Characteristics of a Covenant Partnership: The Covenant of Love (4)
As we have traveled through various aspects of Covenant Partnership, God has revealed its power. Today it’s about the power of love… a familiar saying we all have heard, but when experiencing it through the power of the covenant, its meaning reaches deep into our inner being. This unexplainable love is agape love… it’s more than brotherly love. Its essence is goodwill, benevolence, and willful delight toward another. This is how God loves us! Did you know that you have the power to love others the same way?
Do you labor out of love?
Has your love for someone ever been so great, that even when their family has treated you poorly, you bless the family because of your love for that person? This is the way David loved Johnathan, as we see in 1 Samuel 18:
“Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.”—1 Samuel 18:3
This agape love covenant sparks something within a person. It moves you to put ALL your own comforts, troubles, luxuries and heartaches aside; and love someone else despite your circumstances and theirs. The reason for the inspired spark… because you have been transformed.
Faith works through love.
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.”—Galatians 5:6
The covenant power is not through position, but through love. Agape love leads to more faith. When it’s moving, flowing to others, it is clear and powerful like water. Likewise, if it is held in, without motion it becomes stagnant.
Remembering the life source helps you remember the promises of the covenant.
“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”—John 15:4
No doubt, when doing the Father’s work, the enemy will look for openings in your mind to plant seeds of doubt and frustration. We often meet a call with eagerness, but the key to our strength and endurance, just like Yeshua’s, is trusting in God the Father.
Remember why God placed this Covenant Partnership calling on your heart. Recall the reasons for your perseverance and passion. God is the author and finisher of your faith. He will work in you as you labor in covenant love.
Blindness in Jews and Gentiles
We all have walked in blindness at one time or another. It is not simply a Jew or Gentile issue. The devil blinded the Jews with confusion so that they did not recognize their Messiah, but they did see God the Father. Similarly, blindness inhibits the Church today… God the Father isn’t seen, but Yeshua is. The power is released when you trust in all three; God the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.
When you grow in knowledge and understanding and have a desire to see restoration of the covenant relationship between God and His people, clarity is revealed and action is ignited. The fullness of God’s love, mercy, and healing power is manifested on Earth.
The desire of restoration is followed by action.
Covenant Partnership means that you prayerfully and lovingly walk beside your brothers and sisters in Christ, sowing seeds of compassion and mercy into the hearts of those who are poor in spirit, for they are blessed says the Lord!
“…for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in… ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’”—Matthew 25:35, 40
The covenant of love breaks personal chains.
Unfortunately, our own fears and hesitations hold us back from serving as God has called. In accepting Christ, we are… born again, positioned in Him, sanctioned once and for all, but there may still be areas in our lives where we do not walk in freedom. Faith may be overflowing in one area and you are frozen in fear in another. It is because our faith walk is a pilgrimage and process.
Did you know that by sowing into areas of difficulties in your own life, you can receive freedom even when you are a slave to it?
“Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”—2 Corinthians 3:17
I have seen, time and time again, that when our Covenant Partners sow into their families, marriages, and neighbors, relationships are restored and marriages are renewed. We truly do reap what we sow. When we sow love, we receive love.
How can I have more love?
“Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”—Romans 5:5
Allow the Spirit, through prayer and worship, to shower the love of God abroad in your heart. We are called to love one another… what does that look like? Loving one another with agape love. Loving others as your own soul, just as David did.
When covenant love is revealed, you cannot help but love others. You desire to see the broken restored and the hurting healed. You truly step out of yourself and into God’s presence and He works through you to shed light into the darkness and restore what once was, covenant with His people.
Because faith works through love, bringing more faith, then even more love, you can trust that the Father will complete the work He began in you. Won’t you join in this transforming power of covenant love? The Lord has a place for you in His divine restoration.