“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1Jn4:16
We have to know (experience) and believe the love that God has for us on a daily basis. We have to get a revelation of His love and experience it in our heart everyday. This is the goal. This has to be an abiding situation. Not something we come to once in a while but something that is the dynamo of our life and always working in our heart. God wants this relationship. This is eternal life.
If you are inwardly experiencing the love of God, you will experience emotions of being loved and accepted. This experience is more than a theological position. It is an inner realization that is experienced in your entire being. It is so consuming that it guides your life and becomes the source of all your emotions. However, if you do not believe God loves you, you will not experience His love. You will not experience eternal life.
1 John 1
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
God calls us to an intimate communion. A deep relationship of love in which we experience Him on a daily basis and mingle and intercourse with Him.
“God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” 1Cor1:9
This intimate relationship with Jesus is what God has called us to. This is what eternal life is all about. Experiencing God in a close intimate personal relationship.
“And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.” Jn17:3
This is the reason for our existence. This is eternal life. To experience God’s love in a close intimate personal relationship. To mingle and intercourse with Him at a deep heart level that will affect every area of our lives and showcase Him to the world through us.
The most important thing in our life is knowing, experiencing and feeling love. Love is the basis of self-worth. It is the source of every positive emotion we have.
If we are not experiencing love, we will not function as we were created to function. God made us for love.
The sad thing is most of us look for God's love in the wrong places.
WRONG PLACES TO FIND OR KNOW GOD'S LOVE
1. How you feel. Your 5 senses
God is a spirit. You can't feel Him with your carnal senses. It is wrong to try to discern how He feels about you by how you feel about you.
You discern His love by revelation in your spirit. You experience Him first in your heart and eventually you can come to the place when you feel His love.
This doesn't mean that you can never feel God's love. You feel when your parents, spouse, friends... love you. It is the same with God's love. It begins in the spirit but you come to the place where you feel it.
2. Your circumstances
You can’t determine whether God loves you by the circumstances you are in. Paul wrote incredible revelations of God's love when he was in very harsh circumstances. Prison, shipwreck, hatred, persecutions etc.
When in bad circumstances many of us usually ask questions like if God loves me why this divorce, heartbreak, death, failure etc. However our circumstances are not a reflection of God’s love or the lack of it. They are a reflection of the world we live in. A broken world, a world of sin and of evil. A world that is controlled by satan through ungodly, evil, wicked people.
3 The Law
The law doesn’t reveal God's love. The law reveals His holiness and our unholiness. Romans3:19-20 tells us that the law reveals our guilt and sinfulness.
Romans4:15 tells us that Law disqualifies us. It reveals God's wrath against us. When you are under Law you don't experience God's love. You experience His wrath.
HOW DO I KNOW AND EXPERIENCE GOD'S LOVE
There are right ways in which we can discover and experience the love of God for us.
1. The written Word of God.
The bible is God's love letter to us. In it is a record of God's love and how He has demonstrated it throughout time.
2. The Living Word. The example of Jesus
Jesus was God in action. He showed us how God feels about us.
"No man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known]." Jn1:18 AMP
God loves me in the same way that He loves Jesus. God doesn’t love Jesus more than He loves me. God loves me as much as He loves Jesus. God values me as much as He values Jesus. God esteems me as much as He esteems Jesus. God adores me as much as He adores Jesus.
“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” Jn17:23
3. The Holy Spirit
"And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." Rom5:5
The Holy Spirit has flooded and continues to flood our hearts with the love of God so that we can continously know and experience how much God loves us. He is always ministering God's love to us.
4. The Cross
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jn3:16
"This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters."1Jn3:16 NIV
"This is how God showed his love for us: God sent his only Son into the world so we might live through him." 1Jn4:9-10 MSG
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