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“Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (I John 3:2 NKJV)
(Book: Healing the Soul of a Woman - By Joyce Myer)
What is the Greatest Emotion that everyone desires? LOVE
****Receiving Love and Giving Love are two different tasks.***
Unconditional love is what people desire. The greatest happiness in life is to know that we are loved for ourselves or perhaps in spite of ourselves.
YOU NEED TO KNOW:
1. God created us to be loved. And without that love, we don’t function well.
2. God loves you at this moment in time as much as He will ever will! (How does that make your feel?)
***Discussion:
Can anyone except God totally love you unconditionally?
YOU ARE LOVED!!!
God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us - Romans 5:5.
One of the most powerful verses in the Bible is I John 4:8, which says, “Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is LOVE”.
1. God’s very nature is love, and it is more powerful than anything else in the universe. All He has to offer us is love.
2. Everything He does is rooted in love.
3. It is impossible for God to be anything but loving.
4. Whenever you think about God, read about Him in His Word, or talk to Him, you can be certain that He loves you all the time.
Apostle Paul
1. The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 5:5 that the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
2. When we choose Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in our hearts through faith as one of God’s gifts to us.
3. He does many things for us and works in our lives in various ways, one of which is to bring God’s love to us and to remind us of it.
A Person with a Wounded Soul
1. A person with a wounded soul may struggle to believe God loves her.
2. She may feel she is not valuable enough to be loved by God.
3. She may fear that God is like people who have said they loved her and then hurt her.
4. She may have lost someone she really loves.
5. But what God wants for us is to receive His love by FAITH, believing He is greater than our fears, our failures, our weaknesses, and the pain of our past.
When we can accept this love
1. When we are able to stand firm in the knowledge that God loves us, our hearts are filled with confidence, peace, joy, hope, concern for others, and positive attitudes toward our future.
2. Joyce Myer encourages us to ask the Holy Spirit to continue to reveal God’s love to you in personal ways and to look up Scriptures about God’s love.
3. She encourages us to memorize these Scriptures to help us become more firmly established in the fact that He loves us.
Powerful Scriptures to start with:
A. “For God so loved the world, that he gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16)
B. "I have loved you with an everlasting love: I have drawn you with unfailing kindness" (Jer. 31:3 NJV).
C. “But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness”. (Ps. 86:15)
D. “But God shows his love for us in the while we were still sinners. Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8)
As you meditate on these verses and others like them and ask the Holy Spirit to make them real and personal to you, you will grow in your confidence that God loves you.
Page 46 2nd Paragraph
* God doesn’t love us based on what we do but on WHO HE IS.
* We can’t do anything to earn God’s love.
* It is a free gift and can only be received by Faith.
What does Apostle John tell us about faith? (Bottom of page 46)
1. He tells us to put faith in the love that God has for us (I John 4:16).
2. We receive it first totally by faith, but eventually if we persist in believing it, we will begin to feel loved.
3. The concept of anything good being ours without us need to do something to earn it is very foreign to us.
4. Not only does God loves us, but we are His Beloved!
What does it mean to be beloved of God?
1. It is a term of affection and endearment.
2. It means to long for.
3. It means to respect and hold in affectionate regard.
Joyce Myer’s Definition of “Beloved”
*** It means to be loved or the thought of being loved at every moment in time!***
Think about it: You are being loved RIGHT NOW and every moment thereafter!!
There will NEVER be a moment in time when you are not being PERFECTLY LOVED.
Exercise:
You must pause EVERY DAY and say out loud - “I am God’s Beloved!”
How did God the Father refer to Jesus? - Page 47
As His Beloved Son in whom He was well pleased (Matthew 3:17)
What does the psalmist David’s name mean?
The Beloved of God
The angel referred to Daniel 3 times as who?
As God’s Beloved!
How did Paul address the New Testament believers?
Beloved
God’s Love not only bring healing to our wounded souls, but it also gives us confidence and courage. The Apostle John said that “perfect love casts out fear, and that if we still have fear, then we have not reached the full maturity of God’s love!"
I John 4:18 - There is NO FEAR in Love.
That does not mean you won’t have fear in your life. But before you could love anyone else, you have to RECEIVE the perfect love of God that was being OFFERED to you. You must learn to love yourself and only then would you be able to love anyone else properly.
What happens when you RECEIVE God’s LOVE? - Pg. 48
1. When we receive and enjoy the love of God, we are no longer afraid to let people into our lives and to give ourselves to them.
2. We can love without reservation because we don’t live with the fear of being taken advantage of.
3. The perfect love of God casts out fear.
4. God’s love is PERFECT because HE is PERFECT.
Discussion
1. What does it means to you when you hear that God loves you unconditionally?
2. Can you unconditionally love someone?
3. Do you expect others to love you unconditionally.
4. Can you love WITHOUT expectation?
Our Experiences of LOVE
1. Love seems to flow or stop base on the moods of people and whether or not we are giving them what they want from us.
2. We quickly fall into a pattern of trying to EARN love by making people happy and fearing that love may be lost if we don’t please them.
3. People love us imperfectly, but God’s love is perfect because HE IS PERFECT.
Discussion - What have your WOUNDS done to you?
1. Wounded from the Womb
2. Wounded as a Child
3. Wounded in your Marriage
4. Wounded trying to save your children
More Fellowship with Jesus
1. The more we fellowship with Jesus and learn about His character, experiencing His goodness, grace, and mercy in our lives, the more deeply we recognize His amazing love.
2. Do you have deep wounds, bask in God’s love. Expect HIM to love you unconditionally.
Tell Them I Love Them - pg. 49
1. God wants us to tell others that HE LOVES THEM.
2. They need to hear it and feel it.
3. We can tell others that God loves them and still lack revelation about His love for us.
Discussion - Were you taught to believe that you had to LIVE RIGHT for God to love you?
God doesn’t stop loving me when I don’t behave perfectly.
Receiving God’s love seems to be especially difficult for those of us who have been deeply wounded in our lives, but once we begin to receive God’s love, we find that love is the healing
balm our soul needs.
Rooted in God’s Love
Any tree that has deep roots will not fall or destroyed during the storms it encounters, and when we have a deep revelation of God’s love for us, it enables us to stand firm from the trials of life.
Pg. 52 - God gives us back what the enemy has taken.
Childlike
Learn to approach your relationship with God as a little child, trusting Him, and depending on Him for everything.
How to we learn to watch for God’s Love in our life? You may be so convinced that you are unlovable that it will take the same type of diligence for you to really get a revelation of God’s love for you.
RECEIVE GOD’S LOVE FOR YOU!!!
We need to know that God loves us! - Pg. 50
There are many things that happen to us that are not fair and are painful, and it is often tempting to revert to old ways during those times and begin to think that God does not love us or that He is not with us, but that is absolutely not true.
POWERFUL Scripture - Roman 8:28
“God is watching over everything in our lives, and if we trust Him through our difficulties, we will eventually see that He works them all out for our good!"
Paul said we need to “Experience the love of God for ourselves!”
Powerful Scripture: (I John 4:16)
“We need to understand, recognize, and be conscious of God’s love by observation!”
Learn to Receive - Page 52
Have you asked the question? “But why would God love me?”
ANSWER: Because He chooses to. He wants to. He loves us to satisfy His own intense desire.
God is Love, and love needs to pour itself out; to must find someone to shower itself on.
God Sent His Son
He sent His son to die for us and pay for our sins because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful intense love He has for us. (Ephesians 2:4-5)
What does it mean to “Receive”?
1. It means to become as a receptacle and take in what is being offered.
2. We miss out on so much in our relationship with God because we try to “get” what He wants us to have instead of simply receiving it by faith.
3. To “Get” means you obtain something by struggle and effort.
4. We cannot “get” God to love us because He already does, and He always will.
5. He loves us with an EVERLASTING LOVE (Jeremiah 31:31)
What do we need to do?
Believe and Receive God’s Love.
What does the Enemy try to do?
Separate you from God’s Love