Do you love God?
This questions seems like a given, if it is asked to professing Christians but when we look at the Church in Jamaica and many parts of the world, can we truthfully say that most of us love God.

The greatest ACID TEST of our love for God is declared in the these two verses of Scriptures:

If ye love me, keep my commandments.(John 14:15, KJV)
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21, KJV)

The only way we can prove that we love God, is by being obedient to Him. According to verse 21, we must do the following to prove our love for God:

(a) We must first know the Scriptures -this is not just to know it intellectually but we must embrace it as the truth by which we must live by. It involves our whole being, intellect, emotion and will. There must be a willingness on our part to do what the word of God says.

(b) We must put into action that which we know- having knowledge is good but if it is not put into practice, it will not help or change us. If we know the word and do not pratice it, then according to James 1:22, we are deceiving our own selves.

If we have fulfilled the above criteria then this is what will happen:
(a) God the Father will love us - This doesn’t mean that God did not always love us but when we return that love to Him through the help of the Holy Spirit then we’ll experience His love in a more close up personal way. We we’ll also enjoy sweet fellowship and communion with God.

(b) Jesus will love us and manifest Himself to us - what the word of God is saying is that we’ll never experience true intimacy with Jesus, if we are not living in obedience to Him (love Him). In other words He will only disclose himself to those who love Him.

This question must be answered by all us because we can know about God, attend Church, be a member of a local church and yet we do not know or love Him. Can this be really true? Read what the word of God says in Matthew 15:8, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

I pray and hope that you will read, reflect and take whatever necessary action to ensure that your love for God is active, alive and real.

According to Dr. the Rev. Carlton Dennis in his message on Ash Wednesday at our Annual Convention, the essential for victory is maturity and secondly, maturity seeks to glorify God. I believe that this is the key for all of us to experience this victory in Jesus.

Every Christian would like to live a life of victory but the reality is that many Christians are living in defeat and do know how to overcome. According to the Apostle Paul,

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. (2 Peter 1:3 NIV)

God has done everything that is possible for the Christians to live victoriously but the million dollar question is why so many of us are not attaining this victory in Jesus Christ?

I would like to submit to you that the reason for our failure is that we are trying to walk in this victory in our own human strength but this is totally impossible.

The Essential for Victory is yielding our lives completely to God and allowing the Holy Spirit to live this victorious life through us. In other words, dying to our selfish ambitions and living to please God in every area of our lives. Dying to self is never easy but it is possible with God. According to John the Bapist, I must decrease and Jesus must increase and I close with this scripture from the Apostle Paul,

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Gal 2:19 NIV)