Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
HOW DO WE RULE OUR SPIRITS? 5. RULE WITH A SPIRIT OF LOVE
Men, if love is limited in our lives, it’s influence on others will be stinted. Love always does what is best for others, no matter what. The one who wrote the great hymn, “The Love of God” obviously had a greater understanding than most of this greatest of all attributes of God.
1 Corinthians 13 is a powerful barometer and check list of what is truly the love of God and what is not. Read it again. If our spirits are not under the control of the Holy Spirit of love, we cannot represent God in a true sense because “God is love.”
The truth is that all God is and all He does, even in times of judgment and discipline, is motivated by a measureless love. Some may question God’s love when it comes to discipline and judgment. However, the Scripture is clear when it likens God’s discipline to fathers disciplining their children because they love them.
Hebrews 12:7, 8 says: “If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement; whereof all are partakers then are ye bastards, and not sons.”
If you do not believe that God chastises, how can you explain Proverbs 19:187: “Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.” Liberalists would think this Scripture and others like it as “child abuse.”
Deuteronomy 8:5 says: “Thou shalt also consider in thine heart, that, as a man chasteneth his son, so the LORD thy God chasteneth thee.”
Love must always be the great motivating factor in everything that we do. If our spirits are not ruled by love there will be an unmistakable aloofness, stiffness, and severity about us that is absolutely not of God.
To be continued.
Be encouraged.
Colin Campbell
