Guest Author - Julie Smith

When you ask to receive God's heart, do you think He will automatically give it to you or will He offer situations to display it? It's in our everyday circumstances that we will receive God's heart as we display it toward others He puts in our paths. Every day is an opportunity to walk with the heart of God which has been freely given to us to give to others. Every day God gives us opportunities for love. It's not just about giving; it's also about receiving the love God wants to bring into our lives. Even when we miss the open doors of opportunity for love, God will always give us many more opportunities to give and receive the love He so desires to give. His love being poured out is His top priority! God's love being poured out through those He loves is our greatest destiny.

Those who talk the love message will be given many opportunities to walk the love message in our lives. This is the year that our lives will match our message. This is the year God is going to absolutely ruin us by His love! In walking through opportunities given to display God's love, we will always see that He is merciful, full of grace, and His long suffering has no end. No matter what the circumstances are, His compassion will always be poured out in demonstrations of love.

Demonstrations of Love

"Give a love offering!" We hear this term all the time. But the greatest love offering you can give is yourself. And yes, you will be. The Holy Spirit in us is faithful to give those gentle promptings and nudges when He is leading us to a divine encounter with someone. This year, He's going to increase the promptings of love that will pour out of you, yes, you! You won't be able to walk by someone and ignore the promptings of God, because it's going to just pour out as you pass by. I frequently ponder the story in Acts 5 of Peter's shadow healing the sick as he passed by. I truly believe the presence of "Love" walked with him and healed people as he passed by. The Presence of God's love permeating out of Peter was a demonstration of the power of God's love.

Romans 5:5-8, " …the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

The Love of God has "already been" poured out within our hearts because the Holy Spirit Himself dwells within. When Christ died for us, it was the utmost "demonstration" of God's love toward us so that we could also be the utmost "demonstration" of Love to all men, godly or not. Love comes with no conditions and no guarantee it will be reciprocated. Love is the most vulnerable place we can walk because you cannot control nor contain it. God could not control nor contain His love when He gave us the most vulnerable place of His heart: Jesus!

Happy People Inspire Love

Love inspires people. Love is what drives us to pursue our passions. When you function out of a heart filled with love, you are at the peak of who you were created to be. Your performance will be at its best and everyone around you will take notice. For example, have you ever watched a musician play an instrument like the piano or guitar and see them completely lost in the performance? I become captivated with the expression on their face, watching them consumed in the passion of playing as if no one else is in the room. It looks so natural and easy for them to play. It's no longer what the musician is playing that draws my attention, but the passion in the performance put on display.

The NASV Bible calls the section in Joel 2:28-29 "The Promise of the Spirit":

"It will come about after this that I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; and your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on the male and female servants I will pour out My Spirit in those days."

We are truly living in the days of the many "promises" of God being poured out through passionate performers. I believe as God pours out His love in the places we are positioned, we truly will "bring happiness" to those surrounding us, infecting others to spread and be inspired by the love of God.

Who doesn't like hanging around happy people? Think about it. Everyone loves being around people who are happy and full of kindness. Happy people are like a "magnet" pulling us toward their "positive" electromagnetic field. Happy people inspire love. In a moment, they can lift up your spirit. Have you ever been instantly affected by a complete stranger walking by you as they smile and simply say, "Hi!"? It gives us an instant lift! A smile, a hug, a kind look or kind word can make someone's day. The greatest love will not just be in the grandiose of glory being poured out. I believe the smallest acts of kindness can be our greatest and most effective daily marketplace ministry.

Ruined by Love

Recently I watched a heart-gripping news story of a single mother in Thailand who didn't have enough food to feed her children. This single woman lives in a hut built on stilts with her small children. Each day would begin with her digging for small clam shells to sell. She would fill her bucket with shells and walk through the local community, selling her shells door to door. She was barely making one dollar a day to try and feed her children, but it wasn't enough. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to sell enough walking by foot with her bucket of shells--she needed transportation. Then a Christian organization heard of her plight, and offered to buy her a bicycle that could transport her and her products to sell. She was then able to carry and sell more shells and now had the transportation needed. Her daily revenue went from one dollar to about five dollars, enough to feed her children!

As her story was being portrayed, I felt my heart break and I was completely undone. I knew it was the Lord giving insight of how we will be ruined by love. Sure we hear heart-wrenching stories of the poor and needy portrayed much of the time, but this wasn't just compassion and empathy for the needy I was feeling. This was absolutely breaking my heart.

The definition of ruin is: the downfall or "undoing" of a person; a person as the wreck of his or her "former self." When God shares His heart and what moves Him, we will be absolutely undone, causing the downfall of our former selves which seeks its own rights and ways. Love will wreck us! "Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking" (1 Corinthians 13:5).

The love of God in us can no longer be contained. God Himself is requiring the heart of Heaven to respond to the earth. When God's love ruins us, it will display extraordinary acts of compassion and giving. We will be moved with the passion and heart of God. We will be ruined by what ruins God's heart--what moves and breaks His heart. We will be walking inside the heart of God, responding with the heartbeat of Heaven, moving as He moves on us.

The Destiny and Language of Lovers

God is speaking a new language and it's a language of lovers. It's not just about hearing His voice; it's about knowing Him! Lovers communicate through heart responses when their hearts become intertwined as one. God spoke the language of love through Jesus and Jesus reciprocated His love by doing what He only saw His Father doing. As you become one with your Lover, you will be communicating through a love language spoken only from the heart. You will be beating at the same heart beat as your Lover and pouring out His heart to others. Only intimate lovers know how to give and receive it. Jesus reciprocated the greatest love language of the Father when He gave up His life to be with us.

God will begin speaking to your heart in new ways you have never heard of. He is preparing us to be lovers demonstrating the heart of the Father in every place and position unto the ends of the earth. This is the year many of our wildest dreams will be known, displayed, and come to pass. This is the year of destinies being poured out through powerful displays of lovers. And what is our greatest destiny? The greatest destiny of a man is the destiny of a lover.


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