Foreward

Many people are not aware of the great abundance that is available to all of us in this life.  It is available because our heavenly Father loves each one of us with a great and powerful love - a love which, if received, actually creates the physical and spiritual abundance that we all need in life.

However, receiving God's love has been a problem for man almost from the beginning.   The abundance that accompanies God's love has always been available, but because it is available does not mean we have it - we can have it only as we receive it.  In the pages that follow, we shall explore the possibility of receiving more of God's love so that we can live more abundantly in this life and the life to come.

Abundance in this life is not for just a privileged few; it is yours and mine for the taking.  Some time ago, I found a key that opened a whole new way of life for me - a life that is becoming more and more abundant.  My desire had been for an abundance of material things.  I had not seen the reality of the spiritual need that I had, to live life "more abundantly".  "More abundantly" was the way Jesus described the spiritual life that He came to offer us.  He said that it was His purpose to give us life and give it to us more abundantly.  (John 10:10).  Like most people, I did not realize that physical abundance is less valuable than spiritual abundance; that, with spiritual abundance, our material needs are taken care of by God.   Jesus said, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you." (Matthew 6:33).  Most of us seek "things" or physical abundance first.  All of us need to seek spiritual abundance first - then the "things" or physical abundance will be added.   But, more than that, we need to allow God to prepare us to live with Him in eternity.  In the process, we will know abundance spiritually and physically. 

What I would like to talk about, then, is the spiritual principles that can lead all of us into a life that is more abundant.  We shall see that living life more abundantly is dependent on how much we love with God's kind of love, and that depends on how much of His love we are willing to receive.  There is the key' we simply are not able to truly love anyone until we begin to receive that great love that our heavenly Father has for each of us individually.

All of us, in one way or another, seek to be loved.  Yet, we are hesitant to accept it when offered for fear of being hurt.  Without knowing it, we are seeking a love that will never be withdrawn; the very kind of love that God offers to us.  Many people are not aware that God loves them just the way they are, and that He will continue to love them regardless of what they have done.  All through the Bible God invites us to experience His great love now and forever.  He says He loves us with an "everlasting love."  (Jeremiah 31:3)  His mercy, compassion, and loving kindness are available to us every moment throughout all eternity.  That is the kind of love we can depend on in the storms of life - it is the anchor we need to bring stability in our lives.   In addition, God's love is the ever-present source of joy and peace.  It is the strength we need to live this life more abundantly.

I think it is safe to say that a person is never the same after receiving God's love.   The Bible says that old things pass away and all things become new - that a person becomes a new creature as he receives God's forgiveness (which is God's love in action).   Of course, that kind of change takes place only as we realize how separated we are from God and how desperately we need His forgiveness for ignoring Him and going our own way.  In going our own way, we say things and do things that separate us from Him.   But, it is not only the things we say and do, it is the resentment, anger, envy, lust, jealousy, and all the other sinful thoughts that occupy our minds.  For most of us, the majority of our sin happens in our mind.  Jesus said that it is our thought life that pollutes us and makes us unfit for God. (Mark 7:20-23).  If we allow sinful thoughts to remain in our minds, we sin.  The Bible says, "As he (anyone) thinketh in his heart, so is he."  As I ponder that, the reality of my sin comes home to me.  Our very character is determined by the kind of thinking we allow in our minds.  Our thought life can, and does, cause us to sin.  The scripture says that all of us sin and fall short of what God expects of us.  That means that all of us have a great need to accept God's loving forgiveness.  But, even though He constantly offers us this gift of loving forgiveness, we will never have it if we do not accept it.  I think you would agree that something offered does not become a gift until it is received.

People everywhere, many who are regular church-goers, wonder why God is not more real to them.  Some have had an experience with Jesus Christ, but He is just not real to them.  Why?  It is because they never really received His loving forgiveness down deep inside where the guilt is.  It is the guilt of following our own way that bends and distorts life and keeps us from receiving the abundance that God wants to give to each of us.  Without realizing it, we allow this guilt to affect our thinking.   We become uneasy because of this underlying and sometimes unconscious guilty feeling.  If the guilt is not resolved, it has devastating effects.  It causes us to blame ourselves and others for any number of things which causes emotional pains like worry, anxiety and a loss of self-confidence.  Then, in order to get rid of the pain, we begin to blame those around us - we try to transfer the guilt which, to one degree or another, turns us against others.  Then we become fearful and angry and then resentful and critical of others - it is a cycle that takes us down and down without our even knowing it.  This cycle very often ends in depression and sometimes self-pity.  That certainly is not the abundant life Jesus promised us - it is the sin that so easily besets us.  (Hebrews 12:1).  This cycle of guilt besets us, or defeats us, because we do not know it is happening.  Martin Luther said, "The ultimate proof of the sinner is that he does not know his own sin."  But, we can know it and recognize it for what it is - it is the cycle that begins with the guilt of wanting to live life without regard for what God has said and ends with either worry, anger, resentment, loneliness or depression or a combination of all of them.  But there is a solution - a very simple one.  The only real solution for this guilt cycle is forgiveness - God's forgiveness.  We need to have forgiveness from other people, but they are not our Judge - God is.  Without His loving forgiveness, we can never function successfully in this life.  It is impossible to be guilty if you have truly received forgiveness from God who is the judge.  He has provided this loving gift in Jesus Christ, His Son, who died for your sin and mine.  But, the guilt will not leave you unless you  receive this loving forgiveness into the very depths of your being.   If you are not sure you have done this, I hope you will do it now.  You can begin to receive God's love by receiving His forgiveness.  The scripture says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9).  Simply tell our heavenly Father that you know that you are sinful, that you know that when Jesus died and rose again, the penalty for your sin was paid- that you know that you do not have to be guilty anymore - that you want to be forgiven and cleansed from this cycle of guilt and sin.   Remember that we are responsible for all known sin, including resentment and the deep-seated anger that accompanies it.  Be sure to confess that to our heavenly Father.  Then ask Him for His loving forgiveness and receive it into the very core of your being.  Welcome it into your heart knowing that you have complete and total forgiveness.  Then, on the authority of God's word, you can feel secure in the knowledge that this forgiveness will always be available to you as you confess any future sin - guilt will never devastate your life again.  With the barrier of guilt out of the way, you can begin to let Him speak to you, to guide you, to love you.  As we let Him love us, we are able to love Him in return.  Having shed the burden of guilt, we are free to return His love and enter into a personal relationship with our heavenly Father.

Basically, a personal relationship with God is very similar to a personal relationship with a friend, a husband, a wife, or any other person.  It is simply an exchange of love - a giving and receiving of love between persons.  There was a time in my life that God was more like a thing than a person, simply because we can not see Him while in this physical body.  But, I came to see that He is a tender loving person who loves me personally.  In fact, you and I are persons because He is a person.  The scripture says that we are "made in His likeness". (Genesis 1:26).  He made us like Himself for a reason - He wants a people or a family that will receive His love and love Him in return.  The very purpose of our existence is to fellowship with our heavenly Father - to develop a personal relationship with Him.   To state that so simply, almost takes away from the glorious meaning that it has for our lives.   But, it is true; the intent of our heavenly Father is to develop a relationship with each of us that is greater than anything we could ever have with family or friends here on earth.  The best of loving relationships that we have here on earth is only an example of what God wants for us in His family.  He has set us in families here and now so that He can prepare us to live in His family in eternity.  All of this physical life is simply a way that God has to prepare us for everlasting life with Him.

All through the Bible, we see God's yearning for His people to accept His love and love Him in return.  He says that "He cares for us", that He will "wipe away all our tears", as we come to Him.  That means we can be through with all of our anger, resentment and fear.  It means that we don't have to be lonely or depressed; that we can have companionship that we never dreamed possible.  It means that life can be more satisfying and more fulfilling - we can live more abundantly.   Then, as we share our life with the One who has such a great love for us, He begins to challenge us to fulfill the plan that He has for our lives.  (Ephesians 2:10). If we respond to this challenge, life takes on purpose and meaning as we unite with Him in a personal relationship.  At this point, the effect of God's love is nothing short of profound, because we begin to receive the fullness and power of God's Holy Spirit.

We simply cannot live more abundantly without the fullness of the Holy Spirit.   And, we cannot be "Spirit-filled" until we come into union with God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son through an exchange of love.  The scripture says that "God has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love."(Romans 5:5).  This is not just an emotional experience that He gives us - He gives us Himself - the Holy Spirit.  When we receive this love, we receive the Holy Spirit - we cannot receive one without the other.  Each time we open our heart and receive His love, we experience an indescribable warmth as He begins to bring us to the place that we call "Spirit-filled".  However, we need more than an occasional experience; we need to continue in the fullness of the Holy Spirit every hour of every day of our lives.  To be "Spirit-filled", we must continue in union with Him through a continuing exchange of love with Him and with His family.  Jesus described this as abiding in His love.  Abiding in God's love is much more than knowing the occasional presence of the Holy Spirit - it is a continuing presence brought about by a continuing exchange of love - a giving and receiving of love with God and with each other.   Simply put, if we abide in God's love, we have the fullness of His Holy Spirit.   Of course, there is always a condition and that is we must truly make Jesus Lord of our lives - to have a heartfelt desire to obey His commandments.  Jesus often talked about abiding in His love, but He always made it plain that we are dependent on Him and must learn to obey His commandments.  He said, " If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and He will give you another counselor", the Holy Spirit.  (John 14: 15-16).

Making Jesus Lord of our lives is not an option; it is a necessity if we are going to live the Christian life.  It is so easy to claim His lordship and the fullness of His Holy Spirit, and convince ourselves that we belong to Him.  But, the Bible is very clear about this; it says, "how can we be sure we belong to Him?  By looking within ourselves:are we really trying to do what He wants us to?  Some may say, "I am A Christian; I am on my way to heaven; I belong to Christ.' But if he doesn't do what Christ tells him to, he is a liar.  But those who do what Christ tells them to will learn to love God more and more.  That is the way to know whether or not you are a Christian." (1 John 2:3-5 LB).  That is pretty straight talk right out of God's Word - to be a Christian is to obey God and abide in His love.  There is no such thing as an undedicated Christian - the scripture says that if we are lukewarm, we will be rejected.  There is no other way, we must love and obey, and if we do we will abide in God's love and know the fullness of His Holy Spirit.  Let me give you exactly what Jesus said, "If you keep my commandments you will Abide in My love just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love." (John 15:10).   If we obey, we abide in His love, and if we abide in His love, we have the abundance of a Spirit-filled life.  The question then is: What did Jesus say about what we are commanded to do?

In the 22nd chapter of Matthew, Jesus was asked, "What is the most important command of God?"  In answering Jesus drew together two fundamental commands of scripture, one from Deuteronomy 6:4 and the other from Leviticus 19:18.  Here is what He said, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.  The second most important is similar, 'Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.'  All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets stem from these two laws and are fulfilled if you obey them.   Keep only these and you will find you are obeying all the others."   (Matthew 22:37-40 LB).  In wedding these somewhat obscure commandments, Jesus reaffirmed them as His own, and in the process, gave us the scriptural principle that love fulfills or causes us to keep all the commandments of God.  For instance, if you apply that kind of love to the Ten Commandments, you automatically keep them.  If you love someone, how could you steal from him, or kill him, or take God's name in vain, or worship another god, and so on?  Everything Jesus ever told us to do has to do with these two commands to love.  However, He expanded them when He said, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." (John 13:34 RSV).  I believe He gave emphasis to this because in loving each other, we help each other to continue an exchange of love with God and our neighbors.  So, with this statement, we can see just what His commandments are.  Simply stated, the commandments of Jesus Christ are to love God, our neighbor, ourselves, and each other, not with just emotional love, but with God's kind of love.  If we are to abide in God's love and live life more abundantly, we must dedicate our lives to the proposition that we will keep the commands of Jesus.

If you think about what Jesus has said, I think you will agree that to learn to love is the very reason for our being on this earth.  How can we live with God, who is love, if we do not love Him and love those that He loves (our neighbor, ourselves, and each other)?  How can we spend eternity in heaven, where love is the essence of everything, if we do not learn to love before we get there.  We are on this earth, in these physical bodies to learn to keep Jesus' command to love.  The more we love, the more we abide in God's love, that is, we have a more continuous exchange of love with Him, a continuing personal relationship.  This is the very thing that goes on in heaven and the very reason that God created us in the first place.  Because we are created in the likeness of God, we can enter into a personal relationship with Him and with others with the same kind of love that He continually offers to us.

Well, what kind of love does God have and what kind of love does He want us to have?   Love in the Bible is more than the love people generally talk about.  There is a special word for God's love in the original language of scripture, but in English, there is only the word love.  This of course causes confusion, but Bible scholars agree that the love that Jesus was talking about was not romantic love or family love, it was "agape", the Greek word for Godly love.  Godly love always wants to give and give; it is like an inexhaustible river that never stops flowing.  God does not love us because of the qualities we have developed in ourselves - He loves us, because of what we can be in the union with Him as we abide in His love.  Because we are made in His likeness, we have the capacity to love with His kind of love, a love that wants the very best for the one loved without any desire to get something in return.  It is a love that seeks spiritual well-being for others, knowing that physical well-being will follow.   It is a love that loves in spite of negative qualities in others.  It is compassionate and offers mercy and forgiveness to everyone, even to those who make themselves an enemy.  God's kind of love does not begin in the emotions where the self-like dominates, it begins in the will and causes the emotions to respond in the right way.  If we are to live more abundantly, we must decide to love with God's kind of love, knowing that it will be possible only through the power that we receive, as we receive His love.

The key to loving God, our neighbors, ourselves, and each other is to simply receive God's love.  The scripture says that "God is love." (1 John 4:16).   Therefore when we receive God's love, we receive Him and the power of His Holy Spirit.  It is the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to return God's love and obey the command to abide in His love.  We have already seen that we must begin by receiving God's loving forgiveness.  Now, we can go on to receive more of His love.   Then, as we abide in His love, the fullness of His Holy Spirit makes it possible to return His love again and again in a continuing exchange of love.  Many Christians try to love God without first receiving His love, but it is simply not possible.  The scripture says, "We love God because He first loved us."  (1 John 4:19).   Because He loves us first, we can receive His love and the power to love, and go on to complete the exchange by loving Him in return.  But, most of us try to love God without first receiving His love because it is easier to give than to receive.  It takes real humility to truly receive a gift from others.  Have you ever noticed that when someone gives us something, we sometimes want to give them something in return?   On the surface, that is a good thing, but many times, our pride causes us to feel indebted to the giver, and we want to cancel the debt by giving them something in return.   We need to realize that the gift represents the giver, that to truly receive the gift is to truly receive the giver.  That is the way it is with the gift of God's love - if we humble ourselves and truly receive it, we will receive the giver, then He enables us to return His love.  That is not canceling a debt - that is completing an exchange of love that, if continued, causes us to abide in Gods love and know the fullness of His Holy Spirit.  Then the fullness of God's Holy Spirit produces abundance because our lives begin to bear fruit, the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

"The fruit of the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22-23).  There is the abundance that Jesus promised us!  Most people would settle for just the first three, love, joy and peace.  But if you think about the other six on this list of spiritual fruit, I think you will agree that it includes absolutely everything we need to be successful in life.  These are qualities that oil the gears of life.  They make it possible to take advantage of our natural abilities and to have the right kind of relationships with others.  Patience, for example, is necessary to learn how to make a living, or to be a good parent, or to develop athletic ability, or to just be a friend.   There are hundreds of ways that these qualities can affect our lives for the better.  They make us more effective in life and bring about the kind of relationships that create spiritual and material success.  But, we cannot grow this fruit alone.  Jesus said, "I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing."  (John 15:5).  As long as we, the branches, abide or remain connected to Jesus, the Vine, we will bear much fruit.  We have already seen that abiding in Jesus brings us the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit who is the source of this spiritual fruit.  Now, we will see that it is His power that causes us to bear His fruit.  One way that He does that is by equipping us to love through the use of special abilities that we call the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  In the same passage that lists the fruit of the Holy Spirit, the scripture says:  "If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit." (Galatians 5:25).  Walking by the Spirit, among other things, means that we must use the special abilities given to us by the Holy Spirit to minister to others with God's kind of love.  There are many gifts of the Holy Spirit mentioned in the twelfth chapter of Romans, but each of us is given the special abilities we need to obey the command of Jesus to love God, our neighbor, ourselves, and each other.  Through these gifts, such as teaching, serving, administration, and so on, we are given various practical ways of loving with God's kind of love.  This, of course, benefits others, but the primary benefit is ours because the use of these gifts causes us to walk by the Spirit and obey the command of Jesus to love.

However, the gifts we receive are sometimes related to our natural abilities, and we are tempted to use them in our own strength.  For instance, a school teacher that teaches a Bible class may not teach with "agape" love, but with only a human desire to be helpful or a desire to be looked up to by others.  The teacher who abides in God's love and seeks to love his pupils with God's kind of love will know the power of the Holy Spirit and a teaching ability far beyond his natural ability.  The added ability to teach is made possible by the activity of the Holy Spirit and part of that activity is the production of spiritual fruit like patience, gentleness, self-control, and so on.  The Holy Spirit produces the spiritual fruit needed for the teacher to use the gift of teaching.  Whatever our gifts or special abilities are, they are complemented by whatever fruit or special qualities that are needed.  Then, the spiritual fruit that makes it possible to be a blessing to others, helps us to live more abundantly as we use those qualities to become more effective in other areas of life.   That same Bible teacher will become a better school teacher and better able to teach his own children. Then, life becomes more and more fulfilling as the fruit of the Holy Spirit makes him more and more effective in everything he does.  We always reap what we sow; when we are a blessing to others, we are blessed ourselves.  When we are ministering to the needs of others with the gifts of the Holy Spirit, everyone concerned is blessed because God's kind of love is being exchanged with our neighbor and each other.   This love is the first of the fruit of the Holy Spirit listed in scripture, and I believe the reason is that the Holy Spirit will produce the other fruit only as we obey the command of Jesus to love and abide in His love.  As we continue to abide or continue in that exchange of love, we willingly allow the gifts of the Holy Spirit to operate - then various other fruit appear, and we begin to bear much fruit.  That is, we become joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and self-controlled - the qualities that enable us to live more abundantly.

I believe that any Christian who seriously looks at life will agree that Jesus offers us abundance beyond what we would ever "ask or think."  Most of us receive a very small portion of that abundance simply because we are not willing to accept it.   Most of us would say that just living this physical life is distracting, or that we have to be preoccupied with life to maintain a certain life-style.  But, when I looked at my own life, I knew that, that was not it at all.  There is one reason that I do not have more abundance and that is, I am not willing to receive it.  In the past, I have been convinced that these things were for somebody more spiritual than I, or for people that had more time to be spiritual - or anything that seemed to get me off the hook.  But, I know that thinking was not from God - it was right out of the pit of hell.  I know now that I was not willing to receive the things from God that would have given me a more abundant life because I was not willing to be submissive enough to accept them.  We have seen that it takes humility to truly receive a gift, but to receive life-changing gifts from God, it takes more - it takes submission.

If we are to receive the gifts from God that lead to abundance, we must submit ourselves to His wisdom and His control.   Without that we will not be able to receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit that make it possible to "bear much fruit".   It goes without saying that fruit is always borne on branches.  Since Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, we must submit ourselves to Him in the same way that a branch submits to the vine, totally and without reservation.

The problem is that the human mind can devise all kinds of ways to convince us that we are submissive.  The most common is substituting something for submission.  For instance, many Christians become serious Bible students thinking that study in itself is submission.  They submit to God's word without submitting to God personally.  It is possible to gain knowledge about God's word and believe it and still not receive the abundance it offers.  We must abide in God's love to receive from Him, and that takes submission of the entire personality.  We cannot read the Bible decide what we need, when we need it, and then expect God to give it to us.  That is not what a branch does.  The branch knows that it will receive exactly what it needs, when it needs it, as long as it abides or remains submitted to the vine in a continuing exchange of nutrients.  when we abide in Jesus, the Vine, through the same kind of submission, we get what we pray for.  Here is what Jesus said.  "If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it will be done for you." (John 15:7).  If we submit ourselves to the point that we are abiding (having a continuous exchange of love), we begin to recognize the importance of spiritual fruit.  Then, we know what to ask for because we are led by the Holy Spirit to ask for what every branch desires - fruit.  As we receive the fruit of the Holy Spirit, we become normal, healthy Christians.

What we are talking about is the normal Christian life.  A Christian that is not developing the qualities, called the fruit of the Holy Spirit, is a sick Christian.   There is no such thing as a nominal or marginal Christian.  If we are not normal fruit-bearing Christians, we are either sick and back-slidden or we are not Christians as all.  There is absolutely nothing in the scripture to justify the idea that some people are nominal Christians.  Jesus was very explicit about that.   He said, "Because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth."  (Revelation 3:16).  "Spew" was a figurative term used to show His complete incompatibility with anyone that was not willing to submit their entire life to Him.  Incompatibility eliminates any possibility of abiding in Jesus' love, any possibility of bearing fruit, and any  possibility of living more abundantly.  If we are not bearing more and more fruit and living more abundantly year by year, it means one thing - we are unwilling to be submissive enough to receive the things God wants to give us.

It is my hope that you have found yourself to be a submissive fruit-bearing Christian.   In my life, I have experienced the misery of knowing about the abundance that God has for us without receiving it.  I was spiritually sick without being conscious of it - so much so that, at one point, I was convinced that I was bearing much fruit, when in reality I was a branch that was altogether barren of fruit.  If God has shown you a need for fruit in your life, I hope you will do as I am doing - seeking to receive the healing love of the Great Physician.  Begin by receiving His loving forgiveness and go on to continually exchange love with Him in the greatest relationship you will ever know - a relationship that will accomplish God's purpose in this life and the life to come.  We have such a short time in this life to be prepared to live with our heavenly Father - let us make the mot of the time we have.  Let us live more abundantly now so that we will live more abundantly in eternity.