Release part 3
This may not be one of the first verses you think of when it comes to the idea of receiving and releasing--receiving BY releasing--but that's why I'm going to dig into it today. Someone once told me I don't see the Bible the same way many other pastors do. And I took that as a compliment. So let's look at Romans 12:2... differently. "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." And first things first: God doesn't have three wills. He doesn't have a good will, an acceptable will, and a perfect will. His will is good, acceptable, and perfect. Look at Romans 8:27, "And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God." The will of God, the mind of the Spirit, is found in the heart. Because God is love. The will of God... is love. Love is what is good, and acceptable, and perfect. Making intercession. Laying your life down for your friends. Giving everything you have and everything you are to, and for, others. That's the New Commandment--love one another as Jesus loves you. That's what God wants. He wants us to know and believe His love so completely that we can't help but love one another with that same love. He wants us to receive His love... and release His love. He wants us to fill ourselves to overflowing with what He has filled us up with. And we fill ourselves by emptying ourselves. We experience what we've got by giving it away. By sharing it. When Romans 12:2 talks about proving this will--this love--I think more than anything we prove it to OURSELVES by renewing our minds. By searching our hearts, and finding that it is really HIS heart beating with love in our chests. We prove--hold on. Do you know what that word means? It is number 1381 in Strong's Greek Concordance and it means, "to test; by implication to approve: - allow, discern, examine." Test it. Try it out. Examine it. Or let me say it another way, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God" (Ephesians 3:17-19). Stretch it out. Love bigger than you ever thought you could. And in so doing, let that perfect love cast out all fear. Let it be true when we say things like, "God is all powerful." Because that means LOVE is all powerful. Which doesn't mean MOST powerful. It means, all the power. There is nothing stronger, or more powerful, than releasing God's love. Giving what you have--who you are--to the people around you. It will literally transform you. From the mindset of a "sinner" to your true identity of a saint. And it can literally change someone's life. God's will is for us to love each other. That's why He first loved us. He gave us everything we could need in order to experience His abundant, everlasting, eternal, Resurrection Life of love as He lives it in us, and through us, and as us. Its in there. Prove it to yourself by letting it out. By giving it away. By sharing it. Receive it and release it. Receive it BY releasing it!