We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:15-16.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
Love opens the door to your heart. Without love you cannot see with the heart and you cannot hear with the heart and you will never grow up spiritually. The Pharisees could not see or hear with their hearts. Why? My Son explained, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men; but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in your hearts.” John 5:39-42. They had shut the door to their hearts against Him.
Jealousy, hate, pride, and the like shut the door to your heart against Him and it grieves Him. And He asked the Pharisees, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts, and He said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” And he stretched it out, and his hand was restored as whole as the other. At this, the Pharisees went out and began plotting with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.” Mark 5:4-6. Kill a man for healing a withered hand that rendered the man unfruitful and was stealing his life? No love, no joy, and it blinds the eyes of your heart.
Hard hearts kept the Israelites from entering the Promised Land. “Today if you would hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested Me, they tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, and said they are a people who err in their heart, and they do not know My ways.
Therefore I swore in My anger, truly they shall not enter into My rest.” Psalm 95:8-11. Hard hearts are loathsome things to Me because they block Me from pouring in My blessings and My love into their lives.
Pride keeps you from loving as I do. Pride despises but love values and prizes. I value each one of you and when you come to Me I listen and I never reject anyone who comes. Instead I invite you to come to Me. My Son continually seeks entrance so He can heal you and bless your life by reconciling you to fellowship with Me, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:20-21. Love alone can win the throne. Love is how you overcome any and every obstacle.
The greatest hindrances to seeing with our heart, that is, living in constant fellowship of mutual honor and open heart with Me is a lack of love in one or all of the following areas of your life.
1. You do not know and understand My love for you.
2. You do not love your own life.
3. You do not love others’ lives.
In all these areas you need to grow in wisdom and understanding and grace so you can know and believe in the love I have for you. Knowing My love will accelerate your growing in love. I am calling you to fellowship with Me, to My Kingdom, and to My glory. And I have freely given you all three of these in Jesus.
In this is love, not that you loved Me, but that I love you and sent My Son to be the propitiation for your sins. 1 John 4:10. I so loved the world I gave you My Son so that all who believe in Him will never perish but will have eternal life. John 3:16. My love is willing to give you all I have and am because that pleases Me. I want to share everything with you. I have given you My Kingdom in Jesus. Do you even begin to understand what this means to you for all eternity? Even when you sinned and rejected Me, I never gave up to bring you back into Me to enjoy My goodness, presence and power, that is, My glory. Why? Because it pleases Me to forgive and to bless for that is who I am, that is love, and I am love. My first words to man were words of blessing and empowerment.
It gives Me joy unspeakable filled with glory to give and to forgive and I want to share that joy with you. You too will find great joy in giving and forgiving, just as I do. And I do it by giving you My Word which makes you partakers of My divine nature and makes all My magnificent precious promises “yes” to you who have been cleansed of all unrighteousness by the blood of My Son.
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” 1 John 4:11-14. I pour My love into your hearts by the gift of My Holy Spirit when you open the door of your heart to Me by imitating Me as My dear children and walking in love. Which means simply walking with no bitter roots in you that make you turn hard hearts—hateful hearts filled with offense and dishonor for the other—to Me or to your brethren. A hard heart does not give or forgive. A hard heart is hell on earth and will not make you happy. It will ruin our life and the life of the one you despise. “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galatians 5:13-15. The answer? “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” Galatians 5:16. If you want a life filled with peace and joy, you must learn to say “no” to your flesh and “yes” to your spirit.
How do you know if you have bitterness in your heart, hidden away even from yourself by guising it in self justification and supposing I feel just like you against your brethren, “You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. These things you have done and I kept silence; you thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.” Psalm 50:20-21. The answer to this is if you have unhappiness in your life that causes you to pray the other person would die or somehow you could delivered from the family member, or even wishing yourself dead to escape, if you are not thankful for the abundance of things you have and for your life, if you are constantly talking against the other person and telling people about how awful they are and how miserable they are making you, what they took from you or cheated you from such as your rightful inheritance, then you definitely are harboring a bitter root. Spouses, even after separating or divorcing, do not give up festering ill will and hurt about the other. Many never let it go. No matter what the other did or did not do, unless you dig that root out and let the light in you will never walk in the Spirit and see with your heart.
The religious leaders lied about and crucified My Son and almost all His disciples deserted Him and even betrayed and denied Him but it did not even slow Him up in His mission of love and taking all those sins on Himself. When He rose from the dead, He had no mean words to say to His disciples about not believing Him and about deserting Him and denying Him. He merely greeting them with “Shalom.” All is well. All is perfect. All is complete.
Joseph’s brothers hated him, sold him as a slave, and yet he had no bitter root about them. He walked entirely in the light of My love. It gave him joy to share with them the great abundance I had given him.
Love forgives, love gives, love blesses. Love does not count the cost. When I gave you My Son and He agreed to become sin on you behalf so you could be made righteous with My own righteousness, it was a treasure beyond measure but we gave it to you freely to save your soul and bring you into My house.
“Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” 1 John 4:15-16. If you remain in Me, that is, if My Word remains in you and you remain in My Word, then you are abiding in My love. Love is the secret place of the Most High. Love is the safest place to be. If your heart is filled with nothing but love nothing can take your joy away and nothing can conquer you and nothing can steal your confidence before Me in My care for you. “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” John 15:7. Why? When you are abiding in love all you desire will be of love. Even for the salvation and enlightening of your enemies. Love will flood out all the malice and ill will in your heart and mind. It will fill your life with joy unspeakable filled with My glory.
Walking in love, abiding in love, living a life of pure love, is a life lived in the Light. Nothing need be hidden; nothing need be covered. What you speak in private is worthy to be broadcast in the light. Love never harms the neighbor no matter what they did or did not do. But often the offense lies in you and their heart did not intend it as you perceived in you. For everything you bring into and expose to the light becomes light and in My light you see light. You see the truth in love. “For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light (for the fruit of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), proving what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them; for it is disgraceful even to speak of the things which are done by them in secret. But all things become visible when they are exposed by the light, for everything that becomes visible is light.” Ephesians 5:8-13.
“By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world.” 1 John 4:17. I have given you Jesus for many reasons but one is so that you can live your life through Him. “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” And He invites you to take advantage of this, “Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:9-11.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. “We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” 1 John 4:18-21. The love I am talking about is My kind of love which I share with you.
Love is wonderful. All who live in love are in the light and open they do is open to see. Light transforms all to light. When the true light that enlightens the eyes of every person comes in darkness cannot overcome it. Love makes you an overcomer of all the powers of darkness. Love is the most powerful force there is. Love conquers all, love fulfills all, love redeems all and I AM love. And you are in My image and according to My likeness. And that is why you will never be happy until you are in love with My love. Love is joy and joy is love.
I love you. Come share your Master’s joy. Your Father’s joy as My precious children, My own special treasure. It gives Me joy to love you for that is who I am. But until you know and understand love you will not know or understand Me or who you are. The Israelites I redeemed from Egypt saw My mighty works but they never learned My ways. They never loved Me, their own lives, or the lives of those they were with. And that gave them hearts so hard that there was no way I could get the blessings of the promised land into their hearts.
“For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.” Ephesians 3:14-21.