God is Love

Rhema is an innovative, practically applied Bible study that is designed to help you understand, grow and strengthen your spiritual relationship with God. As implied by its name its primary function is to help you uncover the revealed word of god, that it may enlighten, simplify and transact the will and purpose God has for each of us in our every day life. 

Brought to you by L.A Williams, with over four decades of practical experience in the ministry of healing and deliverance, his aim is to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ across the world, and see believers embolden with the truth of who they are, and what God purposed for us to be. 

Sit back, relax and allow your spirit to be nourished.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:05

Welcome to Rema Bible Studies. Today our topic is on loving God with all your spirit, soul, mind, body, and your neighbor as yourself. The importance of love. Love is critical to our life. In fact, when you consider St. John 3 16, that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. God is love. In one of his major attributes, love is the one that the world and everyone talks about. And so today we're going to be looking at that love that God requires. When you consider that God is the source of all love, and especially Agape love, you wonder why it is that He tells us that we must love Him with our total being. Yes, man is tripartite in essence, his body, soul, and his spirit. And here God is telling us not only should we love Him with our spirit, with our soul and with our body, but also we are to love Him with our intellect. And further to that, that we are to love ourselves, yes, and our neighbor as we love ourselves. So when you consider the context of love, it really gives you a deep understanding as to why it is that God loves us so much. Yes, he's the as we said before, he is the source of love. And because he's the source of love, he also imputed into us love equally as well. So every person that is born to the human race is born with an injection of love. Yes. Now there are those that develop that love into something meaningful, and there are those who it seems like their love is dominant. In other words, they've never had the opportunity, are exposed to an environment where they can truly experience and develop this wonderful thing called love. Now, loving God with your spirit, yes, one has to look at the depth by which God requires us to go. Our spirit is the center of our being. And here is telling us that when it comes to our relationship with Him, we are to love Him from the center of our being, yes, through to our soul, which, as everyone knows, our soul gives us self-consciousness. And yet, when it comes to God, God is telling us that we are to put Him first in our love. In other words, that we should love Him even more than we love ourselves. And I think this is indicative of how valuable God sees our relationship with Him, that nothing should precede our love for God. And here he went further and he tells us that we are to love Him with such spiritual depth that we can connect with Him. Because when you love God in your spirit, you are in real connectivity with God. God is a spirit, and therefore He requires that true relationship is going to be about our spirit connectivity, and that matters to God more than anything. Why? Because in the spirit there is truth that cannot be cannot be confused with anything else. The spirit gives the true sense of what you're feeling, what you're experiencing, and that is why it is so, so important that one love God with the thing that is not only our essence, but his essence. Yes? Now, when you look further, you can see that we talk about even natural relationships, which we will talk about in a minute, but in that natural relationship, we talk about connectivity of spirits. And that is when two human spirits connect, you find truth, not merely from your emotion, not merely from your intellect, but from your spirit. And so loving God with your spirit really pleases him because nothing can top that. But he went on further and tells us that we should not only love him with our spirit, but also love him with our soul. And when it comes to expressing our love for God, especially within our soul, it is important. Why? Because the soul is the processing plant. Yes, the soul to the spirit is as the stomach to the body. Therefore, you take things in and it's process. And from what is taken in, the process takes place, and the nutrients, the things that is going to make you healthy, is then disseminated into your bloodstream and in other areas. In the same way, when it comes to the soul, it is the onus is on us to put the right thing in the processing plant, which is our soul. What we do, how we do it, what we expose ourselves to is going to determine how and what happens. And unfortunately, that is why so many people today are struggling, right? Because of what they're feeding their soul with. Now, what most people think is norm, but to the human spirit, it is poison. And as a result, it is having all kind of devastating impact on the individual. Now, why? Because we have not really um check on the things that we are putting into our soul, and therefore, when that is processed, it has to move on. It has to move on from just merely your own consciousness of self, but it has to move on to the spirit which governs and guides your life. Now, in Ephesians 2 and verse 1, it tells us that you have equickened. In other words, God quickens us and he connects us again with himself. Because, of course, through sin we um were separated, and sin kept us away from that connectivity with God, and in so doing, we were operating merely on our soul level. But now that we have been reconnected with God, and then the Bible tells us that we now have access to the divine spirit of God. And that's why loving God with your soul is absolutely indicative of how you really feel and think about Him. It matters to Him. Because when you can turn your back on the things that the soul sees as gratification in the interest of your love for God, that is truly sacrificing. Now, loving God with your soul, man, is important to understand that emotional connectivity that we feel. And knowing that once you love God truly with your soul, man, you you are demonstrating that deep, heartfelt love towards God. Your soul is truly an indication as to the extent by which you love God. Because you're loving him in your emotion, you're loving him with your in with your intellect, you're loving him by virtue of denying self gratification, and you know that really is your indication as to how much you love God. Now, like most people, you would like to do things that gratifies your flesh, as it were, or your life around you. But when you can sacrifice that because of your love for God, it really gives amen one the indication as to the extent and which you love God. So loving God with your body is important. Now, I mean, at one point the Bible tells us about the body, represent the might. So, in other words, we love God with our might, we love him with our vigor, we love him in the things we do. And so there are things that we do physically that must also demonstrate our love for God. And if we take, for example, a very popular sport like football, now you could easily say, why doesn't people go to the football stadium and just sit there and smile or you know grin at the at the at their side scoring or not scoring? But you don't have that. You have a physical, emotional reaction to what they see as a good thing or the bad thing. When the goal is scored for the side of choice, then there is that physical emotion that erupts. Hands are waving, hands are clapping, feet are stamping, and hugs and all of that, because there is that visible physical demonstration of how the one is feeling internally. And that is what God is saying is that the feeling that we are experiencing on the inside, amen, the connectivity that we have with God, it must demonstrate in the physical way in which we go. Yes, in the common sense of the word, we go to a place we call church. And what do we do there? We again, like the footballers, we clap, we dance, we lift our hands, we wave it in the presence of God, showing our love, showing how we feel about God. Very, very important indeed. So this highlights, I mean, the true significance of our love and the expression of love towards God in his service when we can physically get involved to demonstrate our love for God. Of course, the Bible went further to tell us that we are to love our neighbors. Yes, and I I love this because loving your neighbor is predicated on the extent by which you love yourself. And this is really, really important. As I was teaching the other day, and I was saying to the to the folks that loving yourself is an integral part of your existence. And too many people hate themselves. They don't think about themselves, they doesn't talk about themselves, they doesn't do the things to really uh enhance themselves. They will do it for everything else and for everyone else, but for themselves, no. I think it's important that one understand that loving oneself requires, you mean, for one to go back. And oftentimes you've got to go back to your past, yes? To look at the things that have been placed in you that does not cultivate that desire to make you who you should be. And that's why, you know, I uh again I was teaching and um somebody came online and said, Um, why should you go back when Jesus has already um washed away our sins and all of that? I said, Yes, he has done. He has done because the Adamic sins has been taken care of by Jesus at the cross. But he also leaves us to take care of our environmental sins. And that is really where a lot of people miss that reality. Yes, you have to know what you're exposed to when you were exposed to it, and therefore you have the opportunity through prior to deal with that. And you need to love yourself enough to want to not only eliminate what is now traditionally traditional, traditional or habitual. See, these are things now that you have to deal with. And in so doing, it's important for you to understand that if you really and truly love yourself, you're going to take the time to really go back and deal with it. So recognize, recognizing that you, that everything in your past started at a specific time, called, of course, we call it the third transition. Yes, it's important to understand how that worked. And a lot of people cannot truly express their love for others because they are not loving themselves like they should. Yes. So this today I want to say to you that as you love God with your spirit, with your soul, with your might, then it is important for you to understand that your neighbor is at a disadvantage if you cannot love yourself. It's important for you to know that your love for your neighbor is absolutely predicated on how much you have the capacity to love yourself. Very, very important. So here we are to think of those people in your life, yes, to love, respect, admires, yes, and you see them as important. Now, in the same way, you have to see yourself as important. Yes, how you take care of yourself matters because your neighbor is waiting for you to demonstrate your love in the same way in which you love yourself. And not only that, these are the Bible called commandments. Yes, loving God with your spirit, soul, and body, and your neighbor as yourself are the two, the Jesus called it the two greatest commandments. Yes, that is showing how important what importance he placed on them. Why? Because all the other commandments are compounded in these two commandments. Yes, I mean, so it really embodies it, and that's why Jesus hasn't given any other commandments than these two that he established with his disciples. Because he understood, they understood, that every other commandment really is embodied in these two um commandments. So, how important it is for us to love our neighbor. Of course, our neighbor needs to know that your love is not just temporary, your love is not just a one-off act, but loving your neighbor is a state of affair. Yes. Too many times we can do an act of love, and it's wonderful. But what people are looking for is a state of love. Yes? In other words, you continually to express this love, irrespective of circumstances, irrespective of situation that you may be in, that love is guaranteed. Yes? Imagine you know, you can wake up and you feel, okay, you may not feel yourself, but it's never going to impact on your neighbor because you are in a state of love. And even if you fall out this minute or the next, it doesn't matter so much because that is merely an act of falling out. And so the moment you address it, I forgive you, or I am sorry, then it reinstates that state in which you are living. That is what God, um, why God placed such great emphasis on these two commandments. Loving God, loving yourself and your neighbor is absolutely critical. It absolutely looks at practical ways in which one demonstrate love and compassion towards each other. That is what makes the world and would make the world a better place. If we can truly love each other and demonstrate, emphasize that love in every way possible. Yes, sometimes not waiting to be asked about um your love for your neighbor, but demonstrate it to show it by the things you do and the way you do. You're looking at needs within people and therefore demonstrate that that love for them by meeting them at the point of their need. In the same way that God looked at us, and in spite of our faults, in spite of our failing, his love is still everlasting because there are good reasons why they call him the most merciful. There are good reasons why they call him the most compassionate. Now, you cannot call someone these things unless they have and demonstrate this love, compassion, mercy. This is the true essence of loving God and producing that fruits of love. Now, Jesus said that by their fruits you shall know them. You see, you can't have this great uh operation going on in your spirit and it does not bear fruits. Yes, people will see that love. People will see that your character has been changed, people will see that you are a new person because when you can love, when you can have peace, when you can have joy and long-suffering and gentleness, and the list goes on, in spite of the opposition, because you can never truly experience love until you're exposed to hate. Yes, you will know whether you've got love. You're not going to experience peace and joy until you experience the war and sadness. And so when these things come and you can still be who you are, that is why the state is so important rather than just acting at any given moment and time. So when you love someone, especially yourself, how do you treat them? These are questions that one has to ask. Are you patient with them? Do you adore them? Do you give of your substance to their needs? Do you support them when they're going through their difficulties and their hardship? See, these are the things that is going to reflect back on who you are and what you are. So let me say this to you, my friends, my brothers, my sisters. I want to encourage you to reflect on this and this great love that God is encouraging us to exhibit one towards another, and more so to himself. Now, of course, the Greek wanted to express a deep understanding of love, and so they divide love into some categories, namely agape love, I mean failure, eras, storage, and quite a few others, yes, as a means of expressing these emotions. Why? Because there is that divine love called agape love that tends and is given to our God. We have also failure, which again is an expression of love towards our friends. And so when you meet somebody and you truly love them, it is so important for them to know, not only to know that you love them, but to feel that you love them and to have that assurance of your love. And so it is like friends. Friends are always happy to see each other. Friends are always happy to be in the company of each other. And so failure addresses that kind of love and emotions that you feel. Then, of course, you have agape. And this is a more erratic kind of love. You find that a lot in different places. You find that in the pubs, you find that in the clubs, you find that in the dancehall, you find that wherever you find people seemingly to enjoy themselves, but with a selfish motive. And that is what uh iris is that erratic kind of love. I am in it for what I can get out of it. I'm in it because I want to satisfy my own needs. I am in it because I'm looking for means. It's not so much you that matters. That's why true love is so much broader and so much more deeper than this kind of eroticism that so many are alludes to. Of course, storage, which is the love of family, father and son, mother and daughter, and you know, the whole family structure. And that is just to mention a few. So loving God with your whole being is so critical and so important. And remember, it was God who told us that he demonstrate his love towards us in that while we were everything that he hates, he sent his love towards us. And this is so important to know that God's love for you is not predicated merely on your ability to do good or to be good, but is love transcend your state, whatever state you are in. And love can reach you wherever and however low down you may feel, love can reach down to you. In fact, the Bible presents it like this He said that love covers a multitude of sin. And so, however you're feeling, whatever you're going through, there is the love of God that is ready to reach down and to scoop you from the lowest place that you may feel you are, and to lift you to the highest place, and that is to the heart of God. So, my friends, my brothers, my sisters, today I want you to know that if you will embark on this journey of loving God with your total being, spirit, soul, mind, and body, and to connect with your neighbors and to love them as you love yourself, you will you're truly on the road to success. God bless you and thank you for joining us this morning. We truly appreciate it. This is the Rema Bible study. We will be back with you again soon. Thank you.