Activating Love 1 - Patience - David Mitts

Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. (1Co 13:8)
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There is only one guarantee in life for success, Love.  Love never fails.  Failure is rooted in fear.  There is an emotional state called the fear of failure.  But I am not just talking about the emotional state called the fear of failure but rather the condition of fear that produces failure.  What is failure?

Failure, biblically, means to be defeated.  It implies the possibility of loss, as in a contest.  Failure, or the possibility of it, drums up images of adversaries who can best us.  It is the outcome, or the possible outcome, of a performance driven reality.  Being driven to perform is the state of a heart that is trying to find security or significance.  This quest is intrinsic to humans created in God’s image and likeness.  As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Yeshua means salvation which is the answer to security and becomes the foundation for significance.  Apart from Him, we are doomed to works-based righteousness which delivers neither security nor significance and leaves us in fear. You can never get enough of what you don’t really need.
So, failure is thus rooted in fear.  Fear produces failure.  Even if we win in the performance-failure paradigm, the fact that we can lose, or fail, causes us to never be at peace and never rest.  We become driven and our health suffers along with our relationships.   Without God’s love as our foundation stone, we will not be in health or experience true prosperity of our soul.
Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. (3Jn 1:2)
God is all about us prospering and being in health!  He never wants us broke and sick.  But, the central key is that our soul must be in a condition of prosperity.  Soul prosperity is love-based prosperity.  It sees the world through a God-filter. This filter is God’s perspective.  He is for us and not against us. When we acknowledge Him as source, then He attracts to us those who also operate in abundance and well-being.  This is NOT some mystical law of attraction but rather a result of being “faith-ful” as opposed to being fearful.
This is taught by Yeshua in the parable of the talents:
"For it is just like a man about to go on a journey, who called his own slaves and entrusted his possessions to them. "To one he gave five talents, to another, two, and to another, one, each according to his own ability; and he went on his journey. "Immediately the one who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and gained five more talents.
Notice the word immediately.  The servant already had increase in him.  We have to build increase into our hearts as a state of being. This is the Torah or Law of Increase written on our hearts and highlighted.
"In the same manner, the one who had received the two talents gained two more. "But he who received the one talent went away, and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money. "Now after a long time the master of those slaves *came and *settled accounts with them. "The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, 'Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents.' "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.'
Notice the servant is called good and faith-ful.  He already had abundance in Him. The result more abundance.
"Also the one who had received the two talents came up and said, 'Master, you entrusted two talents to me. See, I have gained two more talents.' "His master said to him, 'Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.' "And the one also who had received the one talent came up and said, 'Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. 'And I was afraid, and went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you have what is yours.' "But his master answered and said to him, 'You wicked, lazy slave, you knew that I reap where I did not sow and gather where I scattered no seed. 'Then you ought to have put my money in the bank, and on my arrival, I would have received my money back with interest.
Notice he was “fearful” versus being “faith-full.”  He operated out of fear instead of love.  Because his heart condition was lack rooted in fear, he lost even the little he had.
'Therefore, take away the talent from him, and give it to the one who has the ten talents.' "For to everyone who has, more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away. (Mat 25:14-29)
Lack rooted in fear affects not only how we think but how we interact with others.  When we operate from a performance-failure perspective, people are perceived through their potential to either serve our success or the potential to accelerate our failure.  The fearful servant in the parable looked at the master as a hard man.   His heart condition of fear made him project what was in his heart onto the successful master.  This is how fear in the heart colors our relationships.  We cannot see how goodness and love create wealth. Instead, we resent successful people and thereby become unsuccessful ourselves because our heart is rooted in fear.  This heart condition produces in us a lack of trust and the tendency to put up guards on our heart and generates a personality that is insecure and anxious.  We literally fall into idolatry.  People are evaluated as our source and we begin to magnify them in our estimation.  God shrinks at the same time or is twisted into another god.
So, our destiny is connected to the love in our heart.  Fear in the heart causes us to see through the eyes of fear and NOT love.  This twists our thinking and breeds iniquity in our lives.  So, what is the solution? Well, there are several but I want to focus one that remains.  What remains? Love.
To move into health and prosperity in our lives we need to become “the beloved.” We need to activate love in our hearts. How? Well let’s look at how the Apostle Paul defines love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. (1Co 13:4-8)
Let’s start with “Love is patient.”  How is love patient?  Well when I think of this, I see a new mom or dad and their baby.  As the baby struggles with sleep cycles, eating, crying, dirtying diapers, etc. the new mom and dad find stores of energy and patience that before that, they didn’t know they had.  Quickly they learn how to work together and through their love, care for this new life.  Impatience is not a part of the equation.  They endure with a deep joy born of love.
Love is patient.  Now, this baby situation is an all-encompassing opportunity to activate the quality of love called “being patient.”  But the question remains of how and why do we bring that kind of love through patience to the rest of our lives??
Loving the baby is easy to see.  How do we love in situations where the object of our love isn’t cute and cuddly?  The baby is totally dependent on us and something in us responds to being needed in that way.  But what about loving through patience to those who we think should know better or don’t want to depend on us??
How do we bring the quality of love called patience to those relationships?  Or, how about the person who legitimately wrongs us??  What is the perspective of love as expressed through patience?
Look with me at 1 Peter 2:20-24
For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God. For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps, WHO COMMITTED NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously; and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed. (1Pe 2:20-24)
Now, this is clear.  Patient endurance finds favor with God.  Another way we might say this is when we operate from love when everything in us is screaming not to, then that humility of heart that surrenders retribution to God releases God’s favor into our lives.  This is impossible for us when we must defend ourselves.  We must surrender the idol of self-defense to God being our defense.
This verse tells us we were called for this purpose!  Yeshua has made a way for us by His example.  When reviled, He didn’t revile in return!  When he suffered, He uttered no comebacks, no sarcasm, no jabs!  Instead, He entrusted Himself to Him who judges righteously, the Father.  
You see this is the core of our love-based healing.  We love to quote that by His wounds we are healed.  But understand what those wounds represent.  They represent a surrendered heart. They represent love expressed through patience!  In order for Him to take the abuse, He had to love the abuser.  It is this love which heals our brokenness.   If we want to live out our destiny in Him, then we need to love like that.
Two more scripture and then we will activate:
But, beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. (Heb. 6:9-12)
Faith and Patience, which are expressions of love are key to living out the promises of God for our lives.  Faith we understand and are trained in. But what about patience? Love is patient and our faith works by love.
Patience seems like a passive state. Impatience is active, intrusive.  Impatience grabs us and increases our tension and anxiety.  In fact, the opposite of patience could be said to be anxious.
So, the real key is to deal with the anxiety of soul that pulls us away from patience.
Rejoice in the Lord always; again, I will say, rejoice! Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. (Php 4:4-9)
So, the key to love working through patience is:
  1. Rejoice
  2. Prayer
  3. Supplication
  4. Thanksgiving
So, let’s practice patience.
First, let’s rejoice. Joy is a choice. Let’s choose to be happy. Let’s do an open face exercise to enter into joy.  In this place, let’s pray, let’s dialogue with God.  What are you anxious about? Tell Him. Now supplication is nothing more than asking Him to handle it. So, let’s let Him handle it. Finally, let’s thank Him for always being there always loving us and for knowing what is best for us.

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