Love

Today’s Word is “Love”.

I have noticed a common theme over the last few months, and that is one of “Love”, not love as we know and understand it, but Love as God defined it, as God gives it, as God IS. Today, perhaps, I’ve had the biggest reminder of the many facets of God’s love and the importance it plays in our daily lives. This may be because this is the week we remember what LOVE did for us, the price LOVE paid, the work that LOVE worked.

I see two hearts, not hearts as inside our bodies, but hearts as we draw and express our love shorthand (♥). One heart has many interconnected chambers and there is fluid wind moving about, sweeping and washing the chambers, flowing from one to the next and then outward from inside the heart, as it overflows.

The other heart has chambers, but they are each covered with different filters, some have very fine netting such as cheesecloth, others have larger weave netting such as window screens. I see the fluid wind moving about inside this heart as well, but each time it passes through a filter, part of it remains in the chamber. There isn’t much left of it as it tries to move outside the heart.

I hear the Lord say “I have called you to be a conduit of My Love. My Love is to flow through you, not be filtered by you. Your heart will reveal itself through the lips of your mouth. If you have filtered My Love, then the truth you say you speak has been tainted by the filter of your heart, rendering your word ineffective. When you allow My Love to freely move and flow, the truth you speak will be effective. Do not be deceived in the movement of ‘speaking the truth in love’ when Love is not what you speak. Beware of speaking demeaning and shameful ‘truth’ to others when you know not of the depths of the Love in their hearts, nor have you allowed My Love to penetrate deeply and overflow in your heart. I see and know the thoughts and intents of your heart, I know you mean well, but you must first allow My Spirit to cleanse your heart and baptize you in My Love. It is because of My Love for you that I do this work in you. Bring every thought and word and deed you are considering before Me and allow Me to shed the Light of My Love upon it. My Grace and Mercy shall go before you and My Spirit will give you the Truth to speak and the Love in which to do it.”

And the same one who descended is the one who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that he might fill the entire universe with himself. Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love (Ephesians 4:10-16 NLT).

Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love (1 Corinthians 13:13).

No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us (1 John 4:12).

I often pray to be baptized in God’s love, and I have realized this is not an “all at once” process, it’s actually a gradual one. When I realized this, I shared with a friend that I believed if God actually baptized us “in full” with His love, we would not be able to stand. His love would drop us to our knees with a quickness! I am amazed at how much He loves us and how, when we open our hearts to Him and allow Him to flow through us, He pours Himself out through us towards others.

Have a love-filled day!

Shalom ♥