God desires that we continually go higher in life. He doesn’t ever want us to falter or regress. There are many people that don’t believe this. They believe God punishes them, that He causes them to fail and suffer. This isn’t true. Heavenly Father is a God of love, and we can see the extraordinary reality of His love through the life of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We have been predestined by God to be ambassadors for Christ. God tells us in His Word to put on the mind of Christ, and to learn about him, so that we can pass on God’s unconditional love to others. 1John 4:18 (NLT) sheds tremendous light on this subject. This verse is a litmus test on the genuine article. It says, “Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love.” How do we know when the love of God is truly rooted in our hearts? We know it when we are not confusing the punishment that comes from satan with the unconditional love that comes from God.
Our Heavenly Father rescued us from the clutches of satan, and He did so when we were at our worse; full of sin, with hearts that didn’t long for His righteousness. Colossians 1:13 (NLT) tells us, “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.” He didn’t have to do this, but He did! This is how much He loves us.
It must be very sad for Him when we think that He’s punishing us for not being perfect or that He doesn’t love us as much as He does. The very root of punishment comes from darkness, and darkness has nothing to do with love. 1John 1:5 (KJV) tells us, “This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Darkness is the ethos of evil, and it has everything to do with death, ignorance, bondage, fear, and doubt. These are the exact opposites of what God stands for. He is love, light, liberty, and life. Jesus Christ said in Mark 12:27 (KJV), “He is not the God of the dead, but the God of the living.” Heavenly Father loves life, and He loves it when we thrive and continually grow to be stronger, better, and more loving human beings. He is constantly rooting for us to win in our lives. We can depend on this with every fiber of our beings.
God wants you to be confident that this is going to be a great year for you! It will be filled with manifold opportunities to both be a blessing and receive a blessing. God also wants you to be prepared to receive all that is slated to come your way. In order for us to be truly prepared, the roots of God’s love must grow deeper in our hearts. Ephesians 3:17 (NLT) tells us, “Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong.” Our trust in Christ becomes a magnet for blessings when his love is deeply rooted within. This is why building our trust in God must be the first and most important step in preparing to receive a blessing.
Many of us have committed ourselves to make serious moves in 2018, but we cannot accomplish much if our foundation isn’t strong in the Lord. As we gain momentum and speed towards higher heights, our faith will be tested by the enemy and by those he uses to come against our shine. Trusting in God’s love and being fully persuaded that He’s backing us as we climb higher is what builds our foundation.
In 1Corinthians 3:10 (NLT), the Apostle Paul tells us, “Because of God’s grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it. But whoever is building on this foundation must be very careful.” Every action, choice, and decision that we make today is building the life we will have in the future. If we don’t let God’s love lead the way, we won’t be able to be the kind of master builders or ambassadors that we’re destined to be.
God has empowered us to build a foundation upon Jesus Christ not just for ourselves, but for all the people that we’ll impact. This is one of the reasons that it is so important for us receive a revelation of God’s love, because this revelation expands us. It causes us to become strong spiritually, but we can’t build a strong foundation on something that isn’t true.
We have so many false starts and disappointments because we are not convinced of God’s unconditional love. We must fight against the distorted view that many have perpetuated through their misunderstanding of who He is. You cannot receive something that you don’t believe in, and you certainly cannot give out something that you don’t believe. This will be an extraordinary year for the believer in Christ, and to usher it in, we must prepare ourselves by praying to receive a greater revelation of God’s love. That’s the rhema Word that is going to change our lives, and it will propel us forward into all that God has for us.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
“A Revelation of God’s Love” written by JMack. 4theChristianMan