Q: Knowing God loves me has been the most difficult thing for me to grasp. There are a lot of things about God that I know intellectually. There are things I've accepted just because His Word says so, but they really haven't made the trip south to my heart so that I can say, "Oh, yes, now I understand." Do you have any thoughts about this? Thanks so much.
"K," Internet
A: Precious "K,"
Knowing God loves us is the heartbeat of His way of Agape. Unless we know He loves us, we won't be able to lay down our lives to Him. (How can we trust or believe in someone if we don't think they love us?)
Pray for God to show you the things in your life that He loves about you. He created you and "knit you together in your mother's womb...."
When you feel worthless or even begin to hate yourself, remember that God's Spirit is ready and willing to work within you. All you have to do is ask. There is no prayer He would rather answer. He yearns to show you how much He loves you. So ask Him. He doesn't want you in bondage. He doesn't want you to be a slave to sin, a slave to anger, or a slave to hostility. He wants you freed from those things.
God is always reaching out to us with His Love, but we are the ones who have the choice to receive it or not. God's Love is a gift that we receive only when we ask Christ into our hearts. God is that Love. But even then, that Love is not automatic. It will only flow through us when we are pure and cleansed vessels.
How do we do this? The Priests of Solomon's Temple had a ritual that they went through in the Inner Court in order to become cleansed and reconciled to God. These steps have not only changed my life, but thousands of other Christians.
The steps are:
- Get alone with God. Recognize, acknowledge and experience the negative thoughts and emotions and desires that have occurred. Vent your feelings with God, don't stuff them. Experience your emotions, cry, laugh, etc Ask HIM to expose the real root cause. (Remember the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not go where He is not asked.)
- Confess and repent of any negative thoughts and feelings that you have held on to. Choose to turn around. Unconditionally forgive others involved. Forgiveness is not for them, but for you. Forgiveness releases you from being tied to them. Hallelujah!
- Give over to God all that He has shown you, not only the conscious negative thoughts and emotions but also their root causes, and ask Him to purge these things from you.
- Finally, be sure to replace those negative emotions or thoughts with the Word. You want to replace the lies with the truth. This is a very important step. If the Lord is your Savior, then you need to take hold of Him by reading and rereading Scriptures that tell how much He loves you. Put all those Scriptures on 3 x 5 cards. Read them over and over again and receive the Living Word into your Spirit.
We constantly have two choices - either a "faith choice" to unconditionally follow God or an "emotional choice" to follow what we think, what we desire, and what we want.
Anything not of faith is going to separate us (simply cover His Love in our hearts). He's right there with His arms out, wanting us to feel His love, but we won't because we've quenched His Spirit.
Satan is after our faith. And since our faith is built upon the faithfulness of God, if he can get us to doubt God's Love and rely on our own choices, then our faith and trust in God will crumble and God's life will cease flowing.
So it's our continual choice to follow our own feelings and our own will, etc., and end up quenching His Spirit. Or to follow God by obeying His Word and humbly surrendering ourselves to Him and experiencing His Abundant Life.
Knowing God loves us is the foundation of our faith. We must constantly choose by faith to believe that He loves us or we will not be able to move ahead in our walk.
Are you willing to allow God to perform a miracle through you? It will constantly be your choice (Matthew 7:14).
In the name of Jesus, our compassionate Comforter,
Debbie Holland
King's High Way Manager
[For an in-depth discussion of the Inner Court Ritual and the practical application of how to give things to God, see Chuck and Nan's newest book, The Key.]
