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ACTS 29 TODAY

coming to the knowledge of the TRUTH

 

 

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Agape Love by Willpower Alone?

 

We will never walk in agape love to the fullness that

God intends by the strength of our own willpower. For

instance, have you ever noticed that people can only be

nice for so long to a person who is getting on their

nerves before their will snaps? Then they say, “Get out!

Get out of my house!” They stretched their will as thin

as they could stretch it — and when it broke, there went

their ability to act nice!

 

It’s easy to fantasize about agape. We can get this

faraway look in our eyes and quote,“Though I give my

body to be burned and give away all my goods to feed

the poor, but have not love….” But there is a deadly,

knock-down-drag-out fight for our lives out there in the

world, where people try to destroy other people and the

devil is out to destroy everyone. The prospect of

walking in agape love doesn’t look as nice and easy out

there as it does in church while we are under the

anointing.

Do you want to be just like Jesus? You may say, “Oh, yes,

I want to raise the dead, be the head of a big

organization, and become the best preacher in the

world. Oh, yes, I want to be just like Jesus.”

Okay, then, Jesus says to owe no man anything but to

love him (Rom. 13:8).

What does that mean? Well, it doesn’t matter how many

payments I make on my debt of love to you, I can never

pay that debt in full. You could slap me on the cheek,

and I would turn the other cheek. You could

despitefully use me, and I would pray for you. You

could hate me,and I would do good for you.

Those are all descriptions of agape. No matter how

many times you “do me ugly” and I in turn make

another payment of love to you, agape will keep me in

your debt.

Another thing about Jesus — He seeks not His own. And

He says that if a man sues you for your car, you are to

go fill it up with gas, polish it, and get it tuned. Then tell

the man, “I am giving this to you in the Name of Jesus. I

want you to know that you didn’t take it from me,

because the only thing that is taken from me is what

God allows. And if He allows it, I sow it. I’m sowing this

car to you, so I polished it, tuned it, and filled it up with

gas. The devil is stealing nothing from me.”

It is nice to admire someone who walks in enough

agape love to do something like that. But how do you

get to that place in your spiritual walk?

You might as well face it — you aren’t going to make it

to agape unless you find some way to let the Holy Ghost

purge you of anything that is contrary to agape love in

your life. If I were you, I would take His way!

The Progression to Agape

We have seen that in First Corinthians 12:28, the

government of God begins with the office of the mighty

apostle, the first operation, and ends with the

diversities of tongues, the eight hand final operation of

God. Then in First Corinthians 13:1-3, Paul reverses the

order.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels,

and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or

a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand

all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all

faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not

charity, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and

though I give my body to be burned, and have not

charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Starting with the eighth operation of diversities of

tongues, Paul builds us through six phases all the way

through mountain-moving faith and ultimate giving to

agape love.

So because the subject of agape love is so dominant in

First Corinthians 13, we have missed the sequence or

the step-by-step progression that would eventually

build us up through six levels of spiritual maturity and

deliver us to agape love.

At this point, you may be saying, “I’d sure like to see

that reversed order you’re talking about, Brother

Roberson.” Well, let’s take the first three verses of First

Corinthians 13 phrase by phrase and find out what Paul

was really saying. As we do, we’ll discover the divine

progression to agape love.

Six Steps to Spiritual Maturity

There are six distinct levels of spiritual maturity listed

in these first three verses that the Holy Spirit will work

in the life of any believer who will spend time praying

in the Holy Ghost.

Level One: Let’s look at verse 1 again:

Though I SPEAK WITH THE TONGUES OF MEN AND OF

ANGELS, and have not charity, I am become as

sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

When we received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and

began to speak with tongues, it automatically qualified

us for the first level of spiritual maturity, the unlimited

accessibility to tongues.

The term “tongues of men” refers to the supernatural

empowerment of the Holy Spirit to preach in any

language on the face of the earth of which we have no

previous knowledge.“Tongues of angels” is talking

about the language used in Heaven. I suspect that most

of the time we are speaking the language of angels

when we pray in tongues to edify ourselves and to pray

out the mysteries of God’s plan for our lives.

This verse isn’t discrediting tongues for the sake of

love. In essence it is saying this: Even though I am

baptized in the Holy Spirit and have the ability to speak

with other tongues, it will do me no good unless I begin

to employ that gift to build myself up on my most holy

faith, praying in the Holy Ghost and keeping myself in

the love of God (Jude 20,21).

There are multitudes of church congregations who

have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and speak with

tongues, yet the people are full of strife and

unforgiveness. And I have personally known so-called

Spirit-filled people who would destroy a person at the

drop of a hat.

So a person can speak with tongues, but those tongues

will not profit him unless he yields to the Holy Spirit’s

purging work that will deliver him to agape. It is

impossible to pray in tongues for extended periods of

time and not undergo change.

Level Two:Then in verse 2, it says this:

And though I have THE GIFT OF PROPHECY,and

UNDERSTAND ALL MYSTERIES, and ALL KNOWLEDGE;

and though I have ALL FAITH, SO THAT I COULD

REMOVE MOUNTAINS, and have not charity, I am

nothing.

Somehow praying in tongues produces in us the second

level of maturity, which is the use of the gift of

prophecy.

As you pray out the mysteries of Christ in your

spirit,God begins to answer them. Suddenly the Holy

Spirit latches on to one of those mysteries, pulls it out

of your spirit, and reveals it to your intellect so you can

release it through prophecy.

Level Three: As we continue to pray in tongues, we will

attain the third level of spiritual maturity through the

understanding of divine secrets or mysteries.

Level Four: The revelation of these mysteries will come

alive and begin to operate in our spirit, producing in us

the understanding and accumulation of knowledge, the

fourth level of spiritual maturity.

Somehow, then, as the mysteries of Christ are revealed

to me — the mystery of healing, the mystery of

righteousness, the mystery of love — I begin to erect

pillars in my spirit. As I pray mysteries up before the

Father, God answers those prayers by a supernatural

imparting of divine insight. Every time the Holy Spirit

causes me to understand a mystery, one more pillar of

that superstructure is erected.

One pillar is erected by a revelation of righteousness,

another by a revelation of peace, and still another by a

revelation of agape love. Finally, the entire edifice is

framed through praying mysteries in the Holy Ghost.

It is a combination of all these divine secrets revealed

to my spirit that will eventually construct an entire

library of knowledge, an edifice full of the revelation

knowledge of Jesus on the inside of my spirit. And

whenever I want to, I can reach in and pull out any

volume that I need!

Level Five: So the mysteries are prayed in pillars, but

the building constructed is knowledge. It is the

understanding of all these mysteries filling your inner

library of knowledge that produces the capacity for

mountain-moving faith in your heart as you are

transformed by the Word of God. This is the fifth level

of spiritual maturity.

It is the combination of praying in the Holy Ghost and

the meditation of God’s Word that produces the kind of

faith that moves mountains. Why? Because faith comes

by hearing the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit is the

One giving divine insight into the Word through the

supernatural language of tongues.

At this level, Jesus said that nothing shall be impossible

to you!

Level Six: First Corinthians 13:3 gives us the sixth level

of maturity:

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and

though I give my body to be burned, and have not

charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Somehow our praying in tongues will help produce in

us the capacity for agape giving.

I always wondered how a person could bestow all their

goods to feed the poor and give their body to be burned,

yet still not have the agape kind of love. Then the Holy

Spirit revealed the answer to me.

Some Christians live off the self-exaltation that comes

from putting their giving on display.They even delight

in extreme sacrifices — especially the kind that puts

their humility on public display to be admired by men.

Some have even made the ultimate sacrifice of losing

their lives for the wrong reasons.

I finally began to understand that sometimes it takes a

lot more to stay and labor your entire life for the

Gospel’s sake than it does to die and go home to be with

the Lord. Agape love would rather be a living sacrifice

than a dead martyr.

I cringe inside when I think of how many times I have

given into an offering because of the lust of my flesh. It

wasn’t the preacher’s fault. I was the one who saw the

Cadillac in my mind and gave him my dollar to make

sure I would get it. But the Bible says that if I don’t give

out of agape love, it simply will profit me nothing.

However, when agape love becomes the basis for our

giving, God cannot and will not let us down, for love

never fails

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JUST INTERESTING THAT THIS IS PART 71 OF THIS SERIES AND I WILL TURN 71 IN A FEW DAYS.

UNTIL NEXT TIME;

Larry