Tell Them I Love Them (2 page)

"The Father loves the Son and has
given (entrusted, committed) everything
into His hand."

John 3:34,35 AMP

One day while I was studying, I was meditating on this verse and cried for joy when I realized that God doesn't give us His Spirit by measure. He doesn't give us just a little dab of this and a little dab of that.

Instead, He says,
"Here, take everything I've
got."
Every bit of God's power and love are available to you today. He has all you need, and He wants you to receive it. Why? Because He loves you. You don't have to be good enough to deserve it because you couldn't do enough to deserve it anyway. You don't have to be pretty enough or smart enough. God wants to give to you because He loves you.

In Deuteronomy 7:6,7 AMP, God said,

"For you are a holy and set-apart
people to the Lord your God; the Lord
your God has chosen you to be a special
people to Himself out of all the peoples
on the face of the earth.

"The Lord did not set His love
upon you and choose you because you
were more in number than any other people, for you were the fewest of all
people."

God chose the Israelites to be His special people, and as the Church, we are the true spiritual Israel today. So this Scripture is for you just as much as for them. He said, "I didn't choose you because you were the largest tribe of people on the earth." Applied to us, that would say, "I didn't choose you because you did everything just right or because you were so wonderful."

He goes on to say that they were fewer than anyone else. As a matter of fact, if you are like me, you probably thought you were worse than anyone else before you got saved. Yet in verse 8 AMP, God says,

"But because the Lord loves you
and because He would keep the oath
which He had sworn to your fathers,
the Lord has brought you out with a
mighty hand and redeemed you out of
the house of bondage, from the hand of
Pharaoh king of Egypt."

That's shouting ground! God says, "I set my love on you, and I told you you're holy I told you you're special. I chose you, not because you're good and wonderful, but because I love you." Do you know what God wants you to do today? He wants you to accept and receive His love.

For most of us, our biggest problem is that we don't like ourselves. We don't believe God loves us, or that anyone else loves us for that matter. We think,
How could they—I'm such a mess?
If you believe that you are nasty and ugly, then you are going to think, look and act nasty and ugly. You can't rise above the image of yourself that's in your heart.

My biggest problem used to be that I didn't like myself, and I spent at least 75 percent of my time trying to change myself. I thought I talked too much, so I tried to be quiet. But then if I was quiet, I would get depressed, and everyone would want to know why I was quiet. Then I would think,
But
you told me I had a big mouth. Leave me alone.

I'm just trying to be quiet.

I can't tell you how many years I went through that. And still I was always getting into trouble with my mouth. A lot of people who are real talkers are married to partners who are real quiet.

That just shows up your big mouth even more, and the devil will constantly remind you of it. And that's called
condemnation.

God wants you to be free from condemnation, but it takes faith and boldness to be free. Do you know that no matter how guilty you feel it is not going to pay for one thing you did wrong? It is real tough to believe that God loves you when you have done something wrong.

The whole time the devil is beating on you and beating on you with thoughts about how bad and nasty and ugly you are. "You've done it now," he says. "Who do you think you are? God is never going to bless you, you dirty old thing, you. You couldn't witness to anybody now. You can't do anything right."

That's when it takes the boldness to rise up in your inner man and say, "Father, I made a mistake, and I ask you by the blood of Jesus to forgive me.

I'm sincere in my heart, I want your forgiveness.

Devil, you take a hike. Jesus paid for my sin, and it's none of your business." Then, you just go on and be happy, be joyful. But you are probably thinking, "I keep doing the same stupid thing over and over and over." I used to think that, too, until I stopped being condemned about it.
When you stop being condemned about what you have done, you
will stop doing it.

Guilt and condemnation keep you weighed down and depressed to the point that you can't be free. It takes a bold person not to be condemned.

You have to be bold and operate in faith and rise up and
say no to guilt.
The devil will tell you, "Do you mean you're not even going to feel bad about that? Why, you ought to at least feel bad for a few hours. That was really a bad thing you did." All you say is, "No, I'm sure not. I'm not going to feel bad about it at all." The first few times are tough, but it only takes three or four times, and you get the hang of it.

In Isaiah 53, verses 5,6 and 11 in the
Amplified Bible
it tells us that when Jesus took our sins for us that He also bore the guilt (and that includes condemnation). The devil doesn't want you to be free from condemnation. Why? Because if you are condemned, you can't really bask in the love of God. Condemnation separates you from God and comes down between you and God like a steel wall. You can't see Father God when you are standing in guilt. All you can see is the guilt and the sin in front of you.

Walk free of condemnation and believe that when God said His grace was sufficient to cover even your sin, He meant it. He loves you, and His grace and forgiveness are free gifts. Receive them today!

3

Love Is Relationship

"And we know (understand,
recognize, are conscious of, by
observation and by experience) and
believe (adhere to and put faith in and
rely on) the love God cherishes for us.

God is love, and he who dwells and
continues in love dwells and continues
in God, and God dwells and continues
in him."

1 John 4:16 AMP

How can you be more conscious and aware of God's love? No matter how much He loves you, if you are not conscious and aware of it, it is not going to do you any good. You know how good it makes you feel if somebody really shows you a lot of love? You feel so warm and wonderful that you could just take the world by the tail because you know somebody loves you. God loves you, and He wants to show you that love. He wants you to spend time with Him on a daily basis.

Do you have a real personal relationship with God? Just because you got saved a long time ago does not mean you are enjoying a rich fellowship with God. When I open my eyes in the morning, the first thing I think about is God, and He is the last thing I think about before I go to bed at night.

And I think about God all day in between. There is nothing that I want any more in this whole, wide world than to serve my God and to please Him.

And that's worth anything that you have to lay down to get it.

There is a God-shaped hole inside of us that only God can fill. Nothing else you can run after or desire can fill that place. You may say to yourself,

"I know that already, I received Jesus." But are you receiving Him every minute, every day, in every situation? Are you receiving the love of God?

God loves you, and you are special to Him,
He created us to fellowship with Him. This is His greatest desire and His perfect will for your life.

He leans over the throne every morning and says,

"Good morning, I love you."

A friend of mine had a vision once while she was praying. She saw the Father go into the homes of the people of America when they got up in the morning. He went in all ready to fellowship and talk to them. He got Himself a chair at the table and sat down. The people got up, and they came, and they went; they came, and they went. They kept telling God, "Later. Stay right there for just a little while, God. As soon as I get this done, I'm going to talk to You. I'm going to fellowship with You later, God. Later, God. Later, God."

The end of the day came, and the girl who saw this said it broke her heart because she saw God, with slumped over shoulders, leave the home. And nobody had ever come to talk to Him that day.

Don't get too busy.
If you don't have time to pray and spend time with God, then you are too busy. Take the time to tell God how much you love Him. When everything else passes away and it is all over but the shouting, there is nothing but God.

That's it. And if you don't have a relationship with Him then, it is going to be a little late to start getting to that point. That doesn't mean you will not go to heaven, but you have missed the joy of living a victorious life.

I suggest you set aside a year, and just
let God
love you.
Stop trying in your own power to operate in faith and be God's man or woman of faith and power. Just back off and act like a little child. You just crawl up in your Father's lap, and let God love you. You can't love Him back until you let Him love you.

First John 4:16 AMP says,

"And we know (understand,
recognize, are conscious of, by
observation and by experience) and
believe (adhere to and put faith in and
rely on) the love God cherishes for
us...."

Did you get up this morning and spend some time thinking about how much God loves you?

When you first get up in the morning, you don't usually feel like doing anything. But you need to use your mouth to activate your flesh and allow your spirit man to rise up and do all kinds of wonderful things.

So when you get up in the morning, you need to begin to say, "Oh, Father, I thank You that You love me so much. I thank You that You sent Jesus to die for me. Oh, Father, I thank You that I'm with the Holy Ghost. I thank You that the resurrection power abides on the inside of me. Oh, Lord, I thank You that everywhere I go today I'm a blessing.
God, You love me. You love me,
right here in my little house.
You love me!
I'm Your special child. I'm the apple of Your eye. You love me!"

You have to talk to yourself and get yourself
aware
and
conscious
that you are surrounded and drowned in the love of God. The Bible says that God has a picture of you tattooed on the palms of His hands. (Isa. 49:16 AMP.) I can just see Him up there saying, "Look, see that? Oh, isn't she beautiful? I just love her so much. Just look at My kids, right there in the palms of My hands." He has
you
there as a constant reminder that He loves you and longs to fellowship with you.

Remember to be thankful before God and develop a relationship of fellowship. Sometimes you need to fall down on your face in prayer and just thank God that you are saved. Back off and love God. Read on in 1 John 4:16,17 AMP where He says,

"...God is love, and he who dwells
and continues in love dwells and
continues in God, and God dwells and
continues in him.

"In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion
and attains perfection with us, that we
may have confidence for the day of
judgment."

Knowing that God loves you gives you confidence in Him and trust in His faithfulness.

All blessings will come through letting God love you: greater faith, victory over sin, healing, prosperity and joy. It has to come by allowing God to love you. A lot of times we turn that around and think, "Well, I've got to love God." I believe first you have to let God love you. I don't believe you can express your love to God until you let God love you.

I can tell you to fellowship with God and that you really need to fellowship with God, but how do you do that? When God told me to fellowship with Him, I just got on my couch and sat down and said, "Now what, God?" That's right! I didn't know how to fellowship with God because, still at that point, I really didn't know how much God loved me.

How can you express your feelings to people, really just love them and adore them, if you are not sure they love you? You would be afraid of making a fool out of yourself. You are comfortable with those you know will love and receive you. I can say things and do things with my husband that I couldn't do with anybody else because I know that he loves me. It is the same way with God.

So step out and make a start. Give God an opportunity, and He will teach you how to fellowship with Him. Ask yourself this question right now:
Am I comfortable with God?

God loves
you!

4

Love, Trust and Faith

"For [if we are] in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but
only faith activated and energized and
expressed and working through love."

Galatians 5:6
AMP

Most of us spend a lot of time trying to have faith. We know that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), so we work and strive at having more faith. But faith is of the heart, and you get it only through a relationship of loving fellowship with God. I can't really teach you faith, but I can teach you the principles of faith and make you so hungry for it you will do anything to get it.

It only comes by revelation from God.

Stop trying so hard to get faith and please God, and start spending all that time and effort with God, loving Him. Just go around all day loving Him and letting Him love you.