There is something highly prized by God. More beautiful to Him than any flower or sunset and more valuable to Him than any diamond or jewel, and that is our love. Any response from us thrills His heart, but a love that is undivided is highly prized. Our devotion pleases Him more than any other beautiful thing He has created. It is more valuable than anything in all the universe. It thrills His heart. He says its like a wine to Him, it intoxicates Him.
The Song of Songs says that He is overcome by just a loving glance from us, so that gives you an idea of how precious it is to Him. S/S 4:9
“You have ravished my heart, my lovely one, my bride; I am overcome by one glance of your eyes, by a single bead of your necklace.”
As the world gets darker and darker, with troubles increasing daily, the Spirit of God is finding it difficult to find Christians who are giving the Lord their undivided attention, their undivided love.
How’s your relationship with the Lord going? Is it getting better? What are your prayers like? Are you always complaining? Are your prayers fearful and anxious? Are you always asking Him for things or are you just enjoying Him?
We know He loves us all no matter what state we are in, just as we love our children no matter what. But the Lord is looking for our unconditional love. He wants us to love Him for who He is and not what we can get out of Him. He wants our worship. He wants our love to be so hot that even all the problems that surround us don’t quench our love. No matter what is thrown at us, our passion for Him vaporizes them. Flies can’t land on a hot stove.
The Devil knows what the Lord loves and tries to rob Him of the pleasure. If He cant stop us get saved He will try and stop us from falling in love with Jesus. He will get us to be divided in our loves. Jesus will be one of many. He will try and get us to love other things in love the world, besides God.
Jesus said that the greatest commandment of all is to Love God.
'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. ' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ' There is no other commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:30-31).
First we are to love God, then to love man. We are made to love Him and will never be happy until we do - with all our hearts. So many Christians focus and the 2nd commandment and neglect the first.
You try and worship God with all your heart and see what happens. The Devils throws all sorts of problems at you so that your heart and mind are distracted and you don’t give the Lord what He loves. When sickness and pain fill our lives we focus on that. All our prayers are taken up with prayers like. “Oh God help me, why is this happening to me?” the Devil tries to set our agenda and we become distracted. The same with financial problems, relationship problems and the like. As you look back over the last 5 years we have had national financial problems, Covid, lockdowns and then the Ukraine War and now Israel. In the name of intercession, we can end up focusing on these things all the time, and lose our passionate love for the Lord?
Like any love relationship it can only flourish with our giving quality time into it, but without realising it we can give hours to watching all this stuff on TV and so little time in prayer and the word. When we get up in the morning we may have some time with the Lord but then forget about Him for the rest of the day. We were designed for something far better than this.
By His grace He can make us stronger so that we love Him more than all the bad news being thrown at us every day. We can love Him more than life, sickness, and the problems of the world.
My life has been a long prophetic journey. God has allowed me to do so many things and go to so many places around the world. I have learnt a lot but in all of these things I have found that only loving Him truly satisfies.
I have always been thankful for how the Lord saved me and have wanted to please Him as best I can. I thought that if you really wanted to please God then you must go out there and witness to the lost. Witnessing is number one on the list – right? There was always a battle going on within me and I never found it easy. I would push myself to do it and carrying tracts and even knock on doors back in the day.
While I was in the Army I used to give out tracts in Bulawayo while in Army Uniform and was called into the Army Commanders office and told off. Later on in civilian life I felt I needed to squeeze the name of Jesus into most conversations with any non Christian. This included phone calls and it made me sound phony. It got so bad that in the end I didn’t want to ring anyone or go to town because I might have to witness. I was being driven and didn’t realise that it wasn’t the Spirit of the Lord. Jesus is called the Good Shepherd, and shepherds led their sheep, but I was being chased by a sheep dog. Motivated by fear.
I went with a friend once for a motor bike ride to a beautiful beach in New Zealand, I had read that verse earlier in the day from Romans 3:14-15
“For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion."
This verse always scared me. I was afraid that I would let Him down by not obeying His voice to witness for Him. This whole thing was really ruining my life and I lived in condemnation. I was not enjoying the Lord and felt that I was letting Him down for I felt like I was never doing enough. I don’t know how it happened but that day Jesus got through to me that loving Him was more important than anything – even witnessing. What is the use of saying to someone. “Come and be a Christian like me – I’m miserable.”
When you look at this verse in it context it was the complete opposite to how I was interpreting it. The Children of Israel were hardening their hearts to God’s love and how He wanted to bless with Canaan Land, but they didn’t believe it. He wanted to give then a land flowing with Milk and Honey, but they didn’t think He could do it. They were hardening their hearts to His love, and so was I. That day I felt the Lord begin to show me His grace and began that freed me from legalism. He told me to forget about witnessing for the moment, He’ll make it plain to me who I should speak to when its time. Concentrate on the first commandment and start with being thankful.
“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, And into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name.” Psalm 100:4
Thanksgiving causes us to enter into a new realm that then lead us forward into His Courts of Praise and then into the Holiest of Holies. Another friend said to me that when you are baptised in the Spirit you become His witness. It’s not a matter of struggling and striving, to be a witness, you become His witness. God is now working in you and He is causing you to do His good pleasure. Your are His witness, relax and enjoy the ride.
Its been a long journey to understand Grace, but unless you understand this message you’ll never enjoy being His Bride. Its not that you aren’t a Christian, but there is a difference between being a child and the Bride. Understanding that He has done it all sets you free. You learn to resist the sheep dog and follow the Shepherd.
The Devil knows that Gods answer to life comes from looking to Jesus and in that we are changed, so He tries ever trick in the book to stop us focusing on Him for any extended length of time. “Looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith.” Hebrews 12:2
I liken our relationship to that of a magnify glass. If you focus a magnify glass on an object for the right amount of time, fire breaks out. But a magnify glass is useless if it’s out of focus or shifting all over the place, it needs to stay in one place. Paul explains some important truths to us in 2 Corinthians 3:18.
“And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit.”
We are changed into the image we reflect. We behold the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ. As we look at the Lord we become like Him, that is why the Devil keeps trying to distract us to look at everything but the word and the Lord. Paul said in Colossians.
“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” Colossians 3:1-2
“You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on you, Because he trusts in You.” Isaiah 26:3
Setting your mind on Christ gives perfect peace. The word peace here is the word ‘Shalom’. Setting your mind on Jesus generates wellbeing, health and prosperity.
It’s possible to practice God presence all through the day starting by being thankful. Thanksgiving brings us through the gates and into His courts. The more you understand God’s ways and how the Devil is trying to distract you, you’ll shake off the enemies grip and enter into your rightful inheritance. Jesus will become your exceeding great reward, your prize, your passion. The love of your life. You will give Him your rightful place in your life and learn to live in His presence. Life can become a continual Feast even in this perilous world. You’ll not be seeing the Devil and His deeds all the time but all the signs of God’s Presence towards you.
You sense that you are in His smoke filled chamber and His eyes are feasting on you as you cultivate a life of thanksgiving and praise. Psalm 45 says that today is your wedding day and even the rich among the people will are entreat your favour. The richest person in the world is not Bill Gates or Elon Musk, its Jesus the King of Kings. Your are His favourite and you’ll begin to believe it and know it. Your world will change and you feast from His table in the midst of His enemies. Troubles will still come but your renewed understanding will enable to resist the enemy and He will flee from you.