Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
Psalm 34:5
They looked to Him and were radiant,
And their faces will never be ashamed.
We're looking for love everywhere but up!
I was looking for some important papers the other day in the car. I looked between the seats, under the seats, on the sides of the door, in the console -- twice. I could not find them anywhere and I became frustrated. So, I finally gave up on trying to find them on my own and asked God to show me where they were and help me find them.
(It reminds me of how our Pastor Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn told us to pray and ask the Holy Ghost to help us and to learn to receive the power of the Holy Ghost -- for we can do nothing without God's spirit.)
Ok, back to the story...
The next day, I got in the car to go somewhere and happened to look up. And low and behold they were in the visor above my head the whole time. I was looking in the wrong places.
At that moment, I felt God was saying to me: True love comes from on high (Heaven/God's Kingdom). Look to me to give love and to receive love.
God is the creator and distributor of love. If we want to learn to love or find love we must look up toward him and keep our eyes fixed on him. And those who choose to look up unto him have the fruit of love. They know that love is action and not mere words. Love is when you do what it takes to do what the Lord says. Love is having faith to know that if you put yourself on the back burner for the good of the church, your pastor, your family, and others, that God will take care of you and you won't miss a thing. Love cares, love tries, love does what it takes.
We’ve all heard of the secular song: “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places.” And while we don’t have to agree with the lyrics - that title certainly rings true.
Love resides with God but we look for him - and it - in the wrong places every day. We don’t really seek him hard enough. And the sad thing is he is not hard to find. He is too big and too great to miss, but we look for him in things of the flesh instead of the spirit, so our search is futile - pointless.
We want to "find God" through seeking out success, career, money, home, cars, accolades, status, worldly friendships, and romantic relationships instead of seeking God in prayer, in the Bible, in listening to the taught word from the pastor, in giving, in fasting, in taking counsel and correction, in doing what is right, in believing.
We often subconsciously look in the wrong place because we don't want to be accountable. Our flesh knows that if we truly seek to encounter God, his love will overwhelm us and we will want to surrender everything to that love, and the flesh doesn't want to surrender. But the sad thing is we will always be empty, unfulfilled, and lacking love when we don't seek out the love of God. It is a love no man or woman can give because flesh is incapable of loving others without first loving God.
We seek the approval of our spouses, relatives, and friends and seek to please them. We will do whatever they ask of us, even to the point of taking actions that are adverse to God's will, but we seldom seek the approval of God or seek to please him, therefore rejecting true love.
Love is one of the attributes that come from God's spirit. So, if you don't have God's spirit in you, you cannot truly love, and if the person or people you are seeking love from doesn't have God's spirit they can't truly love you or anyone else. And that goes for everything else too: If you're seeking joy, peace, strength it all comes from God's spirit. That is why Chief Apostle Gunn has been so vocal about the Holy Spirit. He teaches us that we first must be saved in full surrender to God for the Holy Spirit to abide and empower us. He has taught us that, that which is Holy can't abide with that which is unclean, so you have to maintain a clean life in order to maintain His spirit in you. And when you can maintain his spirit, you can maintain love.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
So, let's do some fruit checks.
If you know you don't have the Holy Ghost then how will you know that your love for God or people is real? Without it, you can't love, you can't have joy, you can't have peace, you can't long-suffer, you can't be gentle, you can't be good, you can't have faith, you can't be meek, you can't have a good temperament without it. And that applies to the people around you!
How can your friends, family, companion love you without his spirit????
Are we handing out or accepting poison apples and disguising them as love? That reminds me of the witch in the story of snow white, she told snow white what she wanted to hear to get her to eat that apple - when it's not love, its flattery - just like the devil told Adam and Eve. Because snow white and Adam and Eve were looking for love in the wrong places they were poisoned physically and spiritually, respectively. The only way we can not be like that witch or to avoid falling for the poison apple (bad fruit) is to look up to God for love and to receive his spirit so he can teach us how to love.
He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
Please listen to a playback of the 2020 broadcast message from Chief Apostle Gunn - Who Do You Love? It is the perfect ending to this post: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=6575731141246976&wix-music-comp-id=comp-jyc7a8to. You can also find Who Do You Love Part 2 here: https://www.thebodyofchristinc.com/listen-in?wix-music-track-id=5138265632931840&wix-music-comp-id=comp-jyc7a8to.
But before I go, I want to dedicate today's blog to Chief Apostle H.C. Gunn. His birthday is Sept. 19. Happy Birthday to the world's greatest pastor. But he is more than a pastor to me. He is my father. He has adopted me as his own since the moment I met him 16 plus years ago and his love has never changed. I am confident his love comes from above. I am grateful and blessed to have him in my life. Happy Birthday Daddy/Chief!!!!
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