“There is a very real human love; but all Christian love,
according to the Scriptures, is distinctly a manifestation of divine love
through the human heart. A statement of this is found in Romans 5:5, ‘because the
love of God is shed abroad [literally, gushes forth] in our hearts by [produced
or caused by] the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us.’ This is not the working
of the human affection; it is rather the direct manifestation of the ‘love of
God’ passing through the heart of the believer out from the indwelling Spirit.
It is the realization of the last petition of the High Priestly prayer of our
Lord: ‘That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them’ (John 17:26).”
He that is Spiritual, L. S. Chafer.
This is a natural flowing of His love in and through the
believer. It can’t be faked, produced, or manufactured by anyone in the natural
realm or the human heart. This action only flows from the power of the Spirit
which is embraced by grace and divine affection that controls both. The amazing
this is the human heart cannot produce it, but it can experience it; and when
it does… the believer has a divine taste of the heavenly fruit of heaven.
As Chafer says, “First the love of God imparted is not
experienced by the unsaved: ‘But I know you, that ye have not the love of God
in you’ (John 5:42) God cannot work in the heart of one whom He has never communicated
and experienced the forgiveness through Christ our Lord. So it is impossible
for the lost to experience this divine
heavenly fruit.
“Second, The love of God reaches out for the whole world: ‘For
God so loved the world’ (John 3:16); ‘That he by the grace of God should taste
death for every man’ (Heb. 2:9); ‘And he is the propitiation for our sins; and
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world’ (1 John 2:2).”
This love we experience is a love we can only come to know from understanding
the desire of God to enter into a relationship with every man, woman, and
child. It knows no bounds and is not bound by the methods God goes through to
seek out the lost. It took a great sacrifice of Christ to allow you and me to
experience it.
When we wonder sometimes why our desire is not to share the
gospel with people sometimes, maybe we should understand that it is God who has
the desire to see the lost saved, and not our own human interest. If this is an
act that can only be driven by the Spirit’s influence and control, then it is
He who controls the actions that follow. And maybe it is because we are not
rightly related to our God and His Spirit does not have the reign of our hearts
(wow, did you have to say that?). When the heart is rightly related to God, the
desire for the salvation of others is the first thought they have. Why? Because
our thoughts are controlled by His desires for the lost.
In closing, when we first come to Christ in salvation, why
is it that we think immediately about those who we want to see come to
salvation? It is because the Spirit of God has full reign over our hearts at that
time and sees what He sees in others. He has ultimate reign in our hearts at
that time and our hearts are singularly aligned with His desires for mankind.
So its gut check time…
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