“What is the greatest power known to man?”

A couple of years ago I wrote a blog on The Greatest Secret … in fact, those who have attended our “My Abundant Life” seminars or purchased the CD series will know the answer … Love!

Recently Rhonda Byrne (producer of The Secret) released a book called “The Power.” Guess what it is all about?!?

You might be saying, “How can love be the greatest power? Is it greater than faith?”  Absolutely … let me show you.  Read and meditate on the following passage:

“If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don’t love, I’m nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate.

“If I speak God’s Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, “Jump,” and it jumps, but I don’t love, I’m nothing.

“If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.” (The Message Bible – 1 Corinthians 13:1-3)

I’m not speaking of the emotion of love, but rather the decision and lifestyle of love.  Yes, love is a decision. Often two people will ‘fall’ in love but never make the decision to love, they get married and wonder why they fight constantly, then divorce.  They never made the decision to love each other!  A decision means to cut off all other possibilities!

The Greek word ‘agape’ in the bible is translated as ‘love’; however the true meaning is ‘the God kind of love.’

We read on from the above scripture and we get a better understanding of agape love:

Love never gives up.

Love cares more for others than for self.

Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.

Love doesn’t strut,

Doesn’t have a swelled head,

Doesn’t force itself on others,

Isn’t always “me first,”

Doesn’t fly off the handle,

Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,

Doesn’t revel when others grovel,

Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

Puts up with anything,

Trusts God always,

Always looks for the best,

Never looks back, but keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. (The Message Bible – 1 Corinthians 13:4-8)

I don’t know about you, but as I read this I check myself off against the list and I find myself saying “God teach me how to love like you love!”  In fact, this is the only commandment that Jesus gave in the new testament:  “But I say to you, Have love for those who are against you, and make prayer for those who are cruel to you;” Matthew 5:44

Put the same love passage in 1 Corinthians 13 from another rendition and in first person and it is even more impactful:

My love endures long and I am patient and kind;

I’m never envious nor boil over with jealousy; I’m not boastful or have a high opinion of myself.

I am not arrogant and inflated with pride;

I am not rude and I don’t act unfairly.

God’s love in me does not insist on my own rights or my own way;

I am not self-seeking;

I am not touchy or fretful or resentful;

I take no account of the evil done to me, I pay no attention to a suffered wrong.

I do not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoice when right and truth prevail.

I bear up under anything and everything that comes, I’m ever ready to believe the best of every person, my hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and I endure everything without weakening.

My love never fails, never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end.

Did you know that there is no fear in love … the bible says that “Perfect love (agape) casts out ALL fear.” (1 John 4:18)

If you have fear in your life you have to ask the question, “What or who do I not love?” A fear can be in the form of jealousy, hatred, revenge, anger, disease, poverty, lack, guilt, depression, competition for what someone else has, afraid of the future etc.

Love activates faith! (Galatians 5:6)  Faith without love is nothing more than the sound of a creaking gate, a noise that fades away to nothing.  “Now faith, hope and love abide in us; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13)

We cannot know agape love with knowing God, because God is love (1 John 4:8).  Maybe one day we should look at the character of God as most people have a warped and incorrect understanding.

Please feel free to comment below and share your insights.

Six Symptoms That Expose Fear of Poverty

How did you go with the questions from yesterday?

The majority of people, if asked if they have a fear of poverty they will answer, “No.” Few people realize that they are in a prison, bound by the shackles of fear.  Fear of poverty is a mental bondage which shows up in the physical realm.  Like an alcoholic is bound to drink alcohol and hate the consequences of drunkenness, yet does not know how to escape it, so is the prison of poverty; many people are bound in mental poverty and speak poverty and hate the consequences of poverty yet they do not know how to escape lack and poverty.

If you answered yes to any one of the nine questions you have a symptom of fear of poverty.

Jesus said, “If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure.  Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.” (John 8:31-32)  Truth will always free us from a spiritual or mental prison.

The 6 symptoms that expose fear of poverty (as written by Napoleon Hill in ‘Think & Grow Rich’):

1. INDIFFERENCE – Commonly expressed through lack of ambition; willingness to tolerate poverty; acceptance of whatever compensation life may offer without protest; mental and physical laziness; lack of initiative, imagination, enthusiasm and self-control.
2. INDECISION – The habit of permitting others to do one’s thinking. Staying “on the fence”.
3. DOUBT – Generally expressed through alibis and excuses designed to cover up, explain away, or apologize for one’s failures, sometimes expressed in the form of envy of those who are successful, or by criticizing them.
4. WORRY – Usually expressed by finding fault with others, a tendency to spend beyond one’s income, neglect of personal appearance, scowling and frowning; intemperance in the use of alcoholic drink, sometimes through the use of narcotics; nervousness, lack of poise, self-consciousness and lack of self-reliance.
5. OVER-CAUTION – The habit of looking for the negative side of every circumstance, thinking and talking of possible failure instead of concentrating upon the means of succeeding.  Knowing all the roads to disaster, but never searching for the plans to avoid failure. Waiting for “the right time” to begin putting ideas and plans into action, until the waiting becomes a permanent habit. Remembering those who have failed, and forgetting those who have succeeded.  Seeing the hole in the doughnut, but overlooking the doughnut. Pessimism, leading to indigestion, poor elimination, bad breath and bad disposition.
6. PROCRASTINATION – The habit of putting off until tomorrow that which should have been done last year.  Spending enough time in creating alibis and excuses to have done the job. This symptom is closely related to over-caution, doubt and worry.  Refusal to accept responsibility when it can be avoided.  Willingness to compromise rather than put up a stiff fight. Compromising with difficulties instead of harnessing and using them as stepping stones to advancement. Bargaining with life for a penny, instead of demanding prosperity, opulence, riches, contentment and happiness. Planning what to do IF AND WHEN OVERTAKEN BY FAILURE, INSTEAD OF BURNING ALL BRIDGES AND MAKING RETREAT IMPOSSIBLE.  Weakness of and often total lack of self-confidence, definiteness of purpose, self-control, initiative, enthusiasm, ambition, thrift and sound reasoning ability.  EXPECTING POVERTY INSTEAD OF DEMANDING RICHES.  Association with those who accept poverty instead of seeking the company of those who demand and receive riches.

Fear of poverty is a state of mind, nothing else. As such, every person has control over it … they may not know how to exercise that control but they do have that ability.  Money will not come to us in gushers until we change our state of mind to faith of abundance and prosperity.

So how do you change your state of mind from fear to faith?  Read by recent blog called “Change Your Life” and listen to my audio on Faith below.

‘Faith’ by David Schirmer

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