The Day I Understood Love.

If I must tell it, I must tell it all...

It was late last night - Saturday the 19th of February, 2022, and all I wanted to do was read some. Never did I knew what was about to happen.

My heart was about to be opened...

Today, I humbly submit that after these many years in the Christian faith, in my walk with God, in my handling of God's Word, I HAVE NEVER KNOWN WHAT LOVE IS! That's a lot to say, and that's the truth.

I just finished reading the book "Growing Up Spiritually" by Kenneth Hagin, and boy was I blown! Kenneth Hagin in the 5th part of the book spoke firmly about Love and insisted that every believer should study the books of 1 Corinthians 13 and the three epistles of John - 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

I have spoken on love, claimed to love, tried to prove my love, preached the love of God even to sinners. Oh, what have I not said about love!

Boy, my soul right now is burning inside me... I see that the love I have professed over these years even in the name of Jesus has been my own love, not the Love of God! Those two are way too incompatible! Ah! I didn't want to share this, but I couldn't keep it to myself.

Goosh! I can't even say I have comprehended it yet! Oh, such depth in Christ to know!

My love was no love. It missed the Holy 🔥 Spirit by several tangents. And how do I know this...?

God has taught us to do what He has exemplified to us in Christ Jesus. He's been patient and long-suffering with me. Waiting till the day I come to the realisation of what the Life of God I carry on my inside truly is worth. Though I have never been worthy, yet has He never condemned me, but has loved me before the foundation of the world, waiting ever so patiently and sweetly for my continual growth in Him till I come to the knowledge of this truth.
1 Corinthians 13!

1 Corinthians 13! What have I been reading all these years? What have I been doing? How have I been leaving?
Reading that passage of scripture in the light of the Spirit of God illuminated my mind so much that I feared God greatly. I saw clearly that one could do so much with the best of intentions (but not in sync) and it'll still be chaff in God's sight.

Have I been taught about that before? Yes. Severally. So what then am I saying? My metric of love, with all my best intentions, have been below God's standard. God's metric is not "good things, sacrifice, or even my best." God's metric is Love. Not my love. Not any type of love, but God's Love! When you "see" this Love, everything changes completely! God's Love, True Love ✝️.

To know what Love is, and isn't, is to dwell on 1 Corinthians 13 and I, II & III JOHN!

Am I now a master of Love? An expert? Do I now know what love is all about? No. Far from it. But what I see is what God's Love is like and about —a glimpse of it, an illumination, and I want to know even more. I want to flesh it out. I want to know this Love in a very tangible, practical and experiential way... I have read through this passage of scripture many times, but this time I saw Light!

Let us look at some of these verses from 1 Corinthians 13...

1Cor.13.1 If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. (MSB)

1Cor.13.2 And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God 's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody). (AMP)

1Cor.13.3 If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. (MSB)

1Cor.13.4 Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, (MSB)

1Cor.13.4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. (AMP)

1Cor.13.5 Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, (MSB)

1Cor.13.6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. (AMP)

1Cor.13.8 Love will last forever, but prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will all disappear. (NLT)

1Cor.13.13 And so faith, hope, love abide [faith - conviction and belief respecting man 's relation to God and divine things; hope - joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; LOVE - TRUE AFFECTION FOR GOD AND MAN, GROWING OUT OF GOD'S LOVE FOR AND IN US], these three; but THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE. (AMP).

God help me as I continue to grow in Him.

I have been excited in my spirit. I hope this piece meets you well and leaves you even better!

I am still growing in Christ with the help of the Holy 🔥 Spirit.
It says in 1Cor.13.12 that "Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now." (NLT)
What I am excited about today is the liberation on my inside, in my heart, about the Love of God, what it entails, how it transforms, how it takes me from my bearish standards and shot me up into a most brilliant ecstasy.

I love the way God loves me. I want to love the way He Loves. God IS Love. It is who God is, Love. I am Love, too. It is the stuff I am made of. I was created in His Love. It is my spiritual nature, and I am a spiritual being. Now I choose to Love internationally like God. Hallelujah!

It is a wonderful thing to share this with you beautiful people... I pray that the Holy 🔥 Spirit will illuminate your mind like He did mine. It is not something just to be talked about. It is a life to be lived.

I could not have asked for more....

Oh. Of course, I expect that you know what I must say to you right now... I love YOU!

Maybe I didn't love you before now. Maybe not correctly. Maybe selfishly. Maybe, just maybe in a non-God's-Love way, do forgive me 🧎🏼‍♂️. I have been blessed 🌴 by this light.

P. S.

Sometimes we are so familiar with and used to certain things that somehow we end up missing what's important.

Like I mentioned earlier, love, in any shade, is nothing new to me —including the Love of God. But in the process of seeking to get more into God, to actually GROW in my spiritual life, I borrowed the book in reference (Growing Up Spiritually, by Kenneth E. Hagin) and as I read it with an open, willing and hungry heart, I learnt so much that if I were to talk about it, that'll be several episodes unending.

Of the many teachings in that book, Love, God's Love was one of the things that stood out to me in a new light.

I highly recommend the reading of GROWING UP SPIRITUALLY to any one who truly wishes to build or solidify his/her Christian Faith. Beyond what you have been told, there is a knowledge that can make all the difference in your walk or fall in God.

God bless you mightily as you make the effort to invest in your spiritual life, growth and stability in Jesus Name I pray, Amen. 🙏

I love YOU...✝️

Always,
CN Humphrey...