You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:43-45.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלהים) says:
The Sermon on the Mount gives lessons on how to live a prosperous life filled with righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. And the only way you can walk in the Spirit is by seeing with your heart. Things you memorize and know with your head you forget when you don’t use them, things you know in your heart you know forever.
Temporal, earthly things change, spiritual heavenly things do not. That is why you need to focus more on the unseen spiritual realities to get your answers than on the things you see with your five senses here on earth. In every circumstance there is much more than meets the physical eyes. MUCH MORE. And I do not want you to miss out on it for it is there for you. Like the wedding feast that the King gave for His Son but everyone was too busy with the affairs of this life, which would soon pass away, to come to the eternal feast. And all they had to do was come.
It is all about grace. But grace comes through My Word. Jesus is My Word made flesh. My Word became flesh and dwelt among you to be your Salvation but He also came to be your teacher, and still is. Grace and truth came to you through Jesus, that is, through My Word. My Words are Spirit and life. My Word is truth. You should pay close attention to every word in the Sermon on the Mount. These are from the One I designated to be your Teacher.
Jesus told you to come to Him, that is, to come to My Word, and learn from Him for He is gentle and humble of heart. He exemplifies My Word in action and He is not harsh or hard. A bruised reed He will not crush and a smoldering wick He will not quench.
In Jesus, the One I raised from the dead by the blood of the eternal Covenant as the great Shepherd of the sheep, I gently lead you, not by force but by love. Harsh unloving force is weak compared to the force of love. One who beats you will oppress and enslave you until you have a chance to escape, but one who loves you and lives to serve you so that you become the fruitful and amazing person you were meant to be, you will joyfully serve forever. It is like the bond servant I told Moses about who is set free to leave the service of his master, but so loves his good master that he instead willingly becomes the master’s servant forever by his own choice. You will notice the apostles called themselves this. They had chosen to stay in My service forever for I had made them My children and heirs in Jesus.
Love never fails. Evil is oppressive, it presses you down. Love is lifting, it lifts you up free from oppression. Evil destroys. Love upbuilds. When the branches on the Vine of Christ touch down to the ground and become unfruitful, I lift them up, prune (cleanse) and renew them to be fruitful again. How? Jesus told the disciples that they were pruned of excess (cleansed of unfruitfulness) by My Word that He spoke to them. It is the same for you today.
The ministry of Jesus lifted up the oppressed to new vision and purpose. I anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and power, and He went about doing good and healing all those that were oppressed by the devil. And that anointing was with the oil of joy. My joy is your strength and He gave you divine joy by the Words He spoke to you.
Make your life a ministry of lifting up the oppressed. Out of the depths of the miry swamp of the world, give them the lifeline of My Word until it is so in their heart that they jump out of that pit with resurrection power flowing through them and jump right onto the Everlasting Rock with a new song of praise and thanksgiving to Me in their hearts. And you should be singing with them. I surround you with songs of deliverance. And this is love for one another, that you raise each other up.
Behold, Satan has demanded to sift you like wheat, but Jesus, your great High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for you, is praying for you that your faith will never fail. And you when you have turned to Me again must turn and strengthen your brethren, even those who are your enemies. Although no person is really your or My enemy, it is the devil to whose deceits they have succumbed who is using their life to work upon the earth that is the true enemy, your true adversary. And this is why you must see with your heart. See a captive to set free not a detestable person, though the devil may have deceived them into becoming so and living a very low life. But even if they have been swallowed by the lion, if there is still a piece of their ear sticking out of his mouth, you can pull them out with My Words that will rouse them. But you have to get to the ear of their heart.
And that is today’s lesson from the Sermon on the Mount: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48. And in the letter of James I tell you that the one is perfect who controls his or her tongue.
There is so much food for your spirit, for your heart, here. This is about the ministry of lifting up, of setting captives free, and of setting yourself free. For Satan will sift you like wheat to see what you are really made of and whether he can take you captive to do his will. He puts pressure on you to enter the path of hatred and jealousy that he is upon towards all mankind. He wanted to be in My image and according to My likeness and rob you of your throne at My right hand. And even though he no longer has access to that throne which he acquired by deceit from Adam because My Son won it back as one like you, he tries to steal, kill, and destroy your life so at least you cannot have what he can no longer take. Do not be taken in by him. This is why you have to see people with your heart and not just according to the flesh. If you walk according to the flesh you will not forgive, bless, or do good to those who come against you.
Let Me sum it up for you as I showed it by My Spirit to Paul, he penned them but they are My Words to you so take them as such, “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:14-19.
Take this seriously. I have committed to you the same ministry I gave to Jesus, the ministry of reconciling sinners to Me. But yours is the easier ministry because He already died once for ALL. He paid the ransom of all. You, but also everyone else. But you must understand this does not mean everyone has accepted salvation. For a gift to be yours, you must receive and accept it. You can reject a gift and never even open it, and then it will not do you personally any good. Jesus told the Pharisees that unless they believed that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, they would die in their own sins, but that does not mean salvation was not available to them. He was right there before their eyes. But their hard hearts were stout against Him. But He was gentle and humble of heart who called them. My heart is towards you. And your heart should be like My heart for I have poured My love into your heart by My gift of the Holy Spirit to you who are in Jesus.
Jesus told you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Why? “So that you may be mature children of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” What am I telling you here about Myself that you should know to grow thereby into the loving person I am asking you to be? Consider what I am saying by seeing it with your heart, that is, as in your spirit vision.
The sunlight and the rain come down from the heavens above the earth and bless it making it grow and bloom abundantly, giving it warmth and drink. And the sun and rain benefit wherever and on whomever they fall, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, water to the thirsty, and a continuing supply of crops, warmth, refreshing, and light. It is the same in the Spirit, My healing, blessing, revelation, salvation, and spiritual gifts are continually shining and raining down upon you because Jesus has opened the door of Heaven and no one can shut it. I answer every prayer and send down the provision, the blessing, the healing, the goodness, and the answer, but for many people they are not taking these in, they have put up an umbrella, so to speak, to stop the sunlight and the rain from touching them. In other words, their door is closed to Me and all the blessings I am showering and shining down on them are remaining outside the door to their hearts. But if you would just help them to know Me, hear My voice, and open the door to their hearts I would come in and dine with them and they with Me and the blessings piled outside their doors all these years would pour in! They would turn to Me and hear with their ears and see with their eyes and understand with their hearts and I would heal them!
I want them to know, open and glow with the Light of life. Instead of hating and shaming others, would you go and set the captives free with Jesus? Anything you ask in His Name He will do with you. Isn’t it time instead of praying I will rid you of your enemies you started covering them in prayer with the blood of Jesus, and interceding with your great High Priest for them at My throne of grace? Show others the Way, the Truth and the Life and lead them out to lead them in. All in partnership with Him.
Where does this leave bitter roots, resentment, unforgiven sin, and offense? Gone forever into the ash heap by the east side of the altar that the priest later disposed of outside the camp, blown away and gone. These ashes were the only evidence left of the burnt offering by which your sins had been atoned for. I give you beauty for your ashes and the oil of joy for your spirit of mourning. And for your listless, dying wick, I give you the mantle of praise. Do you remember the things Elijah and later Elisha could do with his mantle?
And how you treat others also is a mirror that turns back on you. For the standard you use to judge others, I must use on you. It is a spiritual law that Jesus set forth later in the Sermon on the Mount. And similarly the measure with which you measure others is measured back to you. So if you will not forgive others your standard of judgment is the blood of Jesus is not enough for you. I tell you to forgive others as I forgive you, and I forgive you by the blood of Jesus, it is what atones for your sins before Me. Ephesians 1:7. And Jesus, by His blood, has paid the ransom for all.
So even if the other person has not received Jesus, it does not lessen the fact that you have been paid for that person’s sin against you by the blood of Jesus no matter whether the abuser has received that gift from Me or not. So if that is not enough for you for another person, then I must treat you by the same standard and it is not enough for you and you are still in your sins.
The blood of Jesus, like insurance coverage, has compensated for your loss, but it has not let the one who harmed you off the hook. It is like when an insurance company that you had an insurance policy with pays you back for a loss, the insurance company then is subrogated into your shoes to go collect from the wrongdoer. Vengeance is Mine. Let Me be the judge and not you. I have paid you in full for any wrong done against you in Jesus. And that is why I tell you that when you stand in prayer you must forgive to get your answer. Do you know why? Unforgiveness, bitter roots, and the like harden the door to your heart so hard that it is like a bronze door shut with iron bars and My blessings, answers to your prayers, and healing are all just piling up outside your door until you pull out that bitter root.
You are wise not to let the sun go down on your anger as I have directed you. There is a reason I tell you to forgive and not take offense.
So what do I tell you to do about your enemies? Love and pray for them. Love them in the respect that you have no bitterness or resentment against them but desire that they be saved and have eternal life with Me and all the blessings that go with it now and forever. Have compassion for them for they are like sheep with no Shepherd. And what shall you pray for the ones who are persecuting you? For peace with them and in them by their salvation, renewal of their minds, and for love to come into their hearts. Pray to set them free.
And next I tell you to love those who you find hard to love, for it is easy to love those who love you and appreciate you but difficult to love and serve those who dishonor and disdain you. But remember you are not serving them but Me. Look beyond them to Me and you will have joy in serving Me. For whatever you do for them you do for Me. I will reward you.
And I go further. Even though you refrain from saying anything rude to them or about them if you still turn them an unpleasant face or just look past them as if they are not there so that you do not even greet them that is still not sufficient to gain you a reward. For if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Be gentle and kind, though firm in showing the right thing and guiding people to My light and My Words.
And guarding your heart which then directs the words that come from your mouth, you will not stumble with your tongue. And then you will use your words as tools to win the lost and snatch them back from the devil You will speak to edify, exhort and encourage. Then you will be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I love you. And the good news is that if you do these things you will have joy, My joy, in your heart that no one can take from you. It is good to love as I do. Come share your Father’s joy!