Love--The Greatest Quest

[importunity]

1 Cor 13:13-14:1
13 And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1) To remain, abide
Not to depart
To continue to be present
To be held, kept, continually

Faith does not work without Love. (Gal. 5:6 say’s faith works by love).

Love would have to be greater than faith if you need it to operate your faith.
So it takes love to make your faith work.
Faith won’t work without Hope.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for. (Heb. 11:1 read)

Without hope your faith can’t work, because you have no goal in which to release your faith for.

And if you don’t allow the agent of Love to release your faith to what you have hoped for, you would have empty faith.

Empty faith will always leave you in lack.
With out faith it is impossible to please God.
You would be in lack of pleasing God.
So you can say without love you would be in lack of pleasing God.

1 Cor. 14:1
1 Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy.
(NKJ)
Pursue-
1377 dioko-
1) To run swiftly in order to catch a person or thing, to run after
a) To press on: to reach the goal
b) To seek after eagerly, earnestly endeavor to acquire

1Co 14:1 EAGERLY PURSUE and seek to acquire [this] love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy ( interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching).
(Amp)

1 Cor 14:1
1 Let love be your greatest aim; nevertheless, ask also for the special abilities the Holy Spirit gives, and especially the gift of prophecy, being able to preach the messages of God.
(TLB)

Let love be your greatest aim.
Not just any aim, but your greatest aim.
Be single in mind on love.
When you take aim, you are totally focused on the object you are aiming at.

We need to be totally focused on the target of LOVE!

 

[LeadWorship]

Good stuff bro!

 

[imperfectchristian]

Love is the Answer!

 

[MoNiCa4316]

Amen

 

[importunity]

I Jn 4:8
8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
(NKJ)


The bible says that God is Love.
To know God is to know Love.
Not any kind of Love,
But the God kind of Love.
If we don’t know Love, we don’t know God.
To have true knowledge of this type of Love is to demonstrate this Love.


So, our greatest Quest, our greatest Aim, is to eagerly pursue, chase, run after set our sites on:
LOVE
THE GOD KIND OF LOVE.

The God kind of Love is greater than anything else, including spiritual gifts.

1 Cor 13:1-3
1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing.
(NKJ)

The bible is saying it doesn’t matter how much you hang from the chandeliers, how much Holy Ghost you have.
You can have the Spiritual gifts in manifestation, but if you are not walking in the God kind of Love, you are making a lot of racket with no real impact.

No matter how much you give, it does you no good with out the God kind of Love.

Nothing you do will profit you in anyway, unless it is motivated by the God kind of Love.

So you see why it is so important to walk in the God kind of Love.
This Love is greater than Faith and Hope.

 

[GQ Chris]

Yeah but I'm not looking for agape love, what about Phileo/Eros....

 

[HephzibahBenJudah]

Yeah but I'm not looking for agape love, what about Phileo/Eros....

Oh no you didn't... just say that!

This is good word Love never fails!!!
We are to pray for those who dispitefully use us and persecute us and try to tie our hands...Like Paul and Silas backs bloody and in chains and the devil thought he had em down for the count along about the midnight hour they began to love their enemies anyways and praise God and say no matter what God is still God and He's God all by himself and looky what happened...the chains fell off and folks got saved. Praise the Lord! That's shouting ground!!!

One question though, if it can be included here or perhaps another thread even brother, how do you propose we rebuke the evil behind some attacks and still show love to the human at the same time? It's kinda hard to do (from a pc) I mean.
Even when rebuking demons or binding or casting them out...some folks think you hate the person when in actuality you don't...it's the wormy lil slime ball that's got em in it's grasp that ticks you off and you want to grind it into the mud...not the individual.

 

[GQ Chris]

Sorry, I am wrestling with my own feelings right now... just had my company Christmas party last night and am weary about how conditional and temporary the world's love is.. which isn't love at all but a false counterfeit.

Sure I am getting better at loving people, I just get tired of it sometimes when being a Christian man who must uphold the Holy precepts conflicts with the human desire of romance/eros love, but she must be a Child of God as well to have God's blessing.

 

[HephzibahBenJudah]

Delight yourself in the Lord and HE WILL give you the desires of your heart.

Praying for you to find a help meet because it is not good for man to be alone.

I pray for you to first find your completeness in Him and He will find the girl for you..then there will be erm a few days of heaven on earth...(before the honey moon is over) just kidding.
Hugs and Prayers!

Now agape...where were we....more brother more on the agape!

 

[GQ Chris]

Just replayed "Never Gonna Stop" about 8 times and I feel better now...

oh yeah and about Agape love, definitely has some advantages over romance/Eros, because with Agape love is more accepting, where as Eros/romance is more conditional and superficial.

 

[ShammahBenJudah]

Just replayed "Never Gonna Stop" about 8 times and I feel better now...

oh yeah and about Agape love, definitely has some advantages over romance/Eros, because with Agape love is more accepting, where as Eros/romance is more conditional and superficial.

When we lose our first love (protos agape), everything else gets out of place...literally everything

But when our first love is hot...everything else begins falling into place.

 

[HephzibahBenJudah]

Greater love has no man than to lay down His life for a friend...and Jesus did just that.
On our very worst day in sin...He died for us anyways. We love the people but we hate the sin and the one that caused the fall in the first place...the devil.

We basically love humanity as Jesus did even if it means laying aside our own agendas
ideas or plans for our lives for after all we are not our own because we were bought
with a price.

It's hard to love enemies those that hate you back stab you set you up to fall and watch you suffer...to be able to smile and love them anyways is hard. But for them to die and go to hell with their blood on your hands will be even harder because you will have to stand before Jesus one day and look into His face and watch Him wipe away tears. His tears...for the ones that should be in heaven but aren't because we didn't pray for them or witness to them or cast the devil outta them so they had a clear mind to receive the message of the gospel.

When the Bible says He shall wipe away all tears....I believe the last ones are His...

 

[importunity]

Yeah but I'm not looking for agape love, what about Phileo/Eros....

There are obviously different words in the Greek for our one word Love:


Philia or Phileo: is a friendship love the kind you have with people from work or school mates etc…


Eros: is a sexual love, a romantic type love.


Storge: is the type of love you have for your family.


Agape: is the type of love that Jesus demonstrated for us on the cross. It is a love of choice, not of emotions. It is a love that is unconditional. He loved us while we were His enemies, while we were in sin. Totally unconditional!!!


Now what is funny is this Eros love is the love that kills more women than anything else.


Woman are usually killed by a husband or a lover. Someone who demonstrates EROS.


All these loves are good and have their place, but without the Love of Agape to be the foundation of these other loves, the other loves will fail.


The only Love that doesn’t fail is agape. So if you want your, Eros, Phileo and Storge to not fail, have these loves wrapped in the unconditional love of Agape.

 

[HephzibahBenJudah]

A Seed-Faith Prayer
St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love;

Where there is injury, pardon;

Where there is doubt, faith;

Where there is despair, hope;

Where there is darkness, light;

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console...to be understood, as to understand...to be loved, as to love; for it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is dying that we are born to eternal life.

Agape all the way!

 

[irenemcg]

I WANT THAT GOD KIND OF LOVE
I want to love like you love,
I want to care like you care,
Release your anointing from above,
That I might ‘agape’ love share.

Lord melt my cold, icy heart,
And give it a fresh new start,
Oh Lord please help me to see,
That others must come before me.

Lord, give me your heart of compassion,
For I really want to be your reflection,
May I your loving compassion show,
So others might long for you to know.

So help me to love like you love,
And help me to care like your care,
So others might see something of your love,
And because I have you I really care.

Irene McG 2007

 

[lilpiglet]

You can have the Spiritual gifts in manifestation, but if you are not walking in the God kind of Love, you are making a lot of racket with no real impact.

Thank you for this post. This is a word from the Lord for me, and I receive it. Sometimes it's so easy in our walk to get side-tracked with all the details and "being right" that we lose sight of the big picture.

 

[hislegacy]

Yo impy, my brother from another mother -

Don't forget the greatest love walk -

God's love towards us!

Great thread!

 

[importunity]

Thank you for this post. This is a word from the Lord for me, and I receive it. Sometimes it's so easy in our walk to get side-tracked with all the details and "being right" that we lose sight of the big picture.

Thank you, and AMEN, it is easy to get our eyes off the prize with all the distractions.

 

[Moriah_Conquering_Wind]

One question though, if it can be included here or perhaps another thread even brother, how do you propose we rebuke the evil behind some attacks and still show love to the human at the same time? It's kinda hard to do (from a pc) I mean.

Doesn't seem so difficult to figure out ... given that addressing a spirit takes place in the spirit realm, which transcends temporal and geospatial boundaries, but addressing a corporeal individual (e.g. someone with a body) does not, and must be done within the conjunction of temporal and geospatial limits where you both meet (in this case, cyberspace), then the solution becomes readily apparent. You address "the evil" [spirit] in the spirit realm -- speaking out loud right there in your house or prayer closet, in prayer to God to deal with it, or commanding it in the name of Christ, or however you choose to do so. That's the part you leave OFF the computer. Then you address the corporeal individual on the computer, demonstrating ONLY love and compassion to them.

That way no mistakes get made. You leave it with God to wing your rebuke in the appropriate direction -- to hammer it onto the appropriate rebellious spirit's head as it were -- and since you do not intend to rebuke the person but the demon only, there remains no reason whatsoever why the person should ever even have to hear it.

Perfect, innit?

Even when rebuking demons or binding or casting them out...some folks think you hate the person when in actuality you don't...it's the wormy lil slime ball that's got em in it's grasp that ticks you off and you want to grind it into the mud...not the individual.

Well, confusion generally arises because people presume to address the person as if they bes the demon. Using the method outlined above should avoid confusion of this nature over the internet.

 

[importunity]

Doesn't seem so difficult to figure out ... given that addressing a spirit takes place in the spirit realm, which transcends temporal and geospatial boundaries, but addressing a corporeal individual (e.g. someone with a body) does not, and must be done within the conjunction of temporal and geospatial limits where you both meet (in this case, cyberspace), then the solution becomes readily apparent. You address "the evil" [spirit] in the spirit realm -- speaking out loud right there in your house or prayer closet, in prayer to God to deal with it, or commanding it in the name of Christ, or however you choose to do so. That's the part you leave OFF the computer. Then you address the corporeal individual on the computer, demonstrating ONLY love and compassion to them.

That way no mistakes get made. You leave it with God to wing your rebuke in the appropriate direction -- to hammer it onto the appropriate rebellious spirit's head as it were -- and since you do not intend to rebuke the person but the demon only, there remains no reason whatsoever why the person should ever even have to hear it.

Perfect, innit?


Well, confusion generally arises because people presume to address the person as if they bes the demon. Using the method outlined above should avoid confusion of this nature over the internet.

Moriah, Good to see you. I want you to know as we were discussing things the other day, I was trying to see where you were at. If you were playing for attention, seriously confused, possessed by something other than God etc… My questions were not to try and make you a friend or an enemy. Just wanted to see where we were going. What I said the other day and I believe you reported me for I meant whole heartedly and still do, so you can report me again, the report button is not going to send me to hell. I have nothing against you at all. My concern as a Pastor and a follower of Christ is if there is someone looking for help, the Love I have for people causes me to jump in. As far as your post about fighting a spiritual warfare from our prayer closet, sure I do agree. See I guess my problem was everyone else who was jumping on me thought I was trying to hurt you. That was not my intention, my intention was to get to the bottom line of the issue and deal with it. Motivated by the Love of God that never fails. I might fail but the LOVE that is in me will never fail. And that LOVE is available for all who truly seek it.

I would pm you but you don’t accept them, but you are more than welcome to pm me. I was not calling you names, I was asking you questions, and was looking for truth. Because you will find LOVE in truth.

Well I guess I kind of derailed my own thread, but like I said Moriah, Good to see you.
Love in His Service,
Rick