Those Who Dwell in Love
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September 10, 2017 |
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 Senior Pastor Dr. Jaerock Lee
"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" (1 John 4:16).
The extent that the love of God is in you tells how much you abide in God and become united with Him. If you have the love of God in you, your heart's desire will be fulfilled and the work of God will follow. Now let's delve into the characteristics of those who dwell in love and become united with God in that love.
1. They Can Always Give Thanks in Any Trials.
God wanted to have true children with whom He could share His love. That is why God created mankind. To the extent that you resemble God, you will be given more of His love, blessing, and His power.
For this, God has allowed you to be cultivated in this world. By having you experience the decaying and changing "flesh", God has led you to realize true value of the everlasting and unchanging "spirit."
By recovering God's lost image, achieving the heart of the Lord and becoming children of spirit through the process of human cultivation, you will be able to receive honor and glory forever more. That is why God loves us that God created us and has been cultivating us on the earth. If you believe it completely from the depths of your heart you can only give thanks to God no matter what your trial may be.
1 Peter 1:7 reads, "So that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which is perishable, even though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." God promised to repay what you have done in this world (more on Matthew 16:27; Revelation 22:12). Jesus also gave His disciples the following promise of blessing on the night He was arrested: "You are those who have stood by Me in My trials; and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Luke 22:28-30).
In the Bible, God chose appropriate people and refined them through trials. Moses and many prophets in the Old Testament time, as well as the apostles in the New Testament time went through such trials with faith, love, and hope for Heaven in joy and thanks. As written in Hebrews 5:8-9, Jesus also "learned obedience from the things which He suffered" although He is the Son of God and had existed in the form of God. Thus, only after we destroy our 'self' through trials, can we obey perfectly from our hearts.
Unless you completely break your 'self', you cannot but have fleshly thoughts and think you are right. It may cause you to be unable to completely obey though you seem to obey. The 'self' should be destroyed through trials, and then you can obey from the depth of your heart without intervention of your 'self' and 'fleshly thoughts'.
Romans 8:18 says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us." If you believe this, you can rejoice in sufferings. You can give thanks in the trials you are facing to accomplish God's kingdom and to enter into spirit. This is because you believe the love of God who perfects you through such trials.
2. You Can Love God and the Lord from the Depths of Your Heart.
You may have felt "the first love" when you were born again by the Holy Spirit. When you were filled with that first love after accepting the Lord, you may have felt strongly touched and become teary-eyed just by looking at the cross because of your thanks for the grace of God and the Lord. Because of the love, you may have liked to worship and pray, and though no one told you to do so, you may have testified of the God who you met.
On His part, God's love for you was perfect from the beginning and it has never changed. So, your love for Him should not change and should increase day after day. You should cultivate all of God's Word in your heart with your love for God just as Jesus fulfilled the law with love. Casting off every form of evil and transforming your heart by goodness proves such love that you have for God.
When you keep God's commandments with love and joy, your love for Him will increase and you will become united with God. Then, you will receive God's love all the more just as Proverbs 8:17 says, "I love those who love me; and those who diligently seek me will find me." I urge you to receive His great love by loving God and the Lord from the depths of your heart.
3. You Will Seek Others' Benefits and the Kingdom of God.
If you love someone, you may always seek to satisfy her desires. You may want to please that person without thinking of yourself, and you could do anything for her without feeling burdened. It is because you love her. Some of you may even give up your personal needs and desires for her and seek her benefits and preferences, even in what she likes to eat and do. However, many people in the world do so out of fleshly love. Because of it, they soon change and eventually stop doing such things.
Yet, if you are united with God in love and the truth, you can share spiritual love with others, because you have cultivated spirit in your heart. Just as God demonstrated His love by sending His only begotten Son only for the sinners, if you have the love of God in your heart, you will be able to live for others.
From the heart cultivated in spirit, you can naturally seek others' benefits. It is different from those who unwillingly follow each other's benefit with fleshly love. Furthermore, you can lay aside your own benefits for the kingdom of God. You can have such a broad heart.
On the contrary, if one professes his love for God but he does not really love Him from the heart, he may still seek his own benefits because he has his 'self'. He may insist on his own ideas, which works as a stumbling block in many aspects. He may also try to seek self-recognition without knowing it. He may even do something improper out of his selfish motives with which he wants to enjoy the glory that should be given to God.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, anyone can become united with God and be used as a precious instrument for the kingdom of God as long as he or she comes to dwell in His love.
As a child of God, you should give thanks in any kind of trial, love God and the Lord from the depth of your heart, and put others' benefits and the benefits of the kingdom of God first ahead of your own. I pray in the name of the Lord that by doing so you will gain praise and glory from God.
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