The Spiritual Battle
The highest calling we have in life from our Creator is to learn what love is and then to love the people who don’t deserve to be loved. In this video I explain why and how to do that.
Ephesians 6:12 We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Revelation 2:10 Don’t be afraid of what you are about to suffer. The devil will throw some of you into prison to test you. You will suffer for ten days. But if you remain faithful even when facing death, I will give you the crown of life.
Handed Over
(#032 from Suffer Well Devotional Series©)
“But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by a human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I know of nothing against myself, yet I am not justified by this; but He who judges me is Yahweh. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Master comes, who will both bring to light the hidden things of darkness and reveal the counsels of the hearts. Then each one’s praise will come from the Mighty One.” (1 Corinthians 4:3-5)
How quickly you handed me over,
Not even one question asked.
Turn your back; write him off; trust deception;
Thinking otherwise is too much a task.
“If they have him, he must’ve done something,”
Your words like a noose on my heart.
My captors, they thrive on their scandal,
His blood drips, but they have no part.
They bank on my “brothers” to abandon,
Wicked whispers plead, “Please don’t defend.”
But, no greater love is this,
Than to “lay down one’s life for a friend.”
How quickly you handed me over,
I pray now with new eyes you will see.
They devise to seek, kill and destroy,
I refused to believe you’d agree.
Don’t accept, “He must’ve done something,”
Instead, seek all truth from the start.
There is no truth in my captors,
His blood drips, but they have no part.
I warned you to trust no man (Jeremiah 17:5). They even abandoned the Son of the Most High. And if man would persecute and abandon Him, they will do likewise to you (John 15:20). I, therefore, give you this key to the Kingdom; love them anyway (Matthew 5:43-44). How did My Son forgive His murderers, you and the others? It is simple, I and My Son are One (John 10:30), and I Am love (1 John 4:8)! This love requires nothing in return you see; in other words, it does not seek its own (1 Corinthians 13:5). It is My plan, to love the loveless. Who can resist that? And so you must also forgive those who persecute and abandon you, for you too have betrayed your brothers in this. You also have fallen short of the Divine standard, to love the loveless.
Because your love is possible only because I first loved you (1 John 4:19), there is an expectation that comes with this gift. I demand that My children to understand it. Here is My expectation; because it was a gift to you, you are expected to give it as a gift to others. Do not consider it from the perspective that you owe Me something; instead, consider it from the position of what you were made capable of. I merely want you to understand your own new heart, the heart that has been transformed. You see, your carnal heart, the heart that rejected and despised love, was removed.
My child, I took out your heart of stone (Ezekiel 36:26). All I ask in return is that you appreciate your new heart and use it as directed. Love the loveless; this is a key to My Kingdom. Someone might be willing to die for a righteous man, but for an enemy, only the King of Righteousness (Romans 5:7). And now that you have His heart, won’t you join Him?