Beloved part 2
Jesus gave us a New Commandment. And it goes like this, "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (John 13:34). In other words, "Receive my love and release it to others." That's what this life is all about. It's about living. And to live is to love. To love is to live. You can't have one without the other because they are the same thing. The difference between life and death... is love. And not just love, but agape love. God love. This love that IS God. A Father's love for His Son. For His beloved. That's what the Holy Spirit does when He leads and guides us into all truth; He leads us into our true identity by testifying of Jesus. He leads us into the ultimate truth of the universe--that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands. That WE are the Son that the Father loves, and is well pleased with! That's the way of grace. And we respond to it with the walk of faith. We respond to this glorious truth... by knowing it and believing it. By LETTING God love us. That's what beloved means. It means we let ourselves BE loved by God. Instead of trying to earn it by being someone we're not... we simply receive it by resting in who we are. Who we REALLY are. Our true identity. The inner man. The hidden man of the heart. Jesus. God in the flesh. Love in a body. Isn't it interesting that when Jesus was baptized the Holy Spirit rested on Him in the shape of a dove AND THEN His Father proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased"? It was the Holy Spirit bringing that truth to life. It wasn't what Jesus had done--because He hadn't done anything yet. No miracles or anything like that--it was who Jesus was. It was the Father loving His Son. And remember, that's the difference between Adam and Jesus. Both sons of God. Both loved by God. But Jesus what the "beloved" Son of God. Jesus KNEW He was loved. He let Himself BE loved. He didn't try to earn it, because He knew He already had it. He lived in the Father, and He lived by the Father. He knew who He was. He received it... and He released it. And that's what He commanded us to do too. Jesus said it's better to give than to receive, but you first have to receive so that we have something to give. That's why Jesus said, "...as I have loved you..." That's why 1 John 4:19 says, "We love him, because he first loved us." (And we love Him BY loving each other!) Our love FOR God comes FROM God. Remember my favorite song, "How He Loves"? It focuses on HIS love for US. When we fill ourselves to overflowing with what we've been filled with... that's when it comes out naturally. That's when the new commandment stops being a rule to follow and simply becomes human nature. Our new nature. The love nature. What we do flows from who we are. Or rather, who we believe we are. So it's imperative that we KNOW who we are. That we know who God is. That we understand Song of Solomon 2:16, "My beloved is mine, and I am his..." It's this relationship--NOT religion--that makes life worth living. That makes it possible for us to live Jesus' abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life by letting Him live His own life in us, and through us, and as us. I am His and He is mine. There is no separation. No difference. We are One. Beloved.