Most of us have grown up in a very competitive environment. We have been exposed to conditional love. Many of us have parents that showed us conditional love that was based on our performance, and even the best of parents still seem to have had their “favorites,” based on performance. Performanced based love has permeated not only our homes and families but also our schools and competitive and capitalistic work environments, but especially here in America. We love our famous, we love our champions, we love the successful, and they surely get most of the love.
But is this the Love of God? Do we need to compete for and earn the Love of God? Do we need to perform in order to gain his approval? How do we receive the Love of God? Well, in this message, we are going to uncover the “free” love of God! He doesn’t require that you prove it by your performance, nor does He require that you prove yourself worthy enough to keep it! God’s love is truly free, from beginning to end. There’s nothing you can do to earn it, and there’s nothing you can do to lose it! It’s yours, and it’s completely free, with no strings attached! Amen.
Without further adieu, let’s get into the Word of God, and discover the “Real Love of God.”
Let’s start by looking at 1 John 4:10,
“THIS IS LOVE, NOT that we (proved that we) loved God, but that (we realize) he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
This is what Love is. In other Words we can’t love, we can only receive His, and love him with the Love He gives. You see, many focus on their love for God, but do not have a true revelation of His Love for us. They are not conscious of His Love, and what He has provided, so they end up trying to Prove their love for him, through their performance, or they make their love and loving acts a performance, so they can earn the favor and Love of God. But nothing can be further from the truth.
The Lord clearly says, “This is Love…” NOT that we loved (proved our love, offered loving works) to God, but that He Loved Us, and sent His atoning sacrifice for our sins. The true, real and free Love of God is revealed in His work, not our works, not even our love works. Those who have a works-based, performance oriented slant on the Word of God, truly are saying we should read the above scripture this way…
THIS IS LOVE NOT that God proved and provided his love for me… but that everyday I need to prove my love for him
by my atoning sacrifice, to prove I am worthy enough.
You see, when you flip the script, you can clearly see that the performance oriented perspective is counter to the Real Love of God which is Free, and was purchased by the Sacrifice of Jesus, and then FREELY poured out into our hearts because of His Performance, not ours! His Work, not ours. His Punishment not ours. And Jesus has FREELY given us the blessing that we didn’t deserve, that is the Blessing of the Father’s Love. But it is only received by believing, lest any man boast about how he earned the FREE LOVE OF GOD. Amen.
Let’s move on to John 3:16,
John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in his loving sacrifice shall not perish but have eternal life.
You can see here that you cannot earn the Love of God by “achieving it,” but only receiving it, by simply believing in His Love for us, not believing and trusting in our love and sacrifice for Him.
But unfortunately the emphasis has been taken off of the Real Love of God, and has been twisted into a performance oriented love that earns His approval and acceptance by our cross, and our sacrifice.
Or some have begun with a revelation of the Love of God, and have received the outpouring, but slowly have had their focus shifted from His Love, to their Love, and have shut off the flow of True Love.
In this mindset, slowly a performance and “prove-it” love begins to creep back into their hearts, and they find themselves trying to “keep” and “earn” the finished Work of Christ.
They don’t realize that His Love is “Perfect” and “Eternal” and covers their entire lives, so in their minds, the Love of God was only a one-time act to have received, and now it’s up to them to prove that they were “worthy” to keep what was given. Therefore the above scripture would be written as follows:
John 3:16
For I so loved God that I gave my life to His son, So that whoever believes in how good I am doing Would follow me, and will not not perish but possibly have eternal life, just like me.
It’s obvious how twisted the Gospel message can become. And many works-based teachings are saying this, without explicitly saying this. But when you turn the scriptures around to say what they say and compare them to what the Gospel ACTUALLY says, it almost looks ridiculous that we would believe such nonsense. Lord deliver us from our performance oriented concept of what Real Love is, and set our minds FOREVER on the True Love of God, forever keep us in the revelation of your Free Love. Amen. Let’s continue…
John 1:12 reads…
John 1:12
Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God
The right to receive the Love of the Father, as a Father, was “given” freely, through believing, and was “received” not earned. How we become Children of God, is how we stay children of God. We receive this ‘right’ freely, by “simply” believing it, not achieving it! But there are some who want to convince us that we must achieve and prove we are worthy to “stay” a child of God, and that we are always in danger of being “ex-communicated” from the Love of God, and separated from it! Well, nothing could be further from the truth! So let’s flip the script again, and let’s use John 1:12 to “twist” and re-write what they are saying and let’s see how foolish it really sounds.
John 1:12
Yet to all who tried to obey him, to those who believed in their works & obedience, earned the right to (eventually) become children of God–
This twisting is not the Gospel, nor is it the Good News! The only prerequisite to receiving the Love of God, and the right to become a child of God, is “believing” not achieving! We cannot earn the Grace of God, nor can we buy our way into the family of God. God will not have it. Why? On the basis of pride and boasting. He will ONLY give it to us FREELY. The Love of God manifested in and revealed in the Grace of God through His Son is free, from beginning to end, but even for Eternity. His Free Love, ENDURES FOREVER! Amen. Simply receive it, and let’s never return to that old twisted, tormenting, deceptive mindset of performance oriented, “prove-it” kind of love. It’s human, but not Gods’ Real Love revealed through the Gospel. Amen.
This will be the last flipping of scripture, to reveal the insanity of a performance oriented, prove-it by your works, and earn it love, that so many believe is the Real Love of God. So let’s look at what the truth is in 1 John 3:1…
1 John 3:1
3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
The gospel is about the Great Love of God, and our “job” is to focus on, become consciously aware of His Love, and through our beholding it, we are filled with it! After being filled with it, we then walk in it, and it performs on us and then through us. The Real Love of God Works.
Unfortunately a religious spirit would like us to focus on and prove our “great” love for God, and would want us to focus on “pouring” out our love on God, in order to receive and earn His outpouring. But this is not the truth. The truth is, that we receive the outpouring of His Great Love, and it is Lavishly poured out on us, because of His Son’s sacrifice, not our own, and we can only receive this lavish and great love, by faith, and through believing and receiving the full revelation of this love. Their perspective begins to look like…
1 John 3:1
3 See what great love you have has lavished on the father, that you should make him proud, and call yourself a child of God! And that is what you might possibly be!
With their perspective, you might not have quite earned it yet, and it would be prideful to think you have arrived! You haven’t finished your work yet! In the end, you might realize and receive what you have earned. You might receive the glory that you were possibly promised! Wow! But this is what they want you to believe. They want you to believe you can lose your sonship and your rights as a child of God, through your poor performance! They want you to prove your great love, and prove it by lavishing your love on God!
Well, dear child, I am here to announce and declare to you that, the Great Love of God, is DOES COST, AND IT DOES COME BY WORKS! Just not yours! It was paid for by Jesus, earned by Jesus, and FREELY given to you, through believing not achieving! He has freely poured out on us, the eternal, perfect, but most of all FREE love of God! You didn’t receive it by your good works, nor can you keep it by your good works! It is free! Amen.
Let’s break this down even further, but in an even simpler way.
There are two perspectives on how to receive the Love of God.
Performance Perspective
- Focus is on your love for God.
- The motive and goal is to prove your love to God by your giving.
- Faith and trust has shifted to your cross, not His.
- You are a servant with hopes to become a Son possibly one day.
Real Love Perspective
- Focus is on His Love for you.
- The motive and goal is to receive His Love by believing in it.
- Faith and trust is in His Sacrifice and all of it’s covenant promises.
- You are a Son, who serves by the Power of His Great Love in you.
You see, this is nothing new. The Apostle Paul saw this misunderstanding, and twisting of the truth in order to appease our performance nature and mindsets in the beginning, but especially in the Church of the Galatians. He specifically addresses it in Galatians 1. Let’s see what he says…
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the (FREE) grace of Christ
You are following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who deliberately twist/distort/pervert the truth concerning Christ.
And again in Galatians 3..
11 Clearly NO ONE who relies on the law (their obedience & works) is accepted by God, because “the righteous will live by faith. (in His love and Finished work)”
So it is clear that we must “rely” on the Love of God revealed and fully understood in the sacrifice of the Son, for the world, but especially for us, who receive by faith, and try not to receive it by “relying” on our obedient works. But conversely, the Lord says, to rely on His Love! And what is Love? Well, we learned what Love is previously in this Message! Love is, and was demonstrated by the shedding of Jesus’s blood and his Sacrifice, not the shedding of our blood and our sacrifice in order to earn his Love one day.
His Love might manifest through us to the point of shedding our blood, however it won’t be our love for him, proving we are worthy of His Love, it will be His FREE love, operating and demonstrating itself through us! We cannot muster up and “try” to earn the Love of God, we can only rely on and receive His Love in us and through us. For the bible clearly states…
1 John 4:16
God is love. And so we… KNOW and RELY on the love God has for us.
It doesn’t say, we rely on and know the love we have for God. It doesn’t say, “We know and rely on our proving and earning the love of God.” No dear children, we rely on the Love he FREELY pours out upon us, and into our hearts LITERALLY through faith in the finished Work of His Love. Amen. How beautiful and Loving is our Father that we should be included Freely, because of His Love for us! Thank God we don’t have a performance-oriented Father who makes us earn His Love. Anybody who would cause us to think any differently, as Paul has clearly stated, is twisting the truth about Christ, and causing the children to abandon the Love of God found in Christ, to their own fleshly performance oriented Love, that is not the True and Real Love of God!
Paul goes on…
Galatians 5
4 You who are trying to be justified by your obedience to the law have been cut off from (The Spirit)
you have FALLEN away FROM LOVE OF GOD DEMONSTRATED BY HIS GRACE!
“Ouch!” Paul has revealed the shift in the hearts of the Galatians. The shift is in their focus! Their conscious focus has shifted from the Love of God, and a consciousness and focus on Christ’s Sacrifice to focusing on what they can do to be justified by their works and obedience. Their goal had shifted from declaring the Good News of His Sacrifice to declaring the good news of a performance-based cross that you get to carry, that might earn you the favor and good graces of God!
You see, to Fall from Grace, is to shift your focus from His Work, to your work, and in doing so, we cut ourselves off from the Flow of the Spirit, and shut down and quench the Spirit of God who lives in us and flows through us. For more on this, please read my book, “Radioactive Flow.”
But you see the only work that counts is a work of the Spirit, and flows from being full of the Spirit. And nobody can be full of the Spirit with a performance oriented mindset. The only mindset and focus that furnishes the fullness of the Spirit is one that is focused on and set to the Love of God found in the face and life, and sacrifice of Jesus. This is what the Gospel is all about. Not our works, but faith in His Work!
Don’t believe me? If not, I understand, because it has taken years to grow out of performance and work-based mindsets. In fact I was brain-washed for years, in fear, and a slave to performance-based love. Thank God I have been freed, and am still learning how to stay free! Amen.
Let’s look at Galatians 5:6,
The ONLY THING that counts is FAITH working through LOVE.
There it is. The ONLY work that counts, is one that is done in Faith in the FREE LOVE OF GOD. And what is Love? Not that you loved him, BUT THAT HE “FIRST” LOVED YOU AND GAVE His son, not that you gave yourself as a son, but that He gave His son. This is what counts. Faith in His Love, not faith in our Love. And our faith is empowered with a revelation of His Love, that is, the more we realize what His Love has done and accomplished, the greater our faith will be in Him!
Love is built upon the foundation of trust. And if you think you might only have God’s love if you perform well enough, then you will never experience the full Power of His Love, that only comes by a confident faith in what he has said, and what he has promised, not a confident faith in what we have promised him. Amen.
So what’s the big deal?! And what’s at stake?! Well, whether you walk in a performance oriented love mindset, or a Real, Free, Perfect, Eternal, Great Love of God mindset will be the difference between experiencing true sonship on earth, or walking in and experiencing slavery on earth. What!? What do I mean!? Well let’s Paul continue to explain in his letter to the Galatians…
Galatians 5
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
You see, a works based mindset, Proving our love for God, Will cause SLAVERY!!! Slave to what? A slave to fear of never truly being able to earn the Love of God. A slave to fear of not performing well enough. A fear of never finishing your work. A works-based, performance oriented mindset ends in fear and slavery every time! This is what’s at stake! Freedom or Slavery.
A free person can rest in, trust in, and freely receive the Love of God, and trust the promises of His Love for us. However, a slave can only hope to one day become a son of God, or to earn the love of God. And even the servants, that is those who boast on their service, they too will end as slaves, either slaves to pride, or slaves to fear, because they did not trust and rejected and despised, through unbelief, the Love of God, and what True love is, that is the FREE LOVE OF GOD.
You see Paul was looking out for us, in advance, warning us of the plans of the enemy to confuse and empower “false believers” to yoke us and shift our focus from the Finished Work to our Finished Work. He writes in Galatians 2…
Galatians 5
1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
The false believers want to yoke you with a performance oriented mindset on the Love of God, and convince you that you must perform in order to earn the Love of God! In fact, I have heard them say before, “Oh, that’s easy believism.” That’s one of their quotes. And our response to that is YOU ARE RIGHT! EXACTLY! That is why the Lord said…
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 30 For my yoke is EASY and my burden is LIGHT.”
You see there are only 2 yokes! The easy yoke of “believing and receiving” and then there is the false yoke, perpetuated by false believers that is the hard, heavy enslaving yoke of “achieving.” There are only 2. One leads to death and one leads to life. One counts, and the other will be rejected as unacceptable in the sight of God. Amen.
This is even more clearly exemplified in the story of the Prodigal son. Let’s take a look…
The Parable of the Lost Son
Luke 15
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead (in works) and is alive again(in faith); he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.
Well, the prodigal son had it right! Nobody is worthy to be the Father’s son. The relationship only comes by Grace and Love not by behaving, but believing. It comes FREELY. The prodigal learned that you can’t earn the right to be my son, IT’S FREE! My love is free! My sonship is free!
So what does the Father do? He puts the best robe on him, which is symbolic for His Presence, Giftings, and Power. Then he puts a ring on his finger which is symbolic for the legal right to be a son. Then he puts sandals on his feet, restoring to him His call and covering. Next he kills the calf, that is PROVIDED, not paid for by the Son, but paid for by the Father for the son. This is symbolic of the sacrifice of Jesus. The perfect sacrifice, the only sacrifice that is needed. It too is FREE.
Next they celebrate! How? You can’t celebrate something you haven’t earned yet. It’s hard to celebrate when you haven’t won. It’s hard to celebrate if the job is not finished! But now the job is finished! The work of Christ and the free Love and Grace that is freely poured out on us is finished!
You see the prodigal son, thought after his failure, the best he could hope for would be the position of a servant, not a son. But nothing could be further from the truth. However he was right about not being worthy to be a son.
In contrast, let’s look at the other son, and what His response was…
Luke 15
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.
You see a works-based mindset, like that of Cains, that seeks glory and honor, will only become angry, hateful, and even murderous. The older son became angry, because he believed he had a right to receive the sacrifice!
So the father pleaded with him, about what Love was, and how to receive the real FREE love of God. But the older son persisted in an attempt to shift the Father’s free loving kindness from believing, to achieving. He says, “Look!” In other words, “take your eyes off of your loving sacrifice,” and put them on my loving sacrifice for you.
The older son, reminds, and brings to the consciousness of the Father, his yoke of slavery, that he took on, in hopes to receive the sacrifice of the lamb. He further expounds on the proof, for why he should have received the sacrifice of the lamb, he says, “I never disobeyed…” In other words, look at my works, good behavior, and my keeping of your law! I deserve the sacrifice of the lamb, and the covenant blessings of the lamb.
You can clearly see here the performance based, prove-it, works based mentality that is prevalent, and comes from and ends in a yoke of slavery, but is not the yoke of the Father. The Fathers’ love and acceptance is FREE, and we DON’T DESERVE it, and WE ARE UNWORTHY, and we will never be able to slave over, not earn what is FREELY ours in the Son, and provided for by the sacrifice of the Lamb.
Then the older son goes on to say, he wanted to “sacrifice with his friends,” in other words, not celebrate the love of the Father, but what he had earned and the party he through because of all that he had “accomplished,” not that all that had freely been provided through the work of the Father. He thought he deserved the celebration, he deserved the sacrifice, and that it could be earned and paid for by his slavery, his works and his good behavior.
And as a result he never entered the freedom of the sons. He never received the celebration, nor could he celebrate even when the Love of the Father was freely revealed as freely given, and freely poured out, even in spite of our mistakes and even upon someone as undeserving as the prodigal son. Amen.
Lord, we repent of our performanced-based, works-based love, and we freely receive your love for us, which we DON’T DESERVE, but can and will only come freely through the sacrifice of your lamb, because we have been made sons, and will always be sons, not because of our greatness, but because of your greatness! That is what we are! We receive that covenant promise, by believing and not achieving this day!
Shift our focus from our love, to the Greatness of Your love, that you freely lavish on us because of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and the covenant that is revealed from heaven, that is a covenant of freedom, freely given, and freely received by your Loving Grace, and not by our works. In Jesus Name, Amen.
and then