Posted: 06/10/2009 at 9:18am | IP Logged

While Jesus was on earth, He blessed every child who came to Him. We never read of Jesus refusing to heal anyone who was in need. He raised people from the dead, bringing inexpressible joy to families. He offered salvation to ALL who would repent and believe in Him. I believe that we can say without doubt that Jesus was very kind. He wept over us in our weakness and loves us in our fallen state. We never read of Jesus speaking a single cross word to anybody except the self-righteous and religious Pharisees. Jesus was not only kind, but gentle, thoughtful, and caring. What a stark contrast to the myriad of false "gods" and secular humanism that man worships in the world today. Likewise, in contrast to much of the doom, gloom and wrath that seems to be prophetically envogue!

The question that we must ask ourselves as the impending clash of truth comes to confront everything that is humanistic, politically correct, and false (especially religions) is — "How will we conduct ourselves as Christians?" What do we do after we confront sin and falsehood? Do we leave people on the defensive? I believe that the Lord has given us the key in:

 "Loving our enemies."

"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back, And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." (Luke 6:27-38)

Why should we, let alone God, be merciful to the ungodly? The answer is clear in that the ungodly would come to know and understand the mercy and kindness of God. There would be no other way for the ungodly to EXPERIENCE the mercy and kindness of God aside from having love and mercy shown to them in their sinful state.

Imagine if mankind was commanded by God to hate our enemies or those who mistreat us. Can you imagine the chaos and quality of life that this mindset would produce? If such a possibility were true, then God would be requiring us to love and express mercy less than Himself. This would be contrary to His Word in that "we are to love our enemy." The truth is that as His sons, we are to love and exhibit mercy in the same way and nature as the Father and exhibited through Christ.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:43-45)


If God only loves those who love Him -- we would be serving a performance-centered God that expresses His love conditionally. I believe that most parents can identify to this in their unconditional love for their children. The Bible says that we (you and I) are able or have the ability to love because "God first loved us." What is amazing is that our ability to love unconditionally began as a gift from God while we were yet sinners! So, how do we as Christians respond to those who hate us? How are we to respond as a prophetic people to the increasing evil around us?

We first need to understand the health and benefit of HATE! Just as we are to mature in LOVE as the Lord loves -- even our enemies, we also need to MATURE in our HATE for the things that God hates.

"You who love the Lord, hate evil!" (Psalm 97:10)

To mature in love is to understand that we are to hate evil and not PEOPLE. We need to come to a place of passionately hating sin. We need hate disease, violence, homosexuality, and perverted entertainment. We need to be AGAINST these things. But at the same time, we need the maturity to be FOR people. When our hate for evil spills over into the hate for the people that commit evil, we in essence condemn and judge them to hell! Our hatred of hell will determine our true and genuine Christ-like love for others. There is no middle road here. We are either a witness of God's mercy and forgiveness or a judge.

As with the adulterous women, Jesus said, "He who is without sin among you, let him through the stone ... first." (John 8:7) If Jesus was not willing to condemn her, why should we? Jesus condemned her sin without condemning the woman. This IS prophetic ministry! Learning to condemn sin and evil while yet loving people will be the essential ingredient to seeing the great harvest of souls that we sense with anticipation. The harvest has continued to be white and some has rotted and burned in the field because the harvest has not been able to distinguish our hatred of sin from their perception that we hate them.

The harvest of souls is dependent on the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must come to a place of clearly walking in an uncompromising hatred of sin and evil. However, this hatred only bears eternal fruit when we LOVE the person that sin and evil has gripped. True and unconditional love demands and involves hatred. Have you ever thought that God is the greatest hater of all! He passionately hates the works of evil. But God is also the greatest lover and this must be our model for authentic prophetic ministry.

Have you ever noticed that most of what you have heard negative about someone is usually much more exaggerated than what is actually the case? Many times we find second-hand talk to be completely false. You know, this is also true about God. I have found that He is nothing like what many "theologians" and even so-called prophets have explained Him to be. I have found that my Lord is nothing like what I have heard preached behind many pulpits. I can only make this claim because I know God's NATURE and His nature is LOVE and MERCY.

We have only to look as far as the religious elite in Jesus' day. They tore their ornamented robes with gnashing teeth at the site of Jesus dining with sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors. The utter nerve of a man claiming to be the Savior and letting a sinful woman wash His feet! How dare Him to eat with unwashed hands and forgive thieves that were guilty of stoning!

It seems that Jesus was more pleased and comfortable with the sincere love of the sinner than with the finger pointing religious folks. They thought and believed that they knew God, but they didn't. If they had truly known Him, they would have loved whom Jesus loved and hated what Jesus hated. The more we come to know Jesus, the more we realize the commission that He left us with as the church is the beat of His heart. The Great Commission is simply to love "greatly". When we encounter the "living Truth," we recognize that one of the gravest errors in life has been missing our opportunities to love in the midst of adversity.

In the parable of the sower in Mark 4, we notice that all of the seeds sown were good. It was the condition of the soil that affected the good seeds that were sown. The soil in this parable represents the heart and place of where a man is at. The harvest is awaiting a prophetic expression and work that will cultivate and tend the hearts of man to receive the sowing of the living word through teh Holy Spirit.

"Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins." (Proverbs 10:12)

To love our ENEMIES and to overcome TEMPTATION is the means of grace that the Lord has given us to GLORIFY Him. Think about that for a moment. Was this not what brought the Father glory in the life of Christ? We are sure to be guaranteed both enemies and temptations in life. We are not alone in this and God will always provide a way of victory. When we love our enemies and the world witnesses our victory over sin and temptation, we will see a harvest of souls unprecedented in history.

Posted: 06/10/2009 at 4:45pm | IP Logged

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:43-45)

Yes, Lord, teach me to love as You would...in truth and spirit.

Posted: 06/10/2009 at 8:20pm | IP Logged

Hey Danny

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.1 John 4:16

Prema

Posted: 06/11/2009 at 9:04am | IP Logged

When I look back over the landscape of my life...many years and many opportunities have been missed due to my failure in understanding how important godly and genuine love is. I "thought" for so long that I truly loved others - However, so much of it was conditional in some way or another if I am really honest myself.

Being a masculine man myself; I find it saddening that far too many of my male cohorts and even the majority of humanity in general fail to find the value and treasure of sacrificial and tender love...a love so deep that it renders one vulnerable to the status quo.

When all is said and done and my last days are before me - I must ask myself before it is too late: Who will truly be there to support me and better yet, find it a joy to kiss me good-by as I enter into eternity? Will just a few even care? Or, will I have lived a life of such love and joy - that many would have been impacted by the love of God shed abroad in my life?

It has been said that "This is our dress rehearsal for eternity" Truly, there will be no second acts...There will be no take two's...In the blink of an eye, our legacy will look back at us as looking into a mirror. For some, the reflection will be beautiful. For others, it will be opaque and for many, it will be a distorted caricature of what the Lord had designed for our relationships with one another and humanity.

I am certainly at a cross-road in my life. A cross-road of priorites and what is "really" important and of eternal value in the big scheme of things. Maybe, just maybe, the Lord will grant me length of days. Hopefully, I will have many more opportunites to share His, love, compassion, forgiveness and mercy to those who simply cross my path in everyday life.

I got on the Charsmatic bus in the early 1970's and have seen the gamet in regards to movements, revivals, and you name it! I have seen and operated myself in just about every "prophetic color" imaginable LOL.  But at the end of the day; (I have learned much too slowly) - that it all will be a shade of grey and the definition of my life will stink with mediocrity if I fail to understand the priviledge of life and what I am truly living for.

Posted: 06/11/2009 at 9:20am | IP Logged

Hi Danny

As I read this thread, I recognised the dealings of God in my own heart as He brought me to the place of love: His love. I have learnt through the precious Holy Spirit how to give up my own ideas about what love is, to embrace His: for what is of value in His kingdom is love: Jesus said in John 17 that love would be the external sign of His internal reality, the way we love one another. In coming into the maturity of that love, we have to surrender to the journey He leads us on in showing us our hearts.

I will give you a very personal testimony to explain what I mean: I thought I was caring and compassionate for most of my life until He showed me how superficial my "love" really was: my husband was ill for a while before he died in 2003, and for many reasons there was anger trapped inside my heart that God allowed to be brought to the surface one morning resulting in me, slapping him once across the face at his most vulnerable time: I was SO devastated by what happened as I had never before raised my hand to anyone in my life in anger before that moment: God showed me how I was portraying externally this picture of the caring wife, attending to him in his illness, being self-sacrificing...it took such pressure to allow the truth to surface: that my "love" was mixed, flawed, selfish....I remember how I wept in repentance as I realised how much wood , hay and stubble I had acculumated in terms of love that was based in self: In surrendering to that truth, agape began to grow in me and His love started to blossom in my heart: love based on truth in the inward parts...His love that changes me and those I love as Christ and not me... 

Love always

Prema

Posted: 06/11/2009 at 1:21pm | IP Logged

Hello Bojo Sun,

Please feel free to contact me via email for personal comments or replies that do not involve the corporate forum.

I appreciate you taking the time to share and speak words of encouragement into my life. Please understand that I do not live in the past... nor, am I "burdened" to right past regrets. I believe that we all live with numerous regrets and opportunities to express love to heal past hurts can only be directed by the Holy Spirit.

Actually, the post was more of a prophecy which wove in my personal experience in growing in the Lord to express "His" love rather than the conditional or distorted love that can so easily manifest in the flesh.

You are right my dear friend in that love cannot be canned and expressed in works...But fulfilling the life that God has given us in love. 

Kindest regards,

danny

Posted: 06/11/2009 at 1:25pm | IP Logged

Dear Prema,

What a lovely testimony of God's grace and love! It is wonderful when one part of the body of Christ can reach out and touch the other body parts that may need healing because we have been healed ourselves.  

Posted: 06/11/2009 at 1:53pm | IP Logged

Blessings to you, dear brother...I guess I might be exited too much! :)

I took a look at your website...I like the pictures there, being my best to yours...:)

Now I got your email as well...

Yours Humbly
Sun