LOVE Is The Definition Of God

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The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT

Podcast Episode: The Fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT – LOVE #3

“But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL. There is no law against these things.” [Galatians 5:22-23 NLT]

Hosea’s Wife Is Redeemed

In Hosea 3:1-3 NLT says, “1 Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” 2 So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine. 3 Then I said to her, “You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me.”

In Verse 1 describes the words love a woman . . . an adulteress – Hosea was commanded to love her even though she loved adultery. In the same way, God still loved Israel, even though she was idolatrous (Jeremiah 3:20). The words – who look to other gods – The Israelites struggled with idolatry from the time of their exodus from Egypt up until this time. But from the time of her exile in Assyria and Babylon, Israel would never worship idols again (Hosea 3:4).

In Verse 2 describes the words – I bought her . . . fifteen pieces of silver – The price is too small to be a dowry payment, which might buy a wife from her parents. It is half the monetary price of a female slave, the rest being made up in grain. Hosea probably gave it as a bridal gift of some sort, though no such gift was legally required of him. It may also have been payment to free her from a position of slavery she had fallen into. The words – homer of barley – This was used to pay half of the price, perhaps a customary allowance of food for a slave. Barley is coarse, not the grain of choice. All this seems to indicate that through her sin, Gomer had fallen into hard times. In the same way, Israel committed sin and became a slave to it, suffering the consequences (John 8:34; Romans 6:16-20; 2 Peter 2:19). The low price paid for Gomer by Hosea symbolizes the worthlessness of Israel.

In Verse 3 describes the words – abide for me many days – She was to be separated from intercourse with other men and keep herself for Hosea who had redeemed her (cf. Deuteronomy 21:13). The words – so will I also be for thee – Hosea would set himself apart for Gomer as well. Similarly, Israel was to remain without serving other gods, apart from the Lord, and the Lord, for His part, would not form covenants with any other nations (cf. Hosea 3:4). He would not immediately receive His people into the rights of marriage, but He would test their repentance and discipline them by a long separation. Still the marriage bond remained – Israel was now separated, not divorced (Isaiah 50:1).

Through this account of forgiveness and love between husband and wife, we see that God is in love with His people, and His love is totally undeserved. His love has nothing to do with good things we have done, nor the time we have given Him in prayer and adoration. God is God! God is love! Our Lord Jesus Christ saves … period!

Our Faith In God Who Forgives Sinners Like Us

In Isaiah 29:16 NLT says, “How foolish can you be? He is the Potter, and He is certainly greater than you, the clay! Should the created thing say of the one who made it, “He didn’t make me”? Does a jar ever say, “The potter who made me is stupid”?

In Verse 16 describes Judah’s secret mission, acting without divine direction and approval, reversed the proper order, like the clay from which a pot is formed giving orders to the potter. Such a notion is absurd. So is Judah’s diplomatic maneuvering.

Our love for God is displayed in a state of yielding that forbids all back talk. Our love for God says, “Yes, Lord” to whatever it is that God asks of us. Isaiah, in describing a “sassy pot,” makes the point that it is the potter who forms, and it is the clay who yields. When the clay becomes resistant in the hands of the potter and refuses to be shaped according to the potter’s desires, then the purposes of the potter are brought to a standstill. Similarly, in our relationship with God, when we resist God’s will for us, we stand defiantly before God’s all-shaping love and refuse to accept His divine purposes for our lives.

A Psalm of David – To Be Sung To The tune “Doe of The Dawn”

In Psalm 22:1-5 NLT says, “1  My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help? 2  Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief. 3  Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel. 4  Our ancestors trusted in you, and you rescued them. 5  They cried out to you and were saved. They trusted in you and were never disgraced.”

In Verse 1 describes the words – My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? – In the midst of his suffering, the psalmist feels abandoned and distant from God (Psalm 10:1; 13:1). The expression of such feelings should not be understood as unspiritual. It describes – words of my roaring – This is a basal groan with which the psalmist cries out in extreme pain for help.

In Verse 2 describes the continuance of the psalmist’s cry is contrasted with the lack of God’s response. This intensifies the psalmist’s suffering as his experience seems to contradict the core of what he believes about God. He cannot deny his experience or explain why God has not answered.

In Verse 3 describes the words – art holy – better, “you are enthroned as the Holy One” (NIV), referring to God’s enthronement between the cherubim over the mercy seat. God is holy, therefore He should deliver the righteous sufferer. His holiness also triggers the idea of separateness. This disturbs the psalmist.

In Verses 4-5 describe the psalmist raises his lament by contrasting God’s involvement with the fathers with the feeling of desertion which the psalmist has experienced.

I try to remember during these times when it seems God is silent, that the promise of Scripture is that the Holy Spirit is answering our groaning needs not from beyond us but from within us (see Romans 8:26). God is never really silent; He is in constant concourse or meeting with our pain. Our tears are so precious to Him that He cries out from within us, constantly making intercession for our sin.

There may be moments when we feel an unresponsive silence from God. But we know that our Lord Jesus Christ, who also lived as a human, experienced the same discouragement and sorrow. We know that He cried out to God, pleading for a response, just as we do. Isn’t our Lord Jesus Christ the ultimate picture of love? He came to earth to suffer for us. He came to earth to save us. The next time we feel abandoned by God, we can look to our Lord Jesus Christ and know that He felt the same sorrows that we do. But we can also look to our Lord Jesus Christ and know that God is love and will never leave us. God gave us His Son to seal that promise. 

The Feet of the Messenger

In Isaiah 52:7 NLT says, “How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the messenger who brings good news, the good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!”

In Verse 7 describes the words – beautiful feet – the feet of the messenger running to tell the good news about what God has done (Grogan). In Nahum 1:15, the good news is that Nineveh, the Assyrian capital from which so much oppression had come to Israel, was destroyed. Here the good news is that Babylon is defeated and Israel will be restored (Wolf); this was proof that Yahweh reigned supreme. “Good News” in the Septuagint is rendered by the word euangeliomenos, whence comes the word “evangel,” or “Gospel” (Mark 1:1). Undoubtedly Paul’s quotation of Isaiah 52:7 in Romans 10:15 was influenced by this word. The heart of the Gospel is the news that God has triumphed over Satan, sin, and death. In Isaiah and Nahum, the good news announced was the defeat of Babylon and Assyria respectively and the deliverance of Israel from a certain death.

Can you recall the one whom God sent to reveal to you the Good News that God in love sent His Son to reconcile us all to Him? The story brought to us made us alive in our Lord Jesus Christ, but in truth the walk – the person coming to us – was a part of the gift. How beautiful the message that redeems us, but how lovely also the obedience of those who have felt compelled to tell us of His love.  

In Deuteronomy 32:1-4 & 9-12 NLT says, 1  “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak! Hear, O earth, the words that I say! 2  Let my teaching fall on you like rain; let my speech settle like dew. Let my words fall like rain on tender grass, like gentle showers on young plants. 3  I will proclaim the name of the Lord; how glorious is our God! 4  He is the Rock; His deeds are perfect. Everything He does is just and fair. He is a faithful God who does no wrong; how just and upright He is!”

9  “For the people of Israel belong to the Lord; Jacob is His special possession. 10  He found them in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; He guarded them as He would guard His own eyes. 11  Like an eagle that rouses her chicks and hovers over her young, so He spread His wings to take them up and carried them safely on His pinions. 12  The Lord alone guided them; they followed no foreign gods.”

In Verses 1-4 describe the words – He is the Rock – a word expressive of power and stability. The application of it in this passage is to declare that God had been true to His covenant with their fathers and with them. Nothing that he had promised had failed; so that if their national experience had been painfully checkered by severe and protracted trials, notwithstanding the brightest promises, that result was traceable to their own perverse conduct; not to any vacillation or unfaithfulness on the part of God (James 1:17); whose procedure was clearly marked by justice.

In Verse 11 describes the words – As an eagle . . . fluttereth over her young – This beautiful and expressive metaphor is founded on the extraordinary care and attachment which the female eagle cherishes for her young. When her newly-fledged progeny are sufficiently advanced to soar in their native element, she, in their first attempts at flying, supports them on the tip of her wing, encouraging, directing, and aiding their feeble efforts to longer flights. So God took the most tender and powerful care of His chosen people; He carried them out of Egypt and led them through all the horrors of the wilderness to the promised inheritance.

Prayer is the key that unlocks and reveals faith. Effective prayer needs both an attitude of complete dependence and the action of asking. Prayer demonstrates complete reliance on God. Thus, there is no substitute for prayer, especially in situations that seem impossible.

So, let our hearts and minds in tune with God, in the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. We as Born-Again Christians have been tried and cleansed, we have moved freely into a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that is more powerful than it was before our trials. We are at home in the presence and fellowship of God, for we are heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ, more like Him that we could ever have dreamed possible. So, let’s continuously and persistently pray for God’s perfect will be done. Amen!

The principle is that no one has anything of value to bring to God in order to deserve salvation, mercy, justification, or even a second glance from God. The proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored. Acceptance before God cannot be achieved by good deeds, piety, or any amount of self-proclaimed righteousness.

Let’s never get over the effect of God’s saving transformation on people’s lives. People who were lost in sin, filled with anger and bitterness, give up their hatred and become approachable as we have studied and learned last time. That is, of course, why we minister to others. Those of us who minister are not people to whom gentleness and self-control comes naturally. We are people who have been remodeled by grace. We thankfully leave our old natures far behind as we embrace gentleness and self-control and in our treatment of others.

Sunday by Sunday as we come to worship, let me encourage our brothers- and sisters-in-Christ, and I want my readers and listeners to be both strong in the faith and sensitive to others’ needs. Because all, we as Born-Again Christian believers are strong in certain areas and weak in others, we constantly need to monitor the effects of our behavior on others.

In these LOVE Series of Podcast, we will learn the following PURPOSES of this fruit of the HOLY SPIRIT:

1. To truly experience love and forgiveness – Podcast Love #1
2. Giving Is The Evidence Of Love – Podcast Love #2
3. To learn how to give and serve with love
4. To know and understand the true definition of love
5. To understand and capture the passion of God
6. Learn to be compassionate and how to worship
7. To understand that love is the first characteristic of the fruit of Holy Spirit. It is well placed at the head of the list, for it permeates all the rest of the attributes. Somehow, if we live a life of love, the other virtues will attend us all the days of our lives. Love is the key that unlocks the entire fruit basket of Galatians 5:22-23, as well as permeating 1 Corinthians 13.

Three (3) Questions we can answer from these Sources: The Bible and Guidance of the Holy Spirit

Observation: What do these passages say to you?

Interpretation: What do these passages mean to you?

Application: How do the meaning of these passages apply to you or to your situation?

If you are not sure that you are Born-Again Christian believer, please take a look of one of our ministries, “An Invitation To Meet Our Lord Jesus Christ” at https://homefellowshipchurches.org/an-invitation-to-meet-our-lord-jesus-christ/

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Suggested Prayer: Father God, we come into your presence in our Lord Jesus Christ name, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you Lord Jesus Christ for Your agape love and forgiveness you have done on the Cross of Calvary, and continue to intercede for us in prayer. Thank you Holy Spirit as our Helper and Comforter. Thank you for the wisdom, knowledge, understanding, courage and strength. We cling, yield, plug-in and tune-in to you Holy Spirit to help us understand God’s Words, obey them, receive Your divine revelation, know the Truth that sets us free, and apply them in our lives, in our Lord Jesus Christ name, Amen!

God bless you all and our families!

In Malachi 3:10-12 AMPC says, “10 Bring all the tithes (the whole tenth of your income) into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house, and prove Me now by it”, says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” [Malachi 2:2.] 11 “And I will rebuke the devourer (insects and plagues) for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine drop its fruits before the time in the field,” says the Lord of hosts. 12 “And all nations shall call you happy and blessed, for you shall be a land of delight”, says the Lord of hosts.

If the people would obey God, giving as they should, God would flood His people with blessings. There would be an overabundance of God’s blessing if He was given what He requested.