“As I have loved you…”
“If we want to pray in power, and if we want to expect the Holy Spirit to come down in power, and if we want indeed that God shall pour out His Spirit, we must…love one another with a heavenly love.” — Andrew Murray, from Absolute Surrender
I am more often given to quoting Scripture than any author in these posts, but this week I’ll make an exception. Andrew Murray was a 19th-century (mostly, he died in 1917) South African writer, teacher, and Christian pastor. He was also a prolific devotional writer in the Pentecostal tradition. I recommend him. I generally recommend reading older books instead of contemporary ones that reek of repackaging and slick marketing.
Murray argues persuasively that the Church, any church, will lack the Spirit’s power when it fails to heed one of Jesus’ most important commands, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another” (John 13:34). Murray noted that all of Christ’s teaching did not create the one-heart-one-soul unity on display in Acts 4. No, it was the Spirit who did so. When given, the Spirit poured out the love of God in their hearts (Romans 5:5) and set the world ablaze with an unrivaled love.
Hence, their unity and the power poured through them! Both were born of God’s love. His explosive dunamis (it’s a Greek term, where we get the word dynamite!) — the power to save, heal, rescue, and restore — always and ever attends His love. These two, power and love, are conjoined, and we must never attempt to separate them.
Why? Because God is not divisible. God is love, so when He offers us His Presence and power, He is offering His very being, His nature. In other words, He gives us Divine Love. It is easy to forget that. To skimp on loving one another. To skip over Jesus’ command in our grasp of power. That never works. Human talent and resources can masquerade as God’s power, but they fail because they are limited and subject to corruption.
Only God’s love is unlimited and holy. Let us pray for the impact of that bounty.
— Pastor Steve