The Love Key, The Secret to Purpose - David Mitts

Note: Prior to today's teaching was a powerful word asking the question - "Is there integrity in YOUR being? " - Listen here to see what your heart has to say about it

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him [12] because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can [13] he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also. (1Jn 4:7-21)

There is no word more misused than the word love.  This is because love is the key that unlocks God’s plan for our lives! Love is the source of the plan, the power for the plan and the outcome of the plan.  You could say that there is no purpose in life beyond love.

Listen to "The Love Key, The Secret to Purpose"

When they came to test Yeshua as Messiah, they asked Him, what was the greatest or most important commandment of God.

Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving [58] that He had answered them well, asked Him, "Which is the first commandment of all?" Jesus answered him, "The first of all the commandments is: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' [59] This is the first commandment. [60] And the second, like it, is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' [61] There is no other commandment greater than these." So the scribe said to Him, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one God, and there is no other but He. And to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, with all the soul, [62] and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is more than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Now when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, He said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." But after that no one dared question Him. (Mar 12:28-34).

Love is the primary instruction because it is the master key to unlocking our destiny.  The reference to being greater than sacrifices is to say that love is the key to not needing sacrifices.  Yeshua is Himself Love and receiving Him translated us from the kingdom of darkness with its attendant sin and the need for sacrifice to repent from our actions and deeds while still remaining a sinner at heart into the Kingdom of Light and Love where our nature has been born again into a love centered child of God. He has become both our one-time eternal sacrifice and the gateway into Love.

The writer of the book named “Hebrews” writes about this comparison of the annual animal sacrifice centered atonement at Yom Kippur and the eternal one time atonement of Yeshua. The whole book is powerful but I am going to just grab a few verses to illustrate: Turn to Chapter 10:

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins. (Heb 10:1-4)

The Torah was given as a means to deal with the sin nature on a temporary basis to demonstrate both God’s love and man’s inability to both receive love and to love in return.  God’s instructions are pure love.  It has always been Abba’s intent to instruct His children in the ways that work.   But because our heart is conditioned by sin, it is impossible to keep Torah in any meaningful way.  Thus the reality of an atonement becomes essential.  Why, death and blood?  Because death is a boundary.  The Torah is boundaries and death is a boundary.  It is a hard and fast line in every life.  The wages or the outcome of sin is death.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 6:23)

This is like a job.  We work a job and generate wages.  Our wages are a debt incurred by the employer.  This is how they are treated until paid.  Once paid they become an expense of doing business.  Sin creates a debt.  A debt for who?  Well to answer that think about who you working for with your life?  Another way of saying that, is whose employee are you?  Well you are the employee of who pays you for your work.  When your work is generating sin, then you are working for the “sin” employer.  Who is that? Who pays with death? Hebrews 2:14-18:

Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For indeed He does not give aid to angels, but He does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Therefore, in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. (Heb 2:14-18)

As we do things in life through a fear of death focus, we accrue sin credits.  These are only redeemable at the bank of death.  There is no life in death.  That means that there is no such thing as good works.  In our sentimentality, we want to think that all that counts is doing the right things, or if you will obeying Torah.  But all that does is accrue more death credits.  This is why even Israel who was chosen of God and given the Torah required a Day of Atonement.  The Day of Atonement was the expense where they took an animal, which was the results of their works lifestyle, with the conditional blessing of God as His love gift to them and killed it to cancel out the death debt that Satan accrued through their sin which would have resulted as sickness, poverty and devastation.  The death of the animal became a temporary debt transfer, like a new credit card.  BUT it didn’t have the power to cancel the debt, only transfer it through death to the animal.

It took Yeshua who became sin, to end sin once and for all. He became the payment that not only satisfied the debt we incurred but because He became sin, ended the system of works in our life.  Back to Hebrews 10:10.

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. (Heb 10:10)

There is no more obedience-sacrifice system, what we calls “works”.  Now we are in a new realm with a new set of performance objectives.  We are not performing to be accepted but performing as the accepted.  Our basis for actions moves from fear of negative outcomes and the desire for positive outcomes to a life based on living in love.This is called the life of trust or faith rooted in love. Continue at Heb 10:22-24:

let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, (Heb 10:22-24).

Love becomes the ground on which we stand, the beloved of the Lord, fully restored to place of intimacy and trust.  In this place we can manifest our destiny. What is our destiny? Well it begins with being healthy and prosperous.

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. (3Jn 1:2)

You see most of us jump to the outcomes, health and prosperity including soul prosperity.  These are the correct outcomes but we often gloss over the first word, “beloved”.  In Greek, “agapetos”.  Those who carry the agape.  This word is only used for those in covenant or in union with God.  These are the love children, the bride the beloved.  You see in this place the world is made right again.  As the beloved your destiny is health and prosperity. Next time we will go deeper into how this works.

BUT for today, I want to activate the word “beloved”.  Close you eyes and invite Him to show you who you are as the beloved.  What is your special name?  Let that saturate your being!!