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Loving God with an Undecaying Love

22 Apr
Loving God with an Undecaying Love

I’m continuing in my series about our love for God. In my last post I talked about the spiritual fragrance of that love. We are to portray the same aroma as Christ.

Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love.

Ephesians 6:24 NIV

In this verse Paul tells us that there’s grace available to all who love Christ with an undecaying love. The problem is that we live in a world bound by decay. Everything runs down. We see it all around us.

Here we’re told that our love for God should not decay. How is that accomplished?

When a satellite is put into orbit, it immediately starts to decay. Eventually it will fall to earth and burn up in the atmosphere. That is, unless it uses power (thrusters) to maintain the orbit.

Where do we find the power to keep our love for God strong? Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment of Scripture was.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.”

Mark 12:30 NIV

It turns out that these are the four thrusters that keep our love in orbit around God. These are not four separate issues – they overlap in some areas. We have to understand that our walk with God is not based upon a single issue. Everything we do affects everything else.

First of all, I must love God with all my heart. You have a body, soul, and spirit. Your soul is who you are. Within your soul is your mind, which is the storage area for all of your experiences.

Also within your soul is your heart. You can look at your heart as the garden, full of good soil. It’s where the spiritual seed that you plant grows. Please understand, whatever you plant in your heart will grow – good or bad.

Within your heart are your intentions, it shows where you’re headed. What you place into your heart is where you’re going to end up eventually. It doesn’t matter what your mind thinks. Your heart sets the direction for your life.

That’s the importance of loving God with your heart.

And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:5 NIV

Here’s where the power comes from for this thruster. God doesn’t just pour His love into our hearts. He uses the channel of the Holy Spirit. If I don’t give the Holy Spirit permission to pour into my life, then it’s not going to happen. If I spend time with the Spirit, then I get the reward.

The second thing Christ said was that I must love God with all my soul. As I’ve said, my soul is who I am. It’s the soul that’s the authority over my flesh. It’s the soul that decides to answer the demands of the spirit vs. the flesh.

If my heart is positioned to love God, then it’s that much easier for the soul to come into agreement. That’s because the soul has to do something that goes against its very nature.

John 15:13 NIV

“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

What is your life? Many are more willing to die for Christ than to live for Him. How much of your money would you give up? How much of your time would you give up? How many of your plans would you give up? These are the issues of your soul.

What are you willing to put down in order to fulfill His plan? It’s easy to see that if God doesn’t have your heart, he won’t get your soul. Where your heart is, your treasure is. People are willing to lay everything down in search of treasure. Is God your treasure?

I’ll continue this in my next post.

Question; How far are you willing to go for Christ?

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 22, 2026 in Encouragement, Spiritual Walk

 

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Imitating God’s Love

17 Apr
Imitating God’s Love

In my last post, I started to talk about loving God. We can’t begin to love Him properly without first experiencing the love of Christ.

Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children…

Ephesians 5:1 NIV

We’re to imitate the Lord as dearly loved children. Notice that he does not say that we’re dearly loved people. He calls us children because it implies relationship. In this relationship is the principle of imitation.

That’s because in order to love God correctly, we must imitate His love. Being a part of God’s kingdom is a family relationship. Imitation is a big part of family life.

Even though you have ten thousand guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. Therefore I urge you to imitate me.

1 Corinthians 4:15-16 NIV

Notice that because we’re in a family relationship, we must, therefore, imitate those who are further along than us. That’s what a family relationship is all about. This is why Paul could say, “I became your father – so imitate me.”

When you have a loving relationship between father and child, there’s a desire to imitate.

“I want to be just like him.”

There’s always a desire to imitate those we love. Wherever you place your love, there’s a tendency to imitate. Married couples tend to pick up some of the other’s traits. “Gangs” do the same sort of thing.

Those that you give your devotion to become objects of imitation. But that only comes by time spent with those persons.

Within your temple, O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.

Psalm 48:9 NIV

This is an interesting verse in the original Hebrew. There’s actually no English word to translate the word, meditate, accurately. It means to consider, resemble, compare, or liken.

It’s saying that when I come into your presence, I begin to think deeply about who you are compared to who I am. Then I start to consider what I can do to resemble you. But, I have to experience His love in order to meditate on it to this level. Thank God, I have His Holy Spirit to guide me.

The more time I spend with the Lord, the more I become like Him. It’s not a matter of trying harder to be like Jesus. Imitation is a natural outgrowth of a close relationship.

It’s just like what happens in a natural family. We pick up the traits of those we live with. This includes attitudes and temperament. It also affects our likes and dislikes. It determines how we view the world around us.

For instance, I don’t really care about watching sports, which some people think is very weird. However, that’s simply because my parents never watched any sports while I was growing up. So it’s something I never got a taste for.

It works the same way in the spiritual world. By spending time with the Lord, I can begin to pick up His attitudes. I will start to love what He loves and dislike what He dislikes. I find myself treating people the same way that Christ did.

It doesn’t happen immediately. But, over time, I begin to recognize the changes taking place in me.

Spend quality time in the Lord’s presence. That’s the way to see lasting transformation.

Question: What are some of the positive changes you’ve seen in your spiritual life?

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 17, 2026 in Encouragement, Prayer, Sonship, Spiritual Walk

 

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Loving God with a Clean Heart

15 Apr
Loving God with a Clean Heart

For the past few weeks I’ve been posting about the love of God. His love is so amazing that I probably only scratched the surface.

My goal was to give us what we need in order to show our love for the Lord. We needed that foundation to know how to love our God.

“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.”

John 15:9 NIV

Jesus, in His time with the disciples, passed on the love of the Father to us. By seeing how Jesus loved, we understand the Father’s love. He has asked us to remain, live, dwell, or abide in this love. This tells me that to love God we must draw from His love.

It’s only as I live in and experience the love of Christ, that I’m truly equipped to show love to Him. If I can’t receive His love, I can’t return it. I love Him because He first loved me. How is it that His love helps me to love Him?

Let’s look at one of the first places in Scripture that it tells us about how to love God.

The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Deuteronomy 30:6 NIV

Because of the wholehearted love which God has for us we need to return it. The problem is that we’re unable to. Our hearts are sinful, full of baggage, junk, and sin. Only He can perform the necessary surgery my heart needs.

In order to love God, our hearts must be circumcised. But, what does it mean to circumcise our hearts?

In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ,

Colossians 2:11 NIV

The fact is that there’s no way my sinful nature could ever love God. Or even want to love God, for that matter. There must be a work done in us by the Spirit of Christ.

This is why time with Him is so important. He does not do this work in us without our permission. In Philippians 3:18-19, Paul wrote that many believers live as enemies of the cross. Their focus is on earthly things. The way God loves us, He doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment.

For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh…

Philippians 3:3 NIV

This is how a life of loving God should be. We must allow the Holy Spirit to lead us into the love and worship of God.

The truth is that our flesh cannot and will not free itself from the stain of sin. The clean-up process must come from an outside source – the Holy Spirit.

As I spend time in the spirit, I am allowing the Holy Spirit to do the work of spiritual circumcision that only He can do. He can bring my heart to the place where I can truly love God in the way that He deserves.

It’s not a matter of more will power or trying harder. It’s making yourself available to the Spirit for Him to accomplish that transforming work. That’s why it’s so important to spend time daily in the Lord’s presence.

Question: How much time do spend daily in prayer and in the Word of God?

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2026 in Encouragement, Prayer, Prayer in the Spirit, Revival, Spiritual Walk

 

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Understanding God’s Love

23 Mar
Understanding God’s Love

Now that I’ve finished my study in the epistle of Jude, I’m feeling led to take a small break from the New Testament series. I want to spend some time talking about our relationship with God. Specifically, His love for us, our love for Him, and the levels of our relationship with the Lord.

So let me start by asking; do you love God?

You may respond with; why would you even ask that question? Of course I love God!

The fact is that we need to understand what it truly means to love God. This series of posts will spend a few weeks exploring this subject.

Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

I John 4:8-10 NIV

Where do we even start to understand what it means to love God? He’s so vast, so infinite. The Scripture says that it’s not about our love for Him, but His love for us. So, to understand love, I have to understand Him.

That’s the basis, the foundation stone. If I want to know love, I must know God. The world talks about love, but it’s not the real thing they refer to.

We go to a wedding and see a couple who say that they have a love that will last forever. Five years later, they’re in court seeking a divorce.

At one point I heard a celebrity say in an interview, that they had attended a beautiful wedding. The reason was that in the vows, the couple said that they promised faithfulness “…as long as we both shall love.” It’s obvious that the world has no concept of what true love is all about.

That’s why I believe that before we say that we love God, we had better know what love is. So I’m going to start by taking a few posts to look at the love of God. Because God is love.

O my Strength, I sing praise to you; you, O God, are my fortress, my loving God.

Psalm 59:17 NIV

There are many believers who love to study the names of God given in the Scripture. Here’s an important one we need to know. In this Psalm, David calls the Lord Elohiym-Checed. That name literally means the God who loves me. It’s important to understand that God and His love cannot be separated.

At one point, the Old Testament saint, Nehemiah, prayed the following about Israel:

They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them,

Nehemiah 9:17 NIV

God is abounding in love. This means that God has an over abundance of love. It’s comforting to know that God has more than enough love for us.

God is love. God is infinite. Therefore, His love is infinite. He will never run out.

Even when we blow it, God is there for us.

Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

Psalm 66:20 NIV

This verse clearly says that under no circumstances will God ever reject your intercessions or turn off His love for you. You will never go past the reach of His love.

God’s love is amazing. We will need the help of the Holy Spirit in order to comprehend it.

Question: How have you experienced the amazing love of God?

© 2026 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on March 23, 2026 in Encouragement, The Gospel

 

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How Love Grows

25 Aug
How Love Grows

We’re continuing through the book of Philippians. Paul is able to open up his heart to these people.

God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:8 NIV

This church had a special place in Paul’s heart. They were one of his greatest supporters. He loved to fellowship and worship with them. The love he had for them was very emotional.

As a result, they were constantly in his prayers.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ — to the glory and praise of God.

Philippians 1:9-11 NIV

Paul’s prayer for them was that they would abound in love. Love is relationship. He wanted the depth of their relationship with the Lord and each other to grow in a big way.

Obviously, this was a church that knew how to love. They had a love for one another and for the lost. However, even loving people can experience growth in their area of strength. This should be a lesson to us in how our love is to grow.

The first area is in our knowledge. That’s simply the learning of facts. If you love someone, God included, you want to know as much as you can about them.

That’s a big problem in many relationships. A couple stops relating to each other. Then, after years of no communication, they say, “I don’t know you anymore.”

A relationship grows as we learn more and more about each other. With God, there’s no end to learning about Him. We’ll never know all there is to know of His ways.

The next area of growth is depth of insight. This is a tough one to describe. It means a total perception of who the other person is. This includes both the physical senses and the mind.

That’s why when a couple gets very close to each other, it’s like they can read each other’s mind. They know what they’re thinking and what they’re about to say or do.

With my wife and I, a common phrase that comes up is, “I knew you were going to say that!”

Of course, when it comes to God, this should be our goal. We should want to think His thoughts. We want His goals to be our goals. That’s a healthy relationship with the Lord.

According to the above verses, the goal of this growth is to be able to discern what is best. That literally means that you approve of your transport to a higher level of walk. That’s not just understanding good and evil, but an agreement with God’s direction and plan for your life.

That in itself is great, but what I consider the best part of what the Apostle wanted for them is that they be filled to overflowing with the fruit of righteousness. Where could they obtain this fruit? It only comes through Christ.

The Apostle John saw the tree of Life in his vision of the Revelation. He describes it as being in our future, eternal home.

On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:2b NIV

Because of our relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, we have access to the tree of life right now. We don’t have to wait until we die or the Lord returns. It’s available to you today.

Do we really understand the power of that statement? We can have unbroken fellowship with the God of the universe – Creator of Heaven and earth! He will allow His power to work through us. His life will be our strength. What greater gift could we ever ask for?

Question: How do you access this life?

© 2023 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on August 25, 2023 in Fellowship, Power of God, Prayer, Relationships, Revival, Spiritual Walk

 

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Outside Vs. Inside

20 Jun
Outside Vs. Inside

As we continue through the book of Luke, we come to a meeting between Jesus and a Pharisee. I don’t think that the Pharisee knew what he was getting into as he ate with the Lord.

When Jesus had finished speaking, a Pharisee invited him to eat with him; so he went in and reclined at the table. But the Pharisee, noticing that Jesus did not first wash before the meal, was surprised.

Luke 11:37-38 NIV

The first thing we need to realize is that Jesus did not have bad hygiene. The washing this refers to, is a ceremonial washing. It was a tradition that sometimes could take up to an hour to accomplish before a meal, even though everything that was washed was already clean.

When He saw the Pharisee’s surprise, Jesus takes the time to explain things to him. The Lord wants to show this leader that there are more important things than following tradition.

Then the Lord said to him, “Now then, you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also?”

Luke 11:39 NIV

Jesus is talking here about the Pharisees themselves. They are very outward conscious. What people thought about them was more important than their inner character. Jesus is now going to bring that to their attention.

He literally tells them that they’re acting mindlessly. They’re not taking into account the fact that God places greater importance on what’s on the inside of a person.

He sees their lives as full of greed and wickedness. They grasp at what they want with no regard to God’s will for them. They have evil motives, but no one can see this part of their lives.

“You foolish people! Did not the one who made the outside make the inside also? But give what is inside [the dish] to the poor, and everything will be clean for you.”

Luke 11:40-41 NIV

The Lord makes it clear that they should be following God’s law instead. They should live as givers. They should be trying to be a blessing to those around them who are in need. That would be a “cleaner” lifestyle.

“Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without leaving the former undone.”

Luke 11:42 NIV

Jesus makes it clear that these Pharisees were practicing tradition over substance in their walk with God. They were doing some of the things required by the law, but neglecting the heart of it.

Actually, what they were doing amazes me when I think about it. They even tithed (donated ten percent as an offering) from the herbs they grew in their gardens.

I wouldn’t have even thought about doing that. Counting how many basil leaves I picked and then giving ten percent to the temple. It would be a tiny amount. Yet these leaders were doing just that.

The problem was, they were doing it to look good in front of the people. They loved the reaction. “Look! He even tithed from the mint he grew!”

They weren’t doing it out of love for God. They wanted the adoration of the people.

But that brings me to the application of this. Why do we do what we do? Do we have pure motives for how we serve God?

Why do we attend church every week? Is it because we worry about what people would think if we missed? Or, is it because we love being in the presence of the Lord and His people?

This is the same for any “religious” activity. We need to be asking ourselves if we’re doing it because of tradition, or out of love for our God? God looks at the heart. Motives are everything.

Make it a point to cultivate a true love for the Lord. All that we do should proceed from that relationship.

Question: How is your love for God being manifest to those around you?

© 2022 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on June 20, 2022 in Faith, Legalism, Ministry, Spiritual Walk

 

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The Love Debt

29 Sep
The Love Debt

As we continue through Paul’s letter to the Romans, he now talks about the debt we owe to one another.

Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Romans 13:8-9

Paul makes it clear that we shouldn’t be in debt. However, there is a debt that will always remain in our lives. That’s the love debt that we owe to each other.

He goes as far as to say that this love actually fulfills the requirements of God’s law. This goes right along with what Jesus taught in His ministry. At one point the Lord was asked which of the commandments was the most important. Listen to His answer.

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

Mark 12:29-31

These are the two debts that we will always be living under. Our debt to love God and our debt to love others.

In both verses, we’re told to love others as we love ourselves. That’s an important concept. There are many people who haven’t learned to love themselves, so they find it hard to love others.

This principle of love is hard for many people to grasp. They don’t realize that this love has nothing to do with our emotions. It’s a choice we make to participate positively in someone’s life.

That includes myself. If I’m not making choices to make my life and relationships better, then I don’t really love myself. Many of us live very self-destructive lifestyles. This lack of self-love spills over into our treatment of others.

Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.

Romans 13:10

I would even say that those who treat others badly, are showing that they actually hate themselves. That’s why we need to understand how God sees us, and take up that same attitude. Even with all of my frailties and imperfections, I’m exactly who God says I am.

Having that attitude helps me to treat others with love and respect. This last verse tells us that love does no evil to his /her neighbor. You can’t say “I love them,” and then treat them badly.

That’s why love fulfills the law. Love for God, self, and others gives me the ability to fulfill God’s will for my life.

But there’s a deeper reason why we must love. The Lord told this to His disciples just before He went to the cross.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

Jesus makes it clear that our love is a part of our witness to the world. When we walk in the love of Christ, those around us see something they don’t understand. It opens the door to hearing our testimony.

Walk in God’s love, and fulfill your destiny in Christ.

Question: How have you showed the love of God recently?

© 2021 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on September 29, 2021 in Encouragement, Fellowship, Relationships, The Gospel

 

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Knowledge vs. Love

15 Apr

In my last post, I concluded the section of First Corinthians that dealt with romantic relationships.  Now the Apostle Paul is starting a new subject.

The Corinthian church had sent him a letter asking whether or not they could eat meat that had been sacrificed at a pagan temple.  You may think that this doesn’t apply to us, but I assure you, it does.  You’ll find out why as we go through chapter 8 of Paul’s letter.

In his society, the people of his day would look for any advantage they could get.  They would seek the blessing of an idol so they would bring an animal for sacrifice to the pagan temple.  Usually, they would bring their very best for this purpose.

The pagan priests who ran the temples would then take this meat from the sacrificed animals and sell it in the market to raise money for their support.  Because of its source, it was usually the best meat available.  So the question of whether a Christian could purchase this meat was a valid one.

How would this apply to us?  The problem of Paul’s day was that there was no Old Testament Scripture that directly talked about this issue.  So there were some believers who said it was a sin while others thought it was perfectly fine.

There are issues that we deal with in the church today that are like that.  Things that the Bible doesn’t mention, yet we have opinions about.  We ask are they sin or not.  I’m talking about things like dancing, drinking alcohol, going to a casino, getting a tattoo, or playing the lottery.

We need to hear Paul’s answer if we’re to walk correctly before God.  He starts by laying down some important principles.

Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge.  Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.  The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.  But the man who loves God is known by God.
1 Corinthians 8:1-3

It all starts with our knowledge and love.  In all cases love trumps knowledge.  That’s because with knowledge comes pride.  We think that we’re somehow better than others because we possess more knowledge than them.

That’s not the case.  Knowledge is like air.  You can blow up a balloon, but there’s no substance to it.  In our society, people will spend years of their lives accumulating knowledge in universities.  They think that somehow they’re more valuable because of it.  In reality, the more love you possess, the better a person you become.

This is especially true when you think that you know something completely.  Paul is trying to get across to us that you can never know everything about a particular subject – especially when it deals with your walk with God.

Paul says that the man who loves God is known by God.  That phrase literally says that the one who loves God is known under God.  That tells me that the more you love God, the more you submit yourself under His control.

The more you love the Lord, the more people begin to see your submission to Him.  Then, your love for others will begin to increase.  The more you love, the more valuable you are to God and His kingdom.  It has no relationship to how much knowledge you possess.

Make it your goal to live a life of love, then you’ll be able to use your knowledge for the benefit of others.

Question: How have you seen the effect of knowledge bringing pride with it?

© 2019 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on April 15, 2019 in Fellowship, Legalism, Spiritual Walk

 

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Loving God

06 Jun

As Jesus was nearing the time of the cross, He was questioned by various religious leaders.  Some with good motives and others who were trying to trap Him in what He said.  There was one who seemed to want a real answer.

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating.  Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”
Mark 12:28

Jesus was always willing to answer those who asked a serious question.

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’”
Mark 12:29-30

The Lord gives this man the most important command of the Law.  It turns out that Jesus didn’t give him a rule to follow, such as sacrificing, tithing, or reading Scripture.  Instead, it was a command to know who God is and then knowing how to respond to Him correctly.

This is still a valid command for us today.  As Christians, we need to understand who it is that we serve and what it takes to show our love for Him.

Love God with all of your heart.  Your heart is the garden of your life.  It’s where you put things that you want to grow.

It’s the good soil that you should be planting the Word into.  Loving God with all your heart means that you will only plant things that will please God.

If I were a servant tending to a garden for my master, this would be simple to understand.  If my master hated green beans, then there would never be any green beans in my garden.  We should only be planting the things that please God in our hearts.

Love God with all of your soul.  That’s the seat of your decision making.  We show our love for God each day by the decisions we make.  Do we take God’s will into account when we decide what direction our lives will take?

Love God with all of your mind.  Your mind is the storehouse of your life.  Whether you remember it or not, everything that you see and hear is stored forever in your mind.  That’s why it’s so important to be careful gatekeepers of what we watch and listen to.

When the Lord walks through your storehouse, what does He see?  Are there things that are offensive to Him?  If so, then you can clean it up through repentance and faith in the cleansing power of the blood of Christ.

Love God with all of your strength.  I think that this is the one command that seals all of the others.  Without it, our love falls short.

That’s because your strength speaks of actually doing something.  You can’t say that you love without putting it into action.

I’ve heard people say, “I love God in my heart even though you don’t see it in my actions.”  Actually, that’s not real love.  Whether you’re talking about a human relationship or walking with God, love has to be shown by what we do.

It takes all of these together to make a complete love package.  Our heart, soul, mind, and strength must be working in unison.  It’s through these that we fulfill our greatest calling.

Question:  Why is this the most important command of Scripture?

© 2018 Nick Zaccardi

 
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Posted by on June 6, 2018 in Revival, Spiritual Walk

 

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The Power of Christ #powerofChrist

16 Aug

LightningIn my last post I talked about my struggle with legalism that I didn’t even know I had.  I was like so many others who “stand on the promises.”  They are trusting in the power of the law instead of the power of God working in them.

Then again, there are other Christians who have thrown out the whole idea altogether.  They’ve tried to live up to the requirements of the promises and failed.  They’ve come to the conclusion that they’ll never gain the blessings of the promises.  So what they’ve done is to start living for themselves and chase after the things of the world.  Unfortunately, if you throw out the promises altogether, and don’t remain in Christ, you’ll find yourself unplugged from the source of our power.

If my attitude is that I don’t want to read the Bible or go to church, then in essence I don’t love God.  This is because love is an action, and I’m not showing it toward the Lord.  You can say, “I love God” all you want, but that only means that you have good feelings toward Him.

That’s usually how the world defines the word “love.”  In that sense you can love God without any of those things.  However, I’m talking about true love – an action where all your heart, soul, mind, and strength are involved.

It’s clear from Scripture that there are two forms of power – the Spirit and the law.  Both of them are strong forces for change, but the power of the Spirit is the greatest.  We also know that trying to fulfill the requirements of the promises is a form of legalism.

Under the New Covenant, the promises serve two purposes, of which both are important.  The blessings of the promises show us what God enjoys doing for us.  The requirement side of the promise shows us what we can do to please God.

The real question we need to deal with is how did Jesus operate in the power?  We will start by seeing how Jesus taught about the power.

He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.  The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
1 John 3:8

This is a simple yet profound truth.  One of the main purposes of Christ coming to the earth was to destroy the devil’s work.  The Lord wanted to end Satan’s reign of terror on this planet.  To do that Christ would have to wield a power much greater than that of the devil.

It’s this power that I want to talk about in these posts.  Christ is our example.  If I can grasp how He walked in the power of God, then I can get the same results by following His principles.

Question: What works of the devil need to be dealt with in our generation?

© Nick Zaccardi 2013

 
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Posted by on August 16, 2013 in Legalism, Power of God

 

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