MID-WEEK MANNA FROM PASTOR NAT’S DESK:
November 27, 2024
The Third Person of the Godhead Series – Part 38
LOVE: THE FIRST ‘FRUIT’ OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (Part 11)
Jesus said to His true disciples then and through all time:
“If you LOVE ME, keep My commandments. And I will pray the Father that He shall give you ANOTHER COMFORTER, that He might abide with you forever. Even the SPIRIT OF TRUTH whom the WORLD cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him for He DWELLETH with you, and shall be IN you.” John 15: 14-17, KJV.
“He that hath MY COMMANDMENTS, and keepeth them, he it is that LOVETH ME: and he that loveth Me shall be LOVED OF MY FATHER, and I will LOVE HIM, and will MANIFEST Myself to him.”
“Judas (not Iscariot but Jude) said unto Him, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and NOT unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto him (Jude), If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and WE (the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit) will come INTO him, and make OUR ABODE with him.” verses 21-23.
“Ye have heard how I said unto you, I GO AWAY, AND COME AGAIN TO YOU [through the Holy Spirit!]. If you loved Me, YE WOULD REJOICE, because I said, I go unto the Father: for My Father is greater than I.” verse 28.
John 15: “Herein is My Father GLORIFIED, that ye bear MUCH FRUIT; so shall ye be My disciples. As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: CONTINUE YE IN MY LOVE.
“If ye keep My commandments, ye shall ABIDE
In My love: EVEN AS I have kept My Father’s commandments, and ABIDE in His love. These things have I spoken unto you, that MY JOY MIGHT REMAIN IN YOU, and that YOUR JOY MAY BE FULL. This is My commandment, that ye LOVE ONE ANOTHER, AS I have loved you.” verses 8-12.
It is only when the Holy Spirit abides in the heart and dwells in the body as His temple will the “fruits of Christ’s love”
be manifested in the true believer and disciple towards God first and then towards his “neighbor” or fellow finite mortals!
It is this love that “greater than faith or hope” 1 Cor. 13: 13)! For it is that “love that works by love” (Gal. 5:6) and purifies the soul” through the “baptism with fire by the Holy Spirit!”
To be continued next MWM, God willing. Bless all, NMF.