There are great understandings from the Word of God. There is wisdom far beyond man’s ability to comprehend, thoughts that are much too great for our minds to think. There are mysteries too deep for our mentality to embrace, and revelations too high to fit into words. Yet, the Spirit of God relates to man’s spirit things hard to be understood and even harder to be spoken. Sometimes they are more felt in the depth of our inner being than understood by our mind. They are spiritual things communicated from the Spirit to the spirit in spiritual ways, comparing spiritual things to spiritual things.
There are deep, hidden mysteries of the wisdom of God that are only revealed through His Spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:6-10,12-13: However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages of glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But as it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit Who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak not in words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
Sometimes the best we can do to communicate spiritual things in natural language is to speak of a parallel natural thing. Jesus taught the greatest concept of the Bible, the kingdom of God, from heaven, on earth, with many parables of natural things. The kingdom is the preeminent teaching in the Word of God. All other teachings and understandings in the Bible relate to and are in some way a part of the great concept of the kingdom of God / kingdom of heaven.
Within the kingdom there is one greatest of all kingdom principles, one greatest spiritual mystery law, one greatest of all kingdom concepts that saturates the entire kingdom and every other principle or law of the kingdom. It is the force that draws and holds the kingdom together, the glue that bonds the kingdom into unity. It is the motivation for every work in the kingdom. It is the power that causes all other kingdom principles to work. It is the root of righteousness, obedience, peace, and joy, the reason for the cross, the resurrection, and Pentecost. It causes purity, purpose, production, prosperity, contentment, and faithfulness. It causes men to become faithful servants and stewards. It can change a harlot or adulteress into a purified bride. It is the source of grace, mercy and forgiveness.
This greatest thing in the kingdom can easily be named, but cannot, with man’s words, be easily explained. It must be experienced and felt Spirit-to-spirit. The most passionate, intense, and pleasurable natural experience cannot equal it. We can see and say what it does. But what it is or why it is, goes beyond human natural understanding.
The greatest mystery law, principle, concept, understanding of the kingdom, the predominate force and most significant factor in the kingdom of God is THE LOVE OF GOD.
Without the love of God, there would be no salvation for mankind. Jesus would not have come to earth. There would be no cross, no resurrection, no indwelling Holy Spirit, no righteousness, no peace nor joy on earth, no forgiveness, no deliverance, no healing of the heart, no real reason for living, no relationship between man and the living God, and no drawing force establishing God’s kingdom on earth. Apart from the love of God, there is no kingdom of God from heaven on earth. Yet, who can describe what the love of God is?
John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”
Matthew 22:36-40: “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
The number of those who really know the love of God in a personal, intimate experience is increasing. Many may be heard to voice a desire to know God and to know Him better. To know God is to know love. God is love. The spiritual union and intimacy of knowing (experiencing) the love of God is the greatest fulfillment in life. Earthly accomplishments and human desires all fade into the distance. Life’s highest highs pale in the rapture of experiencing God’s love. There is nothing one would not do, nothing one would not give, to please Him. The only fear is the fear of disappointing Him. The heart’s greatest desire is to hear His voice, to do His bidding, and to be pleasing in His sight.
The intense love between a man and a woman is a natural parallel to the love of God. In the Bible, the Song of Solomon is an expression of spiritual love in natural terms. Anyone who has truly been in love with someone knows to some degree the feelings of loving God. A man in love will do anything to be with the woman he loves. When they are apart, a deep aching and longing fills his chest. Only embracing her and pressing her against his chest will stop the ache and fill the longing. Her every characteristic, even her flaws, seem intensely beautiful and desirable to him. He will look deep into her eyes and say, “I will change the whole world for you. I will climb the highest mountain, defeat the fiercest enemy for you.” They kiss and she melts in his arms and replies, “I am yours forever. I will serve you with my whole heart; only, please, never leave me nor forsake me.” He promises, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
The world may have difficulty understanding why one in love with God will leave the activities and things of the world to be with Jesus. Religious people, with their rules and strife, may demand for the person in love with Jesus to be more involved with their religious activity. They may never understand why their ceremonies mean so little to the one who is personally experiencing the loving presence of God.
The love of God is love from God and love for God. The love of God flows toward us from God through Jesus. The Holy Spirit in us produces love from within us that flows toward God through Jesus and we feel intense love from Jesus, and we feel intense love for Jesus. We are passionately and desperately in love with Jesus.
LOVE PURIFIES
Jesus’ love motivates us to purity. Our desires are to be, to have, and to do according to His will. No other needs can drive us. He is all we need. His will and ways are always righteous obedience to the Father.
This greatest mystery of love can change harlotry to purity. The love of Jesus can change a rebellious, adulterous bride into a faithful, purified bride without spot or blemish. Jesus, by the love relationship, becomes one flesh with His bride and is manifest in her so that His life becomes flesh on the earth. As His presence appears within us and is revealed through us, we become as He is; we are purified.
Ephesians 5:25-27,29-32: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for it that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
1 John 4:7-9: Beloved let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.
1 John 4:12b-13, 16,19: If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. We love Him because He first loved us.
Paramount Transformational Power
There is no power greater than the power of love. Nothing else can transform the world. No other power or force can overpower love. Nothing can neutralize the inherent power flowing within love. Every work of evil in man can be neutralized by love. Nothing can conquer love and there is nothing that love cannot conquer.
God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. Every aspect of man’s life in the world can be transformed by love. Every burdensome weight and stressful oppression of man can be fully relieved by love. In a very practical and real way, the love of God in a person will transform his or her life. The love of God in a large number of people will transform areas of the world. The love of God in all people will transform the entire world. In a real and practical way, the world can be transformed into the kingdom of God.
It is impossible to abide in God and His love and not be a transforming agent in the world.
Unlove is the absence of God and His love. Life in the fallen world is based in unlove. Every aspect of natural man’s life in the fallen world is guided by the ways of unlove.
Mankind is designed to abide in God and His love, and God in him. Great emptiness characterizes the lives of people whose inherent need for God’s love is unfulfilled. The neediness in mankind can never be fulfilled without love. The desperate need for more and more of something to fill the emptiness leads to competition, greed, strife, fear, pride, and every negative, stressful, destructive force known to man. The entire world becomes filled with strife. War is everywhere and every person competes against others. All of the problems of the world stem from this basic lack in mankind.
Husbands and wives fight and divorce. Employees strive against and deceive employers. Employers exploit employees. People climb over one another in a competitive effort to attain a higher position. Customers strive with merchants and merchandisers take advantage of customers. Law enforcement fights with criminals in an attempt to enforce thousands of laws enacted in an attempt to control the deceit and violence of the people. The whole world becomes a battlefield. Everything in business and all of life revolves around trying to get more while giving the least possible to get it. Even the highest of charitable human motives are mixed with hypocritical values of “What’s in it for me?” All this and much more exist because of the lack of love abiding in mankind.
Do you see how God’s love in man can alleviate all need and stop all strife of the world? No more wars, no more crime and, eventually, no more sickness, no more disease. Some would say, “Yes, but it is not possible for man to love and live this way,” and they would almost be right. Until Jesus came, man had failed to abide with God in His love. Christ Jesus did what others did not do and lived as one with God in the Holy Spirit. The GOOD NEWS is that Christ Jesus can now live in people by the Holy Spirit. Thus, the potential now exists for all to have Christ’s life abiding within. Through Christ all can now abide in God and His love. We can now bring the paramount, transforming power of God’s love into practical reality in the world through Christ in us by the Holy Spirit. Christ in His people can destroy the works of the devil.
1 John 3:8: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
The greatest mystery of the kingdom of God is the transformational power of love. The world has already been greatly changed by the love of God expressed in the cross of Christ Jesus. No other person in all of our world’s history has had as great a transformational effect as Christ Jesus. Now, the LIFE OF JESUS is set to transform every area of life in the world. Through Christ Jesus living in them individuals are transformed. By LOVE, individuals filled with Christ Jesus by the Holy Spirit, can transform families, businesses, schools, media, cities, nations and the world.
Keep on Pursuing Love
It Will Never Fail,
Ron McGatlin
http://www.openheaven.com
basileia@earthlink.net
Radical Disciples - A Remnant Revolution 