"And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more
in knowledge and in all judgment."
- Philippians 1:9
When Paul wrote his first epistle to the church at Corinth, he had several areas of concern. Probably the biggest area was their neglect in walking after the commandment of love. In chapter three, he says: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?" (1 Cor. 3:1-3). What an amazing observation! So often we limit our concept of carnality to those who are all caught up with worldly entertainment and fleshly appetites, but seldom do we consider that carnality also has to do with anything that takes us out of the love of God.
What is even more interesting is that anytime we do step out of love, as Paul noted, we prohibit our engagement with the Holy Spirit on a spiritual level. That is why Paul explained he was only able to give them milk and not meat. Milk represents the simple truths of the kingdom that are easy to swallow. Meat involves the deeper things of God where it demands more effort, more responsibility, and certainly more accountability.
If you are not talking God's language, you really don't have anything to say, and you are certainly not going to be able to hear what God is saying.
The surest way to shut down the Holy Spirit from being able to take us deeper is to dismiss the fine print of our contract with God, particularly in the area of walking in the love. Not just love on a natural level, but walking in the God kind of love. There is a level of love that we are to walk in that takes us beyond our abilities into the ability of God. That's where the Holy Spirit works his magic! He can do so much more than we can even imagine, but his operations are restricted to the clause of our contract that says, "You are to love as I have loved you!"
How is it that Christ loved us? He demonstrated that love in that while we were yet sinners, he died for us! (Rom. 5:8). He abdicated his place in God by taking upon himself our sin. Paul expressed that kind of love when he said, "For I could wish that myself were accused from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh" (Rom. 9:3). What kind of love would be willing to give up their life in God for another person's salvation? That is absolutely beyond any natural love or natural ability to love. It is a supernatural love that can only come from a supernatural nature, and that nature is the divine nature of God. Only God himself has ever proven to go to that measure! And yet, it is that kind of love that we are to walk in.
I call it the language of God. Oftentimes, we hear folks say "That person is speaking my language." I wonder if what we are calling our language is the language of God. In other words, are they talking and walking in the kind of love that Paul described as God's love in First Corinthians thirteen, which is the only language that represents true kingdom living!
In the natural realm, men can be bilingual or multilingual. But in the kingdom of God we only have one language, and it is the language of love. If you are not talking God's language, you really don't have anything to say, and you are certainly not going to be able to hear what God is saying.
First Corinthians thirteen describes the love of the kingdom. "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).
This is the highest dimension to living the life of God. It is where deep encounters of a heavenly kind are experienced. I am convinced that the highest and deepest spiritual activity any one of us can enter into is the compassion of Jesus Christ. Paul said if we will be committed to love, to allow ourselves to become rooted and grounded in it, that we will be able to seize hold of the love of Christ, which passes natural knowledge (even natural abilities). In that place, and only in this place, can we arrive at a life filled and flooded with God himself (Amplified - Ephesians 3:16-20).*
