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Christian believer is one who is in divine relationship with God.
This relationship is birthed in the Spirit of God and has its basis in
the love of God.
God's love was sacrificial. Christ Jesus Himself gave ultimate meaning
to the Greek word for love, agape. It is a love that gives until it has no need
to give more. It is a love that goes beyond one's own self-centered interest.
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life"
(John 3:16).
God so loved that He gave the ultimate--He gave Himself.
God's ultimate will is to impart His divine life and nature into His
created ones so that they might be as He is: holy and righteous.
Lest man should be lifted up in his own personal estimation as being
worth anything, God based His salvation of man on His own love, mercy, and grace. When we
are totally dependent upon God that way, we can never conclude within ourselves that we
are in any wise gods.
God chose to save us from ourselves--we who are bent on
self-destruction--by so loving us, by so completely giving of Himself, and that while we
were completely undeserving (Rom. 5:8).
This, then, is the basis for agape: that one should give in
grace and mercy of his life to another who is undeserving.
Man's Love to God
Having been made worthy by the blood of the Lamb, having been filled
with the life and power of God through the divine impartation of His Holy Spirit, we are
given a deeper dimension to the meaning of agape.
Having now the example of perfect God giving Himself in mercy and grace
to imperfect man, imperfect man is now called upon, even commanded, to give in return of
himself to perfect God. Man was undeserving of God's agape. But God, to the
contrary, is most worthy of our agape.
"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service"
(Rom. 12:1).
God presented Himself upon the cross as a sacrifice unto death--giving
until He had no need to give more. We are to present ourselves to Him as a sacrifice unto
life--giving of our all until we can give no more.
We are to give up our self-life by our participation into His death and
burial (Rom. 6:4) in order for His life to be lived in and through us (Gal. 2:20).
So the only valid, life-producing relationship we can have with God
that is acceptable to God is that which is based upon agape. He showed us the
way. "Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends" (John 15:13). Even then, the love we give to God can only be that love
He first imparted to us. It's His love working through us.
Man's Love to Man
Now this agape becomes the basis for our relationship with all
others in the family of God and beyond. We are to follow His example of the laid-down
life. We are to so love one another in mercy and grace so as to impart His very life in
one another. His love in us and through us is life-producing. No other form of life can
produce eternal life. All other life is material, physical, corruptible.
This is the difference between flesh and spirit: God is spirit. He
speaks spirit. He reproduces spirit and does this by His Spirit. Flesh is corruptible,
earthly, temporal. Spirit is incorruptible, heavenly, and eternal. Flesh leads to death.
Spirit leads to life. Flesh is bondage. Spirit is liberty. Flesh is selfish. Spirit is
selfless.
Let us regard one another, especially those of us in the household of
God, with this agape whereby we so love one another that we give until there's no
need to give more. For such giving, such loving is the greatest witness needed by a
sinner-world. "By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have
love one to another" (John 13:35).
We are drawn to that Christ nature of agape within each other.
The Obedience of Agape
Now when we so love God and so love our fellow man, we will be
operating in the realm of the Spirit. For the only way to truly love with the love of God
is to be in the Spirit of God in order to find out how this love is worked out in life.
God alone knows the heart of man. God alone knows what is best to do in
each given situation in life. God alone is the solution to every need.
So the faithful are those who deny themselves of their own opinions to
find out God's opinion, who deny themselves of their own desires to find out God's desire,
who deny themselves of their own wills to find out God's will. The faithful are those who
take up their cross, deny themselves (that is, die to self-will) daily, and follow after
what God is doing.
They are those who say what God is saying, do what God is doing, and
are what God has made them to be. They are true prophets of God; that is, true spokesmen
for God by the very life they live. They are living epistles, oracles of God.
Once a believer has become so related to God in agape, he has
stepped over the line. He has moved from the realm of the flesh over into the realm of the
Spirit--not just in talk, but in his walk.
His relationship with God is no more based on self--what he can get
from God, but is now founded on God--what he can give to God.
But what can he give to God in the face of so great a salvation so rich
and free? The answer: himself--"a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto
God..." (Rom. 12:1).
There is nothing we can ever do for God that will ever bear fruit for
God except what God, by His Spirit, commands. God has a plan. He has a plan for every man.
That plan cannot be carried out in the flesh. It can only be achieved in, with, and by the
Holy Spirit of God.
The only true New Testament order for the church is Jesus. He is not a
form of government, although He has government. He is not a set of creeds, confessionals,
and belief systems; although He sets forth sound doctrines, precepts, and principles to be
adhered to. The true church is an obedient people in right relationship with their God.
Jesus never did anything except what He saw or heard the Father do or
say (John 5:19-20, 30; 12:49). He, in turn, gave us the Holy Spirit and said of Him, "...He
shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will
show you things to come" (John 16:13).
To build what God is building requires that the builder get in touch
with God through His Holy Spirit. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God" (Rom. 8:14).
The faithful are those who want only to build what God is building.
They love Him that much. "If a man love Me, he will keep My words..."
(John 14:23).
The faithful are those who want the best of God for their brothers and
sisters in the family of God. The only way to know what is best is to find out from
Father.
The Fellowship of Agape
Such faithfulness, such agape, such obedience, such
relatedness to God can only come through extended times of prayer and fellowship with God.
The only way to build any kind of a relationship with anyone is to spend time together.
The more time together, the broader the basis becomes for that relationship.
I have children who live away in another town. When I spend time with
them, I find I have more things to talk to them about because we learn more about what's
going on in each other's lives. But the less time we spend together, the less we seem to
have to say to each other. You think it would work the other way around, but it doesn't.
The more time we spend with God in prayer and in His word--talking and
listening--the more we learn of Him, His ways, His desires/will, His purposes in our
lives, His blessings upon us--it's endless because He's endless. The more we visit, the
more we have to talk about.
The Deeper Walk of Agape
So this is a look into Tabernacles. "When He shall appear, we
shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (1 John 3:2). This is that
upward call of God (Phil. 3:14), that higher realm in the Spirit, that deeper walk with
God, that coming up to Mount Zion: to be like Him.
"Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the
house of our God. And He will teach us His ways, and we will walk in His paths, for out of
Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem"
(Isa. 2:3;
Micah 4:2).
Zion speaks of a place in God by the Spirit where Jesus is the only
thing there is. He is all in all.
Jerusalem speaks of the church, the assembly of called-out ones who are
gathered into Jesus.
Once we go to Zion, we become the Zion of God. Once we are given the
word, we become the word from Zion: that is, from us shall go forth the law and the word.
As long as Jesus fed and healed their flesh, the multitudes followed
Him. But those who followed Him to the mountaintops for that deeper instruction in
discipleship were few.
We find that the ministries with a reputation for moving in the gifts
can pack the house.
But few are interested in hearing the word that calls for that
sacrificial life of agape.
I once had a Christian brother tell me, "You can't build anything
upon the cross." He's absolutely right. Nothing of the flesh can be built upon the
preaching of the cross. You have to preach another gospel to get that kind of building
done.
But the preaching of the cross is the only preaching that builds the
house of God, that accomplishes the great commission of the gospel of the Kingdom.
Some years before this writing, I had the Spirit of the Lord indicate
to me that "this gospel of the Kingdom" was not yet being preached throughout
the world as Jesus said it would be in Matthew 24:14.
I thought, "But God, with all the TV ministries and missionaries
going out...?"
And it came to me again, "I said, 'This gospel of the
Kingdom...'"
I knew it was true. There was a form of the gospel, a semblance, or
something we thought to be the gospel that was being preached. I could even see that God
was working to save souls anyway. But I knew something was missing. This gospel
that Jesus talked about was not yet being preached.
I wasn't sure at that time what "this gospel" was. I'm
seeing it more clearly today as I see these "crucified ones" coming forth. They
not only preach the crucified lifestyle but live it.
Some are living it and don't even know how to talk about it yet. Some
are seeing it and trying to describe it but are not necessarily walking it. Ultimately,
though, no one can talk of this realm until they are walking in it.
You who read this word and hunger for that deeper walk can have it,
whether you see it now or not, by simply asking God to take control and bring you into
that Holy of Holies, into the throne room with Him, into that life of holiness before Him,
into agape--the crucified life.