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The Dimensions of Love

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The Dimensions of Love
Ephesians 3: 16-20

Glorious riches would be having more than you would know what to do with, more than you could ever spend.  It is Superabundance like the well that never has and never will run dry.  These riches would be very apparent.  The substance or currency of the riches is defined tangibly and intangibly.  The riches are intangible in the sense that they are found in a wealth of character that creates a positive emotion.  The value of true peace and security and the worth of love cannot be quantified by any amount of currency.  The tangible is then a result of the intangible because out of character and positive emotions come benevolence and charity.  Glorious riches are not glorious and honorable because of the amount in the account but according to how much influence for transformation those riches create.  A truly rich person is one who enriches others as he himself is enriched. That person’s riches will be known by the legacy that they leave and the continued influence of that legacy.

God is tangibly and intangibly rich and his glory is in sharing those riches with people!  Man can buy property, build empires, become influential and at the same time show how wretched and impoverished he is.  Man cannot buy happiness though he can acquire material wealth.  Man cannot purchase peace even though he can create material security.

The richest man cannot buy the fruit of the Holy Spirit.  Those who have tried to buy love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control have had as much success as a person who attempts to push string, nail Jell-O, and grasp a handful of wind.

Only God possesses these glorious riches.  He will share them with us but he will never allow us to take credit for them.  The greatest riches are needed for what human creativity, ingenuity, and industry could never create, and that is simply the ability to love and to be loved.

God has demonstrated his glorious riches by making his dwelling place inside of us His People!  In order for us to grasp the dimensions of his love we have to be reminded of the currency of the Holy Spirit.  The currency of the Holy Spirit is not measured in dollars and cents, but it is measured in the exchange of our ashes for his beauty, our mourning for his joy, our rags for his garments of praise, and our petrified forest for his tree of righteousness.

The currency of the Holy Spirit is found in his expression of breath and life.  God has sent the Holy Spirit to give us the ability to experience his riches.  The Holy Spirit takes the academic and the intellectual and makes it real to the heart.  He takes knowledge about love and makes it into the understanding of love.  God is Spirit and God is Love.  The Holy Spirit is to the Father what gold is to a rich man.  The rich man takes his gold and exchanges it for whatever he wants to acquire.  The Father partners with the Son and the Holy Spirit to convey the value of his riches to us, His people!  The difference between a “rich man” and our Glorious God is that God’s lavish spending does not diminish his fortune.  And his outlandish benevolence and charity enriches others from the inside out.  A rich man can spend lavishly but will eventually have to check on his vault.  He can be outlandish and bestow riches on people making them appear to be more valuable because of their newly acquired wealth and yet by that very act expose the impoverished spirit that motivates their greed, jealousy, and pride. 

God’s glorious riches come through the Father, are found in the Son and conveyed by the Holy Spirit.  God’s riches are revealed in the coming of the Son to live among us and become a sacrifice for our sins.  His riches are transferred to us through His Spirit and the evidence of his superabundance comes from the inside out and not the outside in.  A materially wealthy person can enrich a carnal man from the outside and expose how impoverished his spirit is
That same wealth can be given to a person who is already experienced the riches of God and can then be used to build a legacy of positive influence.  The truly rich man will be generous of spirit and strategic in benevolent charity.

When we try to measure the love of Christ from the outside we come up a day late and a dollar short all the time.  When we compare our expressions of love with other people’s expressions and when we come up thinking we are greater than or less than we have shown our true poverty.  On the other hand when we have a hand that gives without letting the other hand know about it.  When we express kindness and share a hug and a smile with out expecting anything from the recipient then we have shown that we are beginning to know the love of Christ that passes knowledge.

What is carnal knowledge of love based on?  It is measured by the experience of positive emotion.  The trouble is the emotion is fleeting.  The reaction to fleeting emotion is the effort to attain more of whatever caused it.  Money never has money enough!  Lust is never satisfied!  Power becomes paranoid of the loss of power. The acquisition of the riches of love through carnal means is the path to disillusionment!

How can you know the riches of the love of Christ that passes knowledge?  First of all we have to forsake the mindset of the carnal nature that measures love according to carnal measurements.  We have to understand the Love of Christ is made available to us as we put our trust in the word of God concerning His Son.  Then we can experience the dimensions of that love as we allow the Holy Spirit to transform the way we think.  When we allow him to transform our thoughts and renew our minds then we will act like him because we think like him. 

The Holy Spirit who is within you will not question the measure of the love of Christ that he has invested in you.  He will never think that you are unworthy!  He will never think that you don't deserve what you have been given!  He will never think that you are a disappointment!  His thoughts will not be on qualifying God’s love but instead his thoughts will be on revealing and expressing it. 

The Holy Spirit has given us the ability to make His house into Christ’s home.  He has established the house in love but in order to make it into a home that love has to be exchanged and expressed through obedience, praise and worship, and acts of service that are initiated by the leading of the Holy Spirit.

How high does the love of Christ go?  Jesus took his blood to the altar of heaven and placed it on the mercy seat! Now we can have fellowship with God in heavenly places by His Spirit.  He showed his love at the highest point in the universe.  How high will the love of Christ go through you in expression?  It will go High enough to be apparent in bringing honor and glory to God.  It will go high enough to reach those who seem out of reach! 

How deep does the love of Christ go?  Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth and was subjected to our existence so that he could identify with us.  Therefore, he can go deeper than our deepest depression, deepest secret, or deepest sorrow.  The Holy Spirit can convey life and breath to us when we feel like we are suffocating!

How wide does his love go?  Jesus revealed the panoramic wide-angle view.  He showed us that all of us were condemned in a wide sense.  He showed us that the road to destruction is wide.  He showed us that our narrow viewpoints that judge and evaluate other people are swallowed up by the reality of His judgment.  We could not get a camera with a wide enough angle to capture the width and breadth of our depravity!  He came from heaven and only he could have perspective of how wide and broad our problem was and then put his arms around it and envelope it with amazing love!

How long does His love go?  If you can measure eternity from point A to point B then you can answer that question!  His love will last longer than our shortcomings!  His love will last longer than our backslidings!  It will outlast and out live you but it will not last past your death in unbelief!

Do you want to comprehend the love of God?  Do you want to truly understand the nature of the Holy Spirit?  Is it possible to grasp?  Will the journey end in the frustration of trying to grab a handful of wind?  Indeed it is possible but not by natural means!  What does it take to experience this love? 

The word “risk” sums up the journey!  It is a risk to surrender to the intangible and the unseen. It is a risk to trust in what is carnally immeasurable!  When will you begin to experience God’s riches?  When you allow His Holy Spirit to immerse you in Christ’s love then you will begin.

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