What is love?
What does it REALLY look like?
A lot of people talk about it, say you have to walk in it, that you should tell people that Jesus loves them, etc.
But do they really know what it means to walk it out?
Love is not all about emotions. Yes, there are romantic feelings and such, but I’m talking about agape love–unconditional love which is compassion in action.
Love is not about “I like you” therefore I help you. It’s not based on emotions and feelings.
Do unto others as you would have them do to you.
If love and compassion are really in your heart, you will do something. Pretty simple aye? It’s just an overflow of your heart.
It’s the love of Christ that compels you.
1 John 3:16-18 says, “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has this world’s goods, and sees his brother in need, and shuts up his heart from him, how does the love of God abide in him? My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.“
Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
I’ve been thinking about this phrase a lot lately, “Love looks like something.” Heidi Baker talks about it.
Here are some quotes from one of her messages:
“There’s something about the Good News that is tangible. Love looks like something and we need to know what love looks like.”
“We need to carry radical love. We don’t just jabber…who wants to hear jabbering? Unless we’re carrying the love of Christ Jesus, we’re not carrying anything that means anything.”
“People don’t want to be handed a tract. They want to know what love is. The whole world is looking for love. They want to know what it means to love and be loved. They want to know what it means to know that God is their Papa, that they are His Beloved.”
“Here’s Jesus—he saw the crowds. What does that mean? He looked at them in the eyes. He didn’t just see a big multitude and look above them all and just speak. He saw their faces, he saw their pain, he saw their need, he saw their anxiety, and he saw their sin. He had compassion on the crowds. He had authority to do something. Compassion without power is a very sad thing.”
So, what was the love of Jesus Christ?
Action.
Yes, he preached, but he also demonstrated power and compassion.
There’s a lot of people out there who could care less about doctrines, opinions, “turn-or-burn” or “pro-life” signs with dead babies on them, etc. There’s a lot of people, young people especially, who really don’t care much about church because there’s nothing there for them.
It’s been dry, uneventful, powerless, condemning, and full of man’s traditions.
I don’t blame them for not going.
They are looking for something tangible, not just words and religious traditions. And they don’t really care what you have to say. It’s meaningless unless you can back up your words with action and demonstration. If you’re going to talk about the Kingdom of God and his goodness, you better be able to back it up with tangible proof and action.
I know too many people who stopped going to church altogether and who would rather associate with being agnostic or atheist because there was too much hypocrisy in their church and not enough people actually acting like Jesus and doing what he said to do.
During the spring semester of my sophomore year at a Catholic University I was miserable and wanted to quit school. I told God, “There’s got to be more to my life and my faith than this.”
I got healed of depression right after that and then I got saved and started searching Him out. There was a lot missing in my walk with Jesus and I was determined to find out what it was–I was looking for something real.
I was looking for the REAL Jesus, not this distant guy I heard stories about for 15 minutes on a Sunday morning.
People are looking for something real too, and Jesus has empowered US to show Him to them.
If people are thirsty, love looks like water. If they are hungry, it looks like food. If they are homeless, it looks like shelter.
If someone needs a friend or someone to talk to, it looks like quality time and a listening ear. If someone is messing up, it looks like correction and advice.
Love doesn’t always feel good. If you were crossing the street and a truck was coming towards you and I ran and pushed you out of the way, it would probably hurt. You might even break a rib or two. But I just saved your life. Why? I care more about the preservation of your life and those who care about you than I do about whether or not you will enjoy the method in which I just saved it.
And sometimes love corrects, rebukes, and even gets in your face and says, “HEY! You’re better than that!” Or ”Hey, those are lies you are believing, let me show you the truth.” You may not like what I have to say, but you’ll thank me later. 
If someone is sick/diseased or injured, love looks like physical healing. If they are being emotionally or mentally tormented, love looks like deliverance. If they’ve died prematurely, love looks like being raised from the dead, etc.
Jesus went about, setting everyone free (Acts 10:38), and He said, “Now follow me.”
1 John 2:6 says, “He who says he abides in Him [Christ] ought himself also to WALK JUST AS HE WALKED.”
God has empowered you to deal with sickness, depression, financial circumstances, etc.
You are royalty and have been given dominion over the earth (Gen. 1:26-28, Luke 10:19) and over your life to live like Jesus and treat people the way you would want to be treated. Jesus came for us to be reconciled to him and the Father. And it’s vital to let people know who don’t know yet!
If you’re not excited about Jesus, what he did for us, and what he empowered you to do on this earth, I suggest you figure out why that is.
What have you been taught? That you need to do a ton of stuff to get God’s love if you are a Christian?
That’s a lie.
You are a saint, completely righteous and holy. God doesn’t remember your sin (2 Cor. 5:19) and there is nothing you could do that would separate you from his love (Romans 8:38-39).
His love is unconditional.
2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
What else…that healing and miracles don’t happen today?
1.) That’s not what Jesus said (Matthew 10:1-8, Luke 10:8-9, Mark 16:17-20, John 10:37-38, John 14:12)
and
2.) I’ve seen them happen over and over.
Why? Because I believe God to be who He says He is and I don’t let situations override his promises.
He’s taught me who I am and that through my hands and faith, He heals.
So many people ask, “Why would Jesus heal people then but not now?” They ask it because they’ve had situations in their lives that make them feel like God either doesn’t care, that he allows it, etc.
And all it really boils down to is that Christians stopped following Jesus.
In Matthew 10:8 Jesus says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.”
Matthew 28:18-20 says, “And Jesus came and spoke to them saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.’ Amen.”
Mark 16:17-18 says “And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they WILL recover.”
These signs will FOLLOW those who believe–if you are a Christian (yes, this includes Catholics too), you should be looking like Jesus in everything he did. He cared for the poor, He spent time with people, He healed people, He taught and discipled people, He delivered them from tormenting spirits, He raised the dead.
Jesus is LOVE personified.
James 5:14-15 says, “Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith WILL SAVE the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.”
Remember, you have the spirit of the living God LIVING inside of you!
If the ‘elders’ in your church aren’t doing this, perhaps you might want to bring up that passage of Scripture in James to them and find out why?
Romans 8:11, “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
You have been equipped to be a solution for every problem people face because it is no longer you who lives but Christ who lives in you (Gal. 2:20) and you are now one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17).
Love looks like us being just like Jesus to all of those around us and showing them every aspect of His life through us.
So GO! Set people free with the power and love of the resurrected Christ in you!
“In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.” – 1 John 4:17
Received a word of knowledge about torn rotator cuffs and herniated/slipped discs. Receive your healing!
This is part of a message that I sent to a friend tonight in regards to my heart and belief system on many issues that are sensitive subjects for many people. I wanted to post it here because I believe it will speak to a lot of people, encourage, empower, and equip you to get aggressive and to pursue wholeheartedly the destiny and inheritance that God has for each of you—and also because it will probably help you understand me a bit better
Enjoy.
________________________
I have witnessed amazing miracles through the power of God and I know that it is never God’s will for any to perish (2 Peter 3:9)—and unfortunately right now there are people perishing. It is my firm opinion that this is not God’s fault, but the fault of Christians everywhere who are not operating in their God-given authority and demonstrating His power and dominion over a very-real devil who does nothing but steal, kill, and destroy. The deficiency is never on God’s end.
Jesus made it clear when He talked to His disciples that it was their responsibility if there were sick people in a city that they were in (Luke 10:8-9)…and the message that I unashamedly speak is that it is time for the Bride of Christ to make herself ready (Rev. 19:7) and contend for and step into the power and destiny that God has for each of us.
This is why I say that it is always God’s will to heal, right now. It is the model that Jesus gave–never did He turn anyone away and say things that are said in our churches: “It’s just not My will right now” — “It’s not My timing” — “It’s just a thorn in your flesh…My grace is sufficient for you” — “I’m trying to teach you something through this” — “You are bringing Me greater glory by suffering through this” — and the list goes on..but that’s the majority of them. He simply never said or did it.
There’s a whole lot of verses throughout the Gospels and I’ve just recently started compiling them (only up to Matthew 12 so far) and I’ve already come up with 5 where it says “…and He (or the disciples) healed them ALL”.
(Matthew 4:23-24)
(Matthew 8:16)
(Matthew 9:35)
(Matthew 10:1)
(Matthew 12:15)
This is our model…and I’m not saying that we’re there yet…but I certainly have seen a whole lot more breakthrough by gritting my teeth and not backing off. I’ve found that if we don’t back down and just keep praying and commanding the healing and exercising the authority God has given to each of us, that the devil WILL back down eventually.
With the things I have seen and the things I’ve learned through experience and revelation and reading the Word, I can’t help but speak about it—just today in church there was a girl behind us that we prayed for whose jaw visibly would lock and get stuck when she’d open her mouth and it had transcended into a degenerative issue for the last 8 years…and after praying twice it was completely healed.
She was so amazed and so were we but it wasn’t the kind of amazement where we didn’t expect it to happen…we knew it HAD to happen…I wasn’t asking the pain and the problem to go, I was telling it to go and I would not stop until it was gone. And it went–and now her jaw doesn’t lock at all. It was so amazing, especially because we had seen it locking just moments earlier.
In praying with a lady just yesterday, while most people who prayed for her spent 5 or 10 minutes with her, we spent almost an hour and a half because it just wasn’t completed yet—and I don’t see anywhere that Jesus told us to leave people only partially healed. So we stuck it out and we saw her again today and she said she’s feeling amazing with no more pain or problems…so what would have happened if we had stopped? I don’t know. What I do know is that I’ve met a whole lot of people who have received some short 2 minute prayers and have left still pretty busted up. I don’t see it in the life of Christ or anywhere in the New Testament and I refuse to bow to that.
He told us to set the captives free and opening the door just a little bit so they can get their leg out the door doesn’t set them free. This ministry of healing and deliverance is a lot of responsibility and it takes perseverance to get the kind of results that are our inheritance.
Obviously our ideal situation would be that everybody we prayed for is healed and stays healed and that it only takes a second or two..and this is what we press in for and go after. I do not believe it is God’s will for us to have to spend hours praying for people to get the job done. My point is that it has seemed to take a perseverance in the long haul to get to a place where the short, concise prayers are a lot more effective. Almost as if the devil knows you won’t back down so he just leaves a lot faster.
We’ve had it start happening recently where we’ve not even had to pray we’ve just laid hands on people who have been healed instantly—and that’s something we’ve been praying for and going after for about 3 years now…and very aggressively.
I am extremely intense about this stuff because I have found that the devil will not take people seriously if they aren’t serious with him. Too many people tolerate his working in their lives and it is that tolerance, in my opinion, that kills so many Christians with sickness and disease.
In studying guys like John G. Lake and Smith Wigglesworth…I have found that they were not calm, complacent, and in many cases even very nice. Church folk frequently got offended with how intense and gruff they were…but they also got some of the most amazing results in the healing ministry in the last 200 years.
I suppose my question then becomes what would you rather have—nice Christians praying for people and the people end up dying or some gruff, authoritative, intense Christians who don’t back down in the face of seemingly impossible circumstances and even go so far as to drag bodies out of caskets in the middle of funerals and command life into them until they come back to life?
I certainly have never done that…but Wigglesworth did several different times and saw many people come back from the dead.
I have a hard time believing that when Jesus was spitting on people’s tongues and putting mud in their eyes that there weren’t some Pharisees or other well-intentioned believers nearby who were offended at His methods. I’ve kneed people in the stomach at the suggestion of the Holy Spirit and seen people healed.
I don’t understand it other than to say that there is no formula. There is no pat answer. We seem to want there to be an easy answer to everything and the only easy answer that I have been able to offer people is this: DO NOT BACK DOWN.
The devil has limited resources…only 1/3 of heaven fell with him so we’re up 2 to 1 (plus obviously we have the Creator of the Universe living inside us…so that’s a trump card every time too). I have found in my experience that if we dig in and look at the healing and deliverance ministry as it is—open acts of warfare against the powers of darkness—you learn to take it a lot more seriously and understand that your enemy is not a patsy. He has been around a long time and he knows the human tendency to give up.
I have found that if we do not give up, he gets worn out and will back off…and it even seems like you can establish a reputation amongst his ranks…look at the seven sons of Sceva and what the demon said…”Jesus I know, and Paul I know also, but who are you?” (Acts 19:13-16)
So to me, that shows that there is something that the demonic realm can recognize in the spirit realm in terms of our authority and reputation…how else could the demon say that he knew who Jesus and Paul were but then essentially made fun of and beat the tar out of Sceva’s sons? I think that story in itself shows very clearly what has happened to many believers. Sceva’s sons were trying a formula based on what they heard Paul saying…”In the name of the Jesus that Paul preaches…come out of him!”
Because they had no history with casting out demons and no reputation in hell, the demon laughed at them and overpowered them. This is a very real, and unfortunately very common occurrence in the church today.
This is war. Our mission statement is to love God, love others, and set the captives free. I’ve seen too many people die who have not had to…and I’ve been witness to far too much powerless Christianity.
This life is the life that Christ paid for…divine health is our inheritance, as well as to be the head and not the tail…above and not beneath…the lender and not the borrower. It should not be that those in the Old Covenant had superior blessings and encounters with God.
And so we press forward…aggressively taking ground and OCCUPYING. The object of warfare is never victory–the object is occupation of new ground. Most of this can be linked back to the Exodus from Egypt into the Promised Land and how, even after the Israelites entered the Promised Land, there were still giants to kick out.
It was in the Promised Land that God taught Israel how to co-labor with God and fight from victory, not for it.
We are no different. All things are ours in Christ—but there is still a thief who does not like to play by the rules and it is our job to enforce the victory of Calvary over the works of darkness.
- The Blueprint of “Renewing Your Mind” 11/24/2011 Brandon
- Decisions that Define Us – Graham Cooke 11/23/2011 Brandon
- Incomplete Vs. Complete Forgiveness 11/25/2011
- 20 Rob Rufus Quotes On Law vs. Grace 11/23/2011
- Organic Church Introduction 01/30/2012
- Dead to Sin and Alive to God! 11/10/2011
- Five Ways Jesus Revealed Grace 02/01/2012
- Do Everything Jesus Said? 01/29/2012
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