God has made numerous promises regarding the power of faith. Faith can move mountains. Faith can heal diseases. Faith can receive answers to prayers. Nothing is impossible with faith. Yet many know the power of faith and still are not seeing many positive results in terms of the quality of their relationships.
“If the Kingdom of God is anything, and it is everything, it is relational, supernaturally relational” (David VanCronkhite)
Faith without works is dead, and equally so, faith without love is dead.
I have a friend who fasted for 27 days wanting the supernatural power of God, and at the end, all he got was skinny. But over that incident and many years of searching, it came down to the revelation that miraculous faith is birthed through supernatural agape love.
Love’s first step is relationship
Once we realize the power of Father’s agape love through Christ, we must now extend His love to others. His love actually becomes the fuel for relational desire. It becomes the active ingredients in each of us to know how much we need each other. God becomes a friend to us that sticks closer than a brother, and as ambassadors of His love, we become that type of friend to others.
Love Yourself First
Do you love who you are in Christ? God loves you, and He wants you to love yourself in His love, and not the world’s version of self-love. This godly perspective impacts greatly our capacity to love others. We must realize how wonderfully made we are, understand our limitations, and fully embrace God’s unlimited power within us. We are people who carry sparks of the Divine Kingdom within us. When we trust that God unconditionally loves and embraces us, we can befriend ourselves and reach out to others in loving relationships.
Significance of Our Presence
There are places in our own hearts that we ourselves cannot see. Even when we know a lot about ourselves, like our gifts, weaknesses, or motives, a large part of ourselves remain in the shadow of consciousness. Other people, especially those who love us, can often see those areas better than we ourselves can. We will never fully know the significance of our presence in the lives of our friends. That's a grace that calls us not only to humility but also to a deep trust in God and in the relationships He desires to establish with others.
The Currency of the Kingdom is Relationship
Currency of the Kingdom is relationship and the currency of relationship is conversation. The quality of our conversations directly influences the quality of our relationships. Sharing of hearts is transformational, beginning with God and extending to others. People near you want to engage in meaningful conversation with you, and a conversation that flows well both ways can harvest a relationship that reveals God's glory.
Be a Good Friend
To have good friends you need to be a good friend. It is foundational on love as a never-ending commitment. Are you a servant in the relationship, and look out for their best interests? Patience and understanding is needed during tough times. Being friendly with a genuinely cheerful outlook matters. People like to be around positive people. At the end of the day, true friends become family.
Friends are Easy and Always
A friend is a safe harbor that is often God's messenger of His grace and healing in the most critical of times. A friend is a person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is the person we share our most intimate secrets with, or nothing at all. With a friend we don't have to say or do anything special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.
Agape Ambassadors See Strength Hidden in Weakness
Who has time for a hurting friend when it is easier to be with the healthy ones? "Newsflash", we all are part of the imperfect tribe called humanity. When we errantly dismiss people, we hinder their growth by ignoring gifts that are often buried in their wounds. Agape Ambassadors know that strength is hidden in weakness, and that true community is a fellowship of the weak with a very strong God.
Touch of Healing
As conversation bridge relationships and connects hearts, touch becomes a powerful expression of that love. Babies receive a lot of touch, and less as they grow older. Touch often gives more life than words. A warm handshake, a hug, or a kiss, can be powerful moments that can restore, forgive, and heal. Everyone who touched Jesus and everyone whom Jesus touched were healed. God's incarnate love and power went out from Him and goes out from us to heal one another.
Community is Not a Talent Show
Community is not a talent show in which we dazzle the world with our combined gifts of intelligence, health and wealth. In true community there can be many forms of poverty beyond economics, such as bankruptcy in spiritual, emotional, and physical health. New life comes from acknowledging one another, and the richness that comes from needs being met through the sharing of each other’s lives.
Start today in building safe environments built on agape Love
We can begin to ask the Lord how we are doing as a friend first to Him, then how we are doing in being a friend to others based on God’s value of whom we are. As we take assessments of those we are called to love and befriend which includes spouses, family, and children, we can begin to move in His strength and not our own. Watch the miraculous take place as we move in faith that is expressed fully in His love that is within each of us.
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Robert Ricciardelli along with his wife Joyce are the founders of the Converging Zone Network and Visionary Advancement Strategies. Through their connecting ministry, newsletters, and social networking platforms, they bring collaboration to over 100,000 each week in various spheres of society.
Robert's 25 years in Corporate America has given him a broad world-view of the Kingdom of God in everyday life.Robert speaks at churches and conferences regarding the Kingdom of God, and practical ways to advance His Kingdom into every sphere and mountain of society. Robert is also a Kingdom business consultant, and a transformational life coach, assisting in the discovery of solutions that advance the destinies of individuals, faith communities, and businesses.
Robert, I appreciate your insights expressed clearly, leaving me to search my heart for my Agape, Agapao, Ahava, relationships with YHWH, myself, my wife, my friends, my brethren, and the lost. I also believe like you, it is our relationship first, with YHWH who is LOVE that is the foundation for all our love relationships. I also want to thank you for the pattern of your daily devotions of insight and wisdom converted into an essay on the subject spoken about during the prior days. I was just talking to a brother about your daily writings as a good means to communicate the insights YHWH gives us as we invest our time with Him. How often do you compile your daily devotionals into one expression. Thank you again, Agapao, Agape, Ahava - Ken Handwerker
ReplyDeleteThanks so much. This is the first time in awhile I combined some daily thoughts, because Elijah List wanted an article, and there was nothing stirring that had not already been stirred.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of your best articles and a word in due season. God has been speaking to me about love and about loving Him with agage love and about loving others unconditionally.
ReplyDeleteSo good to hear this message! Faith "birthed" through the love of God that dwells in us in Him.
ReplyDeletePhillipians 1:9-11
"...may our love abound yet more and more and extend to it's fullest development in knowledge - that is, our love may [display itself in] greaterdepth of acquaintance and more comprehensive discernment: SO THAT we may surely learn to sens ewhat is vital and prize what is excellent and of real value...and that we may be pure and blameless and may approach the day of Christ not stumbling nor causing others to stumble, and may we abound and be filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ to the honor and praise of God - that His Glory may be both manifested and recognized".
(1 Ts. 5:8)
"...let's put on the breastplate of faith and love....". Amen!
" We love Him because He first loved us"
May we receive greater revelation of His Love each day!
Be blessed