 |
Bible Study Notes:Spiritual Weapons: # 13 Love, Part 1 |
||
These notes are from a
transcript of the postings during Bible Study on Thursday Nights at 8 PM at Bible Study
Chat at churchusa.com. |
|||
| Father we raise our voices to you in
exaltation and joy! Thank you for the blessings you heap upon us daily because of your
grace - your unmerited, unearned, extravagant kindness and mercy to us. Father we ask for
a fuller revelation of who you are, how much you love us, and how we fit into your
kingdom. Father we ask that you loose us all into our calling and ministry and reveal to
us all where we fit into the Body of Christ. Help us to not be fearful of intimidation,
but be released to serve you with boldness, peace and joy. We ask you to establish us in
our place, the calling and ministry that you have for us, and undergird us with the firm
foundation in Jesus Christ. Spirit of intimidation, we come against you in the name of Jesus Christ, and we command you to flee. We will not be moved from the place of our ministry in Jesus Name. satan and all your other cohorts, you are bound in Jesus Name, before, during and after the study. Jesus we delight in your salvation and rejoice that we are yours. Holy Spirit, we invite you to be our Teacher. Help us to focus on the lesson and retain it, in Jesus Name we pray, AMEN So far we've studied 12 spiritual weapons, which is surprising to many, because they thought there was only one - the sword of the Spirit or the Word of God. Well, it was a surprise to me also, as the Lord began opening these up to me. What an awesome arsenal we have, along with God's armor, and the enabling of the Holy Spirit. So far we've studied these weapons: the Word Of God Or Sword Of The Spirit; Prayer; The Name Of Jesus; Using Faith As A Weapon; Praise; The Blood Of Jesus; The Word Of Our Testimony; Weapons Of Righteousness; Jericho March; Holy Anger; Joy and Peace. Tonight we are going to take a look at Weapon #13, which is Love. Love a weapon? How can that be? Well first let's define just what scriptural love is. And then we'll see how to use it to fight the enemy. Romans 5: 5-8 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.First of all, the source of our love is God. God demonstrated His love for us by sending Jesus to die for us, and Jesus demonstrated His love for us by dying for our sins on the cross. And the Holy Spirit demonstrates His love for us by pouring this love into our hearts. And this love is "shed abroad" or "poured out" into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. The Greek word for "poured out" is ekcheo {ek-kheh'-o} and is translated shed, shed forth, spill, run out, run greedily, shed abroad, gush out, to bestow or distribute largely. So this love that God has for us and that was demonstrated by the gift of His Son surges mightily into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. The word translated love here is agape. Now Greek has 3 words for love: eros, phileo, and agape. In English we have one all-purpose word for love, and we use it for everything from "I love pizza" to "I love God", and we usually mean different things by those two statements. Well, in Greek, there are three words for love to differentiate between these kinds of love, but know that in our English Bibles, they are all translated "love", so sometimes it's hard to know what a passage means without looking at the original Greek. Eros is the level of love that involves sexual attraction - it is 100% selfish and concerned with self-gratification. This is the kind of love our society promotes - being sexual predators over our brothers and sisters in Christ. Eros was the Greek god of love, and this is where we get our word erotic. This is NOT the word used for love in this passage! Phileo is brotherly love, friendship, a 50/50 kind of thing, "I'll scratch your back if you'll scratch mine". It is a relationship based on mutual interests and affection. It's where we get such words as philanthropy - love of man, giving to charity, Philadelphia = city of brotherly love. This is better than eros, because at least you are thinking about other's needs to some extent. But as Jesus says, how is this different from the love that sinners display? It is NOT the word used for love here either! Now phileo and friendship is good. Just not the best, which is agape, the God-kind of love, 100% unconditional, flowing out to us whether we deserve it or not. It is the love that prompted God to give us all things freely to enjoy, whether we thank Him or not. It is the love that causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. Agape has no English equivalent that I know of. TRUE family love (which isn't always the case) as the love of a mother for her child, is very close - of the same sacrificial type as agape. Agape is the love that compelled Jesus to the Cross to die in our place. It is the love that brought the Holy Spirit to earth to be our Counselor, Comforter, Convicter of sin, Teacher and Guide. And this is the kind of love that Jesus was talking about when He told us to love our enemies.
Right Nighthawk! Like parental love, but more so, much more so! Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. This is tough! love you enemies, no way! I want to crack their heads, right? How do you love your enemies, do good to them, lend without being paid back? Here it goes, our lives must bear witness that there IS a difference between our love and the love of sinners! When we LOVE our enemies, we are being like God, who is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. This is also a sign of our Sonship - evidence that we have been adopted into God's family - we take on the character of our Father. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." God so loved that He GAVE … that is our standard. How DO you love your enemies?
Good point CG, it's mighty hard to keep praying for someone and NOT start loving them! Stay tuned... we're getting there ... gonna see how this agape works and how it's different from the other kinds of love. Notice again what verse 8 says: But God DEMONSTRATES his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Demonstrates in the Greek is sunistao {soon-is-tah'-o}, translated commended in the KJV, meaning to put together by way of composition or combination, to teach by combining and comparing: to show, prove, establish, or exhibit. God isn't expecting us to do something He hasn't already done! He has made an eternal exhibit of His agape for us - so that we not only have proof of His love, but something to compare our love to.
OUCH! THIS is the kind of love that God requires of us. But how is that possible? To love my enemies - Let's be honest! We don't want to! The key is that agape is a matter of the will, not the emotions, a matter of the spirit and not the flesh. You see, eros and phileo are emotional loves - we love because it pleases us, makes us feel good, "rings our chimes", if you will. But agape is NOT emotion-based love. It begins with God who spreads HIS love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. We then, in turn are enabled to love those we previously (in the flesh) found unloveable - yes, even our enemies. And yes, even ourselves! Glory!
So the first step is to RECEIVE the agape that God pours into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. To do this we must accept Jesus as Savior and Lord, and then keep the channels open so that the Holy Spirit can keep it coming. Just like water in a pipe, the love of God will keep flowing as long as the channel is not clogged up. What are some of the things that "clog our pipes", that keep God's love from gushing to us, in us and through us?
Jealousy, anger, lust, ME! LOL all good answers - pride, idols - things we put before God ...unforgiveness, fear, sin, doubt, yes, lack of prayer - right! All these things "clog our pipes", wrong motives, lack of devotion time, worry, and willfulness... all good answers. Unforgiveness, bitterness, hatred, envy, lust - the list goes on! We must constantly let the Holy Spirit pour His sanctifying power through us, sort of like "Holy Drano", to keep the pipes unclogged, so agape can flow. The sanctification process is like "Holy Drano", cleaning up our clogged pipes through the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit!
If we keep our "love channel" clear, we can WILL to love others who despitefully use us. We can let the love of God flow. We can refrain from reacting in anger to offenses, and leave the matter with God. We can love, love, love, love, and keep on loving on into eternity. Another way to say it, is that the SOURCE of agape love is NOT our emotions - but God - and can flow through us regardless of how we FEEL. Good feelings do come eventually, but it is not feeling based - so can flow with this love even when we do NOT feel like it - as towards our enemies.
The Bible does say the Holy Spirit is like a refiner's fire that burns away the dross - impurities - and leaves us as pure gold. Malachi 3:2 But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire or a launderer's soap. Zechariah 13:9 This third I will bring into the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on my name and I will answer them; I will say, `They are my people,' and they will say, `The LORD is our God.'" We are told to walk in the Spirit and pray without ceasing. We've got to make God our top priority. You know we can pray and commune with God no matter what other duties you may have to perform? We NEVER have to let hate grip us and imprison us again. We can love even those who have physically and emotionally abused us - because Christ first loved us. I challenge you, set your heart to love your enemy - and watch God work to bring peace and healing to you AND the enemy, in Jesus Name AMEN! If you are having trouble with this type of unconditional love, don't beat yourself up about it. NONE of us are there yet either - but this is what we strive for, to be like Jesus! If we wait on our emotions (feelings) to motivate us to follow His commands we will never do them. But the Agape (Love) that God has shed forth in our hearts is not primarily emotional, but volitional: an act of the will. You can WILL to do good to someone no matter how you feel about them (as an enemy who has done you great harm).
How does this work? Normally people are moved by what they feel. Therefore, their feelings govern their actions, which then tells their will what to do. They are feeling-oriented. If they feel bad, they act badly. So FEELINGS ===> ACTIONS ===> WILL.
So what is wrong with living this way? You are subject to your feelings, which change constantly - go up and down like a roller coaster. You are moved by circumstances - you're sad when things go bad and happy when they go good.
And how many knows that satan can manipulate BOTH feelings and circumstances to see that you NEVER feel good? Not only that, but you are trapped in a vicious cycle where you are ALWAYS motivated by feelings, whether good or bad. And eventually the bad will probably predominate, and guess who planned for that to happen? And who will use it to defeat you by causing you to give into depression, or anethesize your self with narcotics or alcohol, or become hateful and abusive? You guessed it! The DEVIL.
The love of God is shed abroad or poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. But something "blocks" us being able to walk in it 24/7. I merely used the example of a water pipe where water can't flow if it's blocked. If we allow hate, doubt, fear, unforgiveness, anger, etc to live in us, it blocks the love being poured in. It's like crud blocking a water pipe. This junk in our hearts will block the flow of agape into our hearts. The Holy Spirit CAN and WILL cleanse you of ALL these things, as you yield to Him.
Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will. How does God's Word say it should work? First of all we are transformed by the renewing of our minds by reading and obeying the Word and prayer, as the Holy Spirit is constantly pouring the agape of God into our hearts. Then our will is conformed to the image of Christ, and so we base our actions on this renewed will. Since Jesus will never do anything to harm us, our will lines up with God's will and we have the potential to always be filled with JOY. So the biblical way of acting is SPIRIT = => WILL = = > ACTIONS = = > FEELINGS.
Since we receive God's love in our spirits by the HOLY SPIRIT, if we align our will up with that love, then it is not only possible, but easy to love our enemies and do good to them that spitefully use us. Since it is NOT an emotion-oriented response, then we are no longer ruled by negative emotions: offense, hurt, spite, revenge, or bitterness. Therefore it is not hypocritical to go good to someone when we do not feel like it -for the love to which we are called is not feeling oriented. Most of us love our relatives and friends - and we should. But Agape compels us to go beyond this standard, for even "sinners" do this. Although agape is not emotion-oriented, when we live in agape, we will eventually begin to feel the positive emotions that it brings. This is glorious! Although we may start by not caring for the ones we will to love, we will eventually be able to display the positive emotions that we have willed to walk in. This is NOT faking it. It is allowing God's love to flow through us no matter what we might be feeling. So then the plan is to keep ourselves in line with this: HOLY SPIRIT => Our SPIRIT => WILL => ACTIONS => FEELINGS. Since the Holy Spirit is not going to lead us astray, we have the POTENTIAL as we yield to the Spirit to always be walking in God's will which will eventually bring about those positive emotions. Then we will be free from the vicious cycle of an emotion-based existence and will truly walk in newness of life. So what I would say to those who are caught in the "trap of emotions" - that is you are depressed, defeated, upset, not able to love others who've hurt you, is to allow the Holy Spirit to saturate your spirit with love. Then that love will renew your mind - clean out all that garbage in there - and free you to make decisions based on agape and then to do GOOD actions, which in turn will just plain make you feel good all over all the time. I Corinthians 13:4-5 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Cowgirl - yes fall in love with Him not just love him but to fall in love with Him is even greater.... OK, let's look at some characteristics of agape as found in I Corinthians 13. First of all, love is patient. Wow that's tough sometimes isn't it? Patience is a virtue we need to exercise when we don't want to the most! God am I as patient as I could be? Love is kind. Sometimes in our rushed lives we forget to simply be kind. To share a smile, a word of encouragement. God do I remember to be kind always? Some of these seem to be tough to follow, but anything the Jesus asks us to do, He gives us the ability through the Holy Spirit to do it. Love is not jealous. Love rejoices when someone else gets blessed. Love doesn't want what his/her neighbor has. Love does not grumble because someone else has something nicer.
You wanna take an OUCH break? LOL Every time I read this passage, I say, "Lord, you gotta work on me some more!"
Right Seald, but remember that Love comes FIRST from God, and He gives us the ability to make those decisions. Love does not brag or boast. Love does not try to be better than everyone else. Love does not look down on others. Love is not proud. When you truly love, you can't see yourselves as better than others because of social status or education. Love is not rude. It doesn't interrupt and call attention to itself. It is polite and tries to communicate in a pleasant way. Love is not self-seeking, it does not seek to call attention to itself. It is not easily angered and keeps no record of wrongs. Love doesn't "keep score". I'm so glad that when God forgives us, He casts our sins in the sea of forgetfulness to be remembered against us no more. Hallelujah - they are gone! God, do I keep a record of those who wrong me? Do I keep bringing up past offenses to others? Or do I behave as You do, forgive and forget? Do you ever take some of those silly tests in magazines that are supposed to give you insight on your own self? I look at 1 Corinthians 13 as a self-test on love. Haven't made a 100 yet, but I'm trying. I Corinthians 13:6-8a Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.
Ready for more ouchies? I'm stepping on my own toes too! Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth. God do I ever rejoice when bad things happen to someone who has wronged me? Do I ever stretch the truth the tiniest bit for my convenience? Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. You know, I've noticed a real spirit of despair among God's people today. They always seem to be at the point of giving up. If we really let the Spirit produce the fruit of agape in us - the agape that always hopes and always perseveres - wouldn't that defeat this despair?
Remember the purpose of this study is not to discourage anyone or bring anyone under condemnation, but to encourage and lift you up. Remember also that the agape Love is something that the Holy Spirit pours into us as we yield to Him, we don't have to strive for it. But I believe that we DO need to long for it and desire it to come about. It's a matter of filling your heart with His love through reading the Word, meditating on it, letting God's love fill you to overflowing - and then this agape will be automatically poured out to others. Father God, we trust your Word when it says that the Holy Spirit pours this agape, this God kind of love, into our hearts. But we confess that we don't always walk in agape. Forgive us our shortcomings - where we fall short of your perfect love, and give us grace to keep on trying. May your love overflow more and more through us as we walk in the Spirit. Teach us to love like you love. In Jesus Name AMEN Ok, what about using love/agape as a spiritual weapon? First of all, the love of God is our defense against a lot of stuff the devil tries to throw against us. So in using love defensively, look at this passage of scripture: Romans 8:31-32 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? What is this saying to us about God's agape? He will graciously give us all things - not begrudgingly, but out of His grace will meet all our needs. Isn't this the best defense against worry? Knowing that God will meet all of our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ?
Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet ALL your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus. SealedNHim - If we can't love the "unlovable" how can we win them to the Lord? How many of our needs will God meet?
Does it say God will only meet SOME of our needs? NO ALL of them - a sure defense against worry if we believe it! So far, we have: devil (worry) ZIP, agape 1! Well, let's just get a little more confirmation of this, OK? Just so you can see the superabundance of God's love to us! Ephesians 3:16-17a I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Part of these glorious riches is the power of the Spirit, which strengthens us so that Jesus can dwell in our hearts through faith. It takes more than mental assent to live the life of faith - we need the power of the Spirit to strengthen us so that we have the ability to live the life of faith in Jesus! Ephesians 3:17b-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge--that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Wow, that was a mouthful, wasn't it? Here we have agape again - another part of God's glorious riches freely given to us. Notice that we are rooted and established in this love. We all know that trees grow huge tap roots an average of 2/3 of the height of the tree - so when the winds come, there is a deep foundation that keeps the tree from being toppled over. The same way, if we are rooted in agape, when the winds of adversity come, they will not be able to topple us, because the love of God has us in the grip of grace. OK, so now, we have: devil (adversity) ZIP, agape 2! Ephesians 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, More of God's riches here! He is able to do immeasurably - beyond human measurement or calculation or imagination - more than we ask of Him because of His power at work within us! Romans 8:33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died--more than that, who was raised to life--is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Remember we are talking about love as a defensive weapon over the enemy. Another enemy device that the love of God defends us from is condemnation . Now we can be condemned inwardly by our own hearts, or outwardly by other people. Condemnation involves disapproval of, a pronouncement of guilt or a sentence of punishment, being declared unfit for use or service, criticism or censure. Here we are told that NO ONE can bring a charge against us because God has chosen us and declared us "not guilty" (justified) in Christ Jesus - and that Jesus continues to intercede for us - act as our advocate and attorney - for any charges that the enemy brings against us. Well, now we have devil (condemnation) ZIP, agape 3! So far we have God's love as defense against worry, adversity and condemnation. Thank you Jesus! Romans 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: "For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Now at first it doesn't seem clear what we are being defended against here - but I would call it a spirit of rejection. Look at the things that Paul mentions: trouble, persecution, famine, nakedness, danger or sword. He even goes so far as to say that to the enemy we are only fit to be slaughtered as sheep. But Paul suffered all these things and still declared himself a conqueror. Why? Because the assurance of God's love kept him free from the fear of rejection. Paul realized that hardships do NOT mean that God has abandoned us. The agape that was being poured into his heart by the Holy Spirit is like love notes from God that keep saying, I love you, I love you, I love you. So that what the enemy brought into his life to destroy him, to make Paul think that God had rejected him, only make Paul more aware of God's love. Ok, that's devil (rejection) ZIP, agape 4! Love just keeps mowing down the devil! Glory! Romans 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the LOVE of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.Paul goes even further with this. NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus OUR Lord. You name it, it is powerless before the flood of agape flowing to our hearts by the Holy Spirit! Death cannot separate believers from agape - it merely brings us to a higher level of it. The issues of life cannot separate us from agape - it simply energizes us to live life to the fullest. No angel, no demon, no power from Heaven or Hell can keep God's love from flowing to us, in us, and through us. It doesn't matter what happened in the past - or what will happen - God's love is joined to us heart to heart. No matter how high we climb toward the sky, or how low we go in the depths of earth or ocean - God's love is still with us. Nothing God has made is more powerful than this love. Nothing can sever us from God our Father and His love for us. This confidence in agape, this knowledge that God's love is above, beyond, around, and through anything and everything that is against us - if we could just grasp this concept - no demon in hell would ever concern us again! Nothing in Heaven and earth or under the earth would ever intimidate us, or cause us to be cowardly and fearful. We would have such holy boldness that hell would tremble when we woke up in the morning, for fear of what we would accomplish in Jesus that day! Glory! Lord I just have to stop and praise you for your awesome love!!! Glory! So how about this? devil (intimidation) ZIP, agape 5! Now this score keeping is kind of silly - but I just wanted you to know that through agape you are victorious in Jesus Name! So what have we looked at that love defends us from? Well, we talked about God's love in provision - supplying ALL our needs - which is defense against WORRY! Then we talked about being rooted, grounded, established in God's love which is defense against ADVERSITY. Then we talked about God's love declaring us NOT guilty - which is defense against CONDEMNATION. Then we talked about God's love being with us not matter what the circumstances - which is defense against REJECTION And we talked about NOTHING being able to separate us from the love of God, which is defense against INTIMIDATION. Now I'm sure that there is more than this that God's love defends us against in our spiritual warfare - the more I study God's love the more marvelous I realize that it is! The challenge is to keep under the flow of God's love, which is shed abroad, poured out, gushing mightily into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And as this love flows to us, and in us, we in turn need to "turn the faucet on" and let it flow through us to a lost and dying world. Another thing we point out is to use the qualities of love described in I Corinthians 13 as a kind of "self-test" to see how much of God's love you are allowing to flow out of you. Not to bring yourself under condemnation, but to encourage yourself to keep growing in God's love. Now next time we will talk some about using love as an OFFENSIVE weapon. NOTE: this does not mean being OFFENSIVE to people - that is not love's nature!
Father God, drench us in agape tonight and cleanse us of clogging junk that would keep us from receiving and giving your love. AMEN And Father help us remember to allow your love to defend us against worry, adversity, condemnation, rejection and intimidation. In Jesus Name AMEN and AMEN Holy Spirit, bring these things to our remembrance this week and help us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only, deceiving our own selves. AMEN |
|||
Remember,
whenever God gives us a revelation, the devil tries to steal it from us. Guard your hearts
and meditate on what you've learned! Back to Spiritual Warfare Contents |
|||
The Open Heart | Bible Study Home | Resources | Comments | Email |
|||
This page has been visited
Created by Vibrant Pages™Web
Design
|
