Man is a love product of a love God. He was created in love. Man is sustained by love. And, when He comes to know Jesus as His personal Savior, the very love of God is shed abroad in his heart. By that very love of God, we live and move and have our being. So how can we, today, allow that love which is already in us to dominate our lives? The following illustrates the very love of God towards man. When God was about to create man, says a Jewish legend, He took into His counsel the angels that stood about his throne. “Create him not,” said the angel of Justice, “for if you do, he will commit all kinds of wickedness against his fellow-men; he will be hard and cruel and dishonest and unrighteous.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Truth, “for he will be false and deceitful to his brother-man, and even to You.” “Create him not,” said the angel of Holiness, “he will follow that which is impure in your sight and dishonor you to your face.” Then stepped forward the angel of Mercy (God’s best beloved) and said: “Create him, our Heavenly Father for when he sins and turns from the path of right and truth and holiness I will take him tenderly by the hand, and speak loving words to him, and then lead him back to You.”¹ Love is the key — it’s the ticket to success. So how can we, today, allow that love which is already in us to dominate our life and do so to the very end? Why It’s important to Walk in Love to the Very End, that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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The Anointing in Jesus Life

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You can view a basic transcript of this podcast at the bottom of this section.

Accept the Challenge

Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This weeks call is:

It’s vital when walking with God to learn to keep the main thing, the main thing. The love walk is the main walk. To learn to walk in love is to learn to walk with God for He is love.

Join the Conversation

Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: Besides what you’ve heard or read here, what have you learned about walking in love? Please leave your comments in the comments section below.

Episode Resources

You can find more information on the subject of the Spirit-Led Life by clicking on the links above.

1. #S1-001: Does the Holy Spirit Speak Today?[Podcact]
2. #S1-002: Being Led by Peace Conscience and the Inward Witness

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 37 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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If you enjoyed the podcast, please rate it on Stitcher Radio and leave a review. If you have a suggestion for a Bible topic you would like to see taught, or if you have a question, please e-mail me at emery@emeryhorvath.com.

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Podcast Notes

The Love Walk of Jesus

John 13:1 (ESV) — 1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

• When we hit John 13, we are coming into the last two weeks of Jesus’ life.
• So, what Jesus talks about, what He communicates to His disciples, during the ‘great hand-off’ — and you understand that this was a hand-off.
• That Jesus was handing off the next phase of building the Kingdom of God to the Holy Spirit and to His disciples.
• So, if you were going away — for a long time — for decades — for a time period so long that no one would ever see you again physically, what would you say to your loved ones?
• Jesus was always precise in His communication as the words that He spoke came directly from His Father.

John 14:24 (ESV) — 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

• So, what did the Father want His kids to know via the lips of Jesus during the last two weeks that Jesus would be available to walk the earth this side of the cross?
• If you look in John’s gospel, chapters 13–17, you’ll notice that most of it are just a huge pile of red letters.
• The majority of it is a huge Jesus monologue.
• Bible chronology shows us that these words which Jesus delivers in these five chapters occur during the last two weeks of His life.
• We literally have here some of the last words of Jesus on this side of the cross.
• Famous last words reveal quite a bit about a person.
• The Bible teaches that what is in you will come out of you.
• It always starts with words.

Matthew 12:34 (KJV) — 34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

• Matthew 12:34 is true all the way to your death bed.
• You are what are in your heart right to the last day.
• Joan Crawford was, at one point in her movie career, Hollywood’s highest-paid movie star.
• On her death bed in 1977, as she lay dying, her housekeeper began to pray for her.
• Instead of reaching out to God, Joan cursed at her housekeeper and demanded that she not pray for her, saying, ‘Don’t you dare ask God to help me.’
• Joan Crawford revealed what was in her heart as she stepped over into eternity.
• Last words are revealing.
• On his deathbed, Karl Marx, founder of Communism, was surrounded by candles which he was burning to Lucifer.
• He screamed at his nurse, who asked him if he had any last words: “Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven’t said enough.”
• Voltaire, a famous skeptic, atheist, and ultimate infidel, died a terrible death.
• His nurse said: “For all the money in Europe, I wouldn’t want to see another unbeliever die! All night long, he cried for forgiveness.”
• How different this is from Mother Teresa, who, as she lay dying, said, “Jesus, I love you. Jesus, I love you.
• You can see what was really important to these people as death approached them.

The Love Walk of Jesus: Last Words

• What were the last things that Jesus talked about with His disciples during these last two weeks of His life?
• What do you suppose was in the abundance of His heart?
• During His active earthly ministry, Jesus taught on many subjects.
  • He taught on…
    • Trusting God
    • Healing the sick
    • Prayer
    • Money
    • Righteousness
    • The Law
    • Religious hypocrites
    • End time events.
• But during these last two weeks of His life, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father when He knew that He was going to be passing the baton to His disciples, what is it that comes out of His mouth?
• What is it that’s on His heart?
• Does He talk about any of the items listed above?
• No, Jesus focuses primarily on two main subjects.
  • Love
  • The Holy Spirit
• References to the Spirit of God and the love of God occur over forty times in the last two weeks.
• The first twenty verses of John thirteen are epic verses that illustrate the love of God or Jesus’ love walk without ever even mentioning the word.
• Love and the Spirit of God were what poured out of Jesus’ heart during His last moments on earth.
• Why?
• Why did He spend His last two weeks talking mostly about the love walk and the powerful ministry presence of the Holy Spirit?
• Why did Jesus do that?
• Do you suppose one reason Jesus did that in His last days was to give us a clue on how we should live in our day?
• Is the love walk and the Holy Spirit supposed to have a prominent place in our everyday lives?
• There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that we haven’t gotten the clue.

The Love Walk and the Apostle Paul

• Paul was a man of prayer.
• He prayed for believers, especially those whom his ministry directly impacted.
• Here is one sample of Paul praying for the church at Ephesus.

Ephesians 3:14–19 (ESV) — 14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

• There a lot of words in this prayer.
• But, there is only one request in the whole five verses.
• Here is the request: to be strengthened with power in the inner man or spirit man.
• That’s what Paul prayed for the Ephesians.
• The rest of this prayer:
  1. so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith
  2. that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth,
  3. and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God…
• Are all by-products of the prayer for inner strengthening.
• That is, you have to be strong in your spirit for Christ to dwell in your hearts by faith.
• You have to be strengthened in your core to be rooted and grounded in love.
• The inside of you must be beefed up to be able to comprehend the four dimensions of the love of God.
  • the breadth of the love of God
  • the length of the love of God
  • the height of the love of God
  • the depth of the love of God
• You have to have an increase in inner power to know the love of Christ because it surpasses knowledge — your head can’t get it.
• And then, and only then, can you be filled with the fullness of God.
• The request is ‘make me strong on the inside’ — that’s the focus of this prayer.
• Everything else is a by-product.
• Now, if you are praying this for someone else like Paul was here, then just insert that person’s name, and it becomes its ‘make so-and-so strong on the inside.’
• That’s it — that is the whole of this prayer.
• So, let’s drill down into this a little bit more.
• Let’s look at the phrase ‘strengthened with power.’

Love Walk: What It Means to Be Strengthened with Power

Strengthened

• The Greek word ‘strengthened’ means to become strong.
• This is the very thing that happened to John the Baptist.
• He experienced this inner strengthening.

Luke 1:80 (ESV) — 80 And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

With Power

• This verse tells us how strength comes – it comes via the power.
• It’s the power that provides the strength – that makes you strong.
• So, we now need to look at the word ‘power’ that Paul uses here in Greek.
• It is the word Greek word transliterated as ‘dunamis.’

Revelation 7:12 (ESV) — 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”

• Notice these words spoken to God by the angels, the elders, and the four living beasts.
• They ascribed ‘power and might’ to God.
• They acknowledge that God is a God of power.
• It is important to acknowledge God’s power here on earth.
• Thayer says that the word ‘dunamis’ means strength, power, ability.
• It means inherent power that is power residing in a thing by virtue of its nature.
• By nature, God has this power in Him.
• He is loaded with it.
• God has it by the bushel basket load.
• This ‘dunmis’ power is power for performing miracles.
• But we are talking about love here, right?
• There is a connection to miracles.
• You will see it here in a minute.
• But first, think about the link between strengthened with power and love.
• God is ginormously packed with power, and God is love.
• There are 7.867 billion people on planet earth as of yesterday.
• God is putting up with all of them and all of us.
• You can hardly handle three people without getting ready to blow them up, and God is handling almost 8 billion people.
• That’s 8 billion attitudes, 8 billion people, who at different times, are saying things they ought not to be saying, doing things they ought not to be doing.
• Walking in pride, walking in arrogance, walking in sin, killing people, stealing, lying, wrong sex, He’s putting up with all of it.
• What about these idiots who are speaking against Israel?
• God is restraining Himself, but it’s more than that — He loves them right to the end.

Matthew 5:43–45 (ESV) — 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

• It takes power, ‘dunamis’ power, total inner strength, to deal with 8 billion people, just and unjust.
• Listen to this.

The Love Walk: The Restraint of God

Psalm 78:38–39 (ESV) — 38 Yet he, being compassionate, atoned for their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often and did not stir up all his wrath. 39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes and comes not again.

• God restrains His anger.
• That means He turns away from it.
• He does it often – often means a lot — a great deal.
• The Lord doesn’t stir up wrath.
• How do you stir up wrath?
• You do that with words.
• When you get angry, it’s good to be silent.
• Close your mouth, don’t say anything.
• God also remembers how temporal we are.
• It takes strength to do all of this.
• The more you have to deal with, the more strength it takes.
• And, now, God does all of this easily because He is the epitome of power.
• He wants it to be easier for you.
• Here’s how do it – ask.
• Now, this word ‘dunamis’ occurs 123 times in the King James Version of the Bible.
• Again, it is dynamic supernatural power and ability.
• It is supernatural power given to do supernatural things.
• According to Greek legend, Hercules had this type of power.
• God is dripping with this power.
• He is no legend.
• Now, this is big stuff we are talking about here.
• And, with that thought, here’s the quote of the day.

Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

• Discussing God’s power is not for the small-minded.
• N.T. Wright said the following.

To go for the full version of discipleship is to sign on for spiritual warfare.²

• Well, you have to be strong to fight spiritually.
• Naturally speaking, mark this down ‘wars’ for selfish gain and world dominance are started by weak people.
• They couldn’t restrain their anger.
• Nor could they turn away from it.
• They weren’t strong enough to close their mouth, and so they stirred up wrath with words.
• How do you stir up wrath?
• You do that with words.
• When you get angry, it’s good to be silent.
• Close your mouth, don’t say anything.
• God also remembers how temporal we are.
• It takes strength to do all of this.
• The more you have to junk with people you have to deal with, the more strength it takes.
• Take a look at the famous definition of love in First Corinthians thirteen.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (ESV) — 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.

• Have you ever read this definition and thought to yourself, ‘there is no way that I could live up to this?’
• And, if you thought that, you would be one hundred percent right.
• That sinking feeling is exactly the feeling you should have because you can make this happen with your own ‘want to.’
• It takes strength.
• That’s the problem with our inability or our failures to walk in love.
• We’re too weak inside.
• It takes the strength of God to walk in the love of God.
• Paul is saying is that you have to be strong to love.
• Now, most of the church doesn’t understand ‘dunamis’ in connection with the love walk.
• They understand power in connection with miracles.
• That is half right — there is a connection.
• Here it is one place in the book of Corinthians where the link is seen.

1 Corinthians 14:1 (ESV) — 1 Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.

• Here’s another passage.
• If you want to increase the Presence of God in your life, you will have to power up with strength in your inner man.
• The love walk is not for the weak and faint of spirit.
• A strong lover is first a strong man, a strong woman.
• Loving people is not for weak people.
• You fuss with people because you are weak on the inside.
• And, you are weak on the inside because you have not asked for strength.
• Strength is there for the asking.

The Love Walk Amplified

• Now, we just read the famous passages on love in the ESV translation of the Bible.
• Here it is in the Amplified translation; I believe it helps us to read it in this passage.

1 Corinthians 13:4–8 (AMP) — 4 Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. 5 It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. 6 It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. 7 Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. 8 Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

• Again love’s definition is found in these verses.
• If you desire to know what love is and how it can dominate your life, then keeping these words at the center of your heart is good practice.
• Speak these words into your very heart, and then in the face of the contrariness of human selfishness, act on these words.
• Augustine of Hippo said the following:

Love all men, even your enemies, not because they are your brothers, but that they may become your brothers; that you may be at all times on fire with brotherly love, whether toward him that has become your brother, or toward your enemy, so that, by being beloved, he may become your brother.³

• Jesus introduced this new kind of love to His disciples and commanded them to love others with this new love.
• That’s the love He demonstrated in John thirteen.
• It’s time for us to grab the towel and, with love, serve one another.

Matthew 5:43–45 (ESV) — 43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.

• This agape love to which Jesus was referring when He said “love your enemies” is a love that reaches out to others because it sees them as valuable and precious.
• It doesn’t respond to men, not because of their conduct.
• This love is not dependent on the character or outward actions of others.
• Love, God’s love, is a selfless, self-sacrificial thing that desires to reach out and bless others regardless of response.
• This ‘agape’ love is not based on the one loved but on the character of the one who gave the love in the first place.

Romans 5:5 (ESV) — 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

How to Let the Love Walk Dominate Your Life

• First, you have to know that quantity is not what we are after when it comes to the love walk.
• People sometimes think, in the absence of love failures, that they need more love.
• They reach out to the Father God in prayer, asking the Father to give them ‘more,’ so they might overcome.
• That if they had more, they wouldn’t act so ugly.
• No, as we have already seen in Romans 5:5, the love of God has already been poured out in you.
• But, you need to be strengthened to walk it out.
• Then, when you act on the Word when you use what you have, it will grow and develop until, at some point, love dominates your life.
• Constant application is key.
• Now, love, God’s love, is the first fruit of the recreated born again human spirit that has received Jesus as Lord.
• That’s a Bible fact.

Galatians 5:22–23 (AMP) — 22 But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, 23 Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence). Against such things there is no law [that can bring a charge].

• There is no spiritual progress without progressing in love.
• The Word of God feeds your spirit the way food feeds your body.
• ‘For man shall not live and be upheld and sustained by bread alone, Jesus said but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God’ — Matthew 4:4.
• Peter chimes in with these words as we get ready to close.

2 Peter 1:4 (AMP) — 4 By means of these He has bestowed on us His precious and exceedingly great promises, so that through them you may escape [by flight] from the moral decay (rottenness and corruption) that is in the world because of covetousness (lust and greed), and become sharers (partakers) of the divine nature.

• God is love.
• You partake of love’s nature via the exceeding great and precious promises of His Word.
• And, one of these promises is ‘ask, and it shall be given to you, seek, and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened to you.’
• So, ask for strength.
• Pray along with the Apostle Paul.
• God’s Word develops God’s love in you.
• Meditate on His words until the love reigns supreme in all that you do.
• You guys have a great God week, and we will see you next time for another edition of Light On Life.

How to Break a Bad Habit

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