Dear Partner,
We must always remember that our heavenly Father is a good God. Let’s look at Psalm 145:7-9 in the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition:”
- They shall pour forth [like a fountain] the fame of Your
great and abundant goodness and shall sing aloud of Your
rightness and justice. - The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger
and abounding in mercy and loving-kindness - The LORD is good to all, and His tender mercies are over all
His works [the entirety of things created].
Now verse 11: “They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power.”
And now verse 16: “Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.”
He is good to all! Those scriptures are from the First Covenant. Now let’s inquire of the Second Covenant in 1 John 4:7 (AMPC): “Beloved, let us love one another, for Love is (springs) from God; and he who loves [his fellowmen] is begotten (born) of God and is coming [progressively] to know and understand God [to perceive and recognize and get a better and clearer knowledge of Him].”
Love springs from GOD, who is so good. Now let’s read Romans 5:5: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Then go to 1 John 4:8 which says, “GOD IS LOVE.” He doesn’t have Love. He is Love! Nowhere in the Bible does it say that GOD is power. No, He is Love, and He uses His power to save, heal and deliver those of us who come to Him in faith. I can prove it by what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3:14-16 (AMPC):
- And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert [on a pole], so must [so it is necessary that] the Son of Man be lifted up [on the cross],
In order that everyone who believes in Him [who cleaves to Him, trusts Him, and relies on Him] may not perish, but have eternal life and [actually] live forever!
For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.
I said all that to establish that GOD is absolute GOOD! He is Light, and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5). God is Life. Let’s look at what the Master said to Thomas during the final Passover meal only a few hours before He was to be hung on the Cross. John 14:6 (AMPC) says: “Jesus said to him, I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father except by (through) Me.”
Continue reading through verse 14 in the AMPC, which says: “[Yes] I will grant [I Myself will do for you] whatever you shall ask in My Name [as presenting all that I AM].”
To understand to what He is referring, one must be aware of Chapter 13:34-35 (AMPC):
- I give you a new commandment: that you should love one another. Just as I have loved you, so you too should love one another.
- By this shall all [men] know that you are My disciples, if you love one another [if you keep on showing Love among yourselves].
The commandment of Love, who is God, who is our Father, who has done what? That question is answered in Colossians 1:11-14 (AMPC):
- [We pray] that you may be invigorated and strengthened with all power according to the might of His glory, [to exercise] every kind of endurance and patience (perseverance and forbearance) with joy,
- Giving thanks to the Father, Who has qualified and made us fit to share the portion which is the inheritance of the saints. (God’s holy people) in the Light.
- [The Father] has delivered and drawn us to Himself out of the control and the dominion of darkness and has transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His Love,
- In Whom we have our redemption through His blood, [which means] the forgiveness of our sins.
My dear Partner, that’s shouting ground! Let’s go back to the First Covenant. Look at Exodus 20:24 in the AMPC: “An altar of earth you shall make to Me and sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen. In every place where I record My name and cause it to be remembered I will come to you and BLESS you.”
“I will come to you and BLESS you.” That, my dear brother and sister, is His bottom line of the original Ten Commandments. Read them in your AMPC.
In Matthew 22, let’s begin reading with verse 37: “Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love The LORD thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.”
Love, then, is the “curtain rod” upon which ALL of the commands hang! It is OUR commandment! God is so good! He said in Isaiah 43:25-26 (AMPC):
- I, even I, am He Who blots out and cancels your transgressions, for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins.
- Put Me in remembrance [remind Me of your merits]; let us plead and argue together. Set forth your case, that you may be justified (proved right).
That is a Covenant statement backed by the precious blood of Jesus!
In closing, let’s read and then meditate on The WORD of God through the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, in the AMPC:
- Love endures long and is patient and kind; Love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
- It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s Love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
- It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
- Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
- Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end].
Read it again like this: “I endure long, and I am patient and kind.” Now we are back to Romans 5:5: “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the Love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”
Then in 1 Corinthians 13:13, in the AMPC, let’s read through Chapter 14:1:
- And so faith, hope, Love abide [faith—conviction and belief respecting man’s relation to God and divine things; hope— joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; Love—true affection for God and man, growing out of God’s Love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is Love.
- Eagerly pursue and seek to acquire [this] Love [make it your aim, your great quest]; and earnestly desire and cultivate the spiritual endowments (gifts), especially that you may prophesy (interpret the divine will and purpose in inspired preaching and teaching).
Faith, which works by Love (Galatians 5:6). Hope and Love. Since you’re already reading in your AMPC, turn to Hebrews 11:1: “Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].”
Now from the letter to his partners, we read the Apostle Paul’s words in Philippians 1:19-20:
- For I know that this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer, and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
- According to my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death.
As you sow your BLESSING seed this month, remember that you are prayed for every day by every department of Kenneth Copeland Ministries. Gloria and I pray for you at every meal. That’s why we conclude every service, every TV broadcast and every letter with: “God Loves you! We Love you, and Jesus is LORD!”
Love,
