Led By Love
(week 13/06)
Olubi Johnson
Genesis 24:27 NKJV: And he said, “Blessed be the LORD God of my master Abraham, who has not forsaken His mercy and His truth toward my master. As for me, being on the way, the LORD led me to the house of my master’s brethren.”
Here, we see a great Bible truth hidden in the statement made by Abraham’s servant: “I being on the way the Lord led me”
‘The way’ symbolically speaks of the way of love:
1 Corinthians 12:31; 14.1 NKJV: And yet I show you a more excellent way. 14:1 Pursue love…
If the motivation of your heart is love and you are pursuing love in every leading of your heart God will lead you and you will not fail.
We need to understand this, because it is not every leading that we get from our hearts that is 100% accurately from God.
This is because even when God is leading us by His Spirit through our spirits, by the time the leading gets into our minds where we can receive and understand it, it has been distorted by impurities in our will, mind and emotions.
It is for this reason the Bible says:
Proverbs 28:26 NKJV: He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but whoever walks wisely will be delivered.
You cannot always trust all what is coming from your heart, but if you walk in the wisdom of the love of God as revealed in the written Word you will be delivered: the leading you follow will not fail.
The more you develop the love of God in your heart using the written Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, the more reliable the leadings you receive from your heart will be.
What you hear in your heart is a function of what has been fed into it: this is why the Bible says your heart can condemn you when God is not condemning because your faith is weak in some areas, because of your lack of the knowledge of God’s Word in that area:
Romans 14:1-2, 14, 22-23 NKJV: Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. 2 For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. 14 I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself; but to him who considers anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean. 23 But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin.
The Bible says
1 John 3:19-20 NKJV: For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
Implying that our hearts do not know everything and can condemn us when God is not condemning us because our faith or knowledge of God’s Word is weak or deficient in a particular area.
So the only way to be sure God is leading you and your leading will not fail is to pursue love using the Word and the Spirit:
1 John 2:5 NKJV: But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him.
Jude 20-21 NKJV: But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God,
Furthermore, God has put spiritual fathers in the church to lead, guide or shepherd us as we grow and gradually develop our hearts in the love of God (Eph. 4.11-13).
So if God gives you counsel through your spiritual fathers in line with the Word and love of God you should obey their counsel even when what is coming from your heart is contrary to this.
You do it in faith trusting the integrity of God’s Word which they show you in the light of God’s love. God will back you and make sure you do not fail because you are walking wisely, trusting His Word and His delegated authority esteeming them highly in love:
1 Thessalonians 5:12-13 NKJV: And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake.
Luke 10:16 NKJV: He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
Proverbs 11:14 KJV: Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
Psalms 119:24 NKJV: Your testimonies also are my delight and my counselors.
Some one will ask what if they are wrong?
If they can show you from the written Word the reason for their counsel, and you act on it based on God’s Word and love and respect for them, God will not allow you to fail, because love never fails. Like God protected Sarah when she obeyed Abraham saying she was his sister (Gen. 20.1-7).
If they cannot show you a basis in the written Word or if their counsel is in conflict with the spirit and letter of God’s Word interpreted in the light of God’s love (not human emotion) then you are not under obligation to obey that counsel.
For major decisions that can affect your life and destiny: like marriage, career, relocation etc. only follow counsel based on God’s Word interpreted in the light of divine love (not human emotions) given by true spiritual fathers (not just instructors 1 Cor. 4.16) whose ministries have produced fruit in your life. Do not trust your heart alone!
Pass every leading from your heart through the filter of:
James 3:17 NKJV: But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.
James 3:17 NIV: But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
So how can you be 100% sure that the leading or witness of the Spirit you are receiving in your heart will not fail?
By being led by the love of God because divine love never fails
