For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working (Grk. ENERGEO: is energized) through love. Gal 5:6 NKJV

Is loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength an unreachable ideal? A bridge too far? Is it like ‘pray without ceasing’ – an impossible task (more about that later)? What would it look like to love God so deeply, so purely, so full of innocence and joy that daily life could be like a lover’s honeymoon? Is that even possible? If faith is energized by love, what could faith accomplish with a love so great?

…that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. 1 John 1:3-4 NKJV

The pathway into the fullest, deepest, most satisfying and most joy-filled relationship conceivable has already been paved by Jesus. From God’s perspective, the way into the sweetest relationship with the Father and with Jesus has been fully prepared, fully accomplished.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Rom 5:1-2 NKJV

Being a good Catholic boy, I was very religious. It didn’t help being Irish because Irish Catholics were almost as religious as Italian Catholics. I went to Catholic grammar school, played CYO basketball and baseball, and was an altar boy during the transition of Vatican Two, from the Latin mass to English. So, we memorized Latin then memorized the English liturgy. One time a priest told me, a Cub Scout, that I could go to Hell for eating a hotdog on Friday 🙄. I had three hundred fifty years saved up on Purgatory – I kept track of it – because I prayed the rosary a lot (you ex-Catholics must be laughing by now! 😉). I had a lot of religion…but very little relationship!

If you’re going to love Jesus with all your heart, soul, mind and strength then what will stand in your way is religion because religion sets impossible standards, and you always fail them. Religion is deeply insidious because it looks so good on the outside and is so creepy on the inside. What makes this love possible is that it is YOUR heart – not mine, not someone else’s, not some perfect standard – YOUR soul, YOUR mind and strength. Once we learn how to offer up those four aspects fully without reservation, then we can walk into that love relationship that means so much. Are you with me?

9 “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.  10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full. John 15:9-11 NKJV

“My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.”

Note first ‘the honeymoon’! My friend Joe’s great secret to ministry is enthusiasm. Enthusiasm comes out of joy. Daily joy produces the honeymoon effect, where the sky is the limit and nothing is impossible. Joy is infectious, and if you are ever around my friend Joe, you will catch a good dose of joy. Joy is the fruit of the love relationship, loving God with your whole heart, soul, mind and strength.

“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.” 

The nature of love requires sacrifice. God so LOVED that He GAVE up, released or invested something of incomparable value, His Son. Everything He gave up in love He received back in manifold fullness. That’s what love does! Love is sacrifice. A mother gives up her body to become a baby factory, to grow a child, and that is just the beginning of the sacrifices she must make…but that is what love does! Jesus said, DENY YOURSELF, take up your cross and follow Me! Jesus demanded love for Him as a requirement to be His disciple. But the fruit of that love is a joy incomparable and a satisfaction that only the sacrificers (mothers, and others, like you) know and understand! To abide in His love means there is a daily component to this love relationship, that it must be renewed and reignited daily.

“If you keep (Grk. TEREO) My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”

TEREO means to keep them before your eyes, not to follow them perfectly, because if you keep them before your eyes, they will fill you and influence you until you absorb them fully. Each king of Israel was required by the TORAH to write a personal copy of the TORAH, a slow and painstaking process, then read it every day of his life. In this manner the TORAH would fill his heart and guide his ministry as king. Same for you and I!  When we appreciate the words of God and set them before our eyes daily, TEREO them, then they gently persuade us and guide us into the love of God in manifestation.

What could faith, which is energized by love, accomplish if we really loved God with all our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength?

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. Prov 3:5-6 NKJV

Perhaps the greatest contemporary record of being led by the Spirit that I ever encountered was concerning two men – Howard Carter and Lester Sumrall. The scene takes us back to the early 1930’s in what was known worldwide as the Great Depression. There are no phones, no Wi-Fi, no internet, and electricity itself is a luxury. Howard Carter, 39 years old, was the superintendent of a Christian college in the UK and president of a British denomination; Sumrall was a twenty-year-old evangelist in the southern United States. They both got a word from God the same night…

Sumrall got a vision of millions dying and going to Hell all over the world, and that he must go to the nations to reach them. Howard Carter got a very clear, very specific word from the Lord that I will quote here in its entirety (note how the vocabulary changes from what the Lord says to what the man says):

“I have found a companion for thee; I have called a worker to stand beside thee. He hath heard My call, he respondeth and joineth thee in the work to which I have called thee. I have called him, although thou hast not seen him. He is called and chosen and shall join thee. Behold, he cometh – he cometh from afar. He cometh to help thee to carry thy burden and be a strength at thy side, and thou shalt find pleasure in his service at thy side, and thou shalt delight in him. He shall come at the time appointed and shall not tarry. At a time thou thinkest not shalt he appear, even when thou art engaged in My work – and this is what he will say – Wherever you go, I will go. Over the highest mountains, over the tempestuous waves of the sea, into the deep valleys, into the plains. I will succor you, I will assist you, I will strengthen you, I will help you, and in every time of need I shall be with you. When you are old, I will strengthen you and assist you and help you. I shall succor you in your old age, and you shall be unto me as a father.”[1]

Eighteen months later, Carter plans to go to the Far East on a mission trip but gets an invitation to preach at a conference in Arkansas, far away and in the opposite direction from Carter’s plans. Carter rejects the invitation, but they never receive the rejection letter and instead send the details of how he is travelling there. Carter agrees to go and arrives at the conference. Meanwhile, Sumrall is 150 miles away preaching, and the Lord tells him to stop and go to the conference in Arkansas. He hears Carter teaching on the gifts of the Spirit, and goes to meet him afterwards, having no idea of what God is doing. He blurts out these words as he meets the older man, the teacher, Dr. Carter. He says, “Wherever you go, I will go. Over the highest mountains, over the tempestuous waves of the sea, into the deep valleys, into the plains. I will succor you, I will assist you, I will strengthen you, I will help you, and in every time of need I shall be with you. When you are old, I will strengthen you and assist you and help you. I shall succor you in your old age, and you shall be unto me as a father.” Carter recognizes him as the one spoken of in the prophecy and they agree to go to the nations. Now this is where things get weird, in a wonderful way…

Sumrall goes home to sell his car, get a passport and join Carter. Carter leaves for the West Coast and never tells Sumrall where he is going (he was following his plan to go to the Far East). Sumrall asks the Lord, “Where in the world is Howard Carter?” He has the idea to go to Los Angeles by train. Arriving there, he goes to the largest church in the city. The pastor says, “We are so happy to see you! Howard Carter told us you were coming and has just left. I think he has gone to Japan!” After preaching there, he goes to a church by the beach. The pastor says, “We are so happy to see you! Howard Carter was just here and told us you would come. I think he left for India!”

Sumrall realizes he is in an elite level of Spirit led training. He asks the Lord again, “Where in the world is Howard Carter? Do I go to India, or Japan?” The Lord says, “Go to the bottom of the world and work your way up.” Sumrall gets on a boat for Australia. Meanwhile, Carter has received word in Hawaii that a conference in New Zealand needs his presence. He changes his plans for Japan and goes to New Zealand. Sumrall lands in Auckland, NZ with no money, but decides to find the local AG church. Carter is just a hundred miles away with the pastors’ conference. By revelation he tells the AG pastor from Auckland to go home and that Howard Carter would arrive at his home at eleven AM the next day. He sends him a note telling him to go to Australia and he would meet him there. Young Sumrall is crestfallen, having travelled so far to find his mentor, then being told to go wait for him in Melbourne. But it was a test of obedience! Sumrall went to Australia. Then for nine years, until World War Two, the two men travelled and preached the gospel in many nations. Incredible! Faith to do the impossible, to rise above any circumstance, will rise in you when your love for God is with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

Finally, a word about unceasing prayer…

…pray without ceasing, 1 Thess 5:17 NKJV

…but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 And Abraham came near and said, “Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it? 25 Far be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked; far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” 26 So the Lord said, “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.” 27 Then Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord…” Gen 18:22-28  NKJV

Two things you must understand – (1) there are two ways to pray, with your soul and with your spirit and (2) prayer is not a monologue, it is a dialogue, a conversation. You start that conversation first thing in the morning and you carry it on all day long, talking and listening, sharing burdens and carrying burdens, seeking the others advice, seeking counsel, asking questions BOTH WAYS (yes, the Lord asks you questions and seeks your counsel, your will). Prayer is a conversation you carry on all day long, without ceasing, you and your Beloved.

Loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength is attainable. Jesus has paved the way to the heart of our ABBA, our God and we can enjoy the sweetest of fellowship with our Beloved every moment of every day, delighting in each other’s presence. Then that love ignites our faith to do the impossible, what He has called us to do. Amen? Love you!

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…

[1] The Life Story of Lester Sumrall,  pg 77