Life is love ~ In other words, life itself is rooted in love. Because life itself is rooted in God and God is love (I John 4:8), therefore in order to experience the fullness of life that God intended for us, we must experience the fullness of love that He intended for us. If we have life, it is because of love.
Love is life ~ In other words, the depth/measure of/quality of love that we experience directly equates to the fullness of life we enjoy. So how full are we?
Have you noticed that as a human being we have love needs in three distinct, yet inner connected areas. These three areas are known as body, soul and spirit, or you could also say, physical, emotional and spiritual. This is God’s creation for humanity. He designed love to be the energy, power and essence of human life. Since we have love needs in three areas we must find satisfaction for each of those God given needs. Lack in any area creates problems. We call it love hunger. Love hunger is a formidable enemy in the human existence. It incessantly nags and pushes and at times, screams for satisfaction. Yet for many of us, our need for love goes unmet and in many cases unidentified. For others our love hunger is very obvious. Sadly, some of us look for love in all the wrong places, finding little or no relief from the pain of love hunger.
God designed the solution and/or made the provision for us in creation. If we follow His plan all our love needs will be met. If we deviate from His plan, not only will our love needs not be fully met, but we usually complicate matters with sin.
Intimacy is required if our love hunger is to be satisfied. Sadly, many of us do not know what true intimacy is and without it love hunger prevails. Intimacy is never a one way street. Our need for intimacy can never be satisfied by receiving only. No! No! No! Our self -centeredness and pride must be broken so we are free to give ourselves in humility to others. Our need for love is met through intimate relationships with God and other people. It requires the true giving of ourselves and being open to receive from others if we are to be fulfilled. The necessity of asking Father to reveal barriers in our lives that hinder us from receiving true love and therefore hinder us from giving true love can be a challenging task. However, there is no other pathway to fulfillment in life and in God.
If we are only a consumer of love we will continually struggle in relationships. Other people will get tired of giving in a one-way relationship and leave or shut down. However, if we are a source of love we are of great value to humanity. In other to be a giver of love we must first be a receiver of love. So where do we find unconditional, life changing love? Father, or course! When I met Jesus, I experienced love for the first time. It was life changing. I thought that was the ultimate love experience. I was wrong. It was only the beginning. My love hunger was not completely satisfied. My ultimate encounter with love came later in life when I met Father on a personal basis.
God established love as the basis for the ultimate human experience. He included Himself as a requirement to reach that place of ultimate fulfillment. So as we consider again the three areas of love need, being body, soul and spirit or physical, emotional and spiritual, we should examine where we are lacking.
We usually have acquaintances and we may have casual friends, and these two groups can contribute things like fellowship and acceptance. Then if we are fortunate, we have a few intimate friends. These relationships provide much more in the way of acceptance, perfection, belonging, love and caring, giving to each other on a deeper level. A trusted, loving friend is a treasure to be honored and is security to the heart. Of course, the ultimate, intimate, earthly relationship should be found in marriage between one man and one woman. God honors this relationship above all others. To Him it is sacred. God’s love should be the basis/foundation or the marriage relationship. Without it, the foundation is human and weak more subject to disappointment and/or failure.
In our 30+ years of ministry to the body of Christ we have encountered multitudes of opinions about what love is and what love isn’t. The lies and deceptions people live by regarding love and intimate relationship are generally rooted in their self-centeredness which is often rooted in their wounding. Both of these are a major stumbling block to their ability to receive true love and then give it away. Many times our opinion of what love is does not line up with God’s opinion of what love is. If that is not corrected, we can never arrive at our proper destination in life.
If we try to meet our love needs outside of God’s plan and provision, we bring destruction upon ourselves. Through our sin we invite sickness and disease, addictions, demonic activity, discouragement, depression, hopelessness and the list goes on endlessly. I Corinthians 6:18.
We have encountered many Christian marriages that are a terrible mess. They are covered up on the outside trying to put on a good face that everything is OK. Truth is, that on the inside it is dark and ugly. Father’s love is nowhere to be found and flesh is thriving. In marriage, two people in love with God and in love with each other can arrive at that place of ultimate life experience as designed by God if they do not give up or give in to the flesh and the devil. God is able to save all those who will turn to Him in complete surrender.
Father says that life is love and love is life. This is the foundation of all creation. Therefore, love should be our ultimate quest. We must go to the proper source which is obviously Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We must surrender ourselves and let our sins and mistakes be washed in the blood of Jesus. We should be strengthened by the Holy Spirit and loved to new life in the arms of our Heavenly Father, our ultimate destination. Never forget, life is love and love is life. So says our Father.