As believers in Christ and children of God, we need to walk in love, even as God loved us and Christ gave Himself up for us; we need to walk in intimacy with God, enjoying not only His grace but also His love, caring for the Father’s feeling and living intimately in His tender love.
Oh, how we love the Lord! Amen, how we love our dear heavenly Father! We were sinners, dead in sins and offenses, but God loved us so much!
He loved us so much that He became a man and came to die for us, even while we were dead in sins and offenses. What kind of love is this!
As believers in Christ, may we always be reminded of the love the Father has for us. God is love. He simply is love. He loves and loves and loves. He loves all men indiscriminately.
Our God is love. And He has reached out to us in the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, to come and be our life.
Christ came as the expression and embodiment of the Father’s love, and He expressed God, manifested God, and made God known to us all.
When we look at the Lord Jesus, we just see how much God loves us. Christ didn’t come to condemn us; He came to save us, rescue us, and dispense His life and nature into us so that we may be part of the kingdom of God.
Today we are part of God’s kingdom, and the life and nature of our God is in us. As children of God, we need to walk in love and light, for love and light are the nature of God’s being.
As we do this and that in our daily living and walk, we need to have a walk that is constituted with the loving substance of God and the shining element of God. Amen! God’s substance is love and His element is shining, full of light.
We love to be with God, enjoy God, and experience God as love and light! And as we do this, as we know and experience God as love and light, we spontaneously walk in love and light.
The result of our knowing and experiencing God as love and light is that our daily walk is constituted with God’s loving substance and with God’s shining element.
The inner source of our walk becomes no longer I but Christ, and in particular, God in Christ being expressed through us as love and light.
We can all testify that in ourselves, we are not loving people, nor do we love to walk in the light. But when we contact the Lord in our spirit and remain in fellowship with the Lord, we spontaneously walk in love and light. Praise the Lord!
As Children of God, we need to Walk in Love, that is, Walk in Intimacy with God
Ephesians 5:2 tells us to walk in love, even as Christ also loved us and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. If we read and pray, pray and read, and prayerfully consider this verse, we will touch something of the sweetness and tenderness of the love of God.
When we touch the love of God, we will simply walk in love, for God is love. To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God (1 John 3:1).
God is love. We enjoy and know God as love, and we walk in love. In the Father’s presence, we not only enjoy grace, the expression of love, but we also enjoy love itself. Love is found in God, for God is love.
It is not easy to illustrate what kind of walk we should have in love, but one example would be the intimate relationship between a daughter and a mother.
When a daughter loves her mother and wants to please her mother, she will do many things against her own will just so that she can please her mother. She will not do many things because her mother does not like those things, and she will be happy when she makes her mother happy.
When we walk in love, we walk in intimacy with God; we walk not only in grace or by grace but in love. We believers in Christ are children of God, and we have an intimate relationship with our Father God.
We received grace, and we come in the Son to contact the Father. As we come to the Father to enjoy and know Him, we enjoy love. In the Father’s presence, there’s love itself; there is not only grace but even more, there is love.
As we walk in love, for God is love, we will not want to do anything that displeases the Father. Rather, we walk in intimacy with God, and we do not want to grieve Him but always do things that please Him.
This is what Paul said that we want to be pleasing to the Lord; we love Him so much that we don’t do anything that displeases Him.
For example, the Father hates fornication, uncleanness, and lust; as children of God who walk in love, we also stay away from such things (1 Cor. 6:18; Heb. 13:4; 1 Cor. 7:2; Matt. 5:32; 19:9).
There is much sin, immorality, and rebellion against God around us everywhere in the world, but we believers in Christ love our Father, we walk in love, and we stay away from such things.
This kind of walk is tender and delicate; it is not merely living by grace but even more, walking in love.
Christ came to be our enjoyment, and He is full of grace and reality (John 1:17). When we enjoy Christ, we enjoy grace; then, we go deeper and enjoy the Father as love, the source of grace.
May we be the children of God who enjoy the love of God and walk in love. May we always remember that we are saints who are separated unto Him and saturated with Him, and we live and walk in intimacy with God.
We can illustrate the difference between love and grace in the relationship between a mother and her child.
Sometimes a child may want something from his mother, and his mother lovingly gives it to him; this is grace. At other times, the child simply wants to remain in the mother’s embrace; this is love.
When we receive something from God, that is grace, but when we enjoy what God is, that is love.
We need to not only enjoy Christ as grace but even more, go further and deeper with the Lord to enjoy the Father God as love, so that we may walk in love.
When we touch the love of the Father, we will live in intimacy with God; we will enjoy grace, but even more, we will enjoy God as love, and we will express God as love in our daily living.
Father God, we love You! Thank You for loving us first. Thank You for showing us Your love in making us children of God! Hallelujah, our God is our Father, and He is love! Oh Lord, we open to You! Pour out more of Yourself into us as love. Constitute us with Your love. We want to enjoy not only Your grace but even more, touch You as love and walk in love. We give ourselves to You, Lord. We give You our daily walk and living. We want to live and walk in love. We love You so much, Lord, that we don’t want to do anything that displeases You. May our daily living and walk be in intimacy with God. Oh Father God, we love You! We love to be in Your presence, enjoying Your love. What kind of love is this, that God came to be a man and redeemed us, regenerated us, and made us sons of God! Father God, we love You and we love what You love! We love You and we hate what You hate. We choose to live in intimacy with God today and we stay away from anything that displeases You! Amen, we want to walk in love today!
As we See the Father’s Love for us, we Walk in Love and Care for the Father’s Feeling, Living Intimately in His Tender Love
The nature of God’s essence is love; what He is by His very essence is love. In this the love of God has been manifested among us, that God sent His only Begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him (1 John 4:9).
God is love, and He manifested His love by sending His Son to come and die for us, even to become our life so that we may become children of God. Oh, what kind of love is this!
It is one thing to love someone who is lovable and nice, but we were dead in sins and offenses, rebellious against God, and far away from God, yet God loved us and sent His Son to come and die for us.
He loves fallen mankind (1 John 4:19); God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes into Him would not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16).
When we see the love of God manifested in Christ, we are touched, our heart is melted, and we simply respond to Him in love. We just love Him back.
God loved us so much that He made us alive through His Son with His own life so that we may become His children.
1 John 4:10 further says that this is how God’s love was manifested – not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins. This is the higher and nobler love of God.
God loved us so much that He sent His Son to redeem us and impart the life of God into us so that we may become children of God.
Our God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, reached out to us even when we were dead in sins and offenses, and made us alive with Christ, imparting His life into us, and made us children of God (Eph. 2:4-6).
We were in a pitiful condition, very lowly, unworthy of God’s love; however, God is rich in mercy, and He reached us in His mercy to bring us into a proper condition where He can love us.
The nobler love of God is His essential attribute, and He exercised both His mercy and His love to bring us into the kingdom of God, making us children of God.
How we thank the Lord that, because of His great love, He is rich in mercy to save us from our wretched position to a condition that is suitable for His love, and He loved us to the uttermost!
As we see the love of the Father in Christ, we respond to Him in love, and in our daily walk we will care for the Father’s feeling, for we live intimately in His tender love.
When we consider the Father, who sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father (Rom. 8:16), we are filled with love toward Him.
We will care not just for the Father’s requirement but for the Father’s feeling, and the Father’s feeling will become our feeling.
When we meet others, we will love them with the love of God, which was poured in our hearts. When we speak to the saints and to those around us, especially those in our family, they will touch something of the love of God.
When others attack us and even hate us, when those closest to us hate us and do not want to talk to us, the love of God will be expressed through us, for we live in intimacy with God, we care for the Father’s feeling, and we walk in love.
We will not be outraged, nor will we attack those who hate us; rather, we will allow the Father as love to be expressed through us.
Just as the Father God loves us and reaches to us in His mercy to bring us into a condition where He can love us to the uttermost, so we express the love of the Father, even the love the Father has in us.
This love is not our natural love; our natural love is limited and spoils, but the divine love is unlimited, noble, and eternal.
The love of God is so prevailing that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. Yet this love is so intimate and tender, for it touches us, it reaches us, and it imparts what God is into us, even into the depths of our being.
May we be those who enjoy and experience God as love so that we walk in love.
May we allow the love of God to touch us, melt our heart, and infuse us so that we may walk in love, walking in intimacy with God and caring for the Father’s heart.
Oh, how much God loves us! How much we love Him! What tender love He has toward us!
Thank You, Father, for being rich in mercy, because of Your great love with which You loved us. Thank You for reaching us in Your mercy to redeem us in the Son and regenerate us with Your life so that we may be children of God! What kind of love is this, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as propitiation for our sins! We love You, Father God! Thank You for showing us Your nobler and higher love. Amen, in this the love of God has been manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the word so that we may have life and live through Him! We love You, Father! We respond to You in love. We want to walk in love, always caring for the Father’s feeling in our daily walk. May we live intimately in Your tender love today. May Your love be expressed through us to those around us. Perfect us in Your love. Keep us in Your love. How much we need Your love today! How much we want to let Your love be expressed through us as we walk in love!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by brother Ron Kangas in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 423-414, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (2) (2024 December Training), week 23 (msg. 11), The Children of God Walking in Love and Light.
- Similar articles on this topic:
– Walking in love and light, a portion from, The Body of Christ, Chapter 5, by Witness Lee
– What does it mean to be saved by Jesus? || CSOC UT Austin, via Youtube.
– The first way to grow being to love the Lord, a portion from, Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, Chapter 16, by Witness Lee.
– Deification in God the Father’s Love for Us His Children, via, Living to Him.
– A walk according to spirit, a portion from, Life Messages, Vol. 2 (#42-75), Chapter 23, by Witness Lee.
– 1 Thessalonians (Program #11) – Encouragement for Faith, Love, and Hope, via, Bible study radio.
– Christ in Revelation – As the Loving High Priest, via, Local Church – Christ.
– God’s Love for Us Is Unfathomable, via, Bibles for America blog.
– The God of love and peace, a portion from, Life-Study of 2 Corinthians, Chapter 58.
– Love God, Abide Forever in New Jerusalem, via, New Jerusalem blog.
– The crystallization – the essential truth of regeneration, via, Affirmation and Critique.
– Help to Build Up a Personal Relationship with Jesus Christ, via, Holding to Truth in Love. - Hymns on this topic:
– By Thy love we are Thy children, / Abba Father calling Thee; / Light disperses all our darkness, / Till, like Him, Thy Son, we see. / O what grace! O what truth! / Love is seen and light is shown! / We would praise Thee never ceasing, / Thou by love and light art known! (Hymns #13 stanza 7 and chorus)
– ’Tis by this inner life-anointing / I in fellowship may move; / In God, the light of truth, I’m walking, / And the love of grace I prove. (Hymns #266 stanza 4)
– Down from His glory, / Ever living story, / My God and Savior came, / And Jesus was His name. / Born in a manger, / To His own a stranger, / A Man of sorrows, tears and agony. / O how I love Him! How I adore Him! / My breath, my sunshine, my all in all! / The great Creator became my Savior, / And all God’s fulness dwelleth in Him. (Hymns #82 stanza 1 and chorus)
About aGodMan
Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 413-414, by Witness Lee
We need to see God’s love and be touched, even melted in our hearts, by the love God has toward us.
It’s not that we loved Him but that He loved us and came through Christ to redeem us and regenerate us to make us children of God. Amen!
Seeing and tasting His love, we respond to Him in love and walk in love. May we live and walk in intimacy with God, caring for the Father’s feeling today!
Amen. To walk in love is to have an intimate relationship with God.
We have received the Lord’s grace, but to enter into His love requires us to fellowship and be with the Father daily.
As we experience this divine love we would not want to do things that would grieve the Father, and we would be saved from our wretched position to a condition that is suitable for His love.
Today, we have an intimate relationship with the Father.
As those who have received grace, we come in the Son to contact the Father, may we walk in love and grace.
Dear brother, because of God’s great mercy, the source of which is his great love in sending His only begotten Son as the propitiation for a sins so that we, as His children, can enjoy an intimate relationship with our Father through the Son, to walk daily in His love, taking care of His feeling and hating what He hates, not doing anything that would grieve His heart.
It is an undeniable fact that we were sinful, fallen in the world and condemned. Not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent His son as a propitiation for our sins. In this, the higher and deeper love of God has been manifested!
Thus, because of His great love, God, being rich in mercy, saved us from our wretched position to a condition that is suitable for His love. Oh, what depth of love! We need to be conscious of this backdrop!
How lovely that now, in the Father’s presence, we enjoy love itself and experience His love in a very intimate way. Therefore, we walk in love and keep ourselves from uncleanness.
Because we enjoy the love of God in such an intimate way, we do not want to do anything that displeases the Father. The Father hates fornication, uncleanness, and lust. If we walk in love, we will stay away from such things. Because we love the Father, we will not do anything to grieve His heart, Amen!
We should thus remember – we are children of God enjoying His love. We are saints separated unto Him and saturated with Him. Therefore, in our daily walk, we would always take care of the Father’s feeling, for we live intimately in His tender love.
Hallelujah Amen Lord has loved us
Amen, God has given us two wonderful gifts: unconditional love and free will to live any way we want.
However, those who love Him will be constrained by His love to live a life that pleases Him, to live by His smile.
Amen
Amen, express Yourself through our walk in Your love
Amen. What a wonderful blessing we have!!!
As fallen sinners, we can be born of God and become His genuine children, possessing His life and nature!
Without a daily connection to the Lord’s Spirit and Word, I lose access to real revelation. I remind myself again to continue to live in intimacy with our Lord.
We received Christ as grace from the Father, through Him we can contact the Father and grow in intimacy and love.
To walk in love is to walk in intimacy with God.
We should always take care of our Father’s feeling, living intimately in His tender love. We need to appreciate not only God’s great love for us but also His rich mercy.
God’s mercy reaches further than His love. As a consequence of the fall, we became pitiful and dead in our offenses & sins.
Footnotes from, Holy Bible, Recovery Version
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Amen brother 🙏
Amen Abba Father.
Ameeen!!!
Hallelujah for our God who is rich in mercy and great in His love with which He loved us.
In this the love of God was manifested among us, that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might have life and live through Him.
Herein is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.
This “Caring for the Father’s Feeling” is actually a shift in the center. When we see God’s love, we are spontaneously drawn to Him and fix our eyes solely on Him—this transfer of ownership is consecration. 2Cor. 5:14–15 says, “For the love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; And He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised.” God’s love, revealed in Christ’s death for us, surges over us like a mighty flood, compelling us to give ourselves to Him and live to Him. Brother Lee’s book The Experience of Life, Chapter 3, provides a thorough view of the matter of consecration.