Post by Zac Loh on May 10, 2008 22:43:51 GMT -5
Lately the Lord has been drawing me to spend real concrete time with Him. I do this in the early hours of the morning. These times have been of great significance to my life. For the first time I am longing for God just to spend time in His Presence…not just for asking anything.
Yes, it is a pretty high talk that sounds mystical. It is seemingly impractical and even not doable for the average Christian. It does happen to me periodically but the frank truth is that – it is a stage of the Christian life that is not unattainable, even on a consistent basis.
I am being challenged! But how do we face a challenge? Shall we deny it and say that such as it is does not exist? No!
But we do need to look ahead of us.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you (Philippians 3:10-15).
Loving God Above Ourselves
There was a time God put this seed in me and made me realize that I should love God more than myself. I shared this with a good friend in one of our usual fellowship times while he was driving. He made an honest pointing remark, that most of us ‘do not really love God more than ourselves.’ I tend to agree.
The First Has To Be First, And The Second Has To Be Second!
Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “ The first of all commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:28-31).
We can summarize the above scripture to say ‘we are commanded to love God above ourselves!’
The original Greek word for ‘love’ here in this passage is ‘agape’.
There are four original Greek words that are translated as love : ‘agape’, ‘phileo’, ‘eros’ and ‘storge’.
Agape is a supernatural love and has its basis on being benevolent – the act of giving. It is not just money or material.
We are to ‘agape’ God with our whole self. It is a spiritual love. And by the strength of our spirit, we give the rest of ourselves to God. It only happens when a person is born-again supernaturally and spiritually.
Agape love is higher than phileo.
Phileo is a friendship love that humanly developed based on mutual interest. Phileo resides in the soul and functions based on emotional affection and intellectual acceptability.
Eros and storge are both based on body and physical considerations. Eros is sexual attraction and arousal. Storge is filial connection and attachment.
We are supposed to love God above ourselves. We are supposed to love God with agape love. A non-Christian can only love with phileo and eros/storge love. But a Christian is supernaturally and spiritually endowed with this agape love.
The First Commandment is fulfilled by an enablement of our spirit to love God with agape love above ourselves which is above phileo and eros/storge love.
The Second Commandment will be fulfilled after the First Commandment is fulfilled…when God poured His agape love into out hearts to love our own selves as well as others (Romans 5:5).
The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is the presence of God who is near us. He is to be with us all of the time. And if we can’t love Him more than ourselves, how can we love Jesus and the Father more than ourselves? We need to love the Holy Spirit above ourselves for Him to be with us all of the time – He is a Person. He is God which means He is everything we need! We need His counsel, His wisdom, His guidance, His strength, His transforming power to change us.
As we are approaching the return of our Lord Jesus, the quality of Christians will get better and better…being more and more like Jesus! God wants to win more of us before He wants to use us to win more of others!
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of the brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time (Revelation 12:10-12).
It Is Getting Harder And Harder To Sit On The Fence
I know your works, that you are neither cold not hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked’.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:15-17,19-20)
This is about active Christians! And this is about wealthy Christians! Can you believe it?! They are so busy either in the church or in the workplace that they don’t have time to spend with the Lord!
How does it get harder and harder? Some will find harder and harder to pray – their hearts and their minds will not be able to stay with God. Some will find the presence of God in their lives becoming less and less. Some would not even be able to sense the presence of God in an anointed service. It will get easier to love the world for these. Compromise will come as a natural course of action for them. This is how Jesus spew them out!
When God corrects us …He really loves us. It’s just that we are going away from His love…away from His presence.
Jesus is looking for zealous Christians who are in love with Him.
Jesus is calling you! The dining place where you look at each other face-to-face …taking your time and have heart-to-heart conversations. Jesus is standing at the door of your life. Please let Him in. Let Him have the time that He wants to spend with you …to dine with you …to talk with you heart to heart!
It is a place of private prayer …a place of private conversations from the heart.
Jesus said, ‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly’ (Matthew 6 : 6)
This is the place where you find God heart to heart!
It is in this secret place that you would have loved God. You would also know God’s Name…knowing God’s Name experientially. It means having known Him intimately (Psalm 91:14)
The greater and more numerous the promises …means greater is the act that brings them compared to other activities. This act can be found in the secret place.
Have you blocked away everything else in prayer?
Have you looked in to His presence? I can tell you that it is the most wonderful experience you will ever have!
Will you prioritize your time? Do you hear the Spirit calling?
Yes, it is a pretty high talk that sounds mystical. It is seemingly impractical and even not doable for the average Christian. It does happen to me periodically but the frank truth is that – it is a stage of the Christian life that is not unattainable, even on a consistent basis.
I am being challenged! But how do we face a challenge? Shall we deny it and say that such as it is does not exist? No!
But we do need to look ahead of us.
That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you (Philippians 3:10-15).
Loving God Above Ourselves
There was a time God put this seed in me and made me realize that I should love God more than myself. I shared this with a good friend in one of our usual fellowship times while he was driving. He made an honest pointing remark, that most of us ‘do not really love God more than ourselves.’ I tend to agree.
The First Has To Be First, And The Second Has To Be Second!
Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “ The first of all commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. And the second, like it, is this: You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” There is no other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:28-31).
We can summarize the above scripture to say ‘we are commanded to love God above ourselves!’
The original Greek word for ‘love’ here in this passage is ‘agape’.
There are four original Greek words that are translated as love : ‘agape’, ‘phileo’, ‘eros’ and ‘storge’.
Agape is a supernatural love and has its basis on being benevolent – the act of giving. It is not just money or material.
We are to ‘agape’ God with our whole self. It is a spiritual love. And by the strength of our spirit, we give the rest of ourselves to God. It only happens when a person is born-again supernaturally and spiritually.
Agape love is higher than phileo.
Phileo is a friendship love that humanly developed based on mutual interest. Phileo resides in the soul and functions based on emotional affection and intellectual acceptability.
Eros and storge are both based on body and physical considerations. Eros is sexual attraction and arousal. Storge is filial connection and attachment.
We are supposed to love God above ourselves. We are supposed to love God with agape love. A non-Christian can only love with phileo and eros/storge love. But a Christian is supernaturally and spiritually endowed with this agape love.
The First Commandment is fulfilled by an enablement of our spirit to love God with agape love above ourselves which is above phileo and eros/storge love.
The Second Commandment will be fulfilled after the First Commandment is fulfilled…when God poured His agape love into out hearts to love our own selves as well as others (Romans 5:5).
The Holy Spirit is a Person. He is the presence of God who is near us. He is to be with us all of the time. And if we can’t love Him more than ourselves, how can we love Jesus and the Father more than ourselves? We need to love the Holy Spirit above ourselves for Him to be with us all of the time – He is a Person. He is God which means He is everything we need! We need His counsel, His wisdom, His guidance, His strength, His transforming power to change us.
As we are approaching the return of our Lord Jesus, the quality of Christians will get better and better…being more and more like Jesus! God wants to win more of us before He wants to use us to win more of others!
Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of the brethren who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time (Revelation 12:10-12).
It Is Getting Harder And Harder To Sit On The Fence
I know your works, that you are neither cold not hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold or hot, I will spew you out of My mouth. Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing – and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked’.
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
(Revelation 3:15-17,19-20)
This is about active Christians! And this is about wealthy Christians! Can you believe it?! They are so busy either in the church or in the workplace that they don’t have time to spend with the Lord!
How does it get harder and harder? Some will find harder and harder to pray – their hearts and their minds will not be able to stay with God. Some will find the presence of God in their lives becoming less and less. Some would not even be able to sense the presence of God in an anointed service. It will get easier to love the world for these. Compromise will come as a natural course of action for them. This is how Jesus spew them out!
When God corrects us …He really loves us. It’s just that we are going away from His love…away from His presence.
Jesus is looking for zealous Christians who are in love with Him.
Jesus is calling you! The dining place where you look at each other face-to-face …taking your time and have heart-to-heart conversations. Jesus is standing at the door of your life. Please let Him in. Let Him have the time that He wants to spend with you …to dine with you …to talk with you heart to heart!
It is a place of private prayer …a place of private conversations from the heart.
Jesus said, ‘But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly’ (Matthew 6 : 6)
This is the place where you find God heart to heart!
It is in this secret place that you would have loved God. You would also know God’s Name…knowing God’s Name experientially. It means having known Him intimately (Psalm 91:14)
The greater and more numerous the promises …means greater is the act that brings them compared to other activities. This act can be found in the secret place.
Have you blocked away everything else in prayer?
Have you looked in to His presence? I can tell you that it is the most wonderful experience you will ever have!
Will you prioritize your time? Do you hear the Spirit calling?