Love Increases Our Position of Faith
Knowing that we are the beloved of God grows our faith. When we know we are truly loved, we have absolute trust and faith in the one who loves us. With people love may falter, but God’s love for us will never fail. This is how faith works through love. The love we have for our Beloved God and receive from our Beloved God, gives us confidence to believe when there is no hope and when there is no reason to have any expectation of good. The position of faith is a mindset, an attitude or one’s outlook which is settled in our heart, soul and mind. The position of faith is where we stand confident in love, though the heavens may fall, we stand.
Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.
This is the position that Job had when he trusted God in the loss of his wealth, his family and health. Job had lost all his worldly possessions, his children and even his health. But Job knew his Beloved, God, was faithful and with this love he could say in faith, ‘though God slay me, yet will I trust Him.’ That is a position of faith, the place where we stand firmly, even when we are staring at adversity, hardship and it appears all hope is gone. Job knew God and would rather stand before God and trust in Him for his salvation rather than defend himself before men. That is a love that surpasses natural reasoning and a trust that this world cannot comprehend.
Job 13: 15-16a Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation,
Love increases our faith as our love for God increases and as our knowledge of His love for us. Our confidence and love for God grows the more we know Him and our faith continues to increase from one level of faith to the next. Faith is demonstrated in two forms; the position of faith and the process of faith. Our position of faith is our stance, our viewpoint and the love we have in our heart, soul and mind, which, causes us to have faith and our faith increases as our love increases.
Faith is also a process that is used to call things that are not yet visible in the natural, but are spiritual. This is the process of manifesting in the natural world the things God has given us in the spirit realm or in the kingdom of God. The process of faith is a natural progression from the position of faith, which is love. When we know God loves us and those around us, we can pray for the sick and their healing. We can pray and expect them to be healed because we know God loves them and wants them healed. We can pray for those who are in lack and know God wants to meet all their needs in Christ Jesus. It is the love of God that activates faith, so that it may be manifested in the natural.
Many people pray out of desperation. Because they believe all hope is gone or out of fear for their loved one who is sick and may die. Neither of these are the bases of faith nor are they the keys in which the kingdom of God operates. Many people want to use the process of faith, to speak and confess the word of God to obtain the favour and blessings of God. But they are ashamed to pray for the sick and when their prayers fail to materialize, they want to say God does not hear or answer prayers but yet, they were amiss.
Some people want the blessing of God without having the love of God in their hearts. They want to be blessed without having the love of God in them so that they may be a blessing to the people God has put in their path. They want the blessings from God without actually being a blessing to others, who do not look like them, act like them or appear to be lost beyond hope.
Romans 1: 16-17 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, “The just shall live by faith.”
Love is not ashamed to be seen or heard. Love is the power of God that leads to salvation. This word salvation in the Greek means: rescue, deliver, health, safety. Salvation is not a process for us to go to heaven, but a practice, or a means which God has given to bring heaven to earth. The righteousness of God is His virtue, His justice, His uprightness, being displayed in our lives. The faith we have in the love God has for us and this lost world, gives us the power to love others well.
Those who live by faith trust the word of God, no matter their circumstances or situations. Those who love Him and believe in the love God has for them, will stand in adversity. Because we know the Lord God is our Redeemer, our Deliverer, our Shield and He will lift us up. Though it may appear in the natural that all hope is gone and though we may face doom, we too can say He loves me and He is my Help, my Glory and the One who will lift me up.
Just as Job stood in faith of the love God had for him, so too we must stand. Though the heavens may fall, we must stand in faith.
Psalms 3:3-4 But You, O LORD, are a shield for me, My glory and the One who lifts up my head. I cried to the LORD with my voice, And He heard me from His holy hill
Integrity- People of God 