AWAKE, ARISE, AND TRIUMPH
Friday – January 20, 2023, Tevet 27, 5783
FRIDAY NUGGETS
FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – PART TEN – LOVE
Greeting dear and precious saints of God and welcome back to our Friday Bible Study named Friday Nuggets and I am currently exploring the Fruit of the Spirit, and today is part ten. Have you considered what your vision is for 2023, what will be accomplished this year, in the next five years. Most of us have a day-by-day plan, vision if you will, but not a God given Kingdom of God vision. This plan of course would be multifaceted and written down with the steps necessary to achieve the various goals. As we, each of us ponder our God given vision, please take a moment and share this teaching as widely as possible by every means at your disposal to expand, extend our reach with this wonderful, nothing like it, news. There is no better news than that contained in the Holy Bible and demonstrated in our lives. What is the testimony of our lives, the fruit produced by our lives in Christ Jesus? I am not answering that question, it is for each of us to ponder, and answer individually. Now continuing to read out loud, let’s read our primary Bible text.
Galatians 5:22-23 (KJV)
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
Today let’s spend so time dealing with the fruit of love. This is the God kind of love and you will recall God is love (agape).
1 John 4:8 (KJV)
8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Well, if God is love so are we since we are made in His image, His likeness, of like kind. From the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden until the Resurrection of Christ man was separated from God in that his spirit man was dead to God. The fruits of the spirit are in the spirit man and thus mankind was not able to manifest this supernatural love until salvation came. Sinners, the unsaved, are not able to produce this supernatural fruit. So, what is this love? Is this love just a fuzzy wuzzy warm feeling about someone or something or is it more than a transient emotion? Does the fruit of love or any of the other fruit have an emotional component at all? All of the fruit of the spirit are produced by our will in accordance with the Word, the will of God.
Natural people and Christian people due to ignorance have all sorts of things or relationships that they call love but do not fit the definition of the God kind of love. In the English language we use the word “love” for all kinds of things, situations or activities like “I love my cat”, “I love ice cream”, “I love to dance”, “I just love them to death” and “I love my wife”. You can probably think of a myriad of other examples but only one of these I mentioned fits in the God type of love category and that is, “I love my wife”. Only the born-again believer can say in truth that they love (agapē or agapaō) their wife (spouse) all others are incapable. Sometimes the translators of the King James Version of the Bible have translated the Greek word agapē to the English word charity instead of love. Whenever you see the word charity (Strong’s Greek Number: 26) it is always talking about the love that can only be from or be of God.
I will share with you the definition of agape (Greek Strong’s Number: 26) or agapao (Greek Strong’s Number: 25) which the Lord gave me in my study of this topic some years ago. “Love is a deep and constant interest in a person. It is a function of the will. It is right (righteous – Biblical) and reflects or is born of the blood covenant. This love is not dependent on the recipient in any way but is solely dependent on the giver.”
This love puts God, and obedience to the Word of God first in all things, in the relationship. The focus of our love toward the person in question is deep and constant not superficial and intermittent. Our focus or attention is not a result of something the person focused on does or does not do but a function of our will. It is a focus and attention that reflects the will of God and maintains a righteous standing of all parties. In a word this love is selfless, absent any hint of selfishness. Love is based on and subject to the blood covenant that started in Genesis and culminated at Calvary. The behavior, the actions, and the words of the person loved are to have no effect on you and me. In a phrase, this love involves selfless attitudes, and actions with the force of the obligations of the Blood Covenant. There is no covenant stronger than a Blood Covenant. I capitalize Blood Covenant because one party to the covenant is God. You have seen above that the definition of love which God gave me some years ago and the Blood Covenant are consistent with and augment the expanded revelation of love which God is giving to the body of Christ. A three-legged chair is far more stable than a one- or two-legged chair but all three require diligence to maintain balance. Diligence is required in thought, words, and actions concerning God and those about us. Lord willing, I will pick up right here next week and continue our discussion of this supernatural love.
By: Dr. David R. Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
2 Chronicles 20:20 b (KJV)
20 … Believe in the LORD your God, so shall ye be established; believe his prophets, so shall ye prosper.
Receive the blessing in Jesus’ name!
Numbers 6:24-26 (MSG)
24 GOD bless you and keep you,
25 GOD smile on you and gift you,
26 GOD look you full in the face and make you prosper.
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