Ephesians 3:18-19
"And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God." [emphasis mine]
As the Apostle Paul is describing his mandate to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles [for which he is in prison at the writing of this verse], he is extending a prayer to the Ephesians that they would understand God's love for them as part of the mysterious plan that he has been preaching to them. The plan that God has made His grace and salvation available to all, Jew and Gentile, that would call on the Name of Jesus, thus becoming part of His family and joint heirs with Christ. The fact is that as Christians there is a tension that we must navigate; God does things we won't understand, but we have to trust Him anyway. The root is that God wants His children to fully experience His love and He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us do so. Andrew Murray said, "The [Holy] Spirit is the real, living presence and the power of the Father [God] working in us".
Come on, I dare you. I dare you. I double dog dare you to say out loud, "Jesus loves me!" Didn't that feel great?! One reason, I like to verbally [and frequently] declare this is because I believe it puts everyone on notice: Me, God and the Devil that I know who I am and Whose I am; a beloved child of God...a Masterpiece. It is one thing to read that God loves you, it is another to actually know and believe it. Verbalizing it is just one small step. Though Scripture clearly states that God's love is unfathomable, immeasurable, indescribable and unending it seems that the core of God's biggest desire is for His children to yes experience, but to more importantly know how much they are loved. As humans it isn't always easy for us to freely and fully receive and know His love because our flesh and human experiences often get in the way. That's why the Holy Spirit help I mentioned starts with receiving God's Love not only in our hearts but in our spirit.
The heart is a place of vulnerability and the root of all we love. From it springs forth all that we do. God was vulnerable by sending Jesus and Jesus was vulnerable unto death, but imperfect created beings like us cannot leave our vulnerable, imperfect and deceitful hearts unguarded. Lucifer and Judas Iscariot both knew God [and even Jesus in the case of Judas], but it did not extend beyond head knowledge and change their unguarded hearts to repentance. If we didn’t have a heart, we couldn’t sense God’s love nor could we love Him in return. Three things that compose the heart are our mind, our emotion and our will; this in essence is our soul. Therefore, our heart must be guarded, lest unGodly things enter it and taint our receipt of His love. Now as I mentioned, our emotions are a part of that vulnerable heart. They often affect the way we internalize, interpret and share the love of God. Emotions are not bad [in fact their great and indicate that we are alive and human], but they often do not tell the truth, because they are filtered through the flesh filter. We must bring them through the Truth filter of the Bible. Emotions can indicate but they should not dictate [control] what is to happen. Emotions filtered through a Biblical worldview help us fully experience the extraordinary love of God as we fully experience fellowship with Him. God wants to be our life, He loved us first with His Son’s life and He wants us to love Him first with our whole heart. If there is a disconnect with God, it usually is steeped in our heart and we must take to God our petition to restore the relationship. In short, when receiving God’s love with our heart, we must renew our mind, filter our emotions through God’s filter and align our will with His Will.
Now comes the glorious part. When we let our spirit be one with God’s Holy Spirit, we begin to internalize His extravagant love. Spirit to spirit is the direct deposit vehicle through which God has wired us to receive; that is How He operates. Our spirit was created by God so that we can worship, contact and receive Him. The soul that we talked about with the heart has its’ functions, as does the body, but only the spirit has the ability to contact God. We have already seen verses like John 4:24 “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth.” This extraordinary love is based on God's Truth and is unconditional, uncompromising and irrespective of our lifestyle, position or brokenness. In receiving it we are changed as we rightly feel that it convicts, but it does not condemn, that it accepts but it does not reject, that it understands but it does not judge. God is 100% in giving His love and we are 100% renewed when we receive it. God became human for us. God gave His Son for us. God saved a place for us.
One final thought and that is this; over these recent months, we have looked at some of God’s promised blessings and His extraordinary love that is given to us and received directly to our spirits and hearts. Let our spirits partner with His Holy Spirit to actively receive His perfect love with the response of righteousness, obedience, worship and adoration that should naturally accompany His love. The Christian life is not without troubles, tears, sadness and disappointments. However, what distinguishes the people of God is their relationship with God and knowing that what they get from Father God is nothing short of extraordinary. Others will see, know, and believe that His is no run of the mill love. And then we can begin to see how deep, how wide, how limitless and how perfect God's love towards us is.
I echo a paraphrased sentiment to Psalm 66:19-20. Lord, thank You for Your forgiveness, mercy and love. Thank You for the many times when you have listened and heard our voices in prayer. Praise be to God, Who has not rejected our prayer or withheld His love from us!
Takeaways for you to remember:
#1 God's Love is perfect, pure, immeasurable and unfathomable.
#2 Receive God's Love in your heart, mind and your spirit.
#3 Receiving God's Love allows us to love others.
Yours in Christ!
Dr. Quahana
Want to enjoy some of the Scriptures inspiring this entry? [NLT version unless otherwise noted. Scriptural emphasis mine]
References
1. Murray, Andrew. Waiting on God [Updated, Annotated]: A 31 Day Study.
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