smithaw9027 said:
I feel like I don't love God with all my heart soul and mind. . . . i feel perplexed and I am wondering what some other christians think about this.
Dear smithaw,
We, as humans, even humans who were once born from above, cannot Love God with all of our heart and mind and soul and strength. It's impossible - that is, without specific, subsequent to salvation, interventions by, and additional Graces from, God himself.
There are just too many elements dwelling within us to Love God, for they are enemies of God. For example, 1 Jn. 2:15 says that we cannot truly Love if the love of the world is in us. That one impure love in us alone - and it is in all of us until it is specifically, miraculously ripped out by God - prevents us from Loving God.
So then it should be quite reasonable to expect that if we are to Love God as the Words commands and requires, and as you expressed desire, that first we would have to have God remove those enemies of Love from within us, correct?
These enemies of Love and of God are sometimes termed heart idols. Besides that idol of our love for the worldly that all have, we may also have various other lusts, pride and its resultant arrogance, "envy and strife" (KJV), a "root of bitterness," unforgiveness, etc., etc. Each person has their own set of idols, some common to all and others specific.
God knows exactly what the idols in you are. He has a plan, a timetable for wanting to remove them from you, one by one until all are gone. By the time this is finished by Him in you, after you are delivered from all of your idols, you will find yourself with His Love perfected in your heart, and thus you will perfectly and completely Love both Him and all human beings.
After all, this is what the Word commands and requires, and God would be a hypocrite to say that we needed to Love Him and all people unconditionally, if He did not also provide the Graces whereby this could be done, correct?
The steps of Grace leading to eternal Life are sometimes manifested in us instantly, and others over a period of time. When you were born from above at the age of five, this is an example of one of those instant transformations.
Well, there is also available another instantly given Grace. It is the fullness of God's Love, a Spirit of Love if you will (whether lit. or fig.). When you receive it, and this is done exactly the same way that we receive the New Birth, you will find yourself instantly and miraculously having Love for both God and every human being on this planet. (You can read some personal testimonies to this on the site EnterHisRest.org - click on the "Testimonies" section, and then on the "Heritage Testimonies" subsection. Be careful though: always sift, sift, sift.)
When we instantly receive the fullness of God's Love, this still does not mean that it has been perfected in our heart (as is spoken of in John's epistles as a requirement for eternal Life). That's the next step of Grace, and that one takes time. But eventually that instantly received "Spirit of Love" will bring all other facets of your being into alignment with God's Word, if you let it, if you stay out of its way. This Love of God perfected in our heart will result after other idols have been ripped out, such as that one we all have for the love of money/the world.
To get started, you will probably first need to be delivered from some idol which is currently at work in you and which opposes God's Love. He does not want to give you the fullness of His Love if He knows that you will disobey it and not let it be manifested when God wants it to be, all because some enemy of Love still in you will prevent it. To do otherwise would just result in even more sin by you, and God does not want to give you something that will make you sin even more than you presently do by not fully Loving Him.
The problem is, you likely do not even know what this idol is that stands in the way of His Love. Our hearts are deceptive to us and it hides its idols from our awareness. So you must seek a specific, divine revelation from God as to what this first idol needing to be ripped out is. You need to see it as God sees it. And He's been waiting since you were five years old to show it to you and reveal its evil.
So you can either wait until that idol begins to destroy your life, and then fall upon the Rock for a revelation of, and deliverance from, it, or you can begin by setting yourself apart in a prayer "closet" for an hour or two or whatever each day, and do not stop until God has revealed this idol in you that is an enemy to His Love. Both ways work.
When you finally convince Him that you really want to know, and really want to Love Him more than the idol - this may take some time, He will reveal it, and also be standing by to give you godly sorrow for it, repentance from it, and then His forgiveness for, and deliverance from, it.
After we are delivered from an idol, we have every right in Christ Jesus to expect a holy substitute be given us from Heaven in its sted. You should expect from Him the instant fullness of His Love. If He gives you some other virtue of Christ first instead, such as Joy or Peace or whatever, then proceed to find out the next idol needed for you to be delivered from.
Either first or eventually, after whatever idol or idols are preventing Him from giving you His Love, is/are removed, you will instantly get the fullness of His Love. Guaranteed by Jesus.
Be careful: after you have had this/these mountaintop experience(s) of deliverance and holy substitution(s), do not make an idol of the heart out of that/those too. There's always a next step still needing to be made. And we must also always keep our heart guarded from those idols we were once delivered from, from re-entering. Keep your heart guarded, for its 7 times harder to get delivered the second time. I know.
"[You] must decrease; He must increase" -
John the Baptist
God bless you in the pursuit of Him and His Love, brother jim
brotherjim@mail.com
