Love's Impact

Hebrews 6:9-12

-“Do not become sluggish”

-These people had works

-Labor of love-they ministered to the saints and were continuing in that

I am becoming more and more convinced that the absolute best way to have an impact for the kingdom is through love. (On the one hand, I see this as a very profound conclusion coming to fruition in my life. On the other hand, it’s a conclusion that is simpler than 2+2=4. Duh!)

A number of years ago I heard the teaching that if you’re “filled” with the Holy Spirit, the evidence of that filling is speaking in tongues. I also heard a teaching that countered that idea: if you’re filled with the Holy Spirit, the first and foremost evidence of that filling is love…and not just any love. That is that supernatural love that happens to spill out of an overflowing heart. I believe that speaking in tongues, prophecy, words of wisdom and knowledge and any other ministry you could possibly think of are just that: ministries. But the fuel for that ministry, the predecessor of that ministry is love. In other words, love is the trunk and all ministry efforts are the branches.

I’m reminded of that verse in John 7:38: “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Some of the current methods we use for impacting the kingdom or evangelizing or whatever include cheap gimmicks, well-intentioned programs, and arguing. Many times we come across as obnoxious, self-righteous, and irrelevant. Now I’m all for just about any effort to try to reach people for Christ, but none of these things will amount to anything unless love is the motivator. People respond to being loved. Do you have someone in your life that is annoying to everyone else around you? Try just being loving and nice and carrying on a conversation with them. If your heart is overflowing with the love of Christ, it’s going to spill out “on” to others. Do you have people in your life that come from seriously crappy home situations? Try making friends with them just so you can lavish God’s beautiful, gracious love on them. Smile. Put your arm around them. Listen to them like what they’re saying is the most important thing to be hearing in the whole universe. Look them in the eye and accept them. Love them!

I’m also learning that in order to have a heart overflowing with God’s love, oftentimes you have to be “emptied.” What I mean by that is sometimes we are so full of ourselves there’s no room for God to work in our lives. Sometimes our lives get stressful, forcing us to turn to God for help. As we go through times that are tough (and sometimes it’s just tough in a spiritual way), we look to God for help. It’s in those times that we realize ourselves to be just “earthen vessels,” able to be filled by God to love others:

“But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” – 2 Corinthians 4:7-11

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WJS