Wow it has been such an incredible past few weeks. We have found ourselves drenched in truth, confronted with law, and resting in grace as we spent time delving into the word, digging deep foundations for hostels, being challenged by our past and the hidden parts we keep locked up in the recesses of our hearts. I cannot begin to explain in words what it has been like to experience the freedom and power of the Holy Spirit as I just let go and let Him take control! But what does any of that matter if it does not change the way that I live. What does it matter if all I do is believe it and not live it... because believing is living, not understanding!
I would like to share with you what happened on our luke 10 journey. After being given a map of the Kouga region and being asked to seek God’s heart about where we were to go and what we were to do, we were off to a small village called ‘Skoenmaakerskop’. There we saw God’s kingdom come in healing, in people coming to Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit, in people being set free from past hurt, and all around encouraged by the good news that is the Gospel! One person in particular had a great impact on my heart, and not because of His size but because of the size of his heart and His seeking nature. Charles (our first man of peace) was confrontational about every word of truth that came out of our mouths initially, but as he began to witness the love of Christ in us and the truth being walked out by grace in us he was quieted. By the end he stated: “ if I have fallen off the way and if I am the prodigal son then you have shown me that there is indeed a loving Father.” WOW! If love does not compel me then am I walking in the will of the God who is love?
What an incredible 5 days, where God established soooooo much. If I think about what I hear when I see the word consolidate, it is the word SOLID. To make solid all that has been imparted. You see if all that we learn just remains head knowledge it will inflate our minds and we will float around like super spiritual freaks never really seeing the outworkings of our faith. But if revelation becomes solid and makes our feet big, if it really “drops” it makes our footsteps big and we walk the truth out…
For If I speak with eloquence and intellect but I don’t love, I’m nothing but a loud noise that makes people want to block their ears. If my mouth speaks the overflow of my heart and my heart is hard, then all that I communicate is judgement and no matter what I say, the truth is rendered null and void because it is not soaked in love. For truth that is not received does not bear fruit but is stolen and choked. BUT I am convinced that love prepares the soil of people’s hearts and makes them willing to receive the truth. So every word that comes from my mouth has to be soaked in acts of love in order for it to carry weight. Even if I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all His mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. I am merely a zealot. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I am bankrupt without love.
LOVE that will not betray, dismay or enslave you it will set you free! It'll make you more like the man you were made to be. There is a design an alignment to cry of my heart to see the beauty of love as it was made to be...
So may you be compelled by love knowing that The God of LOVE is Alive in you through his Spirit who moves you to act according to His Nature.
May Christ peace rule in your heart
WORD