Living in the Abundance of God (13 page)

God is love
.

If you have received Jesus as your personal Savior, you have had the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit. If you have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, that love flows out far more freely.

Let me urge you never to follow hate. Never follow evil thoughts or an impulse to get even. Never return evil for evil. Never follow that which is selfish or that which is full of greed and covetousness. These are not of God.

Follow the divine flow of love. Be guided by it every day.

I am certain that at some time or another you have felt this divine love. Have you ever been cooking dinner or working on the job, when suddenly you get a thought of someone with love and tenderness? Have you thought,
God bless her. I would love to see her right now and give her a big hug and encourage her
.

Follow that impulse. That is God. Don’t miss the blessing. You are experiencing God. Be guided by love.

Where is it? It is streaming over to that person’s house. Get in your car and follow that stream as quickly as you can. Minister to the person while God is still moving in your heart. This person needs God’s miracle power!

God’s love is not going to flow in us if we are selfish and mean. God’s love is not going to flow in us if we are covetous, or if we fuss and argue. You cannot harbor bitterness and ill will. You can’t let ugly feelings linger in your heart and still feel this divine flow of love that I am talking about. Let us keep our hearts clean of all animosity toward anyone. Let us be willing to humble ourselves, not to have a high opinion of ourselves, but be willing to make peace with everybody. Then the love of God will dwell in our hearts.

The dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The gentle dove of the Holy Spirit is not going to abide and shed abroad the love of God if we have animosity and unforgiveness in our hearts.

You might wonder,
Where shall I go today?
Get full of love and see where it goes out. You don’t have to manufacture it. When this divine flow of love comes, you automatically begin to think of others. Stay full of the Holy Spirit. Suddenly you will have somebody on your heart. Until then, just go on, love God and do your work. Then when you feel God’s love flowing through you to a certain person, act right then. Don’t hesitate. Pick up the phone and call them right then. Go to them personally, if possible.

When the Lord moves on me in this way, flooding in my heart with His supernatural love for an individual, I pick up the phone and call them. I say, “Well, I don’t know what your need is (unless God has revealed it to me), but God has impressed me that He is going to bless you today and that His love is flowing out toward you. Whatever you have need of, you are going to get it because God’s love is shining on your heart. God guided me to you today to minister to you in the Name of the Lord Jesus.”

Many times these people have broken into tears and said, “Oh, you will never know the burden I’ve been under!” But God knew.

Too many times we try to make it such a complicated thing. But it is not. God is love! Follow love! Be guided by love!

Walk in the stream of God’s love. Be guided by it and follow it; for where love is streaming, God is going and God is working.

Don’t miss out on this precious experience by holding back when God moves on you and by failing to yield to Him when He leads you to reach out and touch and bless the lives of others.

God is love. He who follows love follows God, and he who is guided by love is guided by God.

You may say, “That sounds so simple.” It is!

The apostle Paul said, “But earnestly desire and zealously cultivate the greatest and best gifts and graces (the higher gifts and the choicest graces). And yet I will show you a still more excellent way [one that is better by far and the highest of them all—love]” (1 Corinthians 12:31
AMP
). Then Paul said in the next chapter, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. 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” (1 Corinthians 13:1–2). Paul was saying that even though we may speak with tongues, even though we may have the gifts of the Spirit operating in our lives, if we do all these things and have not love, they are worth nothing.

Further in this same chapter, Paul said, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not
rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth” (1 Corinthians 13:4–6).

You can have everything in the world, including all the knowledge that the finest universities can give you, but if your heart is not full of love, it is not going to amount to anything. But if you will be guided by love, you can experience some of God’s richest blessings in your life.

First of all, you have to get full of love. Allow the love of God to be shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit every day. Walk in love, be guided by it, and follow it.

Success in Christian living is rooted in love. The fruit of the Spirit is, first of all, love (Galatians 5:22). When you feel the glorious love of God, you are feeling the Holy Spirit. As you follow that love, you and the Lord will be working together.

Get rid of any bitterness that may be in your heart. Avoid strife and bitterness. Never allow any filthy talk to come from your lips. Stay right with God and live peaceably with others. When someone wrongs you, forgive him instantly, as you will not harbor
any grudge. Rid your heart of anything that would be displeasing to the Lord and stay humble before Him.

With pure motives of heart, you can stay full of compassion as you let God fill your heart every day with His divine love.

Then, when you are least expecting it, someone will enter your mind and you will feel impressed to call them or go see them. Or it may be that you will just be sitting next to them in a church service. This has happened to me. I have sometimes been sitting in an audience when, suddenly as I looked at individuals, God’s love flowed out of me toward them.

Let me say it again. God is love! When you feel this divine flow of love, you are feeling God! Be guided by this divine love! Follow it! It will lead you to the person God wants you to help. When you get there, God will be there waiting to confirm His Word and bring deliverance.

From this day forth, life will be the most exciting for you!

You will enjoy the new adventures awaiting you as you follow the divine flow of love!

H
umility is the secret to continually living in the abundance of God as well as the secret to usefulness in the kingdom of God. We can truly reign in life as kings through the power of humility.

God greatly rewards the man or woman who lives a life of humility. “By humility and the fear of the L
ORD
are riches and honor and life” (Proverbs 22:4).

Humility is not weakness. It is a total lack of confidence in your own ability and a total dependence on God’s ability.

All Christians should learn to walk in the spirit of humility. It is a very important attitude, and the Word of God has much to say about it: “I therefore, the prisoner for the Lord, appeal to and beg you to walk (lead a life) worthy of the [divine] calling to which you have been called [with behavior that is a credit to the summons to God’s service, living as becomes you] with complete lowliness of mind (humility) and meekness (unselfishness, gentleness, mildness), with patience, bearing with one another and making allowances because you love one another” (Ephesians 4:1–2
AMP
).