2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
It may very well be, that the most amazing thing about this new creation (new creature we've become), is that we now have the ability to love as God Loves. This might be too much for some to believe, but not for those who will listen to the Voice of the Spirit.
It's true that we are endowed with super-natural ability by our new birth, but there seems to be very little evidence of it in our lives. The answer for this dis-ability, can be found in 1Corinthians 12:31 (Amplified), where Paul is speaking about the Gifts of the Spirit. Thus, he says, "earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best Gifts and graces (the higher Gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way (one that is better by far and the highest of them all-Love)."
I've wondered many times, what Paul was actually saying in the above scripture. He was speaking about the Gifts that the Spirit gives to the new creation people. In 1Corinthians 12:11 (Amplified) he writes, "All these (Gifts, achievements, abilities) are inspired and brought to pass by One and the Same Holy Spirit, Who apportions to each person individually (exactly) as He chooses."
Speaking by the Holy Spirit, Paul says we should "desire and zealously cultivate" these Gifts. So, it's not wrong for us to want to operate in this new super-natural way of living. Some have sought after these Gifts for personal gain and some have sought after them with good hearts (but wrong heads), in order to build a larger church or ministry. We've often heard it said and have said ourselves, that "If God would only do a great miracle in our church, then it would draw more people in." This is true, but our motives for wanting this might be wrong.
God doesn't give miracles to gain crowds, He gives them because His great Love cannot stand for them to be sick or maimed by disease and satan. God doesn't need to prove He is God. He does these things, because HE IS LOVE. Paul instructed us to seek after the Gifts of the Holy Spirit. This means that they are available to us, if we seek them. Then, though, Paul said there was a "better way to obtain these Gifts." He said that "Love was the better way." Paul didn't say that "Love was one of the Gifts", he said that "Love gave us access to any (or all) of the Gifts."
We often misunderstand the meaning of Romans 5:5 (Amplified) which says, "Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God's love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given us."
This isn't just God's Love for us, but it's also God's Love through us." John 3:16 (Amplified) tells us, "God so loved the world that He gave His Only begotten Son that we should not perish but have everlasting life." The Love of God came through and in Jesus. Jesus was Love in motion. In the four Gospels, we see Love walk on water, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, open the eyes of the blind and perform many other miracles. Even today, many might say about this move of Love, "Yes, but He was Jesus, Son of God."
Yes, Jesus was moved by compassion to heal the multitudes, but He was mostly moved by His Love for and by His Father. Paul said that if we would "see to walk in this Love, then it would bring us into a place where the Holy Spirit (Who gives these Gifts as He chooses) would be able to give any and all these Gifts, at any times."
The Love that has been "shed abroad in our hearts," is God Himself taking up residence within us. It's not just Love, but God Who is Love, according to 1John 4:16 (Amplified) which says, "And we know (understand, are conscious of, by observation and by experience) and believe (adhere to and put faith in, and rely on) the Love God cherishes for us. God is Love, and he that dwells and continues in Love dwells and continues in God, and God dwells and continues in him."
The better we understand that God's Love for us is so great, the more we respond to it and the Author of it. We mostly have no idea, how strong this Love for us is. If we did, then it would be simple for us to allow it to flow from us, to those who desperately need it. We wouldn't just talk about His Love, we would demonstrate His Love and set them free.
This Love (Who is God), is what allows the Gifts to operate wherever they are need, in order the "Set at liberty, those who are bound." These Gifts are God Himself, without having any restrictions on His Love nature. This is why Paul said that "This is a better way." But, a better way for what? A better way to obtain these Gifts, than to "earnestly covet them," like we read in 1Corinthians 12:31. It's certainly not prideful to seek the Gifts like scripture says we should, but it's motivation of heart that makes them flow.
We often fail to read Galatians 5:6 (Amplified) in it's fullness. Thus, it says, "For (if we are) in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith activated and energized and expressed and working through Love." We often read this to say, "If we are not in Love, then faith doesn't work." This is certainly true, but moreover, if we don't understand this Love for us and through us, our Love isn't as strong for others as it should be. When we understand the full extent of God's Love for us, we have faith in His Love through us, because He is Love.
Our faith is actually His faith, given to us by Himself, Who is Love. We still think of Love as being an emotion, instead of the very source of Life. When this Love was "shed abroad in our hearts," it was the very entrance of God's Spirit into our new creation spirit. We are born of Love. This Love is the most powerful thing in the universe, because it is the Creator of the universe.
Love "motivates the Gifts," Love directs the Gifts, Love decides who operates in these Gifts and Love is the power of deliverance through these Gifts. Paul writes about the difference between the religious use of the Gifts and the real purpose of the Spirit in these Gifts, in 1Corinthians 13. The Holy Spirit will not stop someone from being healed by the Gift of Healing, even though the person operating in this Gift isn't operating in Love, but some other motive. Love looks beyond the natural mind and man and still sets the person free because it's God's Love and not man's love, operating in deliverance.
It's obvious to any who will honestly look and see, how religion has tried determining who and how these Gifts function through. Because we took the Gifts out of Love and then cloned something similar in religion, these Gifts fail to work like they should. These Gifts are actually only different manifestations of Love displayed through someone who allows God to work through them. Even Jesus said, "It is not Me, but the Father in Me, that does the work." It was Love in Him, Love through Him, Love guiding Him, and Love revealing Him (God) as Father, through Jesus Himself. How much more are we to learn to allow God (Who is Love), to flow through us, like in Jesus?
Religion dictates terms and reasons to explain why the Gifts don't work like they should and did in Jesus. The real reason for this failure, is that we don't understand what Love has done in us and this causes us to not allow Love to be done through us. You are Love manifested into this world, as a vehicle of God and His Presence to be presented through. This Love doesn't "hover like fog in the air," but it was infused into our spirit, when we were born-again. This is the reason we are a new creation. Until now, Love was separated and only sparsely revealed. Now, it talks, walks, moves in and through the new creation, who is a new creature born of Love. As new creations, we are guided and directed by Love to "Only say what the Father says, only go where the Father says, Only do what I see Him do." We are new creatures who like Jesus say, "When you have seen Me, you have seen Him (Love) the Father Himself."
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