getrealwithgod's Blog

What we recognize as love is primarily desire. Actually we are incapable of really loving anyone. The most we can do in ourselves is desire someone. The Greek word from which we get the God kind of love is agape. (agapaō ag-ap-ah'-o to love (in a social or moral sense): from agapē ag-ah'-pay; love, that is, affection or benevolence
It's love that's given with no hope of receiving something in return. It's an unselfish love. I've never been capable of really loving anyone. The closest I ever came was desire. My desire got me into one bad relationship after another for years. Even as a believer I've often struggled with recognizing the difference. Many of us do were the truth to be known. The easiest way to recognize true agape love is recognizing that such a love is totally unselfish & something humans are incapable of doing without God's help. There are those who mistake benevolence for love; but in the end it's often born out of the desire for recognition & acceptance. Humans are driven by 3 major forces; The lust of the flesh (physical desires), the lust of the eyes (covetousness), & the pride of life (the desire for recognition & acceptance}. We enter into relationships on the basis of what we hope to receive out of them. Most often we enter relationships for sexual gratification; but what do you do when the sex is no longer as good as it once was? You start looking for something better. Every married christian will quickly tell you they never look @ members of the opposite sex. The man or woman who doesn't is either blind or dead for the most part. However, this case is like that of anger. Being angry isn't a sin in itself; but when we hang on to it & it turns into a wrong attitude it becomes sin. If you keep looking, the wrong attitude will come. You in yourself are incapable of entering into any kind of relationship with another human being under any other grounds than what you hope to receive out of that relationship. To think different is only to fool yourself. Love is a fruit of the Spirit. It's produced by the Spirit of God influencing the spiritual you on the inside. When you begin to allow that spiritual you to influence your life on the outside, instead of letting you intellect will & emotions rule your life, that agape love of God will begin to manifest itself. Then & only then will you be capable of having any kind of real, unselfish, relationship with another human being.

1Jo 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
God is love. Therefore all love originates with God. Love is not something you can produce, but simply something you receive from God.
Gal 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, ....
It's the fruit of the Spirit of God's influence on the heart & life of a believer. It's the natural by product of the new life from above in the heart of every truly born again believer. When we open ourselves to the influence of that new life within us, only then can we truly love anyone. The more influence on our hearts & lives this new life gains, the more capable of loving other believers we become.
Joh 13:35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Every true disciple of Jesus Christ is capable of love, but very few truly love anyone simply because they won't yield to the influence of that new life within them. More often than not, desire is mistaken for love; however desire focuses on self. It seeks to gratify self. The focus is all wrong. The agape God kind of love focusses outward putting others ahead of ourselves. It's truly a matter of focal points. The Godless life focusses inward, while the true christian life is focussed outward.

We're a generation who majors in minors & minors in majors . We tend to blow the most inconsequential things all out of proportion turning molehills into mountains. We also tend to totally ignore the things in life that are most important. However, when we strive to see things from God's perspective, all of this begins to change. Everything in our lives gradually begins to take on a whole new light. That's why I stress walking in the light of God so much folks. In the light of God we begin to see everything in our lives as it really is, & not as we'd like to believe it is. Things that once seemed so important won't amount to a hill of beans in the light of God, & things we once ignored will suddenly be the most pressing things in our life. I truly believe we as believers are living far below our potential simply because we're not yielding to the influence of the new life God placed inside of us when we were born again. It's not a salvation issue folks. Being born again is. If we're not truly born again, we're not going to heaven. That's a fact. The problem is, the life more abundant Jesus promised us as believers can only be experienced when we begin to walk in the light of God, yielding to the influence of the new life on the inside of us. It's a choice we make one situation @ a time folks. I can choose to walk in the light of God, or I can choose to lean to my own understanding & react. The choice is mine; but the outcome is often far reaching. I may seem boring @ times because I'm so focussed; but the outcome is very important to me. I want to make sure the people I'm influencing in life are not only on their way to heaven, but experiencing the life more abundant Jesus promised us here.

2Co 5:17 Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new.
It's a shame most believers don't operate by this principal. Most of the suffering I've endured as a believer has been @ the hands of believers who are judging me by my past in the present. We need to strive to see other believers through God's eyes folks. We need to see them the way He sees them, looking beyond all of their faults & failures to see their potential & helping them to live up to it.

Am I the only one who notices the indifference & complacency in the lives of many believers today? When I was director of a halfway house in Wichita, I would spend 30 minutes in an interview with each prospective client, & by the end of that half hour I'd know whether that person really wanted help or not. If not, then I sent him or her back out into the street until he or she was ready for help. What I'd do is get that person involved in an ordianary conversation; & when they relaxed they'd begin to talk about what really matters to them the most. It was rarely getting their lives back on course & headed in the right direction. In the course of an average day, what do you talk about the most? Ever notice that when you get around someone who's just fell in love that they talk about that girl or guy all the time? You can't get them to shut up. Are we like that about our relationship with God? If we loved God serving Him & doing the things He wants us to do wouldn't be the chore it is for most of us. Maybe we just need to start all over again & fall in love with the kingdom of God folks.