Go With The Flow part 5
Going wth the flow is all about rest instead of works and labor. It is all about letting what's inside of you (the love of God... the love that IS God) flow out of you simply by believing that it's in there. Because here's a very important truth: What's in you comes out of you. What you believe is what you do. And that's important because if, for example, you believe that you're a sinner (even a sinner saved by grace)... then at the end of the day you're going to sin. Because that's who you believe you are. And no matter how hard you try to be someone else, at the end of the day you are who you are. Here's the good news: the cross took a sinner (all of mankind) and transformed him into a saint! You no longer have a sin nature, so at the end of the day that's NOT who you are. You have a new nature, because you're a new creation. And that new nature is the love nature. Your default setting is not to sin. Your default nature is to love. Because you ARE loved... and because you are LOVE. I said all that to say this: Love isn't about trying to be nice to someone. That's works and labor. And love--on this side of the cross--is NOT about the so-called "golden rule." Love is not, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Because that's actually a selfish mindset. "I want you to be nice to me, so I guess I'll force myself to be nice to you." Love is, "We love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). And we love Him BY loving each other. So our love for one another doesn't come from a hope that we will be loved back. We don't love in order to BE loved. We love because we ARE loved. We don't, "fake it until we make it." We, "go with the flow." There's a river of life that flows out of the throne. Out of the judgment seat that--through the cross--became a mercy seat. And that same river of life feeds the Tree of Life. We are branches of the Tree of Life and we bear (or carry) the fruit of the Spirit (which is love) to those that need it. And just for the record, "those that need it" is EVERYBODY. We are equipped and empowered to love EVERYBODY because we aren't doing it in order to get something from anybody. We are doing it because we are filled to overflowing with love. And when we believe on Jesus--when we believe that the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into His hands, and when we believe that we are that same beloved Son in whom He is well pleased--then the river that's flowing INTO us flows OUT of us. We don't have to do anything to produce this fruit, or earn this love and acceptance. All we have to do is jump in the river and let it carry us where it wants to go. Let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow us wherever He wants us to go. Stop trying to follow in Jesus' foot steps (which is impossible) and just let Him make His own foot steps with our feet. Stop trying to be somebody we're not and just begin to let Jesus be Himself in and through and as us. That's what rest is all about. It's not inactivity, it's Holy Spirit directed activity. It's love nature directed activity. And if your love nature is directing you... then you're going to love. If you KNOW and BELIEVE that you're loved... then that's not just what you do, but that's who you are!