LOVE PEOPLE Please! - Andrew Strom
Posted by: revival_list <revival_list@...>
-by Andrew Strom.
When I was a young Christian I was a total zealot. There is nothing
wrong with that, but sadly I was often a zealot without wisdom -
and also WITHOUT LOVE. I cared for "truth" more than I cared
for people, and I did not even notice that I was often using Truth as
a sword to crush people with, rather than set them free.
A lot of young zealous Christians are like that - but I was particularly
bad because I had a 'prophetic'-type personality - very intense, very
black and white. I would walk into a room full of Christians and start
an argument at the drop of a hat. I was not afraid to "blast" anyone.
Truth was king - the most important thing - and that was all I cared
about. This was not just an "occasional" problem with me - this
was the way I lived and breathed. Total, all-out zealotry.
I do not have this approach to life any more - though I still care
deeply about truth. (-For that is the way God made me). Sometimes
I will still debate things with people - though very rarely.
Over the years God changed me utterly. In fact, to change my
hardened heart He had to break me and break me and break me
some more. And each time He did so, a little bit of LOVE got in.
I'm sure He is still doing so today.
I started to realize that from God's point of view, the most precious
thing in all the earth is PEOPLE. We can see this in the most
famous verse in the Bible- "For God SO LOVED the world...."
There it is - He so LOVES PEOPLE. He sent His son to die for
PEOPLE. That is what it is all about.
There is an old Maori saying from New Zealand, which I have to
love- "The most valuable thing in all the world is PEOPLE, it is
PEOPLE, it is PEOPLE."
And yet to me in those early years, it was not "people" that I
deeply cared about at all. The only thing I deeply valued was the
'Truth' that I was trying to put across that day. And so I attacked
and spiritually "hacked" at people all day long. I was a walking
nightmare.
Do you realize the sheer amount of 'breaking' that has to go on
in someone like that - to get them to LOVE? -Years and years
of awful crushing and brokenness. -Because I was SO BAD -
seriously - I was a danger to the church and to myself.
If you love your 'Truths' more than you love people, then you are
an out-and-out Pharisee. Nothing less. And you will create
condemnation and death in people, rather than 'conviction' and LIFE.
But if you can get BROKEN enough to truly LOVE PEOPLE - and
value them more than anything in this earth - and then speak Truth
to them out of that place of love - then you will become greatly
effective. It is all about becoming BROKEN and learning to LOVE
others from the heart. If you ask Him to, God will do "whatever it
takes" to get you to that place.
This is not to say that you will never speak direct or piercing
words. You will - but the whole motivation will be different. In fact,
EVERYTHING will be different. You may be very confronting, and
speak very direct truths - but it will be in the right spirit. And this
God can greatly anoint.
I got a disturbing email recently from a relative of someone on our
List who says that this person uses some of the things we send
out as "ammunition" to attack people or argue or divide from
them, etc. Listen, friends, you can do anything with Truth. You
can use it to beat people up or set them free. You can use it
to become the most "negative" person on the planet, or you
can allow it to break your heart and make you a closer follower
of Jesus. You can use it in love, or you can use it in zealous
self-righteousness to hammer and condemn people. It is up to
you - and the true state of your heart.
All I can pray is that those reading this will stop and consider
for a moment. Don't be like me, and take years to discover these
most basic things.
Let me ask you a simple question- Do you truly LOVE PEOPLE
more than the 'Truths' you are trying to make them listen to? Do
you value them as God does - and realize that He sees them as
the most precious thing in all the earth? (-Especially His children).
How deeply can we come to realize this truth - that GOD LOVES
PEOPLE. Yes - repeat it - "GOD LOVES PEOPLE". -And so
must we, if we are to represent Him on this planet.
Please PRAY about these things, my friends?
Send feedback to- prophetic@revivalschool.com
God bless you all.
Andrew Strom.
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