The basis of every blog that we have written has been building on the reality that Love is what it’s all about. “Not our Love for Him but His Love for us.”(1 John 4:10) When the belief that God’s love for us isn’t based or restricted by our love for Him the freedom Jesus purchased for each of us begins to manifest in our life. “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.”(John 3:16-17) 

The amount of love that our hearts take in is a direct result of how we see ourselves. Do we believe we are worthy of God’s love, favor, and kindness? Every decision that we make in our life is filtered through the condition of our heart. If our heart is full of fear, we filter everything through fear and the result is crippling. All struggles from finances to illness stem from fear, but prosperity and divine health comes from being flooded by God’s unwavering, unconditional, unlimited Love that He has for each and everyone of us. 

Since the Garden of Eden, which means pleasure,  the enemy has been parading around telling mankind that you need to do this thing to be more like God, or that thing to have God’s favor. These incorrect teachings have caused His children to be filled with fear and be controlled by created lists of things we need to do or not do. The Gospel of Jesus comes from Love not fear! Religion is about what we need to do, but the Gospel is about what Jesus did! Hallelujah! “We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.” (Romans 3:22) This is the too good to be true news that defies the world, infuriates the self righteous, and pisses off the enemy. Just the belief that we are right with God, no matter what we have done is His life giving love that causes fear to leave. 

Religion stems from fear, not God and its root comes from sin conscious teaching. Relationship was created out of Love and being Son conscious. Believe it or not, Adam was created to be in relationship with God, and Jesus died on the cross to bring us back into relationship with God and into pure fearless pleasure. The sad thing is people believe that religion, (laws that produce good behavior) will manifest relationship, however the reality is that working to be good enough produces frustration and feeds on the tree of death. “The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy, but Jesus’s purpose is to give life and life more abundantly” (John 10:10) The idea that we are unworthy to be sons until heaven, is not true. The moment we believe, we are in sonship with our Father and perfect love, favor and kindness is our reward. The message that we need to get good to get right with God comes from a misunderstanding of the Covenant we live in and is preached from the idea that we need to quiver when we hear the Lord because judgement about what we have done or not done is surely coming. The only judgement we ever have is whether we believe in Jesus or not. 

Reading this now should actually reveal to you where your heart is. Are we centered in His love? Or are we controlled by fear? Identifying whether we are centered in fear or love is our path out of darkness into His wonderful light. “Whom the Son sets free is free indeed (John 8:36) is the most beautiful experience. It’s interchangeable, the more we receive His love the more free we become, the more free we become, the more love we receive!

Many times we add things that make us feel like we have skin in the game. Here is an example: “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”(1 John 4:18) This scripture is the essence of what relationship is all about. For some, when this manifests, it will be the most joyful experience, however for others the words “yeah but” will follow and all of a sudden a list of things that need to be done will manifest.  Instead of  resting your way into deeper relationship, you will begin working harder to try to please God enough to hopefully receive His perfect love. Sadly there is no assurance in that train of thought and the key to freedom gets blocked by a fear based approach. Working to please God only keeps us from His rest and the gift he gave us in Christ. John’s epistle reminds us that fear involves torment. 

“Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it springs the issues of life.”(Proverbs 4:23) Are we keeping our hearts guarded in the Love that Christ has given us? We guard our hearts with the truth of who we are in Jesus! The more we rest in these truths of the Gospel: In Christ we are perfect. (Hebrews 10:14) Nothing I could ever do or not do, will ever separate me from the Love of the Lord. (Romans 8:38-39) ALL my sins (past, present and future) will be remembered no more. (Hebrews 8:12) As He is in this world so am I. (1 John 4:17) The Holy Spirit was given to us so that our hearts are now linked permanently with God the Father and Jesus the Son. Hallelujah! We can never do ANYTHING to get closer or farther away from God because we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and he will never leave us. (John 14:16)

This prophecy in Ezekiel 36:26 says,  “A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Thanks to Jesus and the Covenant with the Father we have all been given a new heart and a new spirit. God didn’t just stitch up our stony hearts and allow scar tissue to grow over it. We all know scar tissue hardens. He loves us so much He gives us a new heart, coupled with a new spirit. The identity of God’s children has been restored back to the garden so that we can eat of the Tree of Life. We guard our hearts by feeding off of Jesus, His life is our life. The more we take nourishment  from that, the more the boundaries of our lives grow. Fear gets pushed out and we naturally trust that every time our heart beats it is really His heart beating in us.  That is real love, not that we loved Him, but that He first loved us! All assurance comes from that revelation manifesting in our hearts. We choose what we do with our new hearts. We can feed off what religion teaches, which produces death, or we step into the river and possess the promised land God wants to freely give all that believe. 
We are not waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the kingdom to be restored. We already posses the gift of Love that Christ gave us when he purchased it on the cross.  We walk joyfully and  without shame right into His kingdom here and now. No church, fellowship, ministry or doctrine will get you from where you are right now to Love. Knowing that God adores you, that you are the apple of His eye and that He is alive and well in you is enough. That kind of intimacy comes from communing with Him the way He intended it for Adam all along. His Love was nailed to the cross and pierced for our transgressions. His Love was tempted in the wilderness, His Love ran red so that we can run free right back into His garden!

Prayer:

Heavenly Father thank you for no greater Love, thank you for Jesus and His resurrection life so we can be back in the garden feeding off of your Life. Thank you that from this moment everyone who reads this can receive their new identity and posses the promise land. Thank you Lord that relationship with you is so interchangeable that we don’t even know if we are in the garden or if the garden is in us. Let us rest in you Lord and let us rest in your Love. Thank you that your perfect Love casts out all fear! We no longer have to perform works so that we will be rewarded. Let us think on Jesus and embrace filtering our life through the Love you have given us. You are mighty Lord and we praise you that Jesus paid it all so that we can be fully connected with you. 

Thank you Jesus! Amen Amen Amen

Blessings in the Name of Jesus- Kurt & Katy Adkins