Your Love Encounter with God (Part 2)

In

Part 1

of this 2-part series “Your Love Encounter with God”, I focused solely on You and God, in God’s Love, highlighting that it is only when we know and understand what a Love Encounter with God looks like, that we can share it with others. That that is what draws people to God – His Love. After reading that, I hope you are in a better position to share God from a place of overflowing Love, in Part 2.

Love First, Not the Word First, Calls People

If you didn't read it yet, I mentioned in

part 1

that I'm doing the

Leadership Development Program, Level 1 (LDP1)

 developed and delivered in Christ by the 

Bethel Church in Redding California

., and that I was listening to Chris Gore's session, 

"Today is a Great Day

 for a Miracle

"

.

Chris’ message truly brought confirmation, for me, on what God has been saying to me recently. We hear and say all the time that 

"It is God's 

Love

 that draws people into relationship with Him"

,

 yet time and time again we introduce people to 

God's 

Word

 before we share God's Love

. We also forget that 

we

 are the vessels of that 

Love

;

 that people go to the Word of God 

after

 they've encountered God's 

Love

.

 It is only 

then

 that they start wanting to learn more about 

this God

 that 

loves them 

so intently, so completely.

Source: 

http://lovecoversall-godislove.blogspot.ca/2014/05/your-love-encounter-with-god-part-2.html

Once God Has Your Heart...

Our God wants us to

go back to basics,

so that we

learn to rest in Him.

It is in the simple rest of Loving God and being Loved by God, that we truly

get food, Love, to share.

Chris shared an experience where he didn't see someone (close to death) whom he'd prayed for get healed – daunting. Later, she did get healed! She told him that she'd never heard of God's Love as a Father – that she'd never had a father's love, when Chris said

"Daddy, please take this thing from her",

it shook her.

That

changed her world!

He couldn't do it without first making time to grow in His own knowledge of God's Love.

God wants first our hearts,

then time and a deep love relationship with us, then complete surrender of every area of our lives – so that we can be further filled with His love, then

when filled to overflow,

we walk out and love others because

we simply can’t help it.

All because we have a simple but deep Love Relationship with God.

Love is our action, our task that yields results.

Love is what we're called to, the Love of God. That love drives action - a free action that flows out of us, from the peace of God and the certainty that God will act (not 'me', but God).

Only God's Love – Not Our Works

Once we start striving, we're on shaky ground.

When we start arguing, taking offence, being afraid for/of anyone or anything, plotting to persuade, then we know that

we have missed it.

When we "drop a word" on someone and walk away with

no regard for how they receive it,

we have missed it. We're not responsible for making sure people feel what we intended, but we are to check our hearts to

ensure that we Loved.

We will not be perfect in this journey

 – no one is – but

we can be transparent and loving when we're secure in God's Love for us.

This is why it's so important for us to

go to God,

not just with our plans, our ministries, our calling/purpose, but

simply with ourselves, for some Love!

We have to have down time with God, just laughing at nonsense, being in His presence and

basking in His Love,

to be able to share that complete Love with others.

Evangelism, the great commission,

our call as Christians – is that – sharing the Love of God. Those we share simple, true love with, will pursue Him after.

My Prayer for You

In the name of our Loving God, our Father, in Christ Jesus, through the intercession of the Holy Spirit, I lift up your hearts – our hearts – and ask for the slate to be cleared, of all woes, responsibilities and fears for a moment. I declare, now, that God will teach us to guard our time with Him jealously, and that we don't use that time for works, but for Love Relationship. I stand in faith on the knowledge that

it is finished,

and that His Love will overflow from us wherever we go, in all that we do. That people will see a "new glow" about us, and want it. I believe that You, God, will use our tongues, hands, our entire beings, to

pour forth Your Love,

so that others will draw near You – not just us – in pursuit of More. Amen!

I hope that this 2-part series has rejuvenated you, in some way! Bless you! (

Click here for

Part 1.

)

Do you truly trust God in Christ?

God's Love in our unbelief

I have gone back and forth in my relationship with God on

the issue of trust.

While I realize that this is a lifelong journey, I can't say that I'm not always appalled by the knowledge that I'm so far removed from the faith I think I have. I thank God daily for our Saviour, Jesus Christ, and the intercession of the Holy Spirit, our guide and comforter in a fallen world.

I love my God,

my Beloved Father in Heaven, and I know that without a doubt, but I know that:

1. I love Him only because He Loved me first (unconditionally)

2. His Love in me is what makes me capable of love at all

3. He is working with me always to perfectly manifest His Love in me

4. Every time I grow in that Love, He allows it to overflow to those around me

5. I know that my God is good and sovereign, and that no one is born 'by accident'. We all have a purpose - one significant to Him.

Sin and the enemy's deception

Still, our enemy who roams like a roaring lion seeking to steal, kill and destroy our lives (literally) - an enemy that is not flesh and blood, but spiritual powers and principalities (

Ephesians 6:12 Amplified Version

) - is persistent.

I detest my sin nature, the sins I slip into from time to time and escape readily through conviction, as well as those sins that keep me in bondage, even when my eyes are opened to the knowledge that I am free to walk away from them. I detest the power that I have given these sins in my life, and I am not sure about how to walk in freedom from them, except that

in Christ I can do all things

(

Philippians 4:13

) - we have the authority to stop the enemy. Having

put on His armour,

during the times that I walk in wisdom (

Ephesians 6:13-18

), knowing that

the Word is my sword,

I know that

we are conquerors in Christ,

that if we

resist the devil he will flee

and that

our salvation is finished already in Christ,

we are simply walking it out.

For all the sins I cannot escape,

Hebrews 13:1-9

, particularly verse 5, reminds me that my key sin is

unbelief.

Do you truly trust God in Christ?

Do you truly trust God in Christ, or do you only trust Him when things don't go wrong?

Image Source: 

http://smsread.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Incredible-Wave-Pictures-006.jpg

Throughout 2013, I have struggled with the knowledge that I don't - and it rocked my world. How could I not trust God after all the miracles I've lived through?! We judge

the Israelites

in the desert during the Exodus from Egypt for seeing miracles yet doubting God, but how different are we? We attack

Adam and Eve

- Eve for eating the forbidden fruit and Adam for looking on and saying nothing - but is our faith that God would not forsake us any stronger?

I know that my entire walk with God is a journey to learn to

Love as He Loves

- Love everyone unconditionally - and that stems from understanding. To Love Adam, Even, the Israelites of Exodus, we walk in their shoes. Whose shoes are you walking in? 

I often feel like I'm walking in David's shoes.

In those moments, my David moments, when I'm about to hang my head in shame, I remember that

David was a man after God's own heart,

and I run after God, again. I try to run with Jacob's boldness. I LOVE my God.

He will never leave us. People need the Gospel

Whatever you're going through, whatever you're doing in secret, whatever wavering your faith is doing, I pray that God bring you - us - back to reality. There is no time for you to agree with your accuser, that you 'are what you do'. There is no time (

Matthew 24

). Knowing that we are already saved, we still stumble. We have hope! What about those who don't? How much worse is their plight?

There's only time for you to know who you are in Christ. We are born in sin - and the enemy would love to keep our heads buried in that, as though that's the end of our story. Don't let his lies in! That was the beginning of your story. Our journey is a milli-second-by-milli-second series of repentant moments - joyfully repentant moments - because we know that we actually have had our sin debt paid in full. We know that 

even this trial

 (however big, long, deep, dark) is not bigger than God, and cannot separate us from the Love of God (

Romans 8:35-39

). We need to share that knowledge!

Image Source: 

http://smsread.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/Incredible-Wave-Pictures-006.jpg

Hold On

I relent to God that I am forever His and I will always return to Him, and believe that He forever draws me near and will never let me go (

Hebrews 13:5-6

). My Love for Him will not grow cold with doubt. I pray for the same unwavering fact to keep you firmly rooted in our God. Amen.

Are you really an evangelist?

What does evangelism look like to you?

Actual man running for his life from a Hippo |

Bill's Channel, Youtube

Is this what you do? Is that because "the end is near" and "the harvest is ripe" (

Matthew 9:35-38 ESV

)?

Or do you build relationships before telling others why you (not why they should) walk the Christian walk? The harvest

is

ripe (

Luke 10:1-3 ESV

), the end 

is

 near and God has made you willing. Even then,

all

 are to come to Him

because we get a revelation of Him, His love, not because we have to.

Jesus didn't run after people to spread the gospel

either. In fact (apart from those in synagogues) people came to Jesus - Jesus did not go out and make people listen to Him. He often went to the Mount for time alone with God, away from the crowds that were following Him; not the crowd He ran after and forced to listen.

Real evangelism versus rushed evangelism

Evangelism has a bad name because, 

like the rest of the world, we have no patience.

Perhaps we don't trust that God can complete His plan. We want "instant Christianity" and when that doesn't work, we say "at least a seed was planted". Did we first check the soil to determine how to plant that seed? Or did you throw seeds - smiling or ranting, depending - and 'hope for the best'? (Parable of the Sower

Luke 8:1-15 ESV

)

No one is saying that you never spread the Word "on the spot";

people come to us everyday and we just don't notice.

The Holy Spirit in His wisdom will give your opportunities, and tell you when to speak. He will even give you the words.  Ask for opportunities. I've had them even when I didn't want them. University e.g.:

• Me: "I can't meet on Sundays; I'm at Church"

• Guy: "Really?! Why?! Why do you believe in a God who would wipe out the earth and save just Noah's family?!"

• [Side note: Now, I really care for and pray for him, and I'm not sure I gave the right answer, but this is where I was lead at the time...]

• Me: "Because I wasn't there when He wiped out the earth, back then, but I'm here now and I see Him in my life daily. I will not tell you to believe because I do, but I will tell you to ask God and you'll get answers. God isn't limited by our imperfect logic. He actually knows and sees all."

There was more, and I'm paraphrasing, but he did chew on it for a while. He still comes at me - he's passionate not badgering - when we meet (4 years later), and God still gives me a Word for him each time. It's amazing.

Being willing vessels

It truly is amazing 

when we really let God use us

 (not let us use us) to share 

His

 gospel in Jesus Christ through the intercession of the Holy Spirit. We are called to walk, weep and eat with those we pray for, truly 

get to know them, before we speak into their lives.

 Even then, we'd only know 30% of their story. Most of us know maybe 40-70% of ourselves; they're likely the same.

Believe me, 

God is willing and able to do immeasurably more than we can imagine.

 We don't have to rush the great command; not even in these last days. There are many desperate ears waiting and listening for an answer - 

find those hearts, that God has made ready to receive, and speak to them.

 Let the Holy Spirit lead you so you speak in words they understand. We don't need to be perfect; just ready, willing vessels.

There's a huge "ripe harvest" without hounding those who don't want the Word yet. 

Pray for those who don't want the Word yet.

 Love them and let them be until Christ calls them; it may not be through you, but another.

Can this be the face of evangelism?

Source: 

http://rufiojones.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/baby-tweety-en-baby-sylvester-2.jpg

Bless you.