THE KEY OF LOVE
THE KEY OF LOVE
Preached by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Sunday, February 13, 2011
As a minister of the Gospel, if I could impart to you the “key” to love and you were able to always have access to and know the secret of the Grace of that great mystery, my joy would be full. The key is through the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God is our true beloved. When we are in relationship with our “First love”, we will love our other loves more. Our earthly relationships will be healthy and pain-free.
Those greater than me have written volumes about this great mystery. And still as pastors, we see those who have not found the key. You have heard my testimony that many years ago, that the Lord gave me a vision of the night of a book. On the cover, was “Faith is a Fact, Hope is a Certainty, and Love is a Reality.” In the vision, the book was written by me.
I conclude from that vision that along the journey of life I have then felt experienced, participated in and been a partaker of Divine Love. “God is Love”.
John 3:16; 20:21) “…God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life…as my Father has sent me, so send I you.”
Paul was a great lover. He was passionately in love with Jesus Christ, and the ministry of His Kingdom. I also have shared with you the testimony of before leaving Baton Rouge, the Lord spoke to me and told me, "You have fallen out-of-love with your ministry”. I don’t believe anyone would ever doubt that the Apostle Paul was deeply in love with his ministry until his work on earth was finished.
The Apostle gave us many illustrations of Divine Love and how we can love His Presence and die to the pain of soulical love. We will love His Presence more than His presents.
There are many who love God for what He has done for them. This is a good reason. We all started there. Jesus is our merciful Savior. He is Priest. But if we stop there, we bog down and stagnate at that starting point. If we build doctrinal and sectarian walls around those foundational truths, we will cut off God’s moving in our lives. There are many church leaders today who are frustrated. Many have reached their 60’s and feel they have not fulfilled the destiny and vision given to them. They have stopped growing. We must know Jesus as Priest and King.
God’s purpose is that we be just like Him. God is a Giver and God is love (1 Jn. 4: 8, 16-18): He that does not love does not know God, for God is love…And we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love; and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, 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 has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.”
Those who know Jesus only as Priest are takers and not givers. If all of your needs, thoughts and desires are still all about you, then you have missed the key of love.
1 Co. 13: 1-3: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor and though I give my body to burned, and have not love, it will not profit me.”
Any thing we do in the ministry that is not motivated by the Love of God and love for one another will burn as wood, hay and stubble. Many have within them ministry, but are still frustrated with an expectation that the ministry is for their self-gratification and self-glorification. We will certainly be held accountable for supporting our ministers, but the ministers must not seek their own.
These words written by the Apostle are not just beautiful poetry, but the very Blood of Christ and the cost of public ministry.
1 Co. 13:4: “Love suffers long, and is kind. Love does not envy or boil over with jealousy. Love is not boastful or vainglorious. Love does not display itself haughtily.”
These standards are for you, not for those you love or for those to whom you are ministering. As ministers, it is expected you will be ministering to those who are immature. We do not judge others by this standard. We minister objectively, taking nothing personal without any expectation of being loved in return. That does not mean that we lay down and allow people to walk all over us. This is a condition of love and acceptance toward those who are immature. Our maturity is measured by how we handle the immaturity of others. If we become offended at the inappropriate behavior of people, then we are automatically disqualified to be able to minister to them. We do not hold a two-year old child as accountable for wrongs and we would a teenager. We do not hold a teenager as accountable for wrongs as we would someone in their twenties, etc.
Many Christians still want to be the center. Everything, including God must adjust to their little world. Little Children are like that, and rightly so. They deserve to be taken care of. However, when we become adults, we put away childish things.
1 Co. 13:5: “Love does not behave itself unseemly, does not seek her own, is not easily provoked, and thinks no evil.”
This means temper tantrums, rudeness, sassiness, pouting, retaliation, gossip, spite, meddling, controlling, disrespect, etc. If satan can find your weakness to provoke you, he will be sure there is someone around you to push your buttons all day long. If you are one who tries to find another’s weak spot and provoke them, you can expect the Lord will send you to the woodshed, but worst of all, you will miss being in that Divine realm of the Lord’s Presence. Until you repent, it will cost you the anointing and blessing of His Holy Presence. The one you wish to provoke (hurt) will earn the crown and receive a promotion while you sit in pain separated from Him by the guilt of sin. A person who continues in the sin of provocation and trouble making will soon be removed from the Body by the Holy Spirit unless there is genuine repentance.
Yes, the Lord has given us the gift of Discernment of spirits and we are able to discern evil. While love learns spiritual discernment, it maintains its faith in others. Far better to be deceived in a doubtful case and suffer hurt, than as a skeptic to hurt another who should have been believed. Love should always believe the best and hope for the best. As ministers when dealing with those who are immature and/or sinners, we simply deposit the love of Christ and do not take offense if we do not see fruit and appreciation right away.
1 Co. 13:6: “Love does not rejoice at injustice, but rejoices in the truth.”
Only the Holy Spirit of Truth can set us free from the bondage of pain. Many live in delusion and do not want to hear truth. Love and truth unite to rejoice in its triumph over wrong.
1 Co. 13:7: “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things. Love never fails.” Hope is a certainty for those who are living in Divine Love. We hope looking for the ultimate triumph of truth and persevere, steadfast in all things. Endurance is more active than patience.
The Lord knows we will never be overcomers until we become a dispenser of the life of Jesus into others. If the church is to unlock the door to a life filled with the Holy Spirit, Divine Love and His dominion, then we must relate to Him who has the Key of David as both Priest and King.
We are to be those who have power with God and man; prevailers and overcomers! Those who know God as a Priest and King are walking in the strength and joy of their Lord.
But where there are prophecies, they shall fail; where there are tongues, they shall cease; where there is knowledge, it shall vanish away.”
Contrary to what some denominations have taught, this does not mean that the Holy Spirit gifts of prophecy, tongues and Word of Knowledge will cease. It is simply a contrast with unending love. These gifts are transitory for building up the body of Christ. The gifts are to continue until perfection comes. In the Lord’s immediate Presence, we will all know as we are known. When the Glory fall in the church, I think all of you know as you are known. However, I then switch gears to operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit to minister to you.
Without a prophetic vision, the Lord’s people will perish (Pr. 29:18). The higher you go, the farther you can see. Let us arise from the dust of carnality and lusting after things that which will not profit us. Let us stop crying out to God to satisfy the pain of our soul, and ask Him to fill us with His Divine Love that we may experience the joy unspeakable and full of Glory.
Phil 3:20: …our conversation is in heaven, from whence we look.” Let us go up higher to the top of the mountain and fly with eagles instead of acting like a turkey.
If we preach a man-centered vision that only emphasizes a God who meets the need of humanity, we will miss the God-centered vision that everything is in Him, through Him and unto Him. He is Lord! He has risen from the dead and he is Lord!
“Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (Joel 3:14)
God is calling us out of the immaturity of self-centeredness, our giftings, our ministry, our destiny, ourselves, and our accomplishments. He is calling us to the Mountain top of His great love. The law of love is giving. In the Song of Solomon the fullness of earthly love and spiritual love is poetically described as the Mountain of Spice. We will not experience the fullness of earthly love until we have stood on the Mountain top of Divine Love.
Tonight I will start teaching on Ephesians.
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V. and Amplified;