17Feb2014 - Manifesting God's Love

How you doin?  So 3 meeting with Dan Mohler in 2 days.  I'm wrecked.  Dan's ministry is all about manifesting God's love.  Some words that he spoke often over the meetings were love, revelations, understanding, transformation, belief, unbelief, Christ in me, the hope of glory, identity, destiny, truth, good news, wrong Gospel, lies, sin conscious, self conscious, right Gospel, freedom, redemption, Jesus' blood, and righteousness.  If you read this email regularly, you can imagine how this blew me out of the water.  I loved it.  Dan challenged me, encouraged me, and really made me look at myself and more specifically my lack.  I struggle with loving others.

Dan had pointed out that freedom from sin consciousness and self consciousness comes out of love, the truth, and the right Gospel.  COME ON!!!!!!!  He went on to say that love isn't something that God does.  God is Love.  If we truly seek the Kingdom of God and Christ likeness, we will too be love.  SO GOOD!!!!!!!  If I rely on love being something I do, I'll fail every time.  If I try to believe the Truth, that I'm made in God's image and in His likeness, I'll become love.  I spend my time inspecting fruit, instead of paying attention to the tree.  Apple trees don't produce oranges.  That would be weird.  Apple trees produce apples because they are apple trees.  A tree doesn't become an apple tree because it produces apples.  A good tree produces good fruit.  Expecting good fruit from a bad tree is futile.  Being grafted back into the vine of Jesus makes for a good tree.  Sorry, I'm bunny trailing.  This is HUGE for me.

As I'm sitting there listening to Dan, God's giving me 80's pop/rock prophecy.  In this case I heard 80's pop/country.  Johnny Lee's song "Looking For Love (In All The Wrong Places)".  So I looked it up to see how prophetic Mr. Lee is.  Here is the verse that stood out to me, 
"And you came knockin' on my hearts door
You're everything I've been lookin' for
No more lookin' for love in all the wrong places
Lookin' for love in too many faces
Searchin' their eyes, lookin' for traces
Of what I'm dreamin' of
Now that I found a friend and a lover
I'll bless the day I discover you-oh you"

Not bad for a random pop/country song written for a bad movie.  Of course I go to the Bible.  You may find this surprising, but there's quite a bit about God's love and God being love in the Bible.  I read 1 John 4 this morning.  Needless to say, I was completely floored.  Here are some highlights.  Verses 7-8, "Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is ^[a]born of God and knows God. ⁸ The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love."  POWERFUL!!!!!!!  I so want to KNOW God.  Dan Mohler made the analogy of knowing your next door neighbor.  You can learn their name, schedule, relatives, friends, characteristics, likes, and dislikes just by living close and watching.  You could even speak about that person as if you know them.  But until you actually walk up to their door, ring the door bell, and put your hand in theirs and say "hello, my name is (Paul), what's yours", you really don't know them.  OH SNAP!!!!!!!  I want to know God intimately in my heart, not just in my head.  Knowing Him in my head, keeps me "Looking For Love (In All The Wrong Places)".  Like wanting/needing to be loved by other people.  WOW!!!!!!!  What pressure to put on other people.  Verses 9-10, "By this the love of God was manifested ^[b]in us, that God has sent His ^[c]only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.¹⁰ In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  WOW WOW WOW!!!!!!!  Verses 15-17, "Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶ We have come to know and have believed the love which God has ^[d]for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷ By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world."  HOLY MAC A LOLY!!!!!!!  Christ likeness.  I am very tempted to just copy all of 1 John 4.  Please read it today and read it carefully.  This could go on for ever today.  I want God's love to be perfected in me.  COME ON!!!!!!!  Dan Mohler pointed out that we are not called to be loved, we are called to love and to be love.  More specifically, we are called to manifest God's love by receiving His grace to become like Him, who is love.  Stacey and I want this, more then I could ever say, in our lives.  We will be seeking revelation, understanding, belief, and transformation into Christ likeness... Love.  Receive the grace from the Holy Ghost that can grant you revelation, understanding, belief, and transformation today.

PS   The wrong Gospel teaches us that we are only forgiven of our sin.  This teaching makes us sin conscious and self conscious.  The right Gospel teaches us that we are free from sin.  The right Gospel teaches us to deny our self, pick up our cross, and follow Him.  Jesus' blood speaks a better word then Abel's.  SO GOOD!!!!!!!

PPS   I turned Bethel worship on this morning only to hear Eric Johnson say "The cool thing about God is that he doesn't just love, He is Love".  I'm starting to think that God is trying to get a message to me.  Something about love.  I would say I'm sorry for the length of this email, but I'm not.  Love someone today.