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UNDERSTANDING THE LOVE OF GOD
SERIES
LOVE
PERFECTS OPERATION
Paul speaks in I Cor.13 the first few verses
he speaks about the operation of gifts.
So I want you to see that he was not just talking about love, he was
talking about love in reference to the function of the gifts and the
ministries. He says in verse 1-3 “Though
I speak with the tongues of man and of the angels.” That’s lovely, very
few people speak angelic tongues. Most
of us speak the tongues of man. When we
speak forth in the tongues of angels, let me tell you the language of the
angels and the heavenly language has a melodious tune to it. It sounds a lot like singing in the Spirit
while they were speaking. Our earthly
language cannot compare to the heavenly language that God has designed to
operate in eternity. So Paul says that
even though we may speak with tongues of man and of angels, if we have not
love, what do we become? A clanging cymbal. In
other words, you will be nothing more than a tin can. You will be nothing more than what Kenneth Hagin says a donkey braying at midnight in a tin barn. A lot of sounds, a lot of noise but they are
empty. Isn’t it amazing? Paul says if
the gifts operate without love they are empty.
Lets consider that for a moment. If the gifts are from God, why are they
empty? The gifts have to be from
God. Speaking in the tongues of man and
angels has to be a gift from God. You
see the key here people must pay attention to is that as long as there is no
love, your gift does not edify. That
means it’s possible to operate a genuine gift that came from God. He never said that their gift was not from
God. But he said that the operation of
their gift must be within the love context.
Without love it is nothing. The
amount of edification power the gift carries is nil.
The next verse speaks about faith. “Though I have the gift of prophesy and
understand all mysteries and all the knowledge and I have all faith so that I
could remove mountains, power gift operating, but have not love, I am nothing.”
See in verse 1 he speaks about the vocal gift
and then he speaks about prophesy in verse 2 using prophesy in a general
manner. Usually it refers to the word of
wisdom, the word of knowledge and discernment of spirits. In the Old Testament they operate the word of
wisdom. They prophesied and predicted
Christ’s coming. They called that
prophecy but we all know that it is word of wisdom, a revelation of the
future. But the word prophecy is used
generally when it speaks about the spoken word of wisdom or word of
knowledge. So Paul was using the revelation
aspect. He says you can understand all
mysteries; you can have all knowledge, the revelation gifts, and the power
gifts. The first of the power gifts is
faith, to move all mountains. He says
mountains. You can have the vocal gifts,
you can have the revelation gifts and you can have the power gifts operating in
your life, if you don’t develop love you are nothing. So you understand why we have to teach a
series on love. If people do not
understand love all that they have amount to nothing. All the effort is wasted. All the work and the yielding to operate the
gifts become nothing. See love is
important. Love will cause the gifts to
have an effect, a life changing quality in its results. This is what love does. Love brings forth perfection of the operation
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in our life.
Without that it is a waste of time and a waste of effort. Genuine gifts become empty. So when you operate the gifts of the Holy
Spirit in your life, it has to flow from a heart filled with the love of
God.
Lets examine this
very closely. We human beings are very
funny. We are all very self-conscious
and original sin in our flesh always makes us self-centered. In the natural world the opposite of love is
hate but in the Bible the opposite of love is self. It says love seek not its own. To be selfish is to be unloving. To be selfless is the love of God, the agape
love of God. The reason why the gifts do
not produce an impact when we don’t operate in love is that we forget the
purpose for the gifts. See many times we
look at the gifts by themselves per se.
But when we lose the purpose the whole thing is gone. When you get into your car, we ask you where
you are going. You have to know where
you are going. Nobody gets into their
means of transport and then says I don’t know where I am going. You don’t get into a bus and the conductor
asks you where are you going and you say, I don’t
know. Then why are you here? I don’t know.
Who are you? I don’t know. See we have to know the direction. Otherwise your journey will become a
wilderness. You might as well join the
Israelites and go round and round for forty years.
The purpose behind the operation of the
gifts is to build another person. It’s
to edify them. It is to impart grace
into their lives. It is to help them to
walk a closer walk with God. Encourage
them in areas they are discouraged. Lift
them up in needs of their lives. So to
keep to the purpose is important. Do you
know if you don’t have a purpose in life, you become a lazy bum? You become demotivated
and you don’t have something that makes you keep going all the time. People without a purpose in life usually
commit suicide. It’s the purpose in life
that that keeps us going when we discern the will of God in our life.
In the same way love gives purpose to the
gifts. Love brings the perfect operation
of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in both the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit and
the fivefold ministry. You may be called
to be pastor, teacher, evangelist, prophet or apostle but if you don’t operate
in the love of God, all your doing will come to nothing in the end. Isn’t that a dangerous thought? Living for twenty years and then comes out
with nothing. Not only nothing here but
also nothing in heaven. Unless we
operate in the love of God, all we do in this life are wasted. Isn’t that a frightening thought? An awesome thought to know that you have
lived and died without living in love is a dangerous thing. Because up there you will be found naked, not
in our natural tern today, Paul used that word in I Cor.3 he says when you go
up there, everything that is done in the flesh, everything that is not done in
love is burned up. And only what is done
in love remain. That’s an awesome
thought. So we better develop love in
our life because without love we are nothing.
We must have all the love of God to flow in our life and our ministries.
I John 4 Love bring
perfection to the operation of the gifts and ministries in our life. Love perfects a person. I John 4: 12 “No one has seen God at any
time. If we love one another, God abides
in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” Love will perfect your life. We have seen how that our vertical
relationship with God is measured by our horizontal relationship with our
fellow men in I John 4 towards the last verse.
In verse 21 “This commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God
must love his brother also.” In
other words, we don’t care how much you say you love God, your love for God is
measured by your love for your brother.
Your vertical relationship is measured by your horizontal
relationship. Love is not just a
philosophical idea or feeling. It is a
practical aspect of seeking or edifying another. So here in I John 4: 12 it says that as we
love each other, as we reach our hand out to love another, we love with the
love of God.
Last week we talked about love
suffers. Understanding the suffering of
Christ is love. Paul also suffered when
he love. He paid a price when he love and
when we keep loving others and when we keep denying ourselves and loving other,
it says love is perfected in us. Not
just ordinary love. His love is
perfected in us. And I John 4 is the
only place where you will find this powerful verse that says in verse 17 “Because
as He is, so are we in this world.” There
is no more powerful verse than that.
That says as Jesus was in the world, so you are in the world. You are like Christ and the only way we can be
like Christ is to learn to be like Him in love.
When you are like Christ in love, you will be like Christ in power. Ever since I was born again I was always
hungry for revival. I am not satisfied
with a Christianity that sits in the pew.
That does not change life. That
does not change the world around me. And
this hunger had driven me to pray and to fast and to seek God’s face for the
power that will change this world and through the years God has shown that
unless we know the heart of God, we will never know the hand of God. God’s hand represents His power. His right hand represents the ultimate of His
power. When in Acts 4 the church prayed
saying, O Lord, look at what they are doing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Grant us boldness by stretching forth thy
hand that signs and wonders may be done in the name of your holy Child Jesus. See the hands of God symbolize signs and
wonders. And God spoke those words to me
and said, “Son, if you want to know My hand, learn to
know My heart of love.”
Many people like to be like Jesus and have
power, they want that but they don’t realize that the key to the power is
through love. Learning
to love one another. When we love
one another, it says that His love is perfected in us. How is this love perfected in us? He describes in verse 18 “There is no fear
in love.” That is a fantastic
statement. Our world lives in fear. Look at the TV fear is there. Look at the newspapers fear is there. You go out into the world you find they have fear. This whole
world is ruled by fear. Why is that
so? The Bible already showed that in
Hebrew 2: 14 the devil rule the world by fear. The Bible says that the devil is the god of
this world. That is in II Cor.4 and then
in Hebrew 2 it says that through fear the devil holds all men in bondage. So fear has to do with the domain of the
enemy, the domain of the devil. Hebrew
2: 14-15 talks about the devil holding all men in the bondage of fear. The fear of death and all the other fears are
involved in that one word fear. Fear of
the future, fear of heights, fear of water, fear of
rats. Fear rules our present world. When John says there is no fear in love, he
is pointing to a possibility, he is pointing to a realm. He is pointing to a place call the
Roman 10: 17 but the faith to believe that
His word is His word comes from love. If
you love God, everything He says is accepted.
You will do what God tell you.
You won’t question Him. You will
accept what He says. For example, if you
love someone and someone says, “Please meet me in town” you will take a bus and
go meet him. “Lets meet at
12.30pm.” You are not going to say, “Are
you sure? I don’t know I can trust your
word or not. I don’t know I can believe
you or not.” Maybe if it is someone whom
you do not know, you may find it more difficult. But if it’s someone you love,
you trust and he/she say I am going to do this for you, you would believe it,
without questioning. See the ability to
believe His word is derived from love.
The more love you have for God, the more love you have for believers and
love perfects you. Perfect love produces
perfect faith. We want to move to a realm
where we operate in perfect faith. That is where we would see a hundred percent healing taking place in an
evangelistic or healing service. In most
evangelistic meeting or healing miracles service you will find that sometimes
thirty percent got healed, sometimes 50%, 70% or 90%. It’s very rare to have a meeting where you
have everyone who comes gets healed.
That is not God’s perfect will.
In Jesus healing services when He heals the Bible always record, they
were all healed. What is demonstrated? Perfect faith. Everyone was healed. Remember it says as He is so are you. As Jesus is so am I in the world. Jesus had that kind of services. Gospel of Matthew records it many times and
they were all healed.
In the book of Acts chapter 5, when the
church in the book of Acts reached its peak of ministry, this statement was
recorded in Acts 5: 12 “And through the hands of the apostles many signs and
wonders were done among the people. And
they were all with one accord in Solomon’s Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the
people esteemed them highly. And
believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and
women, so that they brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds
and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of
them. Also a multitude gathered from the
surrounding cities to
Remember those times when people came for healing? Gospel of Matthew records and He was filled with compassion. In your life, you want to operate the power usefully. What do I mean by usefully? That it edifies. Do you know you can have wild electricity, it will do you no good. Helps you to become charcoal. You try tapping on a lightning, its wild electricity flickering in the air. You try to have fire that is not controlled you will have wild fire. But when fire comes to your stove, it becomes beneficial.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit, unless they operate in love will not function the way God intended it to function. It’s just like buying a petrol car and like putting kerosene in it. It’s just like buying a beautiful tinted flower vase and then using it to keep your rubbish. Something is wrong. The gifts of the Spirit and the calling of God can only be brought forth by love, by the love of God in our lives. Develop love because love perfects your operations. Love will remove all fears from your life. All of us have been subject to fear because we have a past in original sin. And we were sinners. When we were born again, we were given a new Spirit but sometimes our un-renewed mind still carry a measure of fear. The only way to get all fear out of your life is begin to operate in love. As you begin to operate in love something begins to take place within you. Fear starts disappearing. Look at the word carefully, it says in verse 14, There is no fear in love but perfect love cast out all fear. Why does the Bible use such a word as cast out like casting out demons? See love is a powerful force in the heart. Love not only slowly removes fears, love not only erases the fear, it cast out fear, and it gives fear the left foot of fellowship. When love comes fear goes. The love of God and the power of God are related.
II Timothy chapter one, when he talks about
the Spirit of God, he talks about love.
II Tim.1: 7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power
and of love and of a sound mind.”
You see love and power go together.
The Bible does not separate them.
It’s only human beings that separate love and power. Love and power come together because power is
authority and with authority comes responsibility. To have responsibility you need to have
love. You put an irresponsible guy and
give him with authority, he will become like Hitler. See man cannot handle authority without love. Authority is given in proportion to love in
the
Love will
promote you but watch out, no matter how high you get in the kingdom of God,
the moment pride which is in the form of self comes in and you stop operating
in love, you start operating on self. No
matter how high you got, it will be down hill all the way. Remember Lucifer was high up. The moment he stopped operating in love, he
went down hill. We have given you a powerful
key to get promotion from God.
Now there is nothing wrong with having
spiritual goals because the Bible says we are all in a race. Hebrew 12 talks about a race that we all
run. What kind of race? A friendly race where all of us seek to be
the best in God. Run the race to be like
God. Paul says in I Cor.14: 1 “Desire
is natural in itself.” The desire to
go high up with God is not wrong. It is
only wrong when the desire is self. And
the desire is separated from the love of God.
Jesus says, you want to be great, no problem, that is my paraphrase
version. John and James came and said we
want to be at your right hand and your left hand. We want to be no.1 after you. According to my version, Jesus said no
problem, learn to be servant and you will be there. In the Bible it says the greatest among you
shall be a servant, a servant to all. So
there is nothing wrong for the desire of greatness. The desire to be great is encouraged. But the desire to be great is pruned to be
greatness to be like gods, to be like a servant to all. Love serves.
I Cor.14: 1 Pursue
love and desire spiritual gifts especially that you may prophesy. See he does not discourage you from pursuing
spiritual gifts. Why is it so? If you have no desire to speak in tongues you
will never. If you don’t have a desire
to operate in the word of knowledge, you will never. There is nothing wrong with those desires but
those desires must be pursued with love.
Pursue love and desire spiritual gifts.
Pursue go after it and you will be perfected in your life. All of us have an inherent desire to be
perfect. That is born of God. The key to perfection is love. It’s not power. It starts with love. When you have perfected love in your life,
something began happening. The operation
of the gifts become perfect, finely tuned.
Perfection of love is contagious.
It produces perfection of character.
It produces perfection of ministry.
It produces perfection of gifts and operation. It produces perfection of relationship. But it starts in the heart. Develop perfection in love and you will
develop perfection in ministry.
I believe and I am very sure every one of
you wants to perfectly in the gifts.
When you operate the gifts of God, you want to be accurate. When God gives you a word you want to be
exact. When you prophesy over someone
you want to be exact. When you see a
vision and you give a word of the vision you want to be precise. Do you know that when the gifts of God
operate perfectly, that’s when the world began to see the signs and
wonders? That’s when the world becomes
astonished. We do the signs they do the
wondering. But as long as the gifts are
not perfected, we will be trying to do the signs and they will be doing the
mocking. It will be signs and mocking,
not signs and wonders. When you operate
perfectly in the gifts of God and the ministries of God, that’s when the world
will say something is happening. They
will begin to come and ask. Then you can
tell them it’s Jesus and they will come to Jesus by the flocks and by the
tribes.
The key to operation in perfect gifts and
perfect ministries is perfect love. Lets
be very practical that means it starts with your neighbor. Turn to the one next to you and say it starts
in your home. It starts among those you
know. That’s the amazing thing about
love. How my relationship with another
one close to me can determine my ministry right up to the North Pole. It’s amazing but there is a relationship
there. The one who stay in the same roof
with you is going to determine your power and impact. If your life and ministry whatever you do,
wherever you go, if you don’t correct that, it’s going to be a hindrance in
your life everywhere you go because you will be imperfect. As He is, so are you in the world. And the context starts with love.
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