careful who you listen to.

Surround yourself with people who care about you and what you are trying to accomplish. You can not allow people, who are intimidated by your dream, to speak into your life. It's important to surround yourself with people who will speak life and encouragement to you about the goals you are trying to accomplish. Intimidated people will sabotage you and your dream. 

2. Be careful what you say.

What you hear is what you think, what you think is what you say, and what you say is what you will become. The Bible says in Proverbs 23:7, "As a man thinks in his heart so is he." Why is that? Luke 6:45 says, "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." You become who you are because your life follows your words. Thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, habits become character, and character becomes destiny.

Don't allow what others say about you define who you are. We are defined by the word of God and what He says about us. You don't have time to be stewards over everyone else's thoughts about you. Think God's thoughts and speak God's word and you will accomplish great things. You are the only person that can kill your dream. Don't allow the enemy to inject negative thoughts and words of discouragement causing you to abort your own dream. 

Unity is a Powerful thing!

What could we accomplish if we worked together?

Sadly that is a question that is hardly ever answered. People are not sure what they can do if they work together because it is rare that you ever find a group of people that are capable of working together. This is unfortunate because great things can be accomplished when you are working in unity. 

Genesis chapter 11 tells us an amazing story that most have already heard: The Tower of Babel. I was reading this story the other day and a few things stood out to me that have really helped me to understand how the process of accomplishing goals really works.

1. They communicated...

Gen 11:3-4

They were able to communicate their plan. If you cannot communicate your vision to others, then they will never know what it is. (Most people cant't read minds.) 

2. They had a plan...

Gen 11:3

A plan is the birth canal of a dream. It's the man with a plan, not the dream, that is successful. Look at Joseph, for example. Pharaoh was the man with the dream, but he had no idea what to do with it. Joseph had the ability to take a dream, couple it with a plan, and make it a reality. In Gen 11:3 you see the plan begin to unfold: "let us make brick", and again in vs.4, "Go let us build a city." They had a plan and that plan helped turn their dirt into bricks and their bricks into a city. What you hold in your hand may not be much now, but if you  will get a plan and stick to it then one day your dirt will be a city. You can't sit around waiting for it to happen, because your city will not build itself. You have to take certain steps to make it happen. 

3. They executed the plan...

Gen 11:6 ... "this they began to do."

There comes a time when you have to stop communicating and actually start doing. Most people are afraid to move forward with a plan because they are afraid to fail or they don't want to be disappointed. IT'S OK IF YOU FAIL... really. Anyone who has ever accomplished something in life has had to face and overcome the fear of failure. Most of them have even failed a time or two. If you don't face failure and move forward then your plan will continue to be a dream without ever becoming reality.   

Now, I know what most of you are thinking... "Did he really use a story about a city in defiance to God as an encouragement to work together?" Yes, I did...and here's why. The most powerful part of this story is in vs. 6. After they communicated, came up with a plan, and started working, vs. 6 says "now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do." In other words, their dream is about to become reality. They set out to build the world's first sky scrapper and they would have accomplished it because they were all on the same page. How much more could the church do if we would learn to work together in unity?

What do you think? Leave me a comment below.