The True Test Of Love || God’s Love Language

Obedience

“I have loved you, [just] as the Father has loved Me; abide in My love [continue in His love with Me].

If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.”

-John 15:9-10

I skipped this topic last two weeks when it came to me at Port Harcourt.

By the way I must apologize for not being faithful with #OnlineBibleStudy on here for the past few weeks, I have the topics in my head but always have valid reasons not to post them. Number one is the Blackberry I used to use that made me quite flexible with writing, etc was stolen. I do not type with android quite well and the phone battery runs down quite easily. Pray along with me for a change of devices, my mobile offices – laptop, phones, etc need a change.

But still, I have to be faithful here and do the best I can given the circumstances. So here is me trying to do what the Lord will have me do with the blog.

Back to “Obedience”.

In PH, I was faced with a terrible test. Obey God and see through His eyes or see through your own eyes. Lay it all down at the altar and pick up God’s ways or hold onto your own ways and lose out on His ways.

And I wasn’t under duress, God left it as a choice to me.

I cried and cried that night (my relationship with God has too many tears in it), but I obeyed as much as I knew how to.

Right from the time God wanted to take my life in Him to a higher gear, it has always been a test of my obedience to Him.

From sharing about my past.

To obeying some of His outrageous instructions… every time God wanted to take me deeper in Him, He has always placed an instruction before me, leaving me to obey or not obey – my choice.

As I pondered on this, it finally came to me that God’s love language is OBEDIENCE.

I was also reading Arike’s post when this came to me.

You see, we humans have been categorized into having 5 love languages.

And oh yes, we can trace them to God but the only love language Jesus gave of our Father is OBEDIENCE.

How does this work?

Jesus said:

If you keep My commandments [if you continue to obey My instructions], you will abide in My love and live on in it, just as I have obeyed My Father’s commandments and live on in His love.”

So all those times Jesus was hanging on the cross, cut off from the Father and being crucified for our sins, what He was actually doing was that He was showing the Father that He loves Him.

Pause.

Rewind.

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.”

-John 3:16

The Father desired to save His creation, and to do that He had to sacrifice His son Jesus.

The Son really desired to do what the Father pleases but He also had struggles as seen in the Garden of Gethsemane.

He struggled and struggled.

His sweat became as blood.

He cried and begged.

Father let this cup pass over me…

But finally He said:

Nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wills…

In that very moment, the translation the Father heard was that “I love You”.

Now, this to me is so powerful.

Remember that last week we said that this month, all we will be doing on #OnlineBibleStudy will be to know our Jesus more.

His person.

His character.

What He loves.

Obedience is one thing we cannot bypass if we truly want to know this our God.

To Him, the prove of your love for Him is your obedience.

“He then took the knife and got ready to kill his son.

But the LORD’s angel shouted from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am!” he answered.

“Don’t hurt the boy or harm him in any way!” the angel said. “Now I know that you truly obey God, because you were willing to offer him your only son.”

-Genesis 22:10-12

Abraham first of all obeyed God when God told Him to leave His father’s house, his family and all that he had known to go to a place that he knew not.

And then God finally gives him the promised child and asks him to sacrifice him.

And only when Abraham obeyed did God say “now I know that you TRULY OBEY God…”

Our Father has never hidden His true affections from us.

He tells us that He loves us – He is jealous for us. He proposes with His death on the cross and asks us to marry Him with His blood as our bride price.

And we accept. And then begins the journey of learning to love Him just as He loves us and placing Him above everything else.

And then we sing His praises.

We worship Him with our whole heart.

We are enjoying insight from His Word.

We are enjoying tete-a-tete with the Holy Spirit.

And one day – SUDDENLY – He says “give me that your most prized possession”.

And we do not understand.

We think that He is wicked.

We think that He wants to deny us pleasure.

And all He is really asking to see is:

“DO YOU REALLY LOVE ME AS YOU SAY THAT YOU DO?”

Many of us may have come to this threshold of “to obey or not obey” with God.

If you haven’t, you will come to it soon enough.

And it’s always on something so dear to you.

Even after He asks us “do you love me” with the first test of obedience, He will come again with another and we have to learn to process what is really happening.

He is simply saying with every test of obedience, “HOW DEEP AND HOW FAR DOES YOUR LOVE FOR ME RUN?”

You can spend a whole lot of time with God (and He truly loves to have us spend quality time with Him, that’s another of His love language) but one way He really and truly measures how far your love for Him runs, is your obedience to His instructions – especially the painful, nerve-wracking instructions.

HE NEVER FORCES US TO OBEY after all love has to truly flow from the heart, without duress to have any real meaning to the one who is being loved.

So He poses the tests and waits.

HOW FAR AND HOW DEEP DO YOU LOVE ME?

I have learnt and I am still learning in my walk with God to be fearful even of what He asks me, to cry and cry (as He asks me the questions) but at the end to always say NEVERTHELESS NOT AS I WILL BUT A STHOU WILLS”.

Sometimes I don’t “feel” God, so I feel like I am far from Him. How do I measure is my heart is still with Him, by my response to the things He asks me to do.

Now, there are BIG THINGS like withdraw your entire savings and sow it, leave your job, go into full-time ministry, etc but there are also small things like wake up at 12am to pray, spend time with me by 5am, give that lady your lunch, etc etc.

When I struggle to obey, could it be that somewhere in my heart, my love for Him doesn’t run so deep yet?

Here in John 15 He has told us, one thing about me is that I love obedience, it is my biggest love language.

What do we do with this information?

For we cannot even obey on our own. He has to work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure.

So we pray:

Lord, in the hard places of life, where you step in and pose to us the hard questions and tests, help us to obey you.

Let our heart to be sold out to you.

Help us to surrender to you, both the hard things and not so hard things.

May we always hear your voice and may our hearts forever respond “not as I will but as you will oh Lord.”

Have you been digging into Jesus since the last week?

What aspect of Himself has He revealed to you?

PRAY:

Holy Spirit reveal Jesus afresh to me.

Let love for the Lord and for His person come alive in my heart again.

FURTHER RESOURCES:

If you struggle with obedience and speaking this love language of God, “Starting Your Year Right” by The Women At The Well deals with “Surrender”.

Download for FREE here.

Also read Pastor Nathaniel Bassey’s message I transcribed on God’s will here and here.

Till our Next Online Bible Study,

Love,

Frances