I know I have been speaking a lot on loving others lately and how God can use broken and flawed vessels. I understand where some thought processes of those who have been in church for awhile, can be led to believe. I was there myself. Looking around, my heart was angered at how I was seeing people who claimed to love Jesus were behaving. One minute they’re in church “playing the Christian role”, and the next minute they’re out partying and behaving in ways I know would grieve the Holy Spirit. I understand why certain passionate believers become angry and led to say the things that they say. Thing is, the moment I let my emotions and MY understanding of the “righteous” lifestyle should look like, is the moment God would quickly set me straight. Here’s the thing, if ANY of us aren’t DAILY spending time seeking His voice and having “an ear” to hear His heart and will, we have no clue what righteousness really is. We just have our assumptions of what it should look like. Those assumptions lead us to operate out of a skewed judgmental perspective, what I have been previously talking about.

In order for us to be able to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, we have to be actively pursuing it. You recognize what you make yourself familiar to. Reading and studying scripture daily helps activate that voice inside of us. However, it’s more than just reading and studying, because again, we could be in our own interpretation and perspective. It’s a matter of heart. It’s trying to see through HIS perspective. It’s “renewing our mind” to align it with His thoughts and will. If we don’t renew our minds through the power of His Holy Spirit within us, we won’t ever learn the true heart of the Father. We’ll allow our prideful thoughts block Him. So how do we learn to renew our minds? It’s coming before the Lord in complete surrender of our thoughts, assuming that we are wrong. It’s coming before Him completely humbled and ready to be used in ANY way according to what HE wants to do in and through us. We have to get to such a place in our pursuit of Him, that we trust Him FULLY no matter what that outcome or our role in life may look like. Otherwise, we’re not operating in the belief that “In ALL things He works together for good to those that love Him.” We can read scripture all day long, but do we really BELIEVE what we read?? We either trust that He is working on our behalf in the best way possible or we don’t. If we doubt or worry, we’re not fully trusting. I have to CONSTANTLY remind myself of that very thing.

So often we let the devil manipulate our thinking to not trust the Father. We allow him to convince us that just because bad things happen in life and because “God knows all”, then He’s not working for our good. He didn’t create you to destroy you. That’s a load of crap, so don’t fall into that mentality. God had set out a supernatural, heavenly plan before we were in our mother’s womb. Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.” Revelation 12:4 says that Satan is ready to devour the child after birth. That scripture refers to Jesus and the seed of Jesus. We are the seed of Jesus and Satan is trying to devour us when we are born. He comes to steal, kill, and destroy the plan that God has already ordained for us. God never changes the plan He has already established for our life. He had it written down in our book of life before the womb. He’s always trying to awaken us to His plan for us. He’s trying to steer us back to the “straight and narrow” to see His perspective for us. God doesn’t bring destruction to our life. We allow it through free will that He’s allowed us to have and the lack of spiritual protection we fall into when Satan tries to come against the will of God for our lives. We are asleep to what the devil is trying to do and we don’t actively go against him prophylactically in the spirit. We live in a fallen world. A world that God is always trying to awaken us and unite us with “His world and intention”. He has provided us a way to connect to His will through Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit. That’s why He told us to pray “on earth as it is in heaven.” He’s wanting us to reflect His will here on earth just like it is in heaven. God’s power is the same on earth as it is in heaven. His will for us is so incredible. We can’t miss out on it because of what the devil is trying to take away from us. We have to tune into the voice of the Father daily.

Because I started to really make time for Him daily, and just pursued Him passionately just to love and reverence Him, He honored that. The moment I was willing to do anything for Him, is when He started answering so many questions I had. He’s given me so much clarity to scriptures and questions that so many of us raise. 1 John 5:14, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” That’s why the scriptures also say, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.” Because if it’s according to HIS WILL, He will reveal the mysteries of His kingdom. The mysteries that we haven’t fully understood yet. Those mysteries/understanding of His will and perspective, will be made known to us when we pursue Him knowing that His will is best. Colossians 1:27, “The mystery of the Gentiles is Christ in us.” It’s His Holy Spirit within us, guiding us in HIS perspective and understanding. Leaning into His will doesn’t mean that we don’t matter. He just wants to give us something so much better. We don’t believe in something different because we don’t see it fully and He’s just trying to show us. Our will doesn’t compare to how great His is. He gives us so much better than we could ever want or imagine for ourselves. He knows the desires of our hearts, because He planted them there. We were made in His image. Colossians 3:10, “And have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” The image of Him is at our core, but we have to be renewed in His Spirit and perspective in order to reflect that. The devil is constantly trying to point us away from God’s perspective/image into his skewed “image of the beast” and the “fallen man”. God is just trying to make us see that what He has in store is so much better. He only operates in one way, the best way. He wants His love and His goodness to be given out to us in the most it could possibly be given. Sometimes that journey toward that looks way different than we imagine for ourselves and the devil skews our perspective to see it as a trial. He manipulates our thinking to view that pathway as something that won’t benefit us. He’s trying to steal away our trust in the Father. That’s why we have to remind ourselves that HE IS WORKING FOR OUR GOOD ALWAYS.

With that said, His perspective continues to renew my thoughts constantly. He’s helped me so much to see others how He sees them. He PASSIONATELY AND WHOLEHEARTEDLY loves His children despite their sin. He doesn’t like the sin, nor does He accept it, but He never gives up on us. He loves us through it until we come to love Him just like He loves us. We will never come close to that love, but He will bring us closer each and every day we try. When we continue to “compromise in sin”, we just haven’t come to the level of love that we need to have for Him. Think about it, if we continue to work on our relationship with Him and come to know Him, we would work so hard to want to please Him in all we do. That’s why it says “His goodness draws people to repentance.” When we come to experience His love for us, we want to do all we can for Him. Our own needs, desires, and temptations no longer matter. That’s the kind of tangible love we need to feel everyday. The only way it becomes that tangible in our lives, is to make an effort for relationship with Him. He’s always there, patiently waiting for us with open arms. Since spending time within His presence daily, I don’t crave anything else. His Spirit separates me from the things of this world. It’s not according to my own doing and judgement, but just being in His Spirit is all I need. He’s made me so much more passionate to love others, even those who are not yet where they need to be in Him. Because technically, none of us are. When His Spirit lives and breathes in you so powerfully in the day to day, you won’t be lead to compromise with the things around you. Instead, it will outshine the things around you.

Romans 3:20 says that the “law is the knowledge of sin.” Romans 2:15 also says that the “law is written on our hearts.” So what does that mean? Well, when we receive the Holy Spirit within us, after believing on Jesus and what He did on the cross, He begins to become that internal guide/compass to direct us according to His will. Before Jesus, the Holy Spirit wasn’t made available to anyone who didn’t keep themselves clean through obedience of the 10 commandments. That’s why they had to daily make sacrifices. Jesus made a way for us sinners to approach Him through the renewal and daily cleanse of the Holy Spirit. That law didn’t go away. He said He didn’t come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. Romans 8:4, “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” The fulfillment of the law is His presence within us. His presence is the same as it was in the Old Testament, it still requires a pure heart to come before Him. That’s why Jesus made a way for us through Him. That’s why He is the ONLY gateway to God, because the Holy Spirit was made available to us, to be made manifest IN US, to sanctify us before the Lord. Romans 1:19, “Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.”

Romans 7:7, “What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” What does that mean? He’s basically saying here, if he didn’t know the law and it wasn’t written on his heart, then he wouldn’t know what sin is. The law is the voice of the Holy Spirit within us that tells us what is right and wrong. It’s what keeps us on God’s path for us in Him. It convicts us. It becomes the voice inside of us giving us the push to where we need to go. Jesus made the law that was written in stone, His Spirit within us. That’s what the Book of Hebrews talks about too. That’s why we can get so confused and judgmental and have such different definitions of what sin can look like. Only His Spirit defines what sin is. Because sin is whatever keeps us from His plan for us. Only His Spirit within us is the law and the only thing that can convict us. That’s what the Bible’s definition of righteous judgment is. It’s not us “righteous people who judge”, because we aren’t righteous without the Holy Spirit, and the moment we view ourselves better than others, we’re in sin ourselves. Viewing ourselves better than others is not operating out of the perspective of the Holy Spirit. Those who do, that’s a dead giveaway that it’s not the Holy Spirit’s perspective, but their’s. Romans 2:2, “But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.” Truth according to the Bible, is Jesus and His Holy Spirit, the “Spirit of Truth” (John 16:13). The Bible doesn’t spell every single sin out and it doesn’t give us a prompter script on the exact thing to say in every conversation every day. It gives us all the foundational tools needed, but that’s why it presses us to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The Bible is God breathed and His Word which also became flesh, Jesus. Jesus is within us. Reading and studying scripture activates that Spirit within us. His Spirit confirms the Word and vice versa. They don’t take away from each other. His Word just has two forms. The entire Bible points to Jesus. Keeping from sin is just being able to decipher His voice within us. We can’t keep ourselves from sin, but His Spirit within us does. That’s what I also believe Mark 3:29 means when it says, “But he that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost hath never forgiveness, but is in danger of eternal damnation.” Because if you deny or reject His Spirit within you, you can’t be pure before the presence of the Lord. That’s why we have to be so careful not to attack what the Holy Spirit does within others. If we’re not fully operating in the Holy Spirit, we judge others and could prevent both them and us from eternity with Him.

What separates Christianity from other religions is that Christianity is about a RELATIONSHIP with Christ. It’s not about a HAVE TO, but a WANT TO because we love Him that much. Jesus has FREED us from oppression and obligation. Obedience in Christ is not about slavery. It’s about reverence to His goodness, knowing that His ways are higher because He just wants us to experience His incredible love. Relationship with Him is all about His love for us and for us to become better at loving how He does. That’s why the two GREATEST commandments were to love. That’s why He said, “above all, LOVE.” Because FULLY loving Him and others wholeheartedly like He does, will keep you from doing wrong against anyone, including Him. It keeps you blameless and full of righteousness (the Holy Spirit). Being that kind of love to others will draw them to come to know Him. No one will deny that kind of love. That’s why it is so important to demonstrate that kind of love in all we do. The only way to do that is tune into the Holy Spirit inside of us to renew our perspective in each moment.

Being saved is about becoming a new spirit within Him. Salvation means “rest”. Hebrews 4:10, “For he that is entered into His rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God did from His.” God always teaches through example. He rested, so we must rest. God rested from His works on day 7 to allow man to have dominion and authority over the Earth, which we handed over to the devil through disobedience. God is trying to teach us to gain that authority right back. The authority was taken back on the cross and He’s trying to teach us that the victory is already won and we must grab that authority through His Holy Spirit to win over the enemy when he comes against us. God’s functionality of the Kingdom was for Adam to rest back onto the Lord. That’s why pride was the original sin. Because it went against the functionality of the Kingdom. We were created to be selfless to give back to Him and others what He has given to us. It’s letting go the image and “works”/mindset of selfish man, and grabbing hold of the image of Christ.

Scripture says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” How do we believe on Him? We believe by faith. Faith is by “hearing and hearing the Word of God.” His definition and our definition of “hearing” are two totally different things. We think that if we just hear with our ears, we will be saved. Well we know just by shear display everyday that isn’t true. We can hear something all day long, it doesn’t mean we believe it. “Hearing” according to God, is having an ear for His Holy Spirit. Because by being guided by His Holy Spirit, we are renewed and transformed as we walk through life. Romans 4:16, “Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all.” Grace is something so much deeper than we think. It’s His supernatural perspective. It’s the power of His Spirit. Just look up all the references of grace in the Bible to see for yourself. Faith, through grace, keeps us pure and ready to be presented before the Lord. Grace keeps us in His perspective.

Loving people like Christ has loved us doesn’t accept sin. Love covers sin because God is love. His Holy Spirit is love. His Spirit within us covers the sin and transforms how we think according to what He thinks. That’s how both David and Joseph were able to subdue kingdoms. They were daily tuned into the voice of God. They were vessels of that voice. They spoke out the words of the Spirit of God and people listened. The Spirit of God within us has to become so evident that the devil has no place in this world. It should be our mission to portray that love daily and allow it to become so contagious that the devil no longer has any room in this world. Maybe that’s why Hebrews 10:13 says Jesus is, “From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.” He’s trying to align us with the authority in Him to overpower the darkness of this world so He can make His reappearance for complete restoration. He is always trying to steer us back according to His will. We don’t know when He will return again, but that’s not our mission. Our mission is to reflect what’s in heaven, here on earth. We are too exude His love and goodness, so others can be drawn to Him and His heavenly plan for them. FULLY believing in His power is resting in that authority of His power. It’s us knowing that He is in us, working for our good, rising us up against our enemies in the spirit, and becoming victorious in Him because He already won the victory over darkness. We just have to recognize that. Why are we giving into the idea that evil wins? He is trying to show us that evil does not have a place within the power of His Spirit. Don’t let what the perspective of man and his perspective of the “end times” has lead you to think and believe. His Holy Spirit will show you want He wants us to do and it will confirm everything He was trying to tell us in scripture. Mark 13:34, “For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.”

It’s time for us to rise to what God is calling us to do in Him. It’s time to flip the script of the enemy. Strive every single day to passionately love the Father and love others wholeheartedly. Love is a powerful weapon. This ain’t no hippie flower child type of love and peace. This is the love and peace of His Holy Spirit. It will overturn kingdoms and nations.

Romans 13:10-14 ¹⁰ Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ¹¹ And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. ¹² The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. ¹³ Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. ¹⁴ But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

Fear is the opposite of love. That’s why Satan tempts us with fear and pride. It skews our perception of the Father and His will for us. “Fearing the Lord” is completely different within His will. It’s not what Satan has led us to believe. It’s complete reverence and awe of His power. It’s letting ourselves go completely and bowing before Him. The purpose of His fire and indignation in the end days is to bring forth His love. For those who aren’t walking in His love are in fear for punishment, but those who walk in His love and in the power of His Holy Spirit, escape the fear of punishment because they understand His will is to save and renew. There’s no need to fear and operate in bitterness and anger. Perfect love casts out all fear. Perfect love restores this fallen world. 1 John 4:18, ^“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.”