Love and Accounting - David Mitts

Love does not take into account a wrong suffered NASB

Click here to listen to "Love and Accounting"
Love never fails. When we operate in the heart condition of love, we operate with the heart of God who is love. That brings us into alignment with His mind, which is called wisdom and with His power, which is the anointing.  
We live in a broken world. Not broken by original design but broken because of the minds and hearts of people who were called to shepherd the world.  We were created in the image and likeness of God and, so we were designed to operate in love towards Him, towards one another and in that love to shepherd or steward our planet.  
The creation itself is travailing because of our lack of love.
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:18-22).
The word translated as “the revealing” is the same word that we get the term apocalypse from.  There is an appointed hour for the full revelation of who we truly are.  Our true nature is transformational. This is such a radical event that it shifts the very nature of nature.  The creation which is broken now becomes whole as we truly come into our identity as the sons and daughters of God.  
This wholeness comes about because of the sons and daughters of God coming into their true nature. This nature is love.  
Love is the power to transform reality.  This is not just an emotion but the transformative nature of God Himself. God who speaks existence out of chaos, is in our hearts transforming us by His Love and trusting us with the words of life to speak the hope and the promise of a healed world.  This is the vision of the Gospel, the good news.
For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus' sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:5-6)
The whole point of these teachings is to activate ourselves into the reality of love which is the power of the Gospel.
Today, we are going to look at our record-keeping which is the measure by which we experience life.  Sometimes this is linked to the “measure” by which we listen.
And He was saying to them, "Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. (Mark 4:24)
Our scripture verse from 1 Corinthians 13:5, is that love keeps no record of wrongs.  What does it mean to keep a record of something?
Is the Lord teaching us to forget things that have injured us? Maybe. Maybe not. No, I think the key is in how we listen in the wrong that we have suffered.
You see He is the Word.  Another way of saying that, is that He is love speaking.  He always speaks Words of Love because He is Love.
Only Love can judge, or measure correctly. Even Yeshua who was love incarnated did not rely on His ability to judge or measure correctly.
"I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. (John 5:30)
So how hearing happens affects our ability to judge or make an accounting of what happens in our lives. It isn’t just our biological ability to perceive sounds but the condition of the heart that listens.
So, let’s run through the mechanism of being hurt.
We get hurt.  How do we know we are hurt?  Well, we feel pain.  What is the pain? Usually an emotion.  How do we interpret that as hurt?  Usually, a voice tells us that it is hurt.  What is the source of that voice? I don’t truly know. But for simplicity’s sake, let’s call it another gospel, the gospel of hurt and offense.  The word gospel means good news, but good is relative when it is sourced in pain.
The hurt destabilizes our thinking.  We think through the lens of our hurts. The hurts bend reality like a prism.  In biblical terms, this bending of reality is called iniquity.  The iniquity is also called lawlessness.
"Because lawlessness is increased, most people's love will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12)NASB
And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. (Matthew 24:12)
The word translated in these verses is “anomia” and it literally means to be without law or without Torah.  Iniquity is a reality bending belief in our hearts that is in opposition to the truth of God’s Word and twists our thinking and actions.
An example of this is given in Acts chapter 8 in the account of Simon the sorcerer in the city of Samaria.  Simon received the Lord and then when Peter and John came to baptize the people in the Holy Spirit, Simon saw this as a way to regain his power as a sorcerer over the people. Peter rebuked the twisting of reality that was in Simon’s heart:
"Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you. "For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." (Acts 8:22-23)
We see a connection made by Peter of “the gall of bitterness” and the “bondage of iniquity”.  Clearly, Peter knew by the Holy Spirit that Simon was bound by his bitterness.  That, in turn, made his thinking twisted into thinking in error about reality.  Sorcery is connected with pride. Pride is the attitude of heart where our thinking is twisted into manipulating reality to try to get our way.
The same thing happened to King Saul when he chose to disobey God and go his own way. Samuel rebuked him:
For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king." (1 Samuel 15:23)
Saul’s rejection of the word of the Lord” was birthed in the stubbornness of his heart.  This, in turn, came from a hurt.  How is this all related to keeping a record of wrongs?
When we take a wound into our hearts and keep the record of wrongs suffered, we twist our relationships with that capturing of pain into our soul.  The energy of it now is trapped and because it is a relationship response to brokenness it doesn’t only pervert us, but the relationship as well where the offense was taken.
If that weren’t bad enough, it goes a step further because it becomes a place of agreement.  We come into agreement with the hurt.  That binds us to the wound and changes our relationships in the spirit realm.
Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. (Matthew 18:18-19)
The wound acts like a magnet for more wounding because we have bound ourselves to the offence.  Even God will honor that misery.
The impact is that now our thinking is unsound. Paul encourages Timothy in this very thing when he said:
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
Our soundness of mind is affected by the wounds which are rooted in the ungodly spirit of fear. Let’s read down a little bit and see how this fits our discussion:
For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day. Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. That good thing which was committed to you, keep by the Holy Spirit who dwells in us. This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. The Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain; but when he arrived in Rome, he sought me out very zealously and found me. The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy from the Lord in that Day--and you know very well how many ways he ministered to me at Ephesus. (2 Timothy 1:12-18)
You see Paul struggled with broken relationships and he knew Timothy would as well, so he equated sound thinking and sound words with staying free of hurts and offense, keeping no record of wrongs. In order to do that, we have to “hold fast to the pattern of sound words”.
Activation:
An accountant when evaluating a set of books begins with a template of what order looks like.  There are expenses, revenue sources, equity investment, profit, loss, etc.  The source of all of that is order, balance, fairness. The point is to assess reality as it is, has been, and plan for a better future.  The key is to be honest with now.  Hidden things generate a false picture. In the same way, God wants to reconcile our lives to Him.  In order to do that; because we are accountable for our lives; we need to bring hidden things to light. The Body is a template for the emotions.  There is a code that has been mapped out. The source code is words. We get hurt by words. We get healed by words. Words are data points.  Lies and truth are contained in words and the concepts they generate. I’m going to read some words and I want you to sense what you are feeling in your body. When any word triggers a feeling that means it needs healing.  Let’s pay attention as I read, and then we will pray and ask God to heal the words.


Perspective on Healing:  

Endure hardship(symptoms) as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined--and everyone undergoes discipline--then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. "Make level paths for your feet," so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (Hebrews 12:7-14)

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