But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13.
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you will abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God says:
Do you know what I look for first and foremost in a person’s life? Faith, hope, and love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. I tell you that whatever is not from faith is sin, Romans 14:23, that anything done without love is worthless, 1 Corinthians 13:1-5, and that without hope you have no anchor for your soul. Hebrews 6:19.
Why do I look primarily for those three qualities? Because they all show a relationship with Me that is good and pleasing. They are not possible without knowing Me and having fellowship with Me. They are not possible without believing in My goodness and My good plans for you.
Faith comes from hearing My Word. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. And love comes from having Christ in you. Whoever loves is born of Me. To have true love you have to have My love poured in your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit. You cannot love apart from being in Me and I in you. Love consists in this, not that you have loved Me but that I have loved you and given My Son as propitiation for your sins. In My love I give you My Son that you might live your life through Him. He will strengthen and empower you in love. He told you to love one another as He loves you. Abide in His love and let Him love for you and in you as a branch on the vine. And your fruit will be love. And love brings joy. There is no joy without love.
You love in response to My love. I have loved you with an everlasting love. I loved you before you came to be. But you were always in Me, even before you were formed in your mother’s womb, I knew you.
In My Word, I tell you a lot about faith, hope and love. Have you never read, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we celebrate in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also celebrate in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:1-5.
Hope is a product of faith and patience. A farmer waits for the seed to grow into the crop that he will harvest, and he must wait in hope or he will give up before the harvest comes. When your faith is strong, you will be strong, for it gives you peace and joy in believing which produces hope that the result you desire is assured. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the title deed to things not yet seen. Faith works by love and hope works by faith so they all hinge on love. If you have love, you have Me, for I am love, so when you have love, you have everything. But without love, you have nothing.
How do you live a perfect life? Jesus tells you to be perfect as I am perfect. David sang that My ways are perfect. I told Abraham to walk before Me and be blameless. It is in close association with Me that you become perfect as I am. Jesus perfected you all in His one sacrifice of Himself, for He took your blame and made you blameless. But now you must work what I put in you out to manifest in the way you walk. Walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received. I have called you to My own glory and Kingdom. And I have given you My righteousness as a gift in Jesus and in Him I also gave you abundant grace. And now that by nature you are righteous, you will find it your joy to live a righteous life. You are not trying to attain righteousness, you already have it as a gift, you are rather starting from the finish line to go on towards a goal even beyond the finish line—the joy of a sinless, perfect life of love walked out in faith and hope until you see Me face to face and know as fully as you are known. It is all about entering My rest and only faith, hope and love will get you there. Love gives you joy to rejoice always, hope causes you to pray without ceasing, and faith gives thanks before the result is seen. When you ask for anything in prayer believe that you have received it and you will be shouting and singing your thanks! The voice of thanksgiving.
Just as righteousness is a gift that you cannot acquire by your own works, so too is love. Perfect love. Many waters cannot quench love, nor will rivers flood over it; if a man were to give all the riches of his house for love, it would be utterly despised. Song of Songs 8:7. I so loved the world I gave My only begotten Son so that all who believe in Him will never perish but have eternal life. I gave. You cannot buy love; it is much too costly. My Son had to die to give it to you. And there is no other that would have had an eternal life to give for the eternal life Adam killed for all of you. But I provided you a way out of where Adam put you.
So how can you give Me the three things I look for in everyone of you. For when the Son of Man comes again will He find any faith on the earth? And the love of many will grow cold. So how do you keep in faith, hope and love and be assured you are fruitful? You do it the same way you develop expertise in any talent you have, you practice it till you become adept at it. You exercise it until you become strong in it. You meditate on it day and night. Exercise your faith by getting My Word in your heart and then declaring it over your life and your world. The spirit of faith believes in the heart and speaks with the mouth. And you can only believe in what you know. So you must read and know My promises—of healing, of forgiveness, of provision, of prosperity, and so many more. They are all “yes” to you in Jesus, so begin thanking Me and claiming them as your own when you need them. And that is exercising your faith. Jesus told His disciples that if you had faith the size of a mustard seed you would SAY to a sycamore tree, a mountain, or whatever else needed moving out of your life to be pulled up and cast away into the sea and it would happen. And that is with mustard seed size faith. But if you plant that seed, it grows into the largest shrub of the garden plans, like a tree where the birds can find a home. Selah.
And you practice hope by waiting on Me until you mount up on eagle’s wings and run without growing weary in the way I am showing you to go. Hope is never letting go of a promise in My Word that you have identified as your anchor in the storm and never letting go until you see it manifest. And that is true patience—not in giving in but in never giving up.
And you practice love by imitating Me as My dear children and setting you mind on things above and not below. But true love comes when you begin to understand what I did for you in Jesus, how He took your sentence of condemnation, became sin for you that you might be My righteousness in Him, and gave His indestructible life as your ransom so that My wrath will never fall on you and you will never have to drink the cup of My anger for sin since He drank it for you. It is only when you understand the love that I have shown you in Him that you can love perfectly with a grateful heart. The one who is forgiven much, loves much, but the one who has been forgiven everything loves with everything in them. Yes, it is then you can love Me with all their heart, soul, mind and strength with no hindrance. My Son has taken down the wall of sin that divided us. He has bridged the gap. It is gone. In Him we are reconciled and joined as one.
And you practice love by loving—love is patient, love is kind, it is not jealous; love does not brag, it is not arrogant It does not act disgracefully, it does not seek its own benefit; it is not provoked, does not keep an account of a wrong suffered, it does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; it keeps every confidence, it believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Practice these attributes. You can or I would not show you these things. Love gives you joy all the day. It is much nicer to be this way than the way of the wicked, the way of the flesh.
I love you. I am looking for faith, hope and love in every person and the greatest of these is love. If you love, you are born of Me and I know you. But never lose hope and certainly always stay in faith.
But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21.