But the fruit of the Spirit is [agape] love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

There are laws that operate in nature. You have the law of gravity, the laws of aerodynamics and Newton's law of motion.

If you are a scientist you have a whole list of them. They are principles that show the way things are set up, and the law of cause and effect.

You have all of these different laws. The Scripture says that love, being the fruit of the Spirit, has no law that can work against it.

That means that if you can walk in love you can defy gravity. Jesus did that. There is power in love.

Love releases the very power and nature of God. And it is especially true of the law of sin and death which we have as a result of the sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

This has been passed down through the generations. And it is that tendency that causes us to move towards sinfulness and the death that comes with it.

Love is greater than the law of sin and death. Love is greater than every curse that the enemy can throw against us. That is why Jesus said,

"If somebody hits you on this cheek, turn the other one."

You say, "It's easy for Him to say that. Nobody ever hit Him."

Didn't they? Do you know why that was?

The Scripture tells us how Jesus stood up to read from the scroll. They got so mad at Him they wanted to throw Him over the cliff, but He walked through the midst of them.

They came to try and take Him and He just stood up there and spoke those powerful words of love. The men said,

"We have never heard anybody speak like this. We couldn't take Him."

Demonstration of Love

They could not touch Him. They tried again and again, but they could only take Him when He finally handed Himself over to them. He said,

The Son of Man has power to lay down His life and to take it up again.

Jesus was not defeated on the cross. When they came to get Him in the Garden of Gethsemane they said,

"Where is this man? Are you the one they are talking about?"

He replied,

"I am."

They knew what 'I am' meant. It was the words that were used by Jehovah in the Old Testament - 'The self-existent one, the God who is.' That was a name you didn't even mention.

When He said, "I am," they all went backwards and fell on the ground. He could have wiped them out with one word. He had power. Why? It is because He was walking in love.

Jesus was saying,

"If you make up your mind that you're going to turn the other cheek and you begin to walk in love, they will not be able to touch you. There is a greater force at work here that will protect you.

And when Satan wants to come in with his curses of destruction and you are walking in the power of love, that destruction will not touch you."

We have looked at curses in the New Way of Blessing Part 1. We have seen how forces are released by the enemy against us. But if we can walk in this power of love, it will dispel every force of darkness that could come against us.

Produces Maturity

Love is the key to revelation, and this is a very important revelation from 1 Corinthians 13. I have shared it elsewhere and I am going to look at it again since we are sharing on this subject now.

In 1 Corinthians 13:8 to 12 Paul says:

[Agape] love never loses its efficiency: but if [there are] prophecies, they will come to an end; if [there are] tongues, they will cease; if [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away. 
For our knowledge is limited, and our prophecy is limited. 
But when maturity has come, then the limitations will be removed. 
When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 
For now we see through a mirror, a puzzling image; but then [we will see] face to face: now I know partially; but then I will know just as I also am known.

What is the now and what is the then? Paul is speaking about love. He says,

"Love is the bond of perfection."

The word 'perfect' in Scripture means 'mature or full-grown'. To walk in love means to walk in spiritual maturity.

The Scripture says that when we are conformed to the image of Christ and are walking in love, rooted and grounded in Him, we will grow up into the stature of the fullness of Christ.

We begin to walk in the fullness of His love. And when we do that we reach a state of spiritual maturity.

Paul says that we are limited right now until we reach maturity. We are like a child who doesn't have the full capabilities of an adult yet and needs to be helped along the way. He says,

But if [there are] prophecies, they will come to an end; if [there are] tongues, they will cease; if [there is] knowledge, it will vanish away.

That sounds to me like some of those gifts are not going to be necessary anymore. Some people teach that the Scripture says,

When that which is perfect is come…

They say that that which is perfect is the Bible. And therefore now that the Bible has arrived we don't need the gifts anymore.

Face to Face Fellowship

That just comes from a misunderstanding of what it says in the Greek, because 'that which is perfect' speaks about maturity.

Has maturity come? Yes, the Canon of Scripture is complete. But God continues to speak through His Word and begins to quicken it afresh to us by rhema, by the anointing of the Spirit of God.

But Paul says when we come to a place of spiritual maturity we will see face to face.

We will come into the presence of the Lord, where because we are full of His love we can come into the presence of He who is love, and commune with Him as friend with friend.

Spending Time in the Spirit

How are we going to get this? We are going to do it through spirit to spirit communication, producing a birthing and a generation of something in our spirits.

As we come into His presence and spend time making love in the Spirit, that is how it will come about.

People often get confused about this. I believe there are people who speak about having spiritual intercourse with the Lord. There are women who claim that they experienced orgasm with the Lord in the Spirit.

This is nonsense! I am speaking about something deeper than that. I am speaking about a spirit to spirit communication; a love of the spirit which is actually far deeper than sexual intercourse.

It is far deeper, because it goes between you and the very Spirit of Almighty God, and it produces a life in you. You begin to come into His presence as Moses did with unveiled face and you begin to shine.

Jesus walked in the fullness of that maturity. It got to the point where He began to glow on the Mount of Transfiguration and His clothes began to shine.

When Moses had been up in the mountain with the Lord and had spent time in the presence of the Lord in the tent of meeting, his face would shine.

It shone so much that he would put a veil over his face, because the people thought they were seeing a ghost. It frightened them. The glory of the Lord began to shine out of him.

When you come into the presence of the Lord like that you don't need to say,

"Thus says the Lord, Behold I say unto you..."

No, He talks to you and says,

"Hey Les, let's have a chat here."

And when I want to talk to Him about somebody else I don't have to say,

"Lord, please give me a prophetic word for this person. Thus says the Lord, my child..."

No I simply say,

"Hey Lord, tell me about this guy."

He tells me about the person and we have a chat. We are in the spirit and we have face to face communication. 




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