Everything Starts with the Heart - The First and Greatest Command Begins With The Father Loving First

Jesus noted in the Scriptures the two greatest commands in response to a question.   It came from a Pharisee lawyer seeking to stumble him. 

What the enemy seeks to make our downfall 

God turns into our Victories.

 




Matthew 22:36-40

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Take note of the "firsts" in the Scripture. 
The heart leads the way clearly in the first and greatest commandment not the mind.  
Jesus commended the Ephesian church in Revelation for their clear commitment to getting the teaching right, but he threatened to take their lamp away for lack of first love.  


The heart loves first.  
Paul the Apostle said, "I pray the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you." (Eph 1:18)  Hope and love spring from the eyes of the heart seeing and encountering the Lord Jesus.  

 

The heart is the first place to weigh and guard.  

It can cloud up and grow cold. 

 

So many of our passion troubles and the disappointments of walking the narrow way effect the heart.  It is amazing how many things ding the heart.  When we are walking in first love and keeping our heart tender before the Lord all the usual challenges of life can nick and cut the heart deeply.  

What provides all the energy for success in loving God?  How do we sustain love for God and stay on the narrow way?

 



He loved us first.  "We love, because He first loved us."   
1 John 4:19 









He started the love between us.   He dreamed it up.  He made the way to love through the sacrifice of Jesus and his perfect obedience on the cross.   Jesus rose from the dead in the power of a new life; a life filled to the brim with love.  


It is an easy slip.  Right off the narrow way.  When we put the sustaining grace of first love on ourselves.  The work of Jesus on the cross and the power of the Holy Spirit provides for us a never ending stream of fiery love as we walk in the way faithfully.    

Remember first love is not an emotion.  Jesus said, "do what you did at first."  This first love is not bound up in the patient endurance of the struggle.  It is free in the mystery and never ending sea of the Father's love.  He sustains us and our first love.  And we simply respond.  Like we did at first.  


First love is easy.  And at times appears so difficult. 
Our hearts get all tied up and wounded and then mingle a lack of faith with our minds.   
Then the first love fires start growing dim.  
First love abides in child like simplicity.  
It rests in the NAME. By faith it walks in the character of the Lord of Lord's. 
And it loves freely and truly.  
 

We may be saying deep down, following God is a hard way
Maybe that's why Jesus called us to repentance in regards to first love.  
We have to sorting out the good and perfect love against the backdrop of so many distortions. 
We pick up wrong thoughts and our understanding of the Father and his steadfast love gets mixed up and bent. 
What we need to be saying deep down is....
"I surrender" and "I am yours and you are mine".  


Can you remember back to what you did at first? 
First love expresses a life, a way to follow Jesus and be near him.  First love is first abiding.  Pursuing Jesus above all things and letting the standard of love be set by him.  Our worship flows and looks just like the worship of Jesus.  Your will Father is my desire.    

 ³⁴ When Jesus realized how insightful he was, he said, “You’re almost there, right on the border of God’s kingdom.”  (MSG Mark 12:34) 

What was missing?  Why was he standing on the boarders of the Kingdom looking in?  What did he miss?   

He missed the Son of God, God's very heart and love, standing before him.   He thought the Kingdom was about thoughts and right thinking and doctrinal statements and bible insights and laws.  He wanted the equation, the plainly spelled out course; a lawyer answer instead of a love answer.  He was looking for a way that required nothing of him. 
He desired to surrender nothing and his question required no surrender.  

This is the pure logic and simple addition of a religious life that satisfies the mind but misses the heart by a mile. 

What he missed was the one The Father sent.  Sent to say, "For God so loved the world he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him will have eternal life."   He looked for something while the very light of the world right before his eyes.  He missed him.  Overlooked him.  He overlooked love.  Because he had religion.  He wanted more religion to fill up this new understanding so he could continue on the same course.  Nothing required of the soul religion.  Nothing demanded beyond what he deemed acceptable and reasonable.  
He wanted God the math equation.  Not God the Son revealed in a cross and a sacrifice of his own blood. 

First love is not acceptable, reasonable, or without the deepest demands imaginable.  
The Son of God charted a path through the darkness that required all of his heart, mind, soul and strength.  All of it submitted in faith to the character and love of the Father, he accomplished the will of God in perfection.  He did it for love.   

Every pathway of The Kingdom of God leads to love and connection with the Father.  In the beginning we were walking with him in the cool of the Garden.  In the end we are dwelling with him in the city lit by his radiance and beauty. 



If we plan to go anywhere in the Kingdom of Jesus we have to start with the heart.   
In order to start moving with God we have to start moving in love.
Love is the doorway.  
The heart says the first words of love.  

Feedback?  Ideas?  

I would love to dialogue with you. 

Share your comments.  

2016  

Transfiguration! 

Look forward, eyes filled with Abundance, Boundless, Victorious vision in Jesus.  

 Get a copy of my Prophetic Review 2016 - Salvation's Mountain Erupting with Open Doors, Shifts and Invitation.   Encouragement, focus, wisdom and insight into the prophetic seasons of the new year.  
www.jeffreynoldsministries.com 

 

Thanks for Reading!   

I love your comments. Ideas and thoughts.
Please share em.
Re-shares are great. thank U.

Here are some other blogs posts that may interest you.   

1.http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2015/01/7-things-enemy-devil-doesnt-want-you-to.html
 

2) http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/04/you-fascinate-me-jesus-so-why-are-you.html

3) http://jeffreynoldsonedesire.blogspot.com/2014/07/never-be-lacking-in-zeal-need-some.html 

The dialogue is awesome.  Thank you. Testimonies?  Share em with me.   

Re-Shares lov em.  Thank you! With much love in Jesus 

You can do this thing!  He's got you. 

Jeff Reynolds   --- 

Brother Jeff

Jeff Reynolds Sr. Leader
Capstone Christian Fellowship
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com
jreynolds@mycapstone.org
 

I Am Endlessly Searching For Something In This Life - Relief From The Stony Dead Heart

I am endlessly searching for something in this life.  

I could only offer ashes

When I was sixteen I realized it was not something I was searching for but someone.   In a Christmas service in Southern California, Jesus spoke my name.  Literally, I heard my name in the crowded room.  When I heard it, waves of understanding crashed into my mind and soul.  My heart, which was dead before this, was kindled.  My heart, lost and confused, heard the sound and came awake. 

The sound, that voice, kept coming and coming.  Coming to me and diving directly down to the raw vulnerable places of my life.  Pouring in to places long closed up and protected; the sound carried an acceptance and love far down inside me.  Nothing in me had the ability to hide.  I didn't want to hide.  I let Him in.  I welcomed the sound and the waves pounded and poured into me.    It was a reverberating sound, shaking and calling, moving things around inside me, my thoughts, heart and soul.  

I knew the dark places the voice touched.  Familiar and forgotten but remembered in a moment.  Maybe here, this place, in these moments is where most relationships end or turn or break under the pressure of truth?   The voice kept coming on, down to the places far beyond what I understood or even recognized.  I felt it.  I welcomed it.  Wanting more, a thirst grew that is now like a dry spot in the center of me.   A barren void was exposed that turned into a hunger and thirst.  It remains with me to this day. 

Like water filling up a bucket of sand and rocks, what went in began filling and swirling into every space.  Sand castles in my soul broke up and exploded.   The water wound in and around everything rose to the rim and overflowed.   I was completely known, naked, seen broken and longed for in love.   Pure light filled me up; my words, my past, the pains hidden away were invaded.   Dead hopes, killed by my own hands, were stirred up in the sound.  Overwhelmed by understanding, hearing language without words, known and embraced, I could never let my life be the same.  I did not completely understand.  But I could tell I was completely understood.  Welcomed.  Desired.  Embraced.     

I was completely known, naked, seen broken and longed for in love.  

It was at this spot in my life that I felt I could only offer ashes.  I had little or nothing to give in return to Jesus.  So I offered my life.  To me it looked like a pile of ashes in my hands.  But he wanted the offering.  To this day I marvel at his desire for me even as broken and torn down as I was.  

Thirty six years later, I understand a person filled up my life.  Jesus welled up in me and has never stopped spilling over all the boarders and boundaries I erected in my short 16 years of the stony dead heart.   A relationship started that night.   I've spent all my days since wandering in the depths of Christ.   

Restoring First Love - a compelling desire to bring sight to stoney hearts. 
My last four years have dwarfed any previous encounters I have ever had with the Lord. Combining all my mystery encounters, experiences, breakthroughs in the word and compelling witness of the Kingdom together, this season eclipses all other days put together.  This is spanning 32 years of pursuing his eyes of fire.   These days are greater in encounters with him and the depths of his love.  Days rich in the Word.  Alive with dreams and prophetic words of encouragement and destiny.  The Spirit is moving in remarkable ways.

My beginning carried pathways, stories and seeds in it. 
So does yours.
I write about first love because the overwhelming reality of my life these days and the entire past combined does not reveal or compare to the understanding and grace that the Lord has poured into me now.  
It is as if I was not even a believer before.  That's the dramatic difference. 

Embarking on a new series
I am going to focus my writing for a season and embrace the pathways of restoring first love.  
My deep hope is you will find your first love filling up the depths of your life and vision and purpose.  More important.  You will connect with Jesus and experience the love he carries on every word he speaks.  

With Love in Jesus,

Brother Jeff

What is he doing in your life?  Share your story, encouragement.  I'd love to partner with you to bring glory to the Lord Jesus.  
jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com 

Here are some blog articles that you may be interested in...

Supernatural / Testimony / Prophetic / Spirit's Work 
1) 2014 What is the Spirit saying?  search in blog search above

2) An Angelic Visitation -   www.jeffreynoldsministries.com 


3)Time for a Healing Story - Distance Healing Testimony - Blog word search above

Some others on Jesus back to the Center.... Use the search feature for key words
1) You Fascinate me Jesus, So why are you considered so irrelevant?
2) No One Can Love You Like I Do


Thank you for reading.  Please comment.  Let the dialogue begin!

 

With Love in HIS awesome CULTURE OF LOVE

Brother Jeff

Jeff Reynolds. Sr. Leader

Capstone Christian Fellowship

jreynolds@mycapstone.org

jeff@jeffreynoldsministries.com

www.jeffreynoldsministries.com