His Not Yours, III

John 5:²⁰ “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing. In fact, the Father will show him how to do even greater works than healing this man. Then you will truly be astonished.” (emphasis added).

John 21:^15-17 “After breakfast Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter replied, “you know I love you.” “Then feed my lambs,” Jesus told him. Jesus repeated the question: “Simon son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Lord,” Peter said, “you know I love you.” “Then take care of my sheep,” Jesus said. A third time he asked him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt that Jesus asked the question a third time. He said, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep.” God measures our love for Him by our service for His people. That is big! Some people just want to love God in their bedroom. Just me and my God; I love God, I do not know what you people are doing in church. I feel goose pimples when I am singing praise and worship. I do not want to do life with anybody. I am just an island. The truth is God’s kind of love will make you serve other people. In fact, serving other people proves God’s kind of love.

The first time Jesus said to Peter, “do you love me”, He was talking about agape. Do you love Me unconditionally and Peter said, ‘Yes.’ The second time Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me?”, He was speaking about the agape, the unconditional love and Peter said, ‘Yes’. Jesus asked the third time perhaps to remind Peter that he denied Jesus three times. So, Jesus also asked Peter three times if he loves Him. But when Jesus asked Peter, “do you love me?”, the third time, it was not agape, it was phileo. The first two were dependent on Peter’s love for Jesus exclusively. The last one depended also on Jesus’ love for Peter. Jesus was saying, ‘Peter, do you get that I also love you and I want to be your friend?’ And Peter replied with phileo, ‘Yes, I know Lord.’ And he started crying. Peter’s unconditional love for Jesus only got him to deny Jesus three times and he could not go beyond that. But Peter settling God’s unconditional love for him made him die for Jesus. Peter was crucified upside down.

You cannot fulfil your destiny in God if you do not have the free flow of your love for God and if you are not settled in God’s love for you. It takes not only being confident in your love for God but also being confident in God’s love for you. In order to fulfil your destiny in God, it takes agape and phileo. God wants us to experience agape and phileo also. God wants us to experience friendship, real genuine friendship in our relationship with Him. When Jesus says, “For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he is doing…”, He is saying, ‘I am boasting in my Father’s love for me and because of that love, I have access to my Father’s secrets to everything.’ And that is where life comes from. I ask you today, do you love God, and are you sure without a shadow of doubt that God loves you? I want you to sincerely think about these two questions. I am here to tell you that God loves you and you can receive His love even right now, cry out to Him.

Prayer: Father, I pray that my confidence in Your love for me will be unshakable, in Jesus Name. Amen!