Radical Disciples – A Remnant Revolution

“for love covers a multitude of sins…..”

What does one do when betrayed! The Word says to not only love the person, it says to forgive as well. Yet let us look at the love that is mentioned in the passage for a moment. The love that is written in the KJV is “ἀγάπη ag-ah’-pay” which mean to love, that is, affection or benevolence; specifically (plural) a love feast: – (feast of) charity ([-ably]), dear, love.

O’ that unconditional love that the Father shows forth towards His children – this is the love which He desires His children to operate in.

Yet as humans we find that at the moment of betrayal it is a immediate turmoil of emotions that run through our whole being. This is usually because it is not our enemies that are able to betray us rather it is those who are closest to us. It is like a deep knife being thrust into our rib cage and puncturing our heart.

But the Lord tells us in His Word to forgive and to do so with agape love and we must search deep within our selves to find the Christ in us to overcome the pain. I have heard some say that they can not be hurt – yet I believe that hurt is indeed part of our make up. The question that must be asked is how “do we respond to such hurt”?

Many lash out at the person who has hurt them. Sadly many leaders in the Body today who feel they have been betrayed possible when someone leaves their church or break fellowship with them go on the defensive and at times will use their influence to cause others to look indifferently upon the one who may have caused the offense.

Yet my brothers and sisters this is not the answer – the answer is love – agape love that is completely and undeniable unconditional – love that states if you hurt me I will still love you, if you befriend me I will still love you. We saw the Lord Himself paint this picture for us as the 11 scattered when He was arrested and one of His closest friends went so far as to deny Him not once, not twice but three times. Yet we see that when Jesus met them again after His resurrection in that closed in room He said to them “Peace be with you” . We see in the passage found in John 20He treated them with brotherly love holding nothing against them.

We must model our lives after the Lord, for He has been tempted in every manner such as we have even to the point of those closest to Him betraying Him, yet His response was that of love – so must ours! (ref Heb 4:15)

Now onto an even deeper look in regard to betrayal in the area of when we betray our selves. In the midst of s struggle with a besetting sin it is so easy to not be willing to forgive ourselves, opening the door to the enemy to come in and fill our minds and spirit up with guilt and condemnation. This leads to the position that the Blood of the Lamb is qualified to forgive all sin except our own. And then we turn inward and begin doubting the scriptures. We begin to become bitter and cynical as we see others set free yet we remain in bondage. This bitterness will grow and cause us to become distant from those around us.

We must be willing to love ourselves here as well brothers and sisters. I am not talking about a selfish prideful love here I am talking about seeing ourselves thru the eyes of the Father. No, I am certainly not condoning sin here, I am speaking from a personal stand point from which I have gone through. The position I described above is most often entered into when we try and overcome something in our own strength. We set ourselves up for failure for, we in and of ourselves have no power over sin. The overcoming power comes from the cross, from the blood of the Lord and the infusion of grace from the Father via Holy Spirit into our inner man that empowers us to live the overcoming life.

My dear children, I’m writing this to you so that you will not sin. Yet, if anyone does sin, we have Jesus Christ, who has God’s full approval. He speaks on our behalf when we come into the presence of the Father. (1 John 2:1)

I have struggled with an issue in my own life for years up until recently when the Lord showed me the power of His love. I would have victory for days, some times weeks even at times for months and I would fight off the desire with all the strength I had. Then bam, it would pop up and cause me to stumble again. I not only felt like I had betrayed the Lord, inside I would be so unforgiving of myself because once again I betrayed myself.

The devil tries to undermine our faith, making us feel guilty and unclean by pointing to our sins, causing us to take our eyes off Jesus. He then fills us with doubt about our salvation. There are many things that make us unclean and the devil will be sure to point them out in order to break our fellowship with God. One of his greatest weapons is to position of to identify our selves in the sin rather than freedom from the sin.

Self betrayal can be like a fast spreading cancer. Once it attaches itself to you it begins to rapidly drain you and can suck the very life out of your spirit.

I John 1:9 says, ”if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

The key to the victory over it comes thru repentance – admitting you’ve done wrong and asking the Father to forgive attached to inner self forgiveness and wrapped up in the power of His love which contains a deep sense of grace and mercy. We must not only accept the fact that God loves us, we ourselves must love who we are through God’s eyes!

Consider this: The Father has given us his love. He loves us so much that we are actually called God’s dear children. ( 1 John 3:1)

For it is this position of love, realizing that we are not simply loved when we are good, we are loved at all times by the Father – we must find our identity in His love. Before long that sin that so often caused us to fail will no longer be an issue for the Fathers Love will break its power in our lives – His Love flows mightily thru the Blood of His Son, the Lamb of God with such power that there is no sin that cannot be washed away.

We can only come to God by the merits of the blood and its cleansing power.

“they overcame him (the accuser of the brethren), by reason of the blood of the Lamb, and by reason of the word of their testimony and have not loved their life, even unto death”. (Rev 12:11)

Close the door on the effects of betrayal today in your life – in regards to that which comes from others betraying you down to self betrayal – “The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of cows sprinkled on unclean[a] people made their bodies holy and clean. The blood of Christ, who had no defect, does even more. Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself to God and cleansed our consciences from the useless things we had done”. (Heb 9:13-14)

Now we can serve the living God in righteousness thru Christ. We must walk anew each day, dying to self placing our fleshly desires under the sin destroying weight of the cross. Let the Blood of the Lamb wash you anew and sweep in and over you, consuming you in the Fathers LOVE!

For we indeed serve an Awesome God!

Russ Welch