Unconditional Love

All this year God has been talking to me about living in unconditional love. So much of our love is given surrounded by expectations or conditions on that love. How often do we only love people who love us? This is a natural response to others. Jesus addressed this when he was teaching His disciples. He said this.

 “There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! In that way you will be acting as true sons of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust too. If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that. But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.” Matthew 5:43-48 TLB

Jesus reveals what true sonship looks like. It is to love others freely and without condition or preference on their part. This kind of love is a reflection of the giver, not a reflection of the receiver. This love is the perfection of maturity and the complete image of the Father. To love as He loves is the perfection of the sons of God.

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you must also love one another. By this all people will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35 HCSB

This is how the world will recognise us as Jesus’ disciples, by loving others with the same love that God has for us. We cannot love others with unconditional love, until we understand this unconditional love which God has for us. Our heart wants to hold an offense and hold the other person to ransom as if they owe us something because of the wrong which has been done. But we are to look at God’s example of love.

We love because God first loved us. 1 John 4:19 ERV

What makes this love so special is that is has no record of wrong doing. Each encounter is with the kindness of meeting for the first time. Each conversation is filled with grace, patience and honour. There is unconditionally no record of wrongs.

Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 CJB

God is not counting people’s sins against them. God did not send Jesus to bring condemnation, only a demonstration of His perfect love. He was not waiting for us to deserve His love. He freely gives it to us. God is perfect love, and He demonstrated this love to us through Christ.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8 NIV

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17 NLT

For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 2 Corinthians 5:19 NLT

Even before Christ came, this was the heart of the Father all the time. He wants to remove our offenses, our short comings. He does not want to remember our sins.

I, yes I, am the one who blots out your offenses for my own sake; I will not remember your sins. Isaiah 43:25 CJB

And again He says this.

Like a thick cloud, I wipe away your offenses; like a cloud, your sins. Come back to me, for I have redeemed you. Isaiah 44:22 CJB

To see this love of God demonstrated to us through Christ, this is how we begin to understand God’s perfect, unconditional love. This is what we are invited into, the perfection of this love inside of us. This is what God is working in us. He wants us to know and become perfected love.

If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father. How can you keep asking to see the Father? Don’t you believe Me when I say I abide in the Father and the Father dwells in Me? John 14:9-10 VOICE

 “And so I am giving a new commandment to you now—love each other just as much as I love you. Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” John 13:34-35 TLB

Jesus came to show us the new commandment which would truly bring us into perfection as sons of God. The writer in Hebrews reveals what the Father has done giving us provision to live as Jesus lived.

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” Hebrews 10:16-17 ESV

We have this love written on our hearts and minds in seed form. If we do not live in this love, we are not living in the truth which is inside of us.

If someone claims, "I know God," but doesn't obey God's commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth. 1 John 2:4 NLT

It is by receiving God’s unconditional love that we grow and mature into this perfect image of love.

And [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself]. Ephesians 3:19 AMP

We see the heart of God is love. If we know and experience pure love, we know and experience God.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 NASB

To be born again, is to be born of love. This is now the most important thing, to love in such a deep way which covers each other’s sins. Every time we see someone, we see them as though it is our first time to meet them. Deep love says that they have not done anything wrong towards us.

Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.  1 Peter 4:8 NLT

Let love be your highest goal! 1 Corinthians 14:1 NLT

Follow the way of love. 1 Corinthians 14:1 NIV

Love should be our highest goal in life. We are to follow the way of love until we mature and become perfected love.

Lamb of God

John the Baptist made a bold statement when he described Jesus Yeshua, as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” This was not something he did to become popular. It was extremely counter cultural and had to be a prophetic declaration from the beliefs of his heart.

The next day John saw Jesus coming to him and said, Look! There is the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sin of the world! John 1:29 AMPC

What was John really saying when he spoke about Jesus as the “Lamb of God”?

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their fathers' houses, a lamb for a household. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. It is the Lord's Passover. The blood shall be a sign for you, on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you, when I strike the land of Egypt. Passage taken from Exodus 12:3-13 ESV

Each family had to take a spotless lamb for their house and put the blood as a sign for the judgement of God to pass over them over the doors of their house. God had previously used Moses to release nine plagues on the Egyptians and after this tenth plague, the Israelites were free to leave Egypt. A lamb was killed in the place of judgement on the family. Jesus was killed in the place of sinners. When the blood of Jesus is applied to the doors of our lives and homes, we are safe from the judgement and wrath of God.

But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah 53:5-7 ESV

When the sacrificial lamb was put under pressure, it couldn’t cry out or make a noise. Isaiah wrote this divine revelation about a coming Messiah, showing that the Messiah would be the perfect sacrificial lamb. Hundreds of years later, Jesus fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesies about a coming Messiah, including this one that when He was before His oppressors, He was silent and did not cry out.

You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold; on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot. 1 Peter 1:19 CJB

Jesus Christ was without blemish, so His blood is precious because He was perfect. It was not with something cheap and perishable that we have been redeemed, but it is with the imperishable blood of Jesus Christ our Messiah. Jesus was and still is the perfect lamb. His blood is precious and more valuable than gold or silver; through it we are able to live a full life.

And there between the throne and the four living creatures (beings) and among the elders [of the heavenly Sanhedrin] I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God [the sevenfold Holy Spirit] Who have been sent [on duty far and wide] into all the earth. Revelation 5:6 AMPC

John the Revelator saw Jesus as a lamb that looks as though it had been slain as a sacrifice. In the accounts within the book of Revelation, John had many visions and revelations of heaven and things to come. At this point, he saw Jesus as a lamb that is now filled with the Father’s authority. Jesus is the perfect lamb, so He has been given the authority of the seven spirits before the throne of God.

Continuing on, John the Baptist’s declaration follows with the statement “Who takes away the sin of the world”. An alternative meaning of the word ‘takes’ is ‘bears’, or ‘to bear’.

I passed on to you the most important points of doctrine that I had received: Christ died to take away our sins as the Scriptures predicted. 1 Corinthians 15:3 GW

Most important for us to know and pass on is the knowledge that; one – Jesus Christ died; two – for redemption of our sins; and three – in fulfilment of scripture. We need to establish these points of doctrine in our hearts so that firstly we will not be taken astray by other false teaching, and secondly we will know the authenticity of the word of God. Jesus fulfilled all scripture prophesy when He took on the sins of all people upon Himself on the cross.

Jesus gave his life for our sins. He set us free from this evil world. That was what our God and Father wanted. Galatians 1:4 NIRV

Jesus willing took our sins on Himself, reflecting the Father’s perfect will. God wants us to know we have peace through Jesus willingly going to the cross, rescuing us from the sins of the age. Jesus wanted to take away our sins and to obey the Father. Through this, God revealed his will and desire for us to be redeemed and our sins taken away.

The Son shows the glory of God. He is a perfect copy of God’s nature, and he holds everything together by his powerful command. The Son made people clean from their sins. Then he sat down at the right side of God, the Great One in heaven. Hebrews 1:3 ERV

The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]. When He [Himself and no other] had [by offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin] accomplished purification from sins and established our freedom from guilt, He sat down [revealing His completed work] at the right hand of the Majesty on high [revealing His Divine authority]. Hebrews 1:3 AMP

Jesus came in the exact likeness of God, the perfect copy of God’s nature. Representing God, He died on the cross providing our purification from sin. He then ascended back to the right hand of God and having finished His work, He sat down. While God has spoken through many different ways, now He wants to speak to us by His son. God wants to speak through His Son, because He is now made higher than the angels who are one form of God’s messengers. Jesus is the exact representation of God, the perfect copy. And He is the expression of God’s glory to provide us with purification from sins. He is the perfect lamb who took away all the sins of the world.

Therefore, it was essential that He had to be made like His brothers (mankind) in every respect, so that He might [by experience] become a merciful and faithful High Priest in things related to God, to make atonement (propitiation) for the people’s sins [thereby wiping away the sin, satisfying divine justice, and providing a way of reconciliation between God and mankind]. Hebrews 2:17 AMP

Jesus had to become fully human to be able to serve as our high priest and make full atonement for our sins. Jesus was fully human so that He knew each temptation and suffering that we go through. He had to become completely human to break the power of fear and death that was on humanity. When He died, He broke all the power that sin has through fear and death. Jesus was fully God and fully man to come and experience full temptation and not sin. This meant that when He went through death, death couldn’t hold Him down. He had not sinned, so He broke the fruit of sin which is death.

Jesus was made a little lower than the angels, but we see him crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death. Through God’s kindness he died on behalf of everyone. Hebrews 2:9 GW

Jesus had to step down from His position in heaven to be made lower than the heavenly beings so that He could be susceptible to partake in death so that He could do away with the power of sin, fear and death. God made man a little lower than heaven, but put everything else in subjection to man. Man is not walking fully in this. Jesus came to the earth and tasted death for all of us so that we can take back the dominion of God.

Jesus is the way our sins are taken away. And he is the way all people can have their sins taken away too. 1 John 2:2 ERV

Jesus became the atoning sacrifice for sin, both ours and the whole world. This is the revelation concerning being freed from the power of sin, God made a way for us through Jesus’ life. Jesus became the sacrifice for the atonement of sin. He placed Himself in the place of an offering for our sins so we don’t have to bring a sacrifice.

May kindness and peace be yours from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness. Jesus was the first to conquer death, and he is the ruler of all earthly kings. Christ loves us, and by his blood he set us free from our sins. Revelation 1:5 CEV

Because of His great love for us, Jesus Christ has freed us from our sins by the shedding of His blood. John wrote a letter to the seven churches and he reiterates to them who Jesus is. Jesus Christ is the only one who has freed us from our sins by His blood.           

Stubbornness

Recently, God has been talking to me about stubbornness. In my family, stubbornness was seen as a unruly character of an immature child. When God told me I needed to address the issue of stubbornness in my heart, I thought I was going to be corrected for my immaturity. So I was hesitant to pursue this area of my heart with the Father.

When I eventually brought myself before the Father so He could speak into my life, I was surprised by what I discovered. Yes, The Father was bringing correction to my heart, but it was not a rebuke, only instruction for my growth and further maturity. He told me He wanted me to have more stubbornness at work in my heart. I was mildly shocked by this discovery. So I asked Him to, “Please explain.” The Father proceeded to lead me through the scriptures and showed me what He desired for me to understand about stubbornness.

So what is this stubbornness God was telling me I needed to have? Stubbornness is to be obstinate, unyielding, inflexible, and unbending. Stubbornness is very difficult to change or overcome. Stubbornness is headstrong, wilful, iron-willed, strong-willed, self-willed, and self-controlled. It is uncompromising, relentless, persistent, tenacious, and resistant. Stubbornness is obdurate – which means “refusing to change opinion or course of action”. Stubbornness is awkward and/or difficult to manage or control. It is contrary to the major (popular) idea or opinion. Stubbornness is determined not to change attitude or position on something, in spite of being given “good reasons” to do so. Stubbornness is to be single-minded, adamant, firm, steadfast, and determined.

God began to lead me through what He was talking about concerning having a stubborn heart. He was not talking about being stubborn against God, but being stubborn to hold on to God. God says to Ezekiel.

But look, I have made you as obstinate and hard-hearted as they are. I have made your forehead as hard as the hardest rock! So don’t be afraid of them or fear their angry looks, even though they are rebels. Ezekiel.3.8-9.NLT

And it says of Jesus that he set His face with determination and stubbornness to complete the Father’s will.

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Luke.9.51.ESV

We are to set the Lord continually before us so we cannot be moved, shaken or altered.

I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Psalm.16.8.AMPC

We are determined not to change our position on this, even when we are given “good reasons” by others who do not understand our conviction and relentless persistence. Their “good advice” comes from their best intentions, but is no match for the wisdom of heaven.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 1.Corinthians.2.2.NASB

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Romans.1.16.ESV

This is a stubbornness which does not put us to shame. Isaiah said that he would set his face like a stone in determination to do God’s will.

Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame. Isaiah.50.7.NLT

When we are set in our heart, we are in alignment for God’s blessing. If we are not single-minded, we are unstable and God cannot bless us.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting... For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. James.1.6-8.NKJV

This stubbornness causes us to have one mind, and singleness of focus. We become unyielding and unbending to any other thought, idea or opinion. With the mind of Christ, we become so headstrong for God that we refuse to change our opinion or course of action for anything else.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us. Philippians.3.13-14.NLT

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. 1.Corinthians.9.24.NASB

Now as for you, be strong and never be discouraged, because there will be reward for your work. 2.Chronicles.15.7.ISV

Others cannot make us compromise what we stand for in the spirit. Our face set on God, the ultimate prize, with single-minded focus, we run our race determined to please Him only and receive the Father’s reward.

Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you. Isaiah.38.3.NLT

Stubbornness:
To be obstinate, unyielding, inflexible, unbending
Very difficult to change or overcome
Stubborn, headstrong, wilful, strong-willed, self-willed, self-controlled
One who is iron-willed, uncompromising, relentless
Obdurate - refusing to change opinion or course of action
Being persistent, tenacious, resistant
Awkward or difficult to manage or control, contrary to the major idea or opinion
Determined not to change attitude or position on something, in spite of “good reasons”
To be single-minded, adamant, firm, steadfast, determined