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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

 

 

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The Divine Progression To Agape Love

 

I consider it the utmost honor to spend an hour in God’s

Presence with the third Person of the Godhead as He

creates a supernatural language on the inside of my

spirit. Why? Because with every syllable I speak in that

language, the Holy Spirit is working a miraculous trans-

formation within me.

You see, years ago I thought tongues for personal

edification had to do strictly with speaking mysteries

and divine secrets and building myself up with

revelation knowledge. Only later did I find out that it

has just as much to do with purging me so I can learn to

walk in agape love — the kind of love that seeks not its

own and denies itself on behalf of others.

Agape vs. Phileo Love

I have no higher goal in life than to learn how to walk

in this God-kind of love, so I want to know more about

it. I know a lot about “phileo” love, but I want to know

about agape.

I have yoked myself to Jesus, whom John revealed when

he said, “God is love” (1 John4:16). Jesus doesn’t just

love us; He is Love. He is incapable of anything else but

love. That’s why we haven’t understood Him the way we

should — because we haven’t understood agape love.

We usually don’t have trouble with phileo love. Phileo

can be a strong love, but it has its own interests at

stake, as well as those of the one loved. It’s more of a

conditional love that says, “I can love you if somehow

you bring me pleasure” or “I will love you, but I want

something back from you.”

So most of us know how to love people with phileo love.

But we haven’t done very well at walking in agape.

Agape is a self-denying love. Its total focus is the

interests and welfare of the beloved.

Phileo love may send me to war because I love my

country. I may even give my body to be burned for the

hope of a better life for my children. I will sacrifice my

life on that altar.

But if agape love goes to war, it is with higher motives. I

may still sacrifice my life so my children can live free

from threat of harm. But at the same time I have the

enemy soldier on my heart. My prayer is that the war

would cease and that my enemy would be born again.

Most marriages are based on phileo, not agape. The

spouses love each other for what they can receive from

each other. If marriages were always based on God’s

selfless, agape kind of love, there would be no more

divorces.

Agape Love Is Merciful

Agape love says, “Be merciful just as your Heavenly

Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). How merciful is our

Heavenly Father? Well, you and I were lost and headed

for hell. We had nothing to bargain with. We had

absolutely no right to approach God. We were not

capable of bridging the gap on our own.

But God had mercy on you and me. We didn’t deserve

and couldn’t earn His mercy; we had no way to

approach an infallible God. But He approached us in

His mercy. He crossed that void with Jesus’ blood.

So how do you obey Jesus’ command to be merciful

even as the Father is merciful? Jesus provided the

guidelines in Luke 6:27-38.

When someone sues you for your coat, you give him the cloak you are wearing. When he slaps you on the cheek, you turn the other cheek. When he takes away your goods, you give him more than he asked for. When he despitefully uses you, you pray for him and forgive him. When he hates you, you keep walking in love.

Why? Because you are having mercy on him. You are

bridging the gap with the blood of Jesus when the

person doesn’t deserve it. That is agape!

The result of walking in this agape kind of love is

revealed in Luke 6:38:

Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same mea-sure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.

Jesus was saying this: “If you will be children of the

Most High, who is merciful even to the evil and the un-

thankful, and give agape love to others, then My Father

will restore what ever you may have lost — pressed

down, shaken together, and running over. While the

thief is taking your money out the back door because

you extended mercy, My Father will march in the front

door with agape and restore to overflowing all that you

lost!” That’s why agape cannot fail(1 Cor. 13:8)!

However, walking in agape love is easier said than

done. For most of us, if someone came against us with a

lawsuit, our first reaction would be, “Oh yeah? Well, go

ahead and sue me— but you’ll know that you have been

to court, buddy!”

So how do we ever attain that place of agape where we

are merciful just as the Father is merciful? The

Scriptures teach us that praying in tongues is a major

key to help purge us as we journey through a

progression of steps toward the agape kind of love.

Feeding the Seed of Agape Through Prayer

Even though God has planted the nature and force of

agape love in your spirit, it may be so repressed and so

dominated by your soulish emotions that you hardly

know it exists inside of you. But when you pray in

tongues, you bypass the operation of the physical soul

and throw a lifeline to your spirit.

Soon the edification process starts feeding that seed of

agape in your heart, causing it to germinate and grow.

The force of love in your spirit grows bigger and bigger

until one day, it dominates the emotions of the soul

instead of the other way around. This is called taking

off the old man and putting on the new.

That ye put off concerning the former conversation the

old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful

lusts;And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And

that ye put on the new man, which after God is created

in righteousness and true holiness.Eph. 4:22-24

until next time

Larry