Continue in His Love

The love of God may produce feeling, but it is not anchored in feelings, but in the Word of God alone.

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John 15:9-12 – As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.  If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.  These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.  This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

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I remember a meeting at our local coliseum now more than 40-years past.  The evangelist holding the meetings had asked me to be in charge of the prayer room following the service.  I was to lead the ministry teams that would work with new converts, minister to the sick, and lead those who desired to the baptism in Holy Spirit.  At the close of one of the meetings, everyone had departed except for one young man.  Because he tarried alone, I approached him to ask about why he came.  He had come to receive the baptism in Holy Spirit.  I asked him if he had received.  He responded, “No.”  So, I took time to minister to him, and led him in prayer to receive.  After we prayed, I asked him if he had received.  I quoted Luke 11:13 to him, and asked why he responded, “No.”  He said he hadn’t felt anything.   Then I asked, “Have you had the Holy Ghost before?”  He said, “No.”  Then I said, “Well, if you haven’t received Holy Spirit before, how could you know how it feels?”  My question stunned him momentarily, but after a brief thought, he said, “I wouldn’t know.”  We chatted for few moments, and when I explained to him that God, Who is Love, COULD NOT, and WOULD NOT lie; that receiving God’s Word and His love has nothing to do with feelings, but everything to do with believing His Word, the young man readily and quickly received the infilling of Holy Ghost.

What has that to do with continuing in His love?  EVERYTHING!  If one is IN love, there will be all kinds of emotions involved.  That is because being IN love is a function of the soul (mind, will, intellect, & emotions).  But to LOVE God has nothing to do with feelings, and everything to do with obedience in faith.  I cannot and will not deny that walking in the love of God produces feelings.  Any action of determined will produces feelings.  But actions of determined will based on feelings can change at a moment’s notice, while actions based on determined will to obey an unchanging God will remain constant, steadfast, and faithful.  Continuing in God’s love, therefore, is not based in any way on feelings, but is indeed anchored securely and unwaveringly in the Word of God 

Manna for Today – John 15:1-17; John 3:16; John 14:15-17; 1 John 5:3; Luke 11:13; 1 John 4; James 1

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Glorifying Father

It is Father’s will that we glorify Him.  Let’s get busy honoring His will.

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John 15:8 – Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

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In our Text for Today we find one of those ALL-INCLUSIVE commands stated that every believer should be striving to carry out.  When a believer, a Christian, bears fruit, lives a fruitful life, he/she glorifies the Father.  It’s that simple.  From that statement there can and will be no withdrawal by the eternal God-head.  It is forever settled in heaven.  God has said it; that settles it!

But we must bring to that command a vision of its fullness.  When the Christian wins someone to the Lord, fruit is borne.  When a believer leads someone to the infilling of Holy Spirit, fruit is borne.  When a believer ministers any of the God-given elements of life and godliness to another person, fruit is borne.  Still we need to go deeper.  The Scriptures are clear in what Father calls the “fruit of the spirit.”  Please consider the following thoughts deeply.  While no one can bring forth the “fruit of the spirit” without the life-giving presence of Holy Spirit, in its deepest meaning, the “fruit of the spirit” is NOT the fruit of Holy Spirit, but is rather the fruit of the born-again human spirit.  When you become a new creature in Christ, you become an engrafted branch of the trees of righteousness, receiving its life from the Root, or the Vine, Who is Christ.  Please consider what I write to you.

No fruit of any fruit-bearing plant that produces fruit above ground grows on the root of the plant, or on the trunk or main vine of the plant.  Fruit grows on the branches.  That is precisely what Jesus said.  He said, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.”  It is from the production of the “fruit of the spirit” that life flows that will produce the visible fruitfulness of new babes in Christ, Spirit-filled believers, and lives being transformed by the power of God through gifts of Holy Spirit.  For this to come forth, one must be engrafted into the body of Christ, connected by the divine surgery of Holy Spirit to the “root of Jesse,” the “true Vine.”  IN HIM, FROM HIM, and THROUGH HIM flows the life force necessary for any believer to become and remain fruitful, and abundantly so, in the body of Christ.  Have you been engrafted?  If so, you have no excuse to NOT be fruitful.  Build your faith in this from His Word, and please Father by glorifying Him with your whole being. 

Manna for Today – John 15:1-17; Galatians 5:22-23; Acts 14:17; Colossians 1:10; Matthew 5:13-16; Psalm 119:89; Malachi 6:3; Hebrews 13:8

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Rising Above the Finite

You are finite, living in the infinite, with the infinite living in you.  It’s time to rise.

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John 15:7 – If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

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Man, at his best, on his own, with only human assistance, may indeed rise to greatness.  Michelangelo, Rodin, & da Vinci in art; Vanderbilt & Rockefeller in industry; Beethoven, Mozart, & Wagner in music; Jarvik & Pasteur in medicine; Chaucer, Twain, & Shakespeare in literature.  These are but a few examples of the heights to which a talented person can rise who is willing to pay the price and dedicate and commit themselves to their cause.  There are multitudes of achievers of greatness whom I did NOTname, and grave yards are filled with the bones of dead men who carried in their being the potential for greatness, but never pursued or birthed it.

Yet as you, a believer, read this, you have in you the potential to rise higher than all these I have named; far higher.  For while you, in the natural, are finite like those named, and you live in a finite world with finite resources and finite time, you have living in you the Only Infinite God; Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient, supernatural in His being, and desirous to manifest His supernatural life in, to, for, and through you in this world.  And more than that, you are His child, His heir, and joint-heir with His First-born Son Who is King of kings and Lord of lords.  You are His supernatural offspring, with His supernatural ability, fully authorized as His supernatural ambassador to speak His supernatural Word in His super-natural faith to achieve the same supernatural works that He did, and greater.  You have not been called to rise to the greatest heights of finite greatness, but to ascend the peaks of infinite greatness as His child, His ambassador, His heir, His vessel, His body in this finite world.  Refuse to allow the finite to rule the infinite.  He can and will quicken your mortal body and show Himself strong through you.  Rise! 

Manna for Today – John 15:1-17; Philippians 4:13; Mark 11:22-24; John 14:12-14; Luke 1:37;         Isaiah 55:6-13; Matthew 6:10; Song of Solomon 2:10-13

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