Dwight Fletcher | Show love like Jesus did

On Valentine’s Day, we hardly ever think of ‘warring for love’, but that’s exactly what we have to do. Last week we established that, ‘God will do nothing in the earth except through us because we are His body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. When we operate under the instruction and the power of the head a full representation of Christ is seen and will manifest in our nation.’

All this comes into sharper focus when we consider Ephesians 3:7-12 where Paul said, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. … this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ … which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

God’s intent in putting everything under Christ’s feet and in reclaiming that which was lost by Adam, being head of the church for us, was that “… through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms…”.

This is another way of saying that the victory won by Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary is to be enforced and maintained by the sons of God. He wants to demonstrate Himself through us. The presence of God is to be felt on the earth because of His manifest presence in our lives and as an outworking of our lives touching other lives. We are called to be the church and that gives us the privilege of participating in God’s activity in the earth.

The church is a very important part of God’s plan for the earth and for the proclamation of His Word. God’s plan is to operate through us – we are not backbenchers but upfront in the battle. We are the front-line troops, spreading His love. The head of our army, Jesus, has “… disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” (Colossians 2:15)

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. (1 John 3:8). 2 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us to “endure hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No one serving as a soldier gets involved in civilian affairs – he wants to please his commanding officer”. As soldiers we are called to:

1. Please our commanding officer – through holiness and obedience

2. Operate as a unified force – “Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.” (Romans 12:4-6)

3. Be acquainted with our weapons and use them in an appropriate manner. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

4. Endure hardship – “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.” (James 1:2-3)

Are you ready to commit to the purposes of God for your life, for the lives of others and our nation? Then show love like Jesus loved us today.