The Holy Spirit of Love

I've been writing the last month or so on the Holy Spirit, and how he works to draw us to God and to help us understand the mind of God.  Today we're looking at how the Holy Spirit creates God's love in us.


It is the heart of God himself, who has loved us since before the creation (Eph. 1:3-8), that gives us life.  God pulls us closer to himself through the Holy Spirit: "For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love" (Rom. 5:5).  God's love in us lets us live in confidence, not in fear. Jesus guarantees us, in the Sermon on the Mount, that the Father will take care of us:  “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?' These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs" (Mat. 6:31-32).  John the Apostle said it more flatly in his first epistle:  "Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love" (1 John 4:18).

When we understand the Father's love more deeply, we will respond to others with that same love:  "Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God...But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us" (1 John 4:7, 12).  It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the love of God (Romans 5:5) and reminds us what our Father wants us to know (John 14:26).  So this morning, when I was thinking of writing something sarcastic in this column, it was the Holy Spirit who reminded me that wouldn't be loving, even though it felt like fun at the time. 

So the question is, are we properly hearing and following that loving voice of the Holy Spirit?  Typically, one of two things gets in the way:  distraction, or our own selfish desires being stronger at the moment.  I've been writing  lately about how we can reduce distractions to listen better, and learn to surrender more.  When we do, we will be able to think, speak and act in that God's love, and we will find our relationships work a lot better.  How's that working for you?