The Nature of Love part 3
More than anything else, what the Holy Spirit does is He allows us to receive the love of our Father. He is the Spirit of truth and He leads and guides us into all truth--all truth being that the Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hands. All truth being that He is our heavenly Father and we are His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. And because of the Holy Spirit whispering this truth inside us with a still small voice... we can stop trying to be someone we're not and we can instead rest in the finished work of the cross and be who we are. Rather than a living soul looking for love in all the wrong places we can embrace our true identity as One who is loved, and One who can love... One who IS love. That's our identity. That's who we really are. THAT'S human nature. And that's when we feel the most alive. Not when we are trying to get something--earn something with the sweat of our brow--but when we are simply sharing what we have. The Holy Spirit has equipped and empowered us to receive the love of God. And we receive it in the most real, practical way when we release it. Because love is too big to be contained. We weren't just filled with the Holy Spirit so that we might have something extraordinary. We were filled TO OVERFLOWING with the Holy Spirit so that what's inside us could come out all on it's own. Naturally. So we could stop trying to jump through hoops and, "fake it 'til we make it," and we could just start to be ourselves. That's all any Father wants for His Son: Just be yourself. Here's the rub though--you can't be yourself unless and until you know yourself. And you can't know yourself unless and until you know Jesus. "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). Remember yesterday we saw that it's a life and death issue? To live is to love and to love is to live. If you don't know who you are you will always try to be someone else. And there will always be one thing you lack. As hard as you try... when you bang your head against a wall all you get is a headache. But if you know who you are then you can be who you are. You can BE transformed (into what you've already been transformed into) by the renewing of your mind. If your life is hid with Christ in God then that's where you have to find it. We find our lives in Him. HIS life in us. His name and His nature is OUR name and OUR nature. That's what Revelation 2:17 is talking about, "Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone that is victorious I will give some of the mann that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it" (NLT). It's HIS name on the stone. HE is the chief cornerstone. And because HE was victorious, we get to enjoy the victory. He did the work and we get to enjoy the fruit of His labor. HE is God in the flesh, love in a body, and WE are the body that He lives in!