IS YOUR DESIRE TO LOVE MORE?

Hope and commitment for 2015: May we draw closer to Jesus and consequently to our families and each other. May God’s people live up to the scripture, Dan. 11:32b    …but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.           The more we get to know Him the more we fall in love with Him.

Jesus longs for us to desire to know Him as a person, rather than only for what He can provide. He is standing, knocking at our heart's door, patiently waiting for our response. What He really wants is a rapid response when it is not convenient for us to do so.

Many people know a lot about God, they can quote scripture and perhaps preach an interesting sermon. Others know Him as a provider and have received their needs met. But that is not what He died and rose again for. He broke the curse of sin that mankind would enter into a relationship with Him as the lover of their souls. He longs for a people who hear His heart and respond with all their heart. Jesus is developing a people who follow His lead because of their desire to respond to the love they experience in their relationship with Him. Such response will affect every aspect of their individual lives and consequently the church. This comes from a heart that prays, Song of Solomon 1:4 Draw me, we will run after thee:…

Paul puts this same concept another way, (emphasis added)

Philippians 3:10   that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, …

12   Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.

13   Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead,

14   I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Step 2 ( verse 12) must always be preceded by Step 1 ( verse 10). We must personally know Him, enjoy the closeness of His Manifest Presence and learn of Him as He opens the Scriptures in a personal way. The Epiphany is a holiday that has lost its popularity in America. The literal definition of the word epiphany is a sudden and profound understanding of something. It also refers to those supernatural experiences when God appears to someone. If you are a Christian, than at some point in your life you have had at least 1 of these experiences and responded by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior. With that simplest understanding that you gained by personally hearing from God you responded and did the most marvelous exploit, you got saved. You took the first step of a life long process. (Romans 10:17    So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God). You got a hold of the 1st thing that Jesus got a hold of your for.

After many years of walking close to Jesus Paul cries out from  his heart, “that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me.” Paul had accomplished many amazing, leading countless people to Jesus, founding churches and raising up leaders. His writings have affected the lives of untold billions of people over the last almost 2,000 years. And yet he knew that there was more that the Lord had for him. That first Epiphany Paul had on the road to Damascus was totally life changing, but Paul knew that the Lord had much more to teach him, to reveal to him through the relationship that started that day. We can be sure there were many more light bulbs turned on in Paul’s mind and heart as his relationship with Jesus grew over the years.

Undoubtedly Paul knew the verse from Daniel about knowing God and consequently doing exploits. I believe every believer is similarly charged by God to do great things. Have the “God breathed” principles of the following verses become very real in your heart?

1 John 4:7    Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God.

8    But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

9    God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.

Matt. 28:18    Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.

19   Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

20   Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (NLT)

It grieves the heart of God when people stop at the first step of the Christian life. He has such a longing for His people to know Him more, for His people to become empowered to change the world by working together with Him to accomplish exploits. The more we get to know Him the more we fall in love with Him. Consequently the better able we are to function with Him in His plan for our lives and for mankind.