Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

Our Father wants us to be Spirit led not “head led”. Not education led, credential led, “networking” led, or any other way BUT, SPIRIT LED!

He has provided His Spirit to bear witness with our spirit that we belong to Him and how to follow His plan for our life.

If the Word of God declares that we as natural parents should bring our children up in the way that they should go (God’s way). Then it is His will that He desires to bring us up in the way that He wants us to go. Our ideas are just that…our ideas. We must take them to our Father in prayer and ask Him to shine His light on each thought that we have and show us His will (in all things!)

We have a right to expect to be led by His Spirit because He has gone to great lengths to give us His sure Guide (The Holy Spirit). It is time for us to declare by faith that “we are His children and we are led by His Spirit!”, on a daily (and hourly) basis! Be led today!

1 Cor. 2:14 – But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

We need more spiritual discernment and less “opinions”. Allowing the Spirit of God to reveal the things of God to us requires time in His presence and His Word.

Our lives should not be based on what we “think” is right for us. We should know what God wants us to do and then DO IT. Knowing what God wants you to know is the key to being equipped with the right plan and it comes directly from His Spirit. Instead of going to the phone, go to His Throne! Like Jer. 33:3 says – call unto Him and He will answer you and show you great and mighty things that you are not yet aware of. He desires to reveal things to us but most of the time we are looking in the wrong places.

Being spiritually “keen” does not come overnight. It requires training. Spiritual training in the School of the Holy Spirit. Learn about Him and spend time with Him. He will show you all that God has given you and lead you every step of the way!

Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. (1Co 13:4-5 AMP)

Acting rude or unmannerly is a sure sign of no love and selfishness because love has manners and is not rude. To learn manners and practice them shows how much of the love of God you are allowing to flow through you. Can you imagine Jesus being rude? Do you think that He would continue to dominate a conversation and never let the other person speak? Would Jesus bump into you and never say, “excuse me…”? Would He borrow something and never return it or promise to call you and never follow through? Would He continue to talk to you after you have let Him know that you have another appointment to get to and that you need to go?

Rude is acting in any way that is inconsiderate. To have manners and act mannerly means to consider others before you speak or act. Be sensitive to those around you by thinking of them first. Your manners can open a door that you can use to tell someone about Jesus. Powerful stuff! Commit to the Lord to be a person of impeccable manners.

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.” As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. (Mar 1:40-42 NKJV)

Jesus was MOVED with COMPASSION (the love of God in action) toward a leper!

The untouchable man was touched by the Healer! In that instance Jesus displayed for us all that it is God’s will that ALL be healed and whole. He also showed us how we should respond to the untouchable and unlovable…move with the love of God TOWARD them.

If God is going to use us we must go out to where there are hurting people that need a touch. Jesus did not come to earth to be secluded in a cave somewhere only to come out and be crucified when the time was right. The Great Physician came to the wounded ones in order to heal them. We have got to do more moving! Moving toward those who want deliverance and help!

Begin to pray, “Thank you Lord that I am moving with compassion as Jesus did! I see people that are reaching out in faith and move toward them so that you can move through me to meet their need! The love of God moves me to speak to people about their eternal destination. Thank you Lord for using me to bring help, hope and healing to all those around me.”

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21 NKJV)

Our obedience to the Word of God is a direct reflection of how much we love and trust Jesus. There is no other way to “be happy in Jesus” but to trust and obey.

Obedience is almost non-existent in the day that we are living because there is very little submission to God. No submission, no honor, no respect and in turn no obedience. God expects us to obey not because we “have to”, but because He wants to manifest Himself to us and through us.

The way to experience a greater manifestation of God in your life is to find out what the Word of God says and obey it immediately…without hesitation. Obedience is not optional in the Kingdom of God. The Lord requires it and rewards it! Find out what the Lord wants you to do and do it, OBEY! There is no other way.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him]. 1 John 4:7 AMP

God is love and love comes from (or springs from) God. Without God there is no love. These are absolutes, this is THE TRUTH from the Word of God.

We have weakened the power of love by our nonchalant and overuse use of the word “LOVE”. We love chocolate, cars, vacation, starbuck’s coffee, walking on the beach, sunsets, ice cream, sports teams, (and the list goes on and on)…

We say that we love things that do not have the ability to love us back. Because we use the word love so much we do not have a handle on what we really do love.

The Word of God says that we should love the Lord with all of our heart, soul and strength! (every part of our being!) He is to be Lord and Master of our universe. Then He tells us that we should love people (our neighbor, our brothers, spouse, children, family, friends, co-workers and everyone). People have the ability to love us back. (sidenote: we do not love those that only love us back but everyone that we come in contact with)

We should check up on the way that we use the word LOVE and make sure that we are not overusing it. Instead we should say “like” when we are speaking of an object that we appreciate. Guard your affections and make sure that you are only loving God and people. Begin to use the word love with a new sensitivity of the power in love and new awareness that only God and other people are worth your full affection, attention and admiration!

“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.” – Matthew 5:43-47 [The Message]

When we are born again we are equipped with all that we need to love every person that we will ever come in contact with. People don’t purposely choose to be difficult, it just happens. The natural course of life without God is to become old and grumpy, difficult and down right mean. In a word, SELFISH.

Without the Word of God operating in your life you will become difficult as well. This is exactly why it is important to practice Matthew 5:43-47 and learn to love the unlovely. When you come in contact with a difficult person decide within yourself that “I am going to show the love of God regardless!” and you have just put yourself in the right place. It is easy to love those that love you, it requires no effort at all. But it is a “big person” (a mature one) that can love someone that is lying about them, cheating on them, stealing from them, etc. You can do it! God made you to act just like Jesus.

Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others].  – 1 Peter 4:8 AMP

The love of God is greater than all sin! Jesus’ love for us and in us will conquer any and every wrong.

1 Corinthians 13 says that one aspect of love is that it never fails and never quits (it never gets to a place where it gives up) Sure there are times where we want to give up but instead of giving up we would “tap into” the love of God on the inside of us…we would receive the strength that it takes to love and win!

The opposite of cover is expose. Love does not expose sin. It is not our job or calling in life to go around shining a light on every one’s sin to expose them. (we don’t go to the other extreme and pretend as though sin doesn’t exist either…) By “covering sin” the Bible means that we forgive, forget and look past the sin of others in order that we keep ourselves from judging and criticizing those that we see in sin. Jesus ministered to the woman that was caught in the act of adultery by saying “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.” There is no condemnation in Christ. Operate in the extreme love of God and release people from their sin. Allow the love of God on the inside of you to cover sin not expose it.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NLT

The love of God manifested through the children of God will transform the Church of God!

“It (love) should be preached from the pulpit until every member of the congregation becomes love conscious, until it would be impossible for them to quarrel or say unkind things to one another.” – E.W. Kenyon

We are ordered to obey the love command by the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ. It is not an option but a holy command that when Jesus obeyed it, it allowed God the Father to restore the relationship between Himself and His most prized possession: mankind.

The Church is in the restoration business. Our job is to restore man to God. But we must be living a life of extreme love in order to accomplish the task that we have been given. We must obey the “love command” to a greater extent in order to see the Harvest come in. The Harvest that Jesus spoke about in Matthew 9:38 will only come in to the degree that the Church is living according to the commandment to love each other AS Jesus has loved us. We must get busy focusing on the love command and quit focusing on the things that do not matter.

I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another. – John 13:34 AMP

Yes, there are many times that we must love people that are not worthy of our love or God’s love. Jesus knew this when He spoke these words to His disciples. He intended that we would realize that we must tap into His love to love the most difficult people.

In the 13th chapter of John Jesus did a super-natural thing when He chose to wash the feet of all of His disciples knowing that one of His disciples would sell Him out to His enemies, another disciple that said that he loved Him but would deny Him three times in the same breath and yet another disciple that doubted Him from the beginning and would doubt Him even after He was resurrected. What love! To look past the weaknesses of those around Him and choose to love them not based on their goodness but based on God’s goodness.

Jesus showed us how to love with the supernatural love of God that never gives up and always wins! We must make a daily choice to operate in that type of love, it is a decision and not a choice. Jesus did and we can…if and when we choose.