by Dr. Joanne M. Bush | Nov 28, 2024 | God's Love, Walking With God
We must be very careful when we confess our distaste or dislike for someone and there is no love in our HEARTS in harmony with God’s love for them. Words are cheap. We have said we love people when we really did not. God does not put His stamp of approval on us when we claim to love, yet we really do not. We must be ruthlessly honest with ourselves, for it is easy to lie to ourselves…
I focus on this topic more, now, than ever. I am still learning and intentionally attempting to come into line with Father on this subject. We are faced with the issue of God’s love versus the love of man on a daily basis. Our feelings are hurt. Sometimes our families are hurt…and in our self-justification, we do not always understand why God doesn’t do something about our pain. Well, He does. He will heal you from the pain, the scars and all around you, yet He will not relinquish His love from anyone.
He does not condone what people have done to hurt any of us. It still does not remove His love for them. I asked Him, one day, why this was the case. His answer, for me, was like trying to explain the godhead. I understood it enough to believe Him, but not enough to make the process any easier.
As a result of this effort (and He must help me daily), my relationship with Him began to change. One day I found myself without reaction to some situations that, in the past, were crushing. It was not a numbness…it was a knowing. I spent less time licking my wounds and trying to understand people and began focusing my time on understanding Father’s purpose, for that is where the crux of the matter is. As we mature in Him, we discover that He says He is not like a man, who lies…The words, I Love You, have been used manipulatively for a long time, and in our own desire to be loved, we believe it. I do not believe everyone who tells me they love me anymore. I do believe God. I believe that there are people who want to love me unconditionally; and then a condition shows up that severs that connection. I am not as bothered by that as I was years ago.
My discovery has been that the longer I walk with God, my understanding our desires concerning love have grown with that walk. I do not have a need to hear those words all of the time from people..and if I never hear it again, I am solid in knowing that I love God and He loves me. When Paul made the statement that “he could do all things through Christ who strengthened him” was referring to the fact that if the disciples had not brought to him the financial need he needed, his reliance was upon Father…not just for the needs being met, but the attitude displayed by Christ because He was quite able to meet Paul’s needs. (Php 4:13)
Throughout scripture God worked with and through ungodly people and those who had no covenant with Him to bring about His tremendous purpose for all of us.
For God’s purposes, He loves everyone, even those we may wonder about. He does not accept any behavior that is not in harmony with Him or His purposes. He, however, never stops loving them (us) and doing everything possible and necessary to woo us back into His ways. To understand and embrace this, we must allow Him to reveal to each of us what this means and what it looks like.
You can forgive people and never lose God’s love for them, and patiently wait out the transformation God will do in you and in them.
We must be very careful that we do not indict people without God’s permission. This is why praying for someone without counsel with God can cause more problems for that person and yourself. With counsel, He will give you His direction of prayer…but never assume that praying according to an individual’s behavior is always the correct way. I have had to learn this the hard way.
by Dr. Joanne M. Bush | Nov 27, 2024 | God's Love
People have a puny idea of God’s Love. Any time the word “love” appears there seems to be an expectation of soft, tender, fluffy and agreeing emotions that huddles and cuddles one into oblivion. And that is exactly where most are today.
God’s Love is ferocious and interrupting. In the minds of those without understanding, He appears to be brutal and non caring.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
In the book of Genesis God interrupts the chaos…there was no distinguishable form in the earth, it was empty and the dark went to the deepest. THEN the Spirit of God invaded this emptiness which was not empty at all by interrupting the surface of the waters and with His energy His frequency reminded the deep that the seeds in there were eternal…thus He recreated or brought forth what was already in existence.
God starts with nothing and brings forth…yet He never starts with nothing, for He is always in existence.
His voice, heard by Himself first, brought forth from the darkness, commanding the light to come from where it could not be seen to where it could be seen.
Whenever God is ready to make a presentation He is not pretentious…He is direct, and it is up to those who see the results to realize His intentions went beyond anything common.
People often say that they have never heard the audible sound of God’s voice…yet, they are aware He has spoken. How deep was the deep that the sound of His voice was energized by His very movement and presence hovering over it…such as a hen would over her eggs? The sound is irrelevant in comparison to the effect of the energy which is usually experienced prior to the sound.
LIGHT BE! was His proclamation. He did not create the Light. He is light and He is not created. To that which was yet to come forth, He said…SEE ME!
He did not stop to see if anything or anyone felt good, fluffy or warm and cuddly from all of this activity that was experienced before it was seen and heard.
Ecc 3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
The result, the purpose is the result of a power that we may never fully understand. You cannot hold it in your hands, yet, the eternal seed existing in the empty space was framed by His words as what was once existing now appears again. HaHa…the enemy created chaos…the enemy did not win, for Our Almighty and Powerful One never lost what was spoken before the beginning.
Isaiah 53 says It pleased Him to bruise (crush) His Son. Where is the fluffy, cuddly experience in that picture that appears to be so brutal? And, yet He then speaks of the fruit of the crushing.
Isa 53:10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
The Love of God will pulverize every barrier impeding the progress for His purpose. The splitting of a woman’s womb to bring forth a child too big to come through…the ferocious impact of the deep (where life is experienced openly) the child is born into brings forth compelling sounds that causes the child to be quickly placed on the mother’s breast as a reminder that at one point they were both sharing the same space…and that sound broke through to free the start of another generation.
Take a closer look at what seems to be a display of destruction, anger and pain coming from the one WHO IS LOVE and trace it back to Him, His Heart and His Purpose…and we may begin to cooperate with Him (perhaps shakingly) to witness the Power of a Being who always is, always was and will always remain the same…GOD IS LOVE. Incomprehensible yet enjoyed as we grasp His presence in the most difficult situations. What looks impossible to you and me is because we do not totally understand His Love, though He wants us to have enough of an understanding to say:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that LOVE God, to them who are the called (hear His Sound) according to his purpose. (Rom 8:28)
This can only happen as we intentionally give our being to Him and let Him, at His pace, infuse us with the LOVE that is Him.
When you relinquish your everything (Mark 12:23) there is nothing left for you, leaving the place for you and Him to be in Harmony with each other blessing others.
Most of our lives have been spent trying to get something we have always had…the adamic nature requires us to feed ourselves on our love for ourselves that we overlook the true power of God and His Love. Love for ourselves is as destructive for our purpose, as His Love is destructive for His purpose.
He is God. He wins. All things work together for good to them that LOVE GOD…NOT SELF.
God is Love…and in that knowledge I rest, believe and know.
