John 13:1-16 KJV
[1] Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. [2] And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; [3] Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; [4] he riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. [5] After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded. [6] Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? [7] Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. [8] Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. [9] Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. [10] Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. [11] For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. [12] So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? [13] Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. [14] If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. [15] For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. [16] Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him
A Call To Meekness
Come and learn of Me, for I am meek and humble of heart.
4/27/25
The Call to Meekness:
Why is being meek so important to Jesus? Let's look at the definition for meekness:
Meek: mild of temper; soft, gentle, not easily provoked or irritated, yielding; given to forbearance under injuries.
Appropriately humble, submissive to the divine will, not proud or self sufficient, not refractory (obstinate, willful or disobedient), or peevish( fretful, complaining, easily vexed or difficult to please), not apt to complain of divine dispensations.
Matthew 11:28-30 KJV
[28] Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Jesus Himself, was the greatest example of meekness that has ever been. Even though He is the Word in flesh, the Son of God and the King of Kings, He still humbled Himself and became meek and lowly so that we could be reconciled with our heavenly Father. Because of Jesus' choice to set aside all His royal rights, we can know the love of our heavenly Father and all His covenant promises for us.
He took upon His body and soul all our sin, our shame, all our afflictions and poverty so we could have the rich blessings of God. He chose to allow His enemies to strip Him, beat Him and murder Him in an excruciating way in order to pay for our freedom to choose life and godliness over sin and hell.
As believers, we understand what He did for us but do we think about how that same meekness should be operating in our lives? Are we willing to love like He did and does? Are we willing to let go of offenses even if we feel justified in holding onto them? Are we going to give our emotions to God and surrender to His love rather than reacting to hurt and frustrations others cause us
We must not bury those emotions deeper in our hearts, where they will fester and cause more damage. We must choose to look at all offenses through the perspective of meekness.
we all want to be respected, acknowledged and loved by others. Are we willing to lay that all on the alter in exchange for the knowledge of His love. If any one had a right to be loved, it was Jesus but He layed the expectation to be loved by us before His Father.
He knew His Father's love was enough and it was this love that He loved us with.
Being meek was so important to Jesus that it is part of the Beatitudes. You cannot be filled with His righteousness until you are meek. Jesus says the meek will inherit the earth. The world says the meek are week but God says they will inherit the earth!
We know this is true because the Father gave Jesus the earth as His foot stool. He gave Him all the kingdoms of the earth. He sits on the right hand of the Father. He gave Him the church for His body and Bride.
Jesus willingly became meek and lowly for us but He was never weak! The world may look at meekness and mock it and call it weak but Jesus calls us to be meek if we want to live in His Kingdom, and walk in His divine nature. The Kingdom culture often looks foolish to the eyes of the world.
1 Corinthians 1:27 KJV
[27] but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
Philippians 2:3 KJV
[3] Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Being meek is not just a way that we respond to others, there must be an actual change in our perspective. If we try to be meek without this change, feelings of frustration will fester deep in our hearts.
This transformation of our heart can only be done by the work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot do this on our own. We ask God to help us to see through the eyes of meekness and we surrender our will, our thoughts, our emotions and our attitude to Him and allow Him to begin that transformation in our heart
Romans 12:10 KJV
[10] Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another
Understand that this is a process! We do not automatically walk in meekness. Jesus said "Learn from Me". Learning is a process. Our soul and carnal nature will fight against this change but with the help of His Holy Spirit, we will prevail as a new creation in Christ. We will love like Jesus loves and bring His Kingdom to our world.
Worship Is a Weapon:
4/17/25
There are many people of God in both the New and Old Testament of the Bible, who understood the power of worship. Some famous ones are Jehoshaphat, Paul and Silas and King David. They found themselves in very difficult situations and lifted up their voices to their God, praising His goodness, righteousness and faithfulness. They were humble before God, acknowledging to Him, that their circumstances were bigger than they were and they needed the help of their powerful God.
In the story of Jehoshaphat, we see that a great multitude from beyond the Sea in Syria along with other formidable armies were set on attacking Jehoshaphat and Judah. Jehoshaphat and all the people of Judah came to God to ask for help. Jehoshaphat stood in the house of the Lord, before the people and prayed.
He reminded God of His great power and authority over all the kingdoms of the earth. He also reminded God that He was their God. He praised Him for His many miracles He performed for all of Israel, in past generations, and His relationship with their father Abraham.
He brought to God's attention the Temple that was made to bring honor to Him and to give them a place where they could come to God in their time of need. If there was any trouble for Israel they could bring it before God at the temple and ask for His help and he would hear them.
Jehoshaphat reminded God of His covenant promise to His people Israel and Judah; This land was their inheritance from Him. He told God that Judah and Jerusalem would be unjustly attacked and that the powers against them were very great; They were helpless against them unless God was their defense.
Jehoshaphat used word when he spoke to God. He was speaking faith and demonstrating his trust in God. He spoke of miracles that God did. He spoke of his covenant promises to His people. We must also speak Word out of our mouths, in an attitude of worship. He wants us to sing to Him with confidence that He is a God who can and will do the impossible for us. He loves to hear us tell of the miracles He's done and blessings He's given.
God responded to Jehoshaphat's prayer and the prayers of the people. Through Jahaziel, one of the priests, He told them that the battle was His. He told them not to be afraid of this great multitude coming against them. He revealed the enemy's plans to them and gave them specific instructions to stand still and watch what God would do. Jehoshaphat and all the people were encouraged by this Word from the Lord and bowed down and worshiped Him.
Jehoshaphat admonish the people going to stand against the enemy to believe in the Lord their God and they would be established and if they believed His prophets, they would prosper. They went out to stand against their enemies, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving.
Jehoshaphat and all the soldiers got to the place where the armies were and saw them all dead on the ground. God caused them to fight each other until they were all destroyed, not one escaped. It took three days for Jehoshaphat and his army to gather all the spoils from their enemies.
This was not only a powerful lesson for Jehoshaphat and all of Judah but also for us. The Lord fought this battle for Judah and the Lord fights for us as well. As we worship and praise Him and sing Word over ourselves and our situation and also those we love, God will begin to move and act on our behalf. He will lift us up in our faith and strengthen us. He will turn our darkness into light and reveal to us our next step.
God is the same yesterday today and forever. He never stops fighting for us against our enemies. Jehoshaphat had enemies of flesh and blood but we have spiritual darkness and our own carnal nature to continually fight against. Worship is a weapon that we can put our faith in and trust the Lord. It is a physical weapon we choose to use to align ourselves with the Word and faith of God, against the enemy and our old nature. We cannot worship God without a grateful heart. When we worship, we are agreeing with Him, in His Word, that He is faithful and trustworthy. He loves when we speak Word back to Him, and believe in His promises.
Perhaps Paul and Silas were thinking about Jehoshaphat's deliverance when they chose to Worship God instead of complain about the horrible pain and suffering they endured. They too, needed help and strength from God in their time of need.
When they were put in prison for preaching the gospel, they sang to the Lord and praised Him for His goodness. They had been beaten and put in stocks so that they could hardly move but their voices worked and they sang loud. All the prisoners heard them and God heard them. The prison shook and all the prisoners were freed.
God used this whole situation for His glory and they won the jailer to the Lord along with his whole family. None of the prisoners had escaped, God kept everyone There. They were blessed by the jailer and to His family and all their needs were met.
David understood worship very well. He was always singing to the Lord for His goodness and mercy. He sang of the wonders that He performed and the power of his God. He sang of God's love, compassion and provision for him and his people.
Psalms 34:1-4 NKJV
[1] I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. [2] My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; The humble shall hear of it and be glad. [3] Oh, magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. [4] I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.
Psalms 145:1-3 NKJV
[1] I will extol You, my God, O King; And I will bless Your name forever and ever. [2] Every day I will bless You, And I will praise Your name forever and ever. [3] Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; And His greatness is unsearchable.
Psalms 95:1-3 NKJV
[1] Oh come, let us sing to the Lord! Let us shout joyfully to the Rock of our salvation. [2] Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms. [3] For the Lord is the great God, And the great King above all gods.
These men understood that worship was a weapon. They knew that God listened to them as they worshiped and praised Him. When God listens to someone He actually acts for them and shows Himself strong. God is always listening to His people when they come to Him humbly for help.
There have been times in my own life where I did not know what to do. Nothing made sense to me and I didn't know my next step. I was battle wary and didn't want to pick up my sword and fight. But my God put a song in my heart and I sang it with all my might. He came through for me and He fought the battle for me. He didn't always change my circumstances just when I wanted Him too, but He always gave me a godly perspective, in exchange for my carnal attitude I struggled to overcome.
God loves to fight for His people. He loves to show Himself strong for us. When you don't know what your next step is and you don't know how to fight the battle you're fighting, open up your mouth and your heart and sing to the Lord with all your might. Sing Word over yourself and your situation. Sing over your loved ones and those that you are praying for. Don't stop singing until you feel that break in the atmosphere. Satan hates to hear us worship God. You will always receive His peace and joy when you choose to Worship Yahweh.
Colossians 3:16-17 NKJV
[16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. [17] And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
I Peter 2:9 NKJV
[9] But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light
The story of Jehoshaphat can be found in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. The story of Paul and Silas in prison can be found in Acts 16:22-34. Davids praises to God are all through the Psalms but especially at the end.
4/11/25
Accessing the promises of God.
God's promises encompass the whole covenant we have with our heavenly Father, through Jesus. He freely gives them to us once we are abiding in Jesus and He is abiding in us, through His spirit.
Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that every spiritual blessing we have is in heavenly places in Christ. If we are not abiding in Christ then it would be very difficult to receive every spiritual blessing our Father has for us.
Jesus tells us how to abide in Him in John 15:1-10
John 15:4-5 NKJV
[4] Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. [5] “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If we abide in Jesus by allowing His spirit full access to our heart and mind and will, then all that we ask for will be given to us. Abiding in Jesus, means giving His love full access to every part of us, no matter how painful that may be.
John 15:7-8 NKJV
[7] If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. [8] By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.
John 15:9-10 NKJV
[9] “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. [10] If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.
To abide in Jesus, we must obey His love. We find out how when we study scripture. We cannot love like Jesus on our own. We must yield our will and faith to the Holy Spirit, who will then love out of us.
All God's promises were given to us to bring us into His divine nature of love. 2 Peter 1:5 tells us this.
II Peter 1:3-4 NKJV
[3] as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, [4] by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
His divine nature is love. His love is not a wimpy love, allowing for sin and carnality and compromising the Word of God. We see in 1 Corinthians 13, that this love is impossible for us to copy. The only way to walk in this love is yielding or surrendering our will and faith to the Holy Spirit and allowing His love to flow freely out of us. When we learn more and more how to yield to His love, the gates of heaven will open up and we will begin to receive the benefits of the covenant promises our heavenly Father is storing for us in heavenly places in Christ. It is a command to walk in His love but impossible to obey, unless we rely on His Holy Spirit within us.
.
Accessing the promises of God can only be done if we know what they are. We will find all of them if we study His Word. When we see a vision formed by the Holy Spirit through His word, we can anchor our faith to that vision. This vision given by God, gives us assurance that we are heard by Him and that He is acting for us.
Jesus says in chapter 15 of John that we can only produce fruit if we abide in Him. The fruit of love comes in many forms; It is patient, it is kind, it is compassionate, it is generous and it is gentle. It is longsuffering, it puts others over itself, it obeys the Word of God and it is not easily provoked. There are so many things about love that we cannot do on our own. If we abide in Christ He will bring that fruit forth out of us but if we do not abide in Christ we will flounder helplessly with all our many emotions struggling to try to be a good Christian and not understanding why we're not receiving the promises God has for us.
When we fully walk in obedience to the love of God, which is His divine nature, we can partake of all the rich promises that are in Him, in heavenly places in Christ. But we cannot partake of them if we do not know what they are. We must search the Word, we must seek it with our whole heart for in that word are all His rich promises and also His heart. As we seek His promises, we will also seek Him and know Him and become one with Him.
When we have need of something from our God we can seek a vision in His Word, a picture of what that promise looks like from different places in the Word. We anchor our faith to that vision with an assurance that we are heard by God and that He is answering us and we do not waver no matter what comes at us .What we hear and what we see doesn't matter because our eyes are on God and in the spirit realm. We have confidence in who we are in Christ, as a child of God and as a citizen of His Kingdom, abiding in Christ. He will give us the desires of our hearts because our heart is one with His.
Trust in His process. Your life is already written. He knows your beginning to end. He is with you in it all!
Proverbs 3:5-8 NKJV
[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; [6] In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. [7] Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. [8] It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.
3/30/25
Patterns.
When Adam and Eve fell they began to see right and wrong for themselves. They began reasoning in their minds their own interpretation of good and evil. They no longer relied on God to tell them what was good and evil.;They now were able to reason it out on their own.
They began to interpret for themselves what they consider to be good or bad. They now weighed the pros and cons in the balance and decided for themselves what they would or would not do or they would or would not believe.
Abel offered the best he had to the Lord while Cain thought it was reasonable to offer a decent sacrifice but surely not the best of what he harvested.
All through the centuries the pattern of this world is to rely on our own wise mind over the mind of Christ. In the Old testament it was the law and in the New testament it is the mind of Christ but it is always the Word of God against the pattern of sin in this world.
We are so entrenched in the thought patterns of this world that we have taken on they're very nature. Christ offers us His divine nature in replace of our carnal nature or nature controlled by our own wise mind.
Scripture tells us about this carnal mind in Proverbs 3-8
[5] Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; [6] In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths. [7] Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil. [8] It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.
What does it mean to have the mind of Christ? We no longer will rely on our own reasoning mind to help us make the right choices. We will not rely on the wisdom of this world to walk in the kingdom of God. In order to walk in the kingdom of God we must learn how to walk in Kingdom patterns.
There are many scriptures on Kingdom patterns. Two that stand out to me are The beatitudes in the sermon on the Mount and the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22 and 23 . In future lessons we will look at these scriptures in more depth. They are great scriptures to begin to recognize the Kingdom pattern
Matthew 5:3-12 NKJV
[3] “Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [4] Blessed are those who mourn, For they shall be comforted. [5] Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. [6] Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, For they shall be filled. [7] Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. [8] Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God. [9] Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God. [10] Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. [11] “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. [12] Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Galatians 5:22-23 KJV
[22] But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, [23]meekness , temperancel; Against such there is no law.
Within love we operate in all the other fruit of the Spirit. Love is our heavenly Father's motivation for all that He does for us. It is the very essence of His entire Kingdom Pattern.
We cannot walk in the Kingdom Pattern without the aid of the Holy Spirit. He must be allowed to do whatever He desires to do in our hearts, with complete access to every hidden place within it.
The renewing and transformation of our minds is a slow, steady and often painful process. The Holy Spirit works with our faith, our will and our understanding to bring us from old worldly patterns into the Kingdom Pattern that Jesus gave to His apostles who then imparted it to us, through scripture.
We cannot see or receive this pattern without the Rhema (revelation within scripture) given to us by the Holy Spirit. He is our teacher and will teach us all truth and how to walk in the divine nature of Jesus Christ.
I John 2:27 NKJV
[27] But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.
John 14:16-18 NKJV
[16] And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— [17] the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. [18] I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
John 16:7-15 NKJV
[7] Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. [8] And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: [9] of sin, because they do not believe in Me; [10] of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; [11] of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged. [12] “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. [13] However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. [14] He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. [15] All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.
It isn't easy to trade in old patterns that our soul has been entrenched in for a long time. We are unfamiliar with the Kingdom pattern as a rule. Our own wise mind resists the mind of Christ often. If it doesn't make sense to us we do not want to believe or agree with it. Many times we don't even realize we feel this way and we think we're trusting God when we're really not. This is what Paul says about the war within us.
Romans 7:14-25 NKJV
[14] For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. [15] For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. [16] If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. [17] But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [18] For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. [19] For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. [20] Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. [21] I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. [22] For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. [23] But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. [24] O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? [25] I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Paul was showing us that we were going to have a fight on our hands as soon as we make the choice to walk in the Spirit rather than our carnal nature. Our soul is used to thinking in carnal ways. We feel justified when we respond in irritation to someone infringing on our rites;. we allow for fleshly desires as long as they aren't listed in scripture as actual sins.
It is true that we walk in freedom and should not be enslaved by religion but our thought patterns and responses to others should be in line with the mind of Christ . We should be operating in the gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit. Our motivation for all we do should be love, just like our heavenly Father.
We cannot hope to stand against patterns of this world within us and around us without the help of the Holy Spirit. He is our strength, He is our hope He is the one who brings Revelation. Without Him we can do nothing. We are helpless and will succumb to the patterns of this world.
In order to overcome these patterns we must renew our mind by immersing ourselves in the Word of God and allowing the Holy Spirit full access to all of our heart and allow His truth to permeate every area where there is a lie hidden in darkness.
We cannot see into our own heart without the help of the Holy Spirit. We must rely on Him to shine His light through His word into the dark places where lies are hidden. It is the lies we believe that keep us in old patterns. They are motivated by fear, by doubt, by pride, by insecurity, by worry, and any other characteristic of the powers of darkness.
Scripture says that we must take every thought captive and make it obey Christ. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against spiritual darkness and evil in this world. If we try to reason out the attributes of God or His will for us, we will not be able to stand against the lies that come at us.
God's ways are higher than ours, His thoughts are greater. We do not understand the mind of God and it will not fully make sense to us until we get to heaven. We don't see the whole pattern of His plan; we only see one small part. We must trust His process as He brings us into the Kingdom pattern.
For this lesson let us meditate on letting go of the old way of looking at things and embracing the Word of God and what it says about every situation that we deal with. Let us prayerfully consider the things of the Lord over our own wise mind and how we would handle a situation.
There is grace for when we make a mistake but let us respect that grace and our Lord who died to give it to us. Let us leave the past behind and move on towards a higher call of God and embrace His kingdom pattern over our own wise
Mark 10:27 NKJV
[27] But Jesus looked at them and said, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible
Let us Embrace the pattern of the Kingdom and trust Him in the process of our transformation into His divine nature.
Heavenly Father fill us with Your Holy Spirit, anoint us with your presence in power, so that we may be able to walk in Your Kingdom pattern instead of our own wise mind. Lead us on Your path of righteousness, instead of the carnal paths we have become comfortable walking in. Thank You Father for hearing and answering our prayer, in Jesus precious name, Amen..
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. 1 Cor. 13:7
4/6/25
What exactly is the Kingdom pattern? We get a clue when Jesus answers a question for one of the scribes.
This man recognized the heart of God. It's not about all the sacrifices we make for God to show that we are a godly person; it's about His love being the motivation for everything we say and do.
Some of us are naturally more compassionate than others but all of us contend with flesh that wants to justify our attitudes and actions.
Even when we are focused on Jesus, studying the Word and keeping our thoughts on things above, we still battle feelings of indignation and irritation in the way those close to us treat us.
When we look at the chapter of 1 Corinthians 13, we see that we are asked to do what seems impossible to our own wise mind and yet we are still commanded to love this way.
Love is the very foundation of the Kingdom of God. The culture of His Kingdom is truth and love found in His Word. We cannot love this way outside of His Kingdom; it will never make sense to our own wise mind.We must yield to the Holy Spirit within us and ask Him to love in this way, out of us. He will show us things in our hearts that are not always pleasant to see but necessary to allow His love to flow freely out of us.
When we look at the love chapter, it is important to pay attention to verse 6. Love hates sin! We must not confuse love with compromise. The world says compromise is good. The world does not walk in truth. When we walk in truth, we should never compromise the truth
Jesus paid for our right to be offended. We no longer can justify our carnal reactions to the offenses of others, perceived or actual. We gave up that right when we made Him Lord. We are responsible to give those offenses to Him and trust that He will do what is right for everyone involved.
This does not mean we always keep silent when a wrong has been done but we walk in the wisdom and love of our heavenly Father. The Kingdom pattern is walking like Jesus did by the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. We renew our mind with His Word until His Word makes more sense than our own wise mind and even then we will never want to stop devouring the Word of God. We obey His Word and live it out in every thing we say and do.
Being Kingdom minded
Mark 12:29-34 NKJV
[29] Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. [30] And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. [31] And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” [32] So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. [33] And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” [34] Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” But after that no one dared question Him.
His Kingdom is within us
I Corinthians 13:1-13 NKJV
[1] Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. [2] 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, but have not love, I am nothing. [3] And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. [4] Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; [5] does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; [6] does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; [7] bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. [8] Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. [9] For we know in part and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. [12] For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. [13] And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Father, help us to love like You and lay at the cross, all offenses; both from others and our own. Help us to trust that You will work all things out for our good and Your glory. Help us to yield to Your Kingdom culture within us and submit to Your Holy Spirit, as He teaches us the pattern of Your Kingdom. In Jesus name, Amen.
We need your consent to load the translations
We use a third-party service to translate the website content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details in the privacy policy and accept the service to view the translations.