Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
Love makes all things new. N.E.W. = Never Ending Wonders!
O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your Name; for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness. Isaiah 25:1.
For a child is born to us, a Son is given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6.
But the Messenger of the LORD said to him, “Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?” Judges 13:18.
There is a line between you who belong to Me and have washed your robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb and those who are living under Satan as their master and doing evil. And you cannot cross that line and expect good results. When the rich man that had ignored Lazarus at his gate was in hell, he tried to pull Lazarus, who was safe in the bosom of Abraham in the temporary home of Paradise until Jesus opened Heaven for all who believe, over to his side to serve him. And people who have given themselves over to the evil one will do the same to you in the world even now. They will try to pull you over into their darkness to serve them. But Lazarus and the man in hell were in two different realms and the one could not cross to the other.
What am I telling you? You know that in the world where you are now there is no abyss between you and those living in Satan’s realm, and you can cross over to them and they to you. What I am counseling you and warning you is that you should never let evil take over a conversation, situation, or gathering (whether it be family or work related). You must put it in its place by speaking the truth in love. Love is the more excellent way. Do not answer evil with evil. Learn to live above and answer in love, not anger and offense, but as a witness to the truth.
The Lord’s bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will. 2 Timothy 2:24-26.
Every letter in the alphabet, each key on your computer keyboard, each word that you speak is like a flame, you can use it to light the fire of love in every heart, including yours, or it can be enkindled by the fire of hell as you vent forth the destruction and devastation left behind by cruel and cutting words, or even words of fear, blame, offense and defeat.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. James 3:5-6.
Blessing and cursing should not be both coming out of a believer’s mouth. Only blessing and then you will live in the double portion and the evil one cannot steal it from you. If you get out of the blessing wall, you will step out of the double portion of the place of rest. Always be working, answering others, participating in conversations from My place of rest where you abide by keeping My Word.
And what is My Word? I am My Word and I am Love and I am Light. Love and light describes all I say, whether it is correction, encouragement, edification, or exhortation. The entrance of My Word brings light. And it also brings the sweet fellowship of love.
I will show you the most excellent way and that is the way of love. If you want an excellent life, pursue love. Pursue a double portion of love. I give My Spirit without measure and I pour My love, which is My very self, into your heart by the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of love is within you and upon you.
Let love lead you in all things, including your conversations with others. A double portion of love will keep you in the rest in any given situation, even the most difficult ones.
Darkness must flee when the light is turned on. There no longer is any place for it in full light. Just so, evil cannot abide in the presence of pure love. Evil is no match for pure love. Just as darkness cannot overcome light, so too evil cannot overcome love. Love never fails. Evil fails, but love never does. If you want to be an overcomer living in My rest, seated with Jesus above you must walk and abide in love at all times.
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. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Revelation 3:21-22.
Answering jealousy and strife with anger, offense and harshness will never solve the situation but will escalate the evil. Learn to walk, live, abide, and answer in pure love and you will never be defeated by evil.
Seek, pursue, and receive a double portion of love, for the double portion of the firstborn and of the Shabbat are yours in Jesus, and you will always live in My rest. You will be above and not beneath. You will live in the light and will not get pulled into the darkness. Remember the unbeliever is trying to pull you over into their darkness to serve them. Don’t go there.
Love is always the answer.
So what is love and how do you conduct yourself in love? I have given you the answer:
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8.
Love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in your spirit. It is the flow from the vine of Jesus into you, the sap that produces growth and fruit so to speak. Even in old age those who are planted in My house are full of sap, very green and bearing fruit. And the characteristics of that Spirit produced fruit of love are joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5 22-23. Those are the fruit of love in your heart and love grown within becomes the fruit of your lips to nourish you and others with good things and perfect gifts.
To walk in love, to abide in the height and depth and length and breadth of love, you must stay out of arguments and senseless railings against one another, your anger does not achieve My righteousness, only speaking the truth in love does. You see things from your perspective but I would rather you came up higher and shared My thoughts and would see things as I do. I see hearts, often broken hearts, and you do not. You see arrogance and evil but I see the inside and know what to do for each person to enable you to help them out of evil to good and from darkness to light. If you simply get angry and retaliate no one gains, and in fact, you lose. You should never condone evil behavior or be permissive of it but you should put it in its place by routing it with love. Love will always conquer evil. A calm answer spoken in wisdom from on High stops an argument in its tracks and sends it back from the way it came. If you have let strife in by opening the door to offense, bitterness, and anger, you can always rout it back out the way it came in by turning to Me and casting the care of it over to Me in repentance and rejoicing.
Do you remember when Sennacherib and the Assyrian army came to take Jerusalem captive? The king sent an envoy first that spoke to the people of Jerusalem saying that I could not save them from the Assyrians because they had conquered the nations surrounding Judah and thrown their idols into the fire. So they told the people just to surrender and let them deport them off to Assyria where they would have a good life serving the king of Assyria and that way not resist the evil and avoid death. But My servant Hezekiah had told them not to answer for I would take care of them. But do you see? The evil was trying to pull the good over into the realm of darkness to serve them as their slaves for the rest of their lives. And they enticed them but when they saw that was not working, they were very threatening and spoke victory against Hezekiah and spoke in a very demeaning way about My ability to protect My people.
And even though it caused fear at first to see so large an army camping to siege Jerusalem, Hezekiah came and handed the whole matter over to Me with trust. He knew Me. And I answered him immediately and went to work on his behalf. I sent the enemy back the very way he had come in.
‘Because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, a nd I will turn you back by the way which you came. 2 Kings 19:28.
And how did I protect and defend a city must smaller than the troops arrayed against it speaking evil against them? I, the LORD of Hosts, sent one of My angels and he took down 185,000 of the enemy that same night.
‘Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,”’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’” Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh. It came about as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch his god, that Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. And Esarhaddon his son became king in his place. 2 Kings 19:32-37.
Hezekiah told the people not to answer a word, neither to fight, to argue, to question, or to get pulled into enticing conversation. Eve would have done well to have treated the devil that way in the beginning. And after that Hezekiah had peace. That night he refused to fear, gave the care all over to Me, and entered into My rest in love. And the result was victory.
Faith is the victory that overcomes the world, but faith in what? My beloved John gives you the answer to that in the same letter where he writes that by inspiration of My Spirit:
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 4:16.
And that is your answer to everything.
And I would like to close with My advice of how to live in love. You keep your mind above where Christ is seated at My right hand and not below in the dirt where Satan crawls. Hate is from down in the dirt, love is from higher realms. It is a matter of knowing where to put your attention when Satan subtly attacks through your relatives and co-workers.
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, pagan, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:1-17.
I love you. Seek the double portion of love, which is yours in Christ, and live continually in My rest. And do not get pulled out of it into arguments and bickering. If you do the devil will run in that door as fast as he can. But the good news is, if you have fallen into his trap, you can get him out the same way he came in. If you will come to Me, I am always ready to help you.