The Greatest Gift is Love

1 Corinthians 13: 13, And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. NKJV

As Christians, our primary focus should be our personal relationship with the Father. Why do I say this? We have an adversary called the Devil that is just looking for an opportunity to attack our faith in Jesus. We can inadvertently open the door for Satan to pull us away from intimacy with Jesus through hurts... if we should place more importance on the gifts than on loving the Giver of those gifts. If you will meditate on the true purpose of a spiritual gift, you will soon realize that they were given to express God's love and grace to those who are in need of a touch from God.

We are ambassadors of God; we are also citizens of God's kingdom and are called to release the power of Christ into a fallen world. Jesus has commissioned us to go into the entire world and be witnesses to them of the power and the authority that we have as children of God in the name of Jesus. It is very easy to get caught up in the spiritual gifts and forget that we have an enemy who seeks to attack us so that he can discourage us from being salt and light in the world. Perhaps this is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to consider Jesus when suffering for the sake of the cross, lest we become discouraged in our souls and want to quit.

If you exercise your body, it will become stronger. If you exercise your mind with memory techniques and broadening your knowledge through reading, it will strengthen your mind. If we exercise the gifts that God has given us, we can become very developed in their use and can assist others in their faith walk. But if we neglect our relationship with the Father because of the acceptance we gain by touching other people's hearts and lives with our spiritual gifts, then we can stumble at offense when the enemy attacks us. Jesus never forsook His relationship with His Father because of the need of the people who sought Him out to be healed. Look at the times that He left the masses behind to go into the mountains in order to get alone with the Father. What was He doing while alone in prayer; he was receiving strength, refreshing, and instruction from the Father as to what would be required of Him in the next season. (Ref. Isaiah 50: 4 - 6)

Jesus was sent to teach us, God's children, how to have and maintain a healthy relationship with the Father. He wasn't strong because He was able to perform great miracles; He was strong because He knew the Father intimately and personally and out of that relationship, He had the confidence to perform supernatural acts. If we are strong in the operation of our gifts and weak in knowing God, then we can fall prey to temptation and offense. But if we are strong in our relationship with our Father, it will only intensify our gifts to a higher level... so that we might continue being a blessing to others.

How is you love walk with the Father? Are you works driven or spirit led? Daniel 11 says that those who KNOW their God shall be strong and do great exploits. The key to knowing the Father is through trusting in Him to lead you through the valley. Always look to Him when you have a need or are puzzled about your next decision or season in life. This will greatly diminish the adverse affects of the enemy's traps that he sets against us all.

Every time the enemy tried to stop Jesus, He would just pass through the crowd, and they wouldn't even know what happened to Him. You can begin today, if you haven't already, to learn how to disarm the enemy's traps through a personal relationship with the Father. Simply invest time seeking the Father's heart and begin to ask for His wisdom on how to be an effective minister or Christian. James says that He will give us His wisdom liberally and without rebuke. All you have to do is Ask, Seek, and Knock! Remember love is the greatest of all.

Loving It,
Pastor Asa