True Love.

Can we truly LOVE anyone at all without God being our source of love?  Seriously? Can we? Think about it, most of our ideas of love is a self-serving love. Even when we sacrifice to love there can be self-serving because of the pride towards self for sacrificing.  You say you have no pride in sacrificing? Praise God! It's not for me to judge anyone, God will do that- He knows the heart.

I do know from personal experience that my comprehension of love is very limited. I say I love others, I tell others I love them. What am I really saying to them when I say I love them? They are a part of my life that I don't want to live without. I care for them, even though I might not be perfect at caring for them. My love is flawed at best.

When others tell me they love me, I know they care for me, I know they want me in some part of their life and I know they would miss me should I go away.  I know they are choosing to love me, because they are capable of choosing not to love me, yes, even family can choose not to love other family members- love is always a choice.

God chose to love us even at our worst as evidence in the sacrifice He made in allowing God with Him to become His declared Son and to be made flesh. He allowed His declared Son to become human and in becoming human He took on the suffering of humans, the temptations of humans, the death of humans.   

God created us out of His love for us, and His love for us has kept Him from destroying us. God's love for us has created what we long to give to those we love- a pain free, happy existence.  We can't give that to those we love, it's not in our power to do so. God can do this, and He has done this and it is a PROMISE for all who love Him, for all who choose HIM.  We are PROMISED a pain free, happy existence. The promise is future beyond this world, the promise is heaven, the promise is eternity in love. This is the hope, this is the good news that our SAVIOR came to give to us, and to show us the way through Him.

God does want something in return- something from us, God wants us to love Him, to choose to believe in Him in all things. We must believe that God is the source of all real love, not our made up, imagined, very flawed love. We must comprehend that we are NOT able to love any others- not our mothers, our fathers, our husbands, our wives, our children, we are not able to love ANY others as He can love them. When we choose to love HIM we choose to give over to Him all we are. We give Him all our loved ones knowing He can love them more than we ever could.  We give our 'all' to God and God takes care of our 'all' in HIS way, not our way. 

More on this later, all by the GRACE and MERCY of our LORD and SAVIOR, JESUS CHRIST! Now and forever… AMEN.

'Affection

God’s Demand

Yielding one’s affection to the lord may be viewed by the Christian to be a most difficult task, yet the Lord is concerned with One’s affection more than with any Other matter.

 He demands him to present his affection wholly to Him and let Him lord over it. The Lord asks for first place in our affection. We Often hear people talk about consecration, but this act is simply the first step in one’s spiritual walk. Consecration is not the destination of spirituality, it is but its beginning. It leads a Christian to a sanctified position.

In a word, without consecration there can be no spiritual life.

Even so, nothing is more paramount in one’s consecration than is his affection. Whether or not this has been yielded determines the truth or falsity of consecration. Its acid test is affection. Relatively easy is it for us to hand over our time, money, power, and countless other items; but to offer our affection is exceedingly difficult. This is not to imply we do not love Christ; perhaps we love our Lord very much. Nevertheless, if we grant first place in our affection to another and relegate Christ to second place, or if we love someone else while loving the Lord, or if we ourselves direct our affection, then what we have offered is not considered consecration for we have not yielded our affection.

Every spiritual believer appreciates the necessity for affection to be offered first. For without that, nothing really is offered. God the Father demands absolute love from His children. He is unwilling to share Our heart with anyone or anything else: even a He should receive the bigger share, He is still not pleased. God demands all our love. Naturally this strikes a fatal blow to One’s soul life. The Lord bids us part with what we Ourselves cling to, for it divides Our heart. He asks us to love Him totally and to utterly follow Him in love: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with

438 The Spiritual Man

all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matt. 22.37). “All” denotes every ounce of it for the Lord. He enjoins us to reserve not one tiny particle of affection which we ourselves can direct. He calls for all. He is a jealous God (Ex. 20.5), therefore He does not allow anybody to steal the love of His children. Yet how many dearly beloved ones have their claim on the believer’s affections besides God!

Perhaps an Isaac, a Jonathan, or a Rachel. Wherefore God insists we lay our beloved ones on the altar.

He cannot tolerate any competition. Our all must be on the altar. This is the Christian’s way to spiritual power. And shortly after the sacrifice is laid on the altar—nay, after the last sacrifice is duly placed thereon—fire will come down from heaven. Without the altar, there can be no heavenly fire. How, then, will one ever have the power of the Holy Spirit if he does not take up his cross and offer everyone whom he loves to the Lord? This is not an empty altar, for fire consumes the sacrifice on it. What can the fire consume if there is no sacrifice?

 Brethren, neither our mental understanding of the cross nor our endless talk about it will give us the power of the Holy Spirit; only our laying everything on the altar will.

If we continue to harbor some secret rope uncut, if our heart secretly retains some oxen and sheep and an Agag, we will still not experience the manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives.

 How much the work of God has suffered because of our failure to let the Lord be the Lord of our affections. Many parents cling to their children for themselves and permit the kingdom of God to incur loss. Countless husbands or wives are unwilling to make sacrifice and thus the harvest is left ungathered. Numerous Christians are so attached to their friends that they sit back and let their brethren fight at the front alone. It is deplorable how many think they can love their dear ones and the Lord simultaneously, not comprehending that by loving these, they cannot love the Lord.

We persist in living in the soul if we cannot say with Asaph: “Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing upon earth that I desire besides thee” (Ps. 73.25).

We cannot but stress the significance of our loving the Lord with our whole heart. Nothing satisfies His heart as does our love. The Lord looks not for our laboring for Him but for our loving Him. '

Excerpt - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee