Challenged in His Love

I am almost finished reading Joyce Meyer’s The Love Revolution.  It’s been not just a good read, but a heart-challenging read.  I didn’t know what to expect, since I’d listened multiple times to the CDs from the women’s conference of the same name, but there is so much more within these pages.

In reading the portion written by Pastor Tommy Barnett, I was deeply provoked to allow Jesus to work His love in me in many more areas of my life – even as I was encouraged by the same words.  For some reason, the first paragraph seemed especially important for me to share with you special women abroad.  May all these words inspire you to a much deeper and more all-encompassing walk in His love – that more people may know Christ!

If we are what we profess to be, true expressions of Jesus Christ, no one can be excluded.  That includes people of different doctrines, denominations, and experiences.  We must be encouragers, heralds of hope, that point people toward the unconditional love of God, and then become an evidence of it ourselves toward them.¹

I believe it’s more important for people to show love than to receive it.  When you show love, it turns on the heavenly faucet from which God pours love continually on us; the more love you show, the more you have and the easier it is to leave the tap on and let it flow to others.

The amount of love you have is directly influenced by how much love you give.  It’s a paradox, but it’s true: the only way to hold on to love is to give it away.

If you constantly give love away, you’re always focused on what you have to give, and that supply will grow.  Even if no one loves you back, you’ll have an endless supply of love through Jesus, and your life will be full of love.²

¹ Joyce Meyer, The Love Revolution (New York, N.Y.: Faith Words, Hachette Book Group, 2009), 228.

² Ibid., 231- 232.

Don't Go There!

Several months ago, Tom and I began a study using The Battlefield of the Mind book and study guide by Joyce Meyer.  We are going through it slowly, one chapter at a time, answering questions from it, and then discussing it with one another, so it’s much like going back to school.  It’s forcing me to chew on what I’m reading, rather than just zipping through the material quickly without absorbing it.  I’m actually learning it.  Just this morning, the Lord ministered to me using one of the key points in the book, the gist of which is, You don’t have to take ownership of every thought that comes to you.

I was putting off getting out of bed, though I’d been awake quite a while, alternating between praying and thinking about “things.”  As I drifted into thoughts about the non-relationship between one of my sons and me, and between my sister and me, the familiar trap of condemnation and guilt began to draw me in as I considered my being the common factor in both relationships.  Right in the midst of it, the Lord spoke clearly, “You don’t have to go there unless I take you there.”  Wow!  With those words, He snatched me right out of the downward spiral into which those thoughts were leading me.  My loving Daddy doesn’t want me to live that way any more.  He really wants to help me take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:5).  Sometimes I’m not even aware just how contrary to Christ my thoughts are, so He chose this morning to wake me up to this trap that has been my normal.

I don’t know what your specific situations are, my beloved sisters.  Be assured the Lord is saying the same thing to you, “You don’t have to go there unless I take you there.”  Turn away from that self-analysis that only sides with the accuser, contrary to what God has declared about you – no matter the situation.  Instead, take those thoughts captive, knowing if there is something in you needing correction, He will bring it to your attention at the right time and in the right way.  You will be convicted, not condemned, and will walk out of it in true humility and freedom because of His mercy and grace.

Romans 8:6 AMP Now the mind of the flesh [which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit] is death [death that comprises all the miseries arising from sin, both here and hereafter].  But the mind of the [Holy] Spirit is life and [soul] peace [both now and forever].

There is no need to be concerned that you will get “out of balance” in this, refusing to receive correction.  That, too, is a trap of the enemy.

John 5:24 AMP  I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.

How much more freely and confidently we live when led by the Spirit into correction, rather than by the enemy – through our flesh – into condemnation!  I choose God’s freedom from this day forward.  I’m not going with my thoughts into those places any more unless my Daddy takes me there.  How about you?  Freedom in Christ!