The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (1 John 2:10 NASB)
I was talking to the Lord as I caught the bus in to work this morning and he was showing me that all sexual perversion comes from the desires of the flesh…
Fairly simple, you might say, but I saw it fairly clearly…
All the “need” – the “need” to be loved – comes from the flesh – it does not come from God…
God loved us – it was given freely – it didn’t need to be “desired” or “longed for” or “reached out for” – it was freely given…
We rejected this…
In the Garden we rejected this…
This opened us up to all manner of “needs”…
“Needs” to have “this, that and the other thing” in place of what we already had with the Lord…
Freely given to us by the Lord for our enjoyment…
Our control, our taking control only served to cause a whole lot of “need” in us…
Trying to fill a void which only existed because of our rebellion against God…
It is all so simple when He explains it to us…
So simple…
All homosexual desires are based on a desire to be loved by men…
The Lord had this whole area covered as He is our Father and Jesus is our Brother…
There is nothing sexual in our Love towards the Lord in this way but the flesh twists and perverts and as it won’t submit to God’s way it is open to be deceived by the devil and his demons and controlled (just as we hoped to do, i.e. be in control) to commit “indecent acts”…
All sexual immorality is our flesh telling us that we deserve intimacy and we are not getting it so we can “go out” and “find it” wherever we want to…
Coveteousness – “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife or his male servant or his female servant or his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:17 NASB) – is wanting anything which the Lord has not given us (that’s what He told me back in Manila) – I completed another Post on this awhile back…
This is what the flesh does – it can’t control itself as it wanted to be in control unfortunately it actually lost control and cannot resist whatever is suggested to it by the enemy…
In the Spirit – in the new self which the Lord has given us – as He reveals Truth to our inward parts we see this deception and we see that it is the lust of our flesh…
We start to understand that it is not something which the Lord has placed within us to want things so desparately and not be able to get them – it is not – as He says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart” – but instead that all these “pains” which we go through in terms of wanting things which we cannot have – are actually just a result of the flesh not getting its own way…
This is painful and causes us pain but it is part of our death…
How many desires which we believe have been given to us by the Lord actually are from the Lord?
I saw a picture last week some time of all the desires of my heart – it was like I was standing on a great wall (kind of like the great wall of China I suppose) and as I gave my desires to the Lord and asked him to establish His desires and remove mine I saw a whole lot of “structures” (maybe like those parts which “stick up” at the top of the wall) disintergrate – literally like dust – they were gone…
I saw that what the Lord has placed in me in terms of desires will stand and everything else will be obliterated and vanish like dust – I surrendered to this…
I had never seen it so clearly…
Everything that is of Him will stand, everything that is of me will be removed…
This is His will…
This is His plan…
He will not give us what we want (when what we want is not what He wants for us)…
He loves us too much…
We will be found fighting against Him if we hold on to our own desires…
They will not stand…
His will…
He is not holding out on us…
He is waiting until we submit to His will…
Have a think about it and think, “what if some of the things which I’ve been ‘hanging onto’ are actually the desires of my flesh and not from the Lord?” – it might answer some of those “nagging questions” you have – like the ones I’ve had also…
I gave all my desires back to the Lord and let them go – the ones which are of Him will stand…
Nothing else will…
This might be messy for me…
I am willing…
It will be good…
His desires will stand – if they’re His desires He will bring them to fruition – I will enjoy this – when He brings them to fruition and He will carry me until they do – cos they’re His desires – not mine…
Hallelujah!!!
I don’t have to try and believe things which I believe He has spoken to me – if He really has then He will bring them to pass – and He will give me the faith to endure until they do…
No one may understand this but He does and at the end of the day that is all that matters…
So back to what He showed me this morning – truly love has no expectation on anyone – love is not “needy” – it doesn’t have any needs – yes, we seek to be understood, we seek to be accepted and we seek to be trusted – we seek, as Jesus did, support from those who are are friends, a shoulder to cry on or just someone to share with regarding what we are going through but love doesn’t demand this or get “hacked off” when it can’t have this – it accepts all things and accepts all “slaps in the face” which it gets along the way…
It offers unconditional acceptance to the one who would receive it…
It keeps offering and offering and offering until the Lord who is offering through us withdraws this offer (even in the “withdrawal” of this offer there is no bitterness or “self protection” – there is sadness only, deep sadness)…
We have a mandate to love all mankind…
It is the Lord’s call when the offer has “expired” for any of His Creation – for those who do not know Him – it never expires for those who do – we keep loving – no matter what the response is – no matter if this love is “silent” or “expressed” we keep loving as He keeps placing this love in our hearts…
We do not seek to be known but are happy to keep loving whether we are known or not – whether those we are loving ever know that it was us who were the reason they experienced breakthroughs in their lives or whether they do not cos at the end of the day we are just His servants – we are only doing this cos He’s opened our eyes – it’s Him doing it through us – we are seeing Him working through us – we are not seeing ourselves – it’s Him working through our new selves…
As we experience this love working through us there is truly nothing in us to cause us to stumble…
Our greatest weapon is forgiveness…
When we are hurt it exposes more flesh to be removed…
When we get to a place where there is no hurt we are free from our flesh…
We are all heading in this direction, Praise His Holy Name, those of us who know the Lord…
The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (1 John 2:10 NASB)
a house of prayer for the nations 
Since posting the above I have seen something deeper regarding our offering of unconditional love to those who do not want to receive it…
This may sound strange but the Holy Spirit is a Gentleman and He does not keep offering His Unconditional Love to those who have made it quite plain that they have refused it…
I’ll use an example from life which we should all (or mostly all) understand…
If a guy likes a girl and keeps asking her to be his girlfriend and she keeps saying “No”, even if the guy really believes that he loves her and would be good for her then he needs to take “No” for an answer and “let her go”…
He needs to do this out of respect for her – respect for her wishes…
This is the “gentlemanly” thing to do…
I have done this – with potential girlfriends – before I met my wife…
There were two girls who I approached – both I liked – obviously not at the same time ( 🙂 ) – and neither of them were keen to “proceed” things with me and I let them go – maybe not as graciously as I should of but I honoured their wishes – I didn’t handle the “rejection” that well looking back on it – but anyway this isn’t about me – the point being that the “gentlemanly” thing to do is to “let them go”…
I let them go Lord – in as full a way as I possibly can – and that other girl I liked who I never approached and told her of my feelings – I let her go too Lord…
Anyway, the point being – back to the story or example – that no matter whether the guys heart is “pure” in his offer if his offer is not received it is honourable for him to “let it go” – not make the girl feel bad but just to humbly “retreat” and “recede” into the background and “honour” her decision…
I’ve been learning in the weeks following the above post that even for those who know the Lord, i.e. who are saved, even with some of these the Unconditional Love of the Lord which the Lord would offer through us is unfortunately “rejected” or “not received” by some of these ones…
Our hearts are “pure” – it is the Holy Spirit offering through us – but these ones because of blockages in their own lives – because of unresolved issues from their past – walls which have built up and patterns of behaviour which have developed – because of these things they are practically “blinded” to what we are offering them…
And in this situation – as much as it hurts us – it is the “gentlemanly” thing for us to do (whether we are men or women – I’m just using this as an analogy) to “back off” and not “press them” to “see it our way” or have a relationship with us or run together in the Lord or receive from us what we believe the Lord is showing us or have fellowship together with us or receive any form of Unconditional Love from us at all…
This is very sad – especially when you see that they are under blindness and are being deceived by the enemy into not seeing you for who you really are – in this case it is the Holy Spirit offering through you and they are not able to see that it is the Holy Spirit offering through you and they don’t see that they are actually resisting the Holy Spirit through you as you offer…
This is very sad…
I have been experiencing this…
With someone who is very close to me in my family…
There is nothing I can do about it…
I have given this person to the Lord…
I have let this person go to the Lord…
I have prayed for this person…
I have interceded for this person…
And last weekend this person told me that they basically don’t trust me, don’t respect me and don’t want to have anything to do with me…
It breaks my heart as, as this person was sharing this, I could see the blindness over this person, that their view of reality just wasn’t reality – the Lord protected my heart as I listened – I didn’t have a lot to say – but afterward it started to dawn on me that this person has made their decision about me and that I need to respect it (not that I agree with it or believe that it is the truth of God about me or about our relationship)…
I can still love this person as the Lord releases the love to me but my “involvement” in this persons’ life will be limited by the willingness of this person to receive any love which the Lord offers through me to them…
The person said that there was a huge wall that I had built up between this person and myself…
What I saw was the exact opposite…
I was extending love and a willingness to love but they were not willing to receive it…
It was very sad…
My heart is pure because I have forgiven and am keeping on forgiving…
(Any bitterness which is in my heart Lord – please remove it towards this person – please remove any wall in my heart towards this person, Thank You Lord)…
We keep forgiving…
We keep believing that “love never fails”…
but does our “unfailing love” guarantee that the person we are offering this “unfailing love” to will receive it?
Does love always “break through”?
Love never fails…
In the Greek “fail” means “to fall down”…
http://interlinearbible.org/1_corinthians/13-8.htm
which goes with the subject verse of this post,
The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. (1 John 2:10 NASB)
truly Love never “falls down”…
Isn’t that awesome?
Love doesn’t disgrace itself…
Forgiveness is like the clothes which Love wears so that it is never bare or put to shame – metaphorically speaking…
Our forgiveness and our refusal to take on bitterness protects us from “falling down”…
Love never falls down…
I’ve never understood that until looking up that verse right now…
I thought that if I had love toward someone that they would be released and transformed and “come through” for the Lord – I thought it was “immediate” like 1 + 1 = 2…
I now see that this is not the case…
Jesus is standing at the door – of those of our hearts who know Him – and He is knocking…
He is not “breaking and entering” – He is not forcing His way through the door – if we are not willing to open the door and allow Him to enter – whether that be through refusing to relate to certain of our brothers and sisters or whether that being refusing to relate to Him directly – then He will not force us to let Him in…
If it’s not in our hearts – the desire to “let Him in” then He will respect that…
He is a Gentleman…
He is not a “spiritual” “rapist” (another metaphor)…
If the Holy Spirit has not worked the willingness in us to enable us to open the door to Jesus – either directly or to anyone who He brings us of our brothers and sisters – then Jesus will not force us or threaten us to open it…
This is not the Lord’s “fault”…
We chose to sin in the Garden – we were not “pushed” or “assisted” or “slanted” in this decision…
It is the Lord’s choice how much of Himself we will know in this life…
We will know how much of Him He chooses to reveal to us…
We will each achieve however much He has ordained us to attain…
This is a painful truth for me to comprehend…
I have people close to me who I desparately want to “see what I see”…
I can not do anything to “make them see it”…
I see myself as selfish in this respect (as I type this I see myself as selfish)…
I want others to see what I see so I won’t have to be alone…
So I can have some fellowship, so I can have some companionship but this is not what the Lord is promising me…
To continue to love – yes…
To continue to forgive – yes…
To be understood – no…
To have others who will understand me – no…
To have others who will want to walk with me in the call which God has on my life – no…
Not in this season…
Maybe later, but not in this season…
I am to walk alone…
I am happy with this – I am also incredibly saddened by this – but I see it as a “last thing” which I have to yield – to be understood, to be accepted, to be “vindicated” or “affirmed” – I see it – I saw it this morning as I was getting dressed for work – that Jesus was a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief…
I understand the loneliness – a small fraction of it – which He underwent…
I’m sure that the majority of you who will read this will also understand (which will be why the Lord has led you to read this) – we are “set apart for God”…
This is what this means – keep offering love – keep offering forgiveness – only the Lord knows who will receive this – we can’t have a hope that any particular person will receive this so we can “walk with them” and have “sweet fellowship with them” in the Lord – we are ambassadors for God – we are serving God – we are not serving ourselves…
We need to let go of the desire to “get anything back” from our service to God…
We are His servants…
He is our Master…
He will provide whatever we need…
We don’t know what this is so we should let go of any plans or thoughts or expectations of how He might go about this…
Love in the Lord,
Andrew