I read this quote the other day: "Everything you want is on the other side of fear." And it got me thinking... how often do we miss out on something because we're afraid to go for it? If you're always afraid to go out on a limb, you'll never get any fruit. Because that's where the fruit is! And the really cool part of this analogy is that WE are the branches! We already have everything we need. It's just the actual act of walking in faith that allows us to receive, and release, and experience the gift we've been given. There's another old saying, "Fortune favors the bold." Those who have what they want are those who were willing to go after it. Those who weren't afraid. I mean, they even say more is lost by no decion than wrong decision. But we seem to find ourselves paralyzed by fear. Afraid to get what we want because we're afraid to lose what we've got. Which brings me to one of my favorite quotes of all time, "It's only after you've lose everything that you're free to do anything." We let stuff hold us back. We let society dictate the terms of our existence. We scrape by, robbing ourselves of the gift we've been given by trying to earn something that can't be earned. Trying to earn love because we're afraid nobody could possibly love us just the way we are. And that's why 1 John 4:17-18 is so vitally important. "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. 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." Now I've written at length about the truth that there is no difference, no separation, between us and God. We are Jesus. God in the flesh, love in a body. God in OUR flesh. Love in OUR body. And I don't want to belabour that here. What I want to focus on is our ability to live without limits. The Law of Moses put limits and restrictions on people. Society does the same thing. Everything and everybody seems to want to make us fit into a box. And they try to scare us into that box. They try to hold the idea of punishment over our heads. They try to torment us. But that's not love. Love is not about getting your own way. It's about giving everything you have and everything you are. Laying your life down for your friends. Love is not limited by anything. Especially not fear. Because perfect love casts out fear. Where there is love there is no fear. Because love equips and empowers us. To live. To experience Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us! As He is, so are we in this world. Because He is as He is... in us! So. Filled to overflowing with the love of that Father. Secure in the knowledge that we have everything we will ever need. We have been blessed with all Spiritual blessings. We have been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. Jesus did it all so we could get it all. And now we have it all. And now we can truly live. Now we can truly love. Now we don't have to be limited by fear, or anything else. We are connected to the source of love, so we don't have to be afraid of losing what we've got. We can love without expectations, and without limits. We can truly experience abundance. We can truly experience what it means to have everything we want. Because we already have it. Going out on a limb simply means looking inside ourselves and seeing Daddy's heart beating with love in our chests. A love that never ends, and never stop. A love that is... unlimited.

I started this Rant series with the idea of, "How do I be kind when what I want is in direct opposition to what you want?" And that's where I want to end it. We've looked at a lot of different aspects of kindness. What it means, how it's possible. But, again, I want to really hit the idea of denying myself in order to give you what you need. Philippians 2:3 kind of says it perfectly. "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves." I mean, really, that's it in a nutshell. You can either be "right" and cause strife... or you can be kind. You can either build your own kingdom and always try to get get get... or you can know and believe you already have it all and you can share what you've got. You can try to climb over people to make yourself seem higher, or (in lowliness of mind) you can esteem others better than yourself. And listen, I'm not saying you have to get down on yourself. Being humble isn't thinking less of yourself. It's simply thinking of yourself less. Being Christ-centered by being people-centered. And when you love others, I'm telling you, that's the best way to feel love. We receive it right? But we receive it in order to release it. It's more blessed to GIVE than to receive. You have to receive first, so you have something to give, but receiving is not the be-all end-all. So when it comes to dealing with other people--being kind to other people--what it really comes down to is making the decision to sacrifice everything you are and everything you have. And you can't do that without letting the mind of Christ (that's already in you) BE in you. Remember when Jesus knelt down and washed His disciples feet? He humbled Himself. Not because they were better than Him... but because He loved them and He wanted something better for them. Jesus said it this way, "For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45). And then, of course, there was Jesus' prayer in the garden of Gethsemane. "And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, "O my Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). He was putting others first. Just like He always did. Because Jesus is the embodiement of love. Literally God in the flesh. Love in a body. He did everything He did because He was moved with compassion and motivated by love. He didn't think He was better than anybody. And He knew it was more important to do what others needed than what He wanted. That's what love is. Love is giving. Laying your life down for your friends. Esteeming others higher than yourself. Denying yourself so that you can stop trying to get and start giving. Kindness means usefullness. And unless your meeting a need, all the nice words in the world aren't that useful. Again, sometimes the right word can be useful. But my point is, we have everything we need. Because we know and believe we're connected to the source of love. The God who IS love. So we can be kind. We can put others first. And here's a secret about the sacrificial nature of love--it IS a sacrifice, but if you love someone doing whatever it takes for them doesn't FEEL like a sacrifice. It's not hard, it's our nature. It only gets twisted when we have expectations of what's supposed to happen. Perfect love casts out all fear because it loves for the sake of loving. We don't have to be afraid of what will happen. We can love without expectation and without limits!

I think what we want from others is really what we want from ourselves. We want others to be kind, because really our desire is OUR kindess. We want the light to shine, but we have a hard time believing it comes from within. We think the light needs to shine ON us, when really it shines OUT of us! That's why the Kingdom of God (Kingdom of Love) seems so upside down and backwards. We are thinking externally, when we need to live from within. It's like the Wizard of Oz. Everything we're looking for is found inside. But when we run around like chickens with their heads cut off, looking for love in all the wrong places, we miss out on what's already available to us. We rob ourselves from the gift we've been given by trying to enter the sheepfold any other way but the door. The door is Jesus. The door is the heart. It's all about what's in your heart. And what's in your heart? Love! (What else?) And when we know and believe that love is in there, when we fill ourselves with what we've been filled with by letting Daddy love us, it comes out. Naturally. Then we can stop trying to get something from others and we can start sharing what we've got WITH others. I call it receiving and releasing. And when it comes to dealing with other people I think it's vitally important to release our desire: our kindness. To be useful to others. To understand that everybody is going through "stuff." And we don't even really need to know what someone's particular "stuff" is. If we DO know there's a good chance we've been through the same thing and can be REALLY useful by helping them through it. But I'm talking about random acts of kindness. I'm talking about doing small things with great love. You don't have know someone's whole story to know what they need. They need love. And sometimes that means an ear to listen. Or a shoulder to cry on. Sometimes it means just spending a little bit of time with someone. (I actually think that's a really big one. Because, especially in this day and age of everything being online, I think people are lonlier than ever. We lose ourselves in crowded rooms because we're isolated by the internet. Real human connection with another person is increasingly rare, but vitally important.) And the thing about these small acts is that while it might not feel like you're changing the world, you just might be changing one person's world. And then, who knows? They might go on to do great things. They might be empowered by the love you give, and they might give love on such a grand scale that neither you nor they would have ever imagined it. And all you thought you were doing was being kind. Putting someone else's needs above your own. (And really fulfilling your own need in the process.) Guys, love is not about getting. We already have everything we need. Love is about giving. Because love IS giving. God so loved the world He GAVE His only Son. Jesus GAVE His life both for us, and to us. The kindest, most loving thing you can do is give yourself to someone. But that's impossible if you're focused on getting. That's impossible if you think you have nothing to give. So first we must receive. Then we have something to release. You can't give what you don't have. But when you know Daddy loves you, that's when you have an infinite source of love to give. That's when kindness isn't a struggle, but is our very nature. The New Nature of the New Man. The love nature!

When you dig down deep enough, you always seem to find that the things you take for granted--Biblically speaking--are upside down and backwards. This selfish, self-centered carnal mind that we so often rely on is always just... wrong. Let me explain. We think it's all about getting. Because we feel this God-shaped void inside us. So we try to fill it. That's what the entire book of Ecclesiastes is about, right? Trying any and every thing to fill that void. But a God-shaped void can only be filled by God. So when we spend all of our time, talent, and treasure looking for love in all the wrong places we end up robbing ourselves of the gift we've been given. We end up missing out on what we already have because we don't know and believe that we have it. And that's why God poured out His Spirit on all flesh. The Holy Spirit--the mind of Christ--is our love receptor. He is the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. Into the upside down, backwards economy of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of love. And that's why Jesus always said things like, "And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last" (Luke 13:30). He was trying to get us to understand just how different the Kingdom really is. "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world..." (John 18:36). So now that I've (hopefully) laid some foundation for a different way of thinking, let me quote my verse for today. Proverbs 19:22, "The desire of a man is his kindness: and a poor man is better than a liar." Think about that for a minute. A man's desire is HIS kindness. Not the kindness of others, but his own kindness. That's not the traditional thought, is it? We think about what we want from others more than what we want from ourselves. But that's that carnal mind. The mind of Christ is not self-centered. It is Christ-centered. Which means it is people-centered. Whatever we do to the least of them we do unto Him, right? Which, since we ARE Him means whatever we do to others we do to ourselves. So instead of expecting things from others--which is the quickest recipe for disaster that I know of--and instead of putting yokes and burdens on others... we need to look within. And when we see that light shining within us (God filled that dark void inside of us when He spoke, and said, "Let there be light.") that's when it shines OUT of us. That's when we start to overflow with the love we've been filled with. That's when we CAN deny ourselves and put other's first. (And, again, that means that we are, in a sense, putting ourselves first because we're all part of the same body.) I'm telling you, there's no better way to be happy than to make someone else happy. We think our desire is for someone to make US happy. For someone to be kind to US. But our REAL desire is OUR kindness. Our real desire is to share what we have. That's why receiving and releasing is so vitally important. Because if we know and believe that we are loved... that's when we CAN love. That's the only way and the only reason we can love. That's how we obey the New Commandment. We let Jesus love us, and then we love one another with that same love. We let Daddy be kind to us, and then we be kind to each other. We share what we've been given, instead of trying to always get get get. We already have it all, and it's way too good to keep to ourselves. The desire of our heart is to be loved. To be kind. And they go hand in hand. When we know that we ARE loved we can BE kind!

We're all basically the same. We're all just people. But at the same time we are all completely unique. Totally and utterly different. There's no one in the world just like me, or just like you. And that means even though we are all going through the same thing--the human existence--we all go through it differently. Things that bother me might not bother you, and vice versa. So if I try to apply how I feel about something to how you should feel about it... that's the opposite of empathy. That's not me being selfless, that's me being selfish. That's me being unkind. Remember yesterday we saw that "kindess" means "useful." And if I'm trying to prove that I'm right and you're wrong... that's not useful. That doesn't help anybody. And that got me to thinking about Matthew 16:24, "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." Now I've gone on record a bunch of times saying I don't think we are supposed to deny ourselves in the sense to rejecting who we are and trying to be someone we're not. And I don't think it's "our" cross that we need to take up, until we understand that HIS cross IS our cross. And when that happens we truly come after Him, or follow Him, by letting Him walk in our feet. But when I was thinking about acts of kindness I was thinking about literally denying ourselves. Saying, "What YOU want is more important that what I want." Esteeming others higher than ourselves. But, like I was trying to say yesterday, I think that can be one of the hardest things to do. I think the two hardest things in the universe are: 1. Doing something we don't want to do. And 2. Not doing something we do want to do. And I don't REALLY think that's even possible... but God. I don't think it's possible to deny yourself... unless you're in love. And I'm not talking about romantic love. I'm talking about dwelling in love. I'm talking about being so in love with LIFE--because your life is so full of love--that everything else pales in comparision. I'm talking about giving everything you are and everything you have for somebody else. Not because you expect to get anything back, but simply because you have what they need and are willing to share it. Simply because you love them. And I'm telling you, it is only possible TO love when you know that you ARE loved. You can't give what you don't have, right? And you can only give what you do have. So it all comes down to knowing and believing the love of Christ. A disciple--which is who Jesus was talking to in Matthew 16:24--is a student of love. Learning how to love, by learning how Daddy loves us. Receiving God's love, and then releasing it by letting it fill us to overflowing. And then denying yourself becomes easy. Because then you know you already have everything you need. And if you already have everything you need you don't need anything from anybody. (Makes sense, right?) So then you can give THEM what THEY need. You can be kind. All of the time. To everybody. Because you're not on your guard. Because you know you're safe, no matter what. Daddy's got your back. He is your source and your supply. An abundant supply! So you can share what you've got. You can give people what they need. Even if it flies in the face of what you want. Remember the old song? "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need." We have what we need! Now we can share it with others!

This Rant series is a little personal to me. You know how they say preacher's who go on a specific sin hunt are usually dealing with the very thing they're preaching against? Well, I'm dealing with the balance between giving people what they need, while also taking care of myself. And I know I always preach about, "If I take care of you and you take care of me neither one of us will have to take care of ourselves." But it doesn't always feel like someone (anyone) is taking care of me. And I know my help, my strength, comes from the Lord. But sometimes it feels like you give, and give, and give and never get anything back. And that leaves you feeling empty. And I know we're connected to the inexhaustable source. We only give what Daddy gave us. What I'm dealing with is the practical application of being kind to everybody no matter what. Which is what Ephesians 4:32 says, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." Forgive... as you have been forgiven. Love... as you are loved. Be kind... as He is kind to you. So, again, I understand where my source is. That's not what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about is what happens when what someone else needs (or wants) is in direct opposition to what I need (or want). When the rubber meets the road. When love gets tough. So first things first, let's define what we're tlaking about. "Kind" is number 5543 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "employed, that is, (by implication) useful: - better, easy, good (-ness), gracious." So we're not talking about just saying something to someone (although that in and of itself can be very useful). We're not talking about faith without works. We're talking about charity. Love in action. We're talking about making things better for someone else. Making things easier. Employing ourselves in the service of others. And a real quick aside here, I truly believe that that's how we most FEEL love... when we are loving others. I've found that Jesus was right (imagine that) when He said it was more blessed to give than to receive. Making someone else feel better really does make me feel better. But, again, while I might "know" that, sometimes I need some help to KNOW that. (Head knowledge vs heart knowledge.) And I guess it really comes down to trust. Do you trust Daddy to take care of you? Do you trust Him to fill you back up once you empty yourself out? Once you give everything you have and everything you are to someone else? Do you trust Daddy to hold you up when you're too weak, or too empty, to stand on your own? That kind of trust is hard. And that kind of love is rare. But it's the love that Jesus spoke about when He told us there is no greater love than laying your life down for your friends. And it's the love that Jesus showed us when He layed His life down for us on the cross. So here's what I'm saying--and today I'm just gonna say it, then the next couple of days I'm going to dig into it--put others first. Just do it. What's that old saying? "Always be kind, because everybody you meet is going through a struggle that you know nothing about." Everybody is going through "stuff." And everybody needs the same thing: Love. So since we have it (and more importantly, since we know and believe that we have it) we ought to share it. Give people what they need. Be kind.

True success--and the reason that love never fails--is not about what you get. It's about what you give. If you give love, you've succeeded. Just as the Word itself (Himself) prospered in what it (He) set out to do. Which was to prosper you! To give you the Kingdom. And that's what we do when we love each other with the love that we are loved with; we spread the gospel of the Kingdom. We increase the ever increasing Kingdom. See the difference? We're not trying to build our own kingdom. We're simply sharing what we've got. We're simply exposing others TO the Kingdom, so that they can enjoy it too. Jesus established it. God gave it to us. Free of charge. Because it was His good pleasure. Because He loves us. He succeeded. All throughout the Old Testament God told the people what the cry of His heart was. He wanted to be their God and He wanted them to be His people. But it wasn't until the cross that the work was finished. It isn't until we get to the book of Revelation--which, in my opinion, is an in-depth look at the cross--that we see this, " I heard a voice thunder from the Throne: “Look! Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women! They’re his people, he’s their God" (Revelation 21:3 MSG). Finally, He made His home with us. He made His home IN us! Not just "God with us" but God WITHIN us! The circumcision made without hands cut away the flesh of human effort from our hearts. It cut away the lie that we have to do in order to be. It cut away man-centered, performance based religion. And it revealed God's heart in our chest. Beating with love. God succeeded in what He set out to do. He reconciled us back to Himself. He became flesh and dwelt among us, then He was lifted up on the cross and drew us all into Himself. And planted Himself in us. So that three days after the seed died, it brought forth a great harvest. Remember, sometimes all YOU need to do is plant a seed. Or water a seed. Because it is GOD that makes it grow. He is the light of the world. Plants grow in soil, with water and sunlight (Sonlight) right? It's not us trying to be someone we're not, or get something we haven't got. It's God showing us who we really are, and what we have been freely given, by revealing Himself to us, and in us, and through us, and as us! It's about receiving and releasing. Loving others as Daddy loves us. Living for others instead of living selfishly is a successful life. Just as a life filled to overflowing with love is an abundant life. An everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life! That's what Jesus came to give us. Because He loves us. He didn't just give His life FOR us, He also gave His life TO us. So that we could experience it as He lives it in us. So that we could experience it by sharing it with others. So that we could love as we are loved. So that we could truly live. Not by getting, but by giving (or sharing) what we've got! There's no greater success than that!

I suppose it comes down to what you're trying to accomplish. If you're trying to get something, then you aren't dealing with love at all. And even though you might think you're loving someone, you will be left wondering why "love" wasn't enough. Because love is never about getting. Love IS giving. Giving everything you are and everything you have for others. Even though it feels like the more you love people the less they love you. That's where our expectations screw us up. We think "love" should be received the way WE would receive it, and we think it should be returned the way WE want it to be returned. But sometimes I think something happens to people and they don't know how to react. Let me show you an example. The baby Jesus was born. "And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:18-19). Sometimes that's all you can do; just store it up in your heart. Sometimes you don't understand why someone would be so nice to you. You're speechless. Well, if that person is looking for a response they aren't going to be satisfied. But kindness isn't kindness if it requires a reward. Love isn't love unless it is freely given. And look at what the Apostle Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 3:6 (NLT), "I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow." If we look at "success" as an immediate return on investment we are going to be disappointed. Because a seed doesn't grow overnight. If you plant a seed and then immediately dig it up and wonder why it hasn't given you the harvest... you aren't much of a farmer. And as Paul was saying, it's a team effort. Sometimes that random act of kindness will be treasured and pondered in someone's heart, just waiting for an opportunity to grow. I think we really limit (or quench?) the Holy Spirit when we don't give people opportunities. We require so much of people that they oftentimes buckle under the weight of yoke. They were all fired up to release what they received, but we made them jump through a bunch of religious hoops and rained all over their parade. Didn't Jesus just tell people to go forth? Didn't the early church just lay hands on people and send them out? Plant a seed and let it grow. Or water a seed that's already been planted. But don't think someone else's response is your responsibility. One of the most freeing things that ever happened to me was when I first started ministering. My pastor told me, "You can't make people do anything. You can't make them listen, and you can't make apply what you teach. All YOU can do is listen to God and do what He leads you to do." And from that point on I was off and running. Not driving myself crazy trying to modify people's behavior, but simply shouting the good news as loudly as I could. Not telling people what to do, but telling people who they are. And then trusting the Holy Spirit to lead and guide them. Letting GOD make it grow. Judging success by what I do instead of how others respond to it. Making sure I'm deep in Daddy's love, overflowing with it so it gets on whoever I come into contact with, and not worrying about what they do with it. Loving because it's what I have, not because there's something I'm trying to get!

As simply as I can put it... sometimes it seems like love is not enough because we put an impossible expectation on it. We "love" in order to GET, instead of loving in order to GIVE what we have! Look at 2 Corinthians 12:15 in the NLT, "I will glady spend myself and all I have for you, even though it seems that the more I love you, the less you love me." I literally can't say it any better than that. I've found many times in my life that love is one of the most misunderstood actions in the whole universe. When I love someone, it seems as though they immediately think I have an ulterior motive. What they don't understand is that love doesn't HAVE a motive, love IS the motive. But they always try to figure out what I'm up to. The more I love people, the less they seem to love me. And I THINK this comes from the idea that most people have that goes like this: "I'm not worthy of love." And I think THAT idea comes from the fact that we know the worst things we've ever done. Because we did them. So when we think about love, we think about ourselves at our worst and we can't believe anyone COULD love us. Love--even though it is the desire, and the cry of our hearts--seems too good to be true. So when someone gives it to us (ESPECIALLY when someone gives it to us without expectation) we don't trust it. It doesn't make sense. Remember Eve in the garden of Eden? When the serpent hissed in her ear and told her she had to DO in order to BE... that she had to EARN God's love and acceptance... she swallowed that lie immediately and whole heartedly. "Of COURSE I have to do something to be like God!" Even though man was made in God's image. We were already like Him. We just didn't know it because it was dark and we couldn't see. We couldn't see God, and we couldn't see ourselves. It wasn't until the light of the world began to shine. It wasn't until the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And then, even better, through the cross the Word took up abode IN us! The light (that was always buried deep down inside us) began to shine and we could finally see. The Word accomplished, and prospered, what it set out to do. And what it set out to do... was prosper us! Give us something better than what we could ever ask for or even think about. Jesus came to give us life and that more abundantly. And LOVE is what makes abundant life abundant. Everlasting life is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent. Living in the context of Sonship. Knowing who we are, and knowing who our Daddy is. That's what love set out to do. And that's what love DID. Remember when Jesus said, "It is finished"? The King established the Kingdom. And that's WHERE we are, and that's WHO we are! So when we're thinking about love never failing... we ought to think about spending ourselves and all we have on each other. Jesus said there is no greater love that a man can have than laying down his life for his friends. That's what He did for us on the cross, and that's what we do for each other every time we put someone else first. Every time we esteem others higher than ourselves. Every time we love without expectation. Not trying to "get" anything. But giving what we've got. Receiving and releasing the love of the Father. And when we do that... that's when love never fails. It may not always do what YOU think it should, but it always does what it's supposed to do. A light in the darkness. Revealing things as they really are.

I think where we get into trouble with a verse like, "Love never fails," is that we think that means we can use love to get whatever we want. And that is, quite honestly, the farthest thing from the truth. Because love is NEVER about getting. Love is always about giving. Because love IS giving. So in order for love to never fail, we need to understand what it means for love to succeed. And what it means for love to succeed is for us to give ourselves to each other. And in that way we spread the gospel of the Kingdom. In that way we share the Kingdom. Because we don't just live IN the Kingdom, we ARE the Kingdom. The King lives in us, right? And wherever the King rules and reings, that's where--that's what--the Kingdom is. So when we see a verse like Isaiah 9:7, "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this," we start to undertand what's going on here. And the first thing I see is that the zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this! It's not about what WE do, it's about what HE did. On the cross. 2,000 years ago. The Kingdom HAS come. The King established it. For us... and in us. And the goverment and peace--the government OF peace--has no end because HE continues to reveal Himself to us, and through us, and in us, and as us! He continues to fill us to overflowing with Himself. With His love. So that we can obey the New Commandment and love one another as He loves us. Did you catch that? We love AS we are loved. We don't love in order to try to get something. We love because we have something. And the thing we have is too good to keep to ourselves. Before the cross man thought God's love was too good to be true. But he wanted it. Desperately. So he tried to earn it. He tried to get enough knowledge about good and evil that he might only do good and stop doing evil. But he didn't realize good and evil were on the same tree. The tree of death. And it wasn't until Jesus cursed that fig tree--because it couldn't produce any fruit--that we come to the true paradise of God (New Jerusalem) and we see that there is only one tree left. The Tree of Life. It wasn't until God poured out His Spirit on all flesh that we could finally see His love for what it is: Not something too good to be true, but something so good that it must be THE truth! That's what the Holy Spirit is; our love receptor. He is the Spirit of truth that leads and guides us into all truth. The ultmate truth of the universe that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hand. The ultimate truth that Daddy loves us. That it was His good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom. Eternal life--which is knowing the Father and the One whom He sent (living in the context of Sonship)--is a gift. And you can't earn a gift. And you can't use a gift to get something from people. So when we have this "I love you, you have to love me back. I'll scratch your back, but you better scratch mine" mentality... that's not love. That's selfishness. And love is selfLESS not selfish. Love gives. Love gives itself. Love lays His life down for His friends. So we can HAVE that life of love. So we can experience it by loving one another as we are loved. Love is what makes an abundant life abundant. Loving others is what truly makes life a success!