RHEMA From Heaven

No one goes through life without opposition. You may have people who may side with you and people who may be adversaries. This fact notwithstanding, our mandate as Christians is to become goodwill ambassadors of Christ even when surrounded by haters, persecutors, and enemies. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though
God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to
God”

Our best form of response to folks who oppose us is for us to walk in love towards them. We may demonstrate this love by praying for them. Contrary to what your mind and the flesh will permit, that is to pray against them, God says rather, pray for them.

The bible tells of how Stephen, in the course of being martyred prayed for his enemies.

Acts 7:58-60 “And cast him out of the city and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this
sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep”.

Instead of praying for people you consider as enemies to die and to be consumed by evil, rather pray for their salvation. Pray for labourers of the gospel into their lives for them to be saved. Don’t pray against people’s
success and progress because they don’t relate well with you. Overcome evil with good. Don’t be evil because someone is evil. Blessings!

Read: Luke 23:33-34 “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast
lots.”

Prayer: Lord, I pray for grace to walk in love towards those who oppose me.

Let me start this subject of love your enemies with a short story. I had a conversation with a young Christian lady about her dealings with other people in the body of Christ. Although a Christian, she has withdrawn and held back from dealing with other Christians. My short conversation with
her revealed that, she didn’t like the people, and had strong hatred for them. So, I further quizzed her, what happens to the instructions of God on love? To my surprise she responded, “Pastor why are you being so mean, don’t you care about how I also feel”. After seeing that her mind was made up, I ended the conversation. You see, when it comes to love, what people do or don’t do is not an issue. Your duty or obligation is to walk in love irrespective of anything. Now, the moment you bring in your feelings or emotions, you can’t apply or obey God’s word on the subject of love. Love is more than a feeling. Love is superior to feelings too.

Thus, seeing someone as an enemy or someone becoming an enemy, opposer, antagonist, challenger, hostile party doesn’t mean you must become evil in return. Yes, you were insulted, betrayed, gossiped about, etc., but you still must maintain a heart of love and not to become callous towards people.

Instead of looking for avenues or opportunities to retaliate or exercise
vendetta, repent in your heart, and live out the love of God.

Read: Luke 6:35 “But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil”

Prayer: Father I pray for the grace to love my enemies. Irrespective of what people may do to me, help me to love them.

1 John 3:23 “And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment”

Our two opening scriptures reveal one truth- Love is a commandment and it is a New Testament commandment for the believer. You see, despite the fact that being in Christ frees a person from the old commandment, it doesn’t mean that the new creation or the born-again believer is not under any commandment or whatsoever.

The believer in this dispensation of the spirit or the New Testament is under the law of love. Thus, love must govern all that we do. Love must govern your dealings with God and people.

Also, just as the laws of Moses were held in a strict sense and adhered to, we must see the new commandment of love in that same light. We must not negotiate or bargain the application of the law or commandment to love one another.

Commandments or laws especially when given by God, demand our obedience willingly. Don’t find reasons to walk in disobedience when it comes to walking in love towards people.

Read: James 2:8 “If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well”

Prayer: Thank you Lord, that I have grace to obey your law on love

Love as a virtue is not practiced in a vacuum. There is a model that we must
follow when it comes to love. Our model or example is Christ.

As a Christian, you must love others just like Christ. One feature about the
love of Christ is that it is not discriminatory and reaches out to people at the
point of need.

Loving people like Christ did, means that we love people not on merit. You see, Christ loved us when we were sinners. Romans 5:8 says, “But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”. (AMP). So, you must love people not because they have some special features or excellence. Rather, the love you demonstrate to them must perfect them in their walk with God.

When you are looking for nice, and good people to walk in love towards then you are not emulating the love of Christ. Thus, the kind of love Jesus demonstrated must let you love people and pray for their salvation or use any opportunity to bring them to know the Lord. Let Jesus be your example when it comes to walking in love.

Read: Ephesians 5:2 “And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and
hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor”

Prayer: Lord, I pray for grace to walk in love like Christ did.

When it comes to love, God’s word gives us clear standards. One of such is to love our neighbours as we love ourselves. The way you love yourself, you must do the same to your neighbour.

It is love that makes us look for our interest and do things that will bring us great benefits. When you don’t love yourself, you might as well put yourself up a cliff and throw yourself up into death.

On this same subject of love, Ephesians 5:29 says “After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body…”. Love therefore makes you benevolent towards yourself. Thus, in loving your neighbour, you must also do to them what you will do for yourself and put their
interest first.

A classic example of loving your neighbour as yourself was demonstrated by Jonathan the son of Saul, to David. Although Jonathan knew David, has been anointed king over Israel, he never withstood him to become the king rather (1 Samuel 20:12-17). Love others just as you love yourself. Don’t use human’s explanations to run aground God’s word.

Read: John 13:35 “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love and unselfish concern for one another.”

Prayer: Father, I pray for grace to love my neighbour like myself.

Love and leadership go hand in hand. For you to become a successful leader, you must master walking in love. Without love, you are likely to abuse your power as a leader. You will end up using the people rather than
being a blessing.

The bible says in love a throne, or an authority is established or recognized.
You see, force or oppression does not establish or make your leadership stand out. Consider the leadership of Jesus; he served his people, he was moved with compassion for their predicaments, and helped meet the needs of the people.

You can’t oppress the people you want to help or make successful. You can’t
take the people you lead for granted and expect your reign to stand. Love
the people you lead.

As God gives you the opportunity to lead people, whether a family, ministry, or your community, do it out of love. Genuinely serve the people and see to their interest. This is what leadership is about and not lording over people.

Read: Matthew 20:25-26 “But Jesus called them aside and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their superiors exercise authority over them. It shall not be this way among you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”

Prayer: Lord, I pray for grace and wisdom to walk in love towards those I lead. Amen

One hallmark that characterizes a friend is the virtue of love. You can’t claim friendship and not walk in love. The bible says, a friend loves at all times. At all times means all times. Whether conditions are favorable or not, or whether you feel like walking in love or not.

When love is put in the right context when it comes to friendship, we won’t have many ill consequences. You must not use friendship as a means to exploit people. That’s not love.

Being a friend means that you are ready to put the interest of the other person before yours. The bible says, love does not seek its own interest (1 Corinthians 13:5). Don’t associate with people because of what you will be getting from them. Rather be there because you see the need to be a blessing to the person. That’s the first principle behind love – it gives. The bible says, God loved the world and “gave”. (John 3:16).

What kind of friend are you? Are you always demanding things to be done for you? Are you always grabbing things for yourself?Then that’s not friendship. You are an opportunist!

Be a friend who is thoughtful, can sacrifice for the other, and full of mercy.

Never use privileged information gotten during the friendship to destroy
the other party in moments of dissenting views. Friends must always love.

Read: Job 6:14 “He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty” (ESV).

Prayer: Lord, I pray for grace to walk in love and not to take advantage of people.

Luke 10:27, 30-35 “He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and
with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love
your neighbor as yourself.’ In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from
Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his
clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be
going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other
side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the
other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when
he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds,
pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him
to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denariiand gave
them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will
reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

The above parable of Jesus shows vividly how to walk or show love to strangers.
although it’s a well-known parable in the gospels, most people have not considered its motivation to also apply it. You see, to limit doing good or walking in love to people we know will make life unpleasant and burdensome to everyone. No wonder, the lesson from this parable is exceptional.

The bible in this parable narrates how a stranger during his travel fell into the
hands of robbers who assaulted him and left him half dead after taking his possessions. The stranger being left in a pitiful state on the road was neither pitied by the priest and the Levite who passed by him.

Nonetheless, a man who had no status or religious identification came to the
aid of the dying man. He had pity on him, gave him first aid, offered him a lift, sent him to the hospital, and bore the expenses for his treatment all for love sake.

You see, the parable came as a response to walking in love towards people. Thus, every detail Jesus gave, is in relation to how to demonstrate love. Walking in love towards strangers is a good thing. No wonder the adjective “good” became the prefix to the Samaritan. Are you a GOOD Samaritan in life? Do you walk in love towards people you see in life, or you move unconcerned?

Let love lead. Don’t be a heartless and thoughtless believer! Don’t build excuses
when it comes to loving strangers. Obey the word!

Read: Hebrews 13:2 “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it”

Prayer: Lord, I pray for grace to walk in love towards everyone that comes my
way

Loving strangers must not be based on your personal prejudices or bias but solely on what the word of God says. A stranger is a foreigner, or a person who one does not know or with whom one is not familiar. Nonetheless, God’s word says love strangers.

Thus, as you go about life and encounter people who are strangers, love them. Do them good and not evil, just as you would to someone you know.

Loving strangers is nothing new. That’s exactly what Jesus did when he walked on earth. He healed blind people he didn’t know, cleansed lepers that were not related to him in the natural, set people free from demonic oppression even though he didn’t know them and fed thousands of people who are complete strangers. These are all acts of love.

You can’t be a Christian and be less of what Christ stood for. Yes, there were evil people in the world in Jesus’s days, but still, he didn’t rescind from loving strangers and giving them his best. No wonder the Bible says he went everywhere doing good to people and making families out of
complete strangers. He called people unrelated to him as parents and siblings (Mathew 12:48-50).

Never shut your bowels of love to people because you don’t know them. In any case, you can’t and will not know everybody in this world. You will meet strangers in church, at your place of work, in your school, and in your community. Rather than being hostile to them, show them love.

Most often than not, the strange thing most Christians do is to behave strange towards a stranger. No! This is not what the word of God prescribes. You don’t need to know people before you treat them well or walk in love towards them. Let love lead! Love the stranger too.

Read: Job 31:32 “No stranger had to spend the night on the street, for I opened my door to the traveler”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I pray for grace to walk in love towards strangers. Amen!

No one can have love or be empowered to walk in love without the word of God. The Holy Spirit who is the custodian of the word of God, has shed abroad the virtue of love in our spirit as Christians (Romans 5:5). That is to say that we have what it takes to walk in love.

Nonetheless, continuing in the love of God – with evidence in our daily lives to God and humanity is dependent on our ability to receive God’s word and obey it. It is God’s word that can make you mature or perfect the love of God in your heart. Any Christian who deprives him or herself from the word which is the source of love can’t grow in love.

Many folks have taken the wrong dive when it comes to perfecting, naturing or growing the love of God in their hearts. Some have resorted to watching movies that they claim can teach love or even listen to some so-called love songs. You see, no matter how nice this may be, it can’t perfect love.

It takes only the word of God about love to mature us in our love life. Make time to meditate on the truth about love from God’s word and never give in to any distorted or perverted sayings and philosophies about love. Remember that no man can teach love better than the one who is love by nature- that’s our God and saviour.

Make the word of God on love your mainstay when it comes to the subject of love and your love life both to God and humanity will shine brighter and brighter.

Read: 1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Prayer: Heavenly father, I pray for the grace to mature and be perfect in my love towards you and the brethren as I read your word. In Jesus name. Amen