“Have you noticed? The world would love you to take on a war mentality. In the heavenlies, a spirit has been released to bring an awareness of the seasons in a manner that is distorted. Its companion spirit is fear, which causes you to react emotionally. The intent is to distract unknowing, immature believers into focusing on those who act like the enemy, rather than focusing on those who are open to receive Jesus. Sometimes they are one and the same. The false spirit would tell you to hate, to protect your rights, to fight for your comforts. It would show you all the wrongs there are in the world and would have you become so busy attempting to correct them that you have little time for Me and My ways. That spirit loves to get you into fights, especially righteous sounding ones. Don’t fall for the lies.
I tell you to lay down your life for those who hate you. I tell you to return to your first love. I want you to become so enamored with Jesus that you will look past all the wrongs and spiritual illnesses that are before you and focus on the need in each person to receive His love. If you derail the carnal spirit of fear, which leads to hate and war, and do all that you can to turn back to your first love qualities, you will overcome instead of being swallowed up and heading for only dead ends and fruitless battles. Listen to Me, not the lies of the enemy of your soul.”
Revelation 2:2-5 AMP
2I know your industry and activities, laborious toil and trouble, and your patient endurance, and how you cannot tolerate wicked [men] and have tested and critically appraised those who call [themselves] apostles (special messengers of Christ) and yet are not, and have found them to be impostors and liars.
3I know you are enduring patiently and are bearing up for My name’s sake, and you have not fainted or become exhausted or grown weary.
4But I have this [one charge to make] against you: that you have left (abandoned) the love that you had at first [you have deserted Me, your first love].
5Remember then from what heights you have fallen. Repent (change the inner man to meet God’s will) and do the works you did previously [when first you knew the Lord], or else I will visit you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you change your mind and repent.
Do you remember your first focused love for something in your life? It could have been a person, a new car, or anything else that held all your attention. There was nothing more important to you during that time. Everything else was in the way of showering your love upon that person or object.
Remember when you first fell in love with Jesus and were basking in the freedom of absolute forgiveness and total awareness of the reality of God? In focused first love, there is nothing more important than the object of your love. Everything is on the periphery of your thinking. You are consumed with whatever has your affection.
The Father wants us to be that way about Jesus all the time. Not only is Jesus worthy of that kind of unshared devotion, but having Him as our true focus is the safest, most reliable road map for our lives. When we see only Him, we see only the Father and the Holy Spirit, too. That’s wonderfully safe, reliable company to keep. In them lies the Spirit of truth.
The world would have us fall for perceived truth. It would have us look at and react to visible circumstances, rather than to what is real. Reality is what surrounds the Lord. Reality is what is happening in the heavenlies, either allowed or initiated by the Lord. That is what is played out in front of us each day. Our necessary and proper response must be initiated only by having a focused first devotion to the Lord and His ways. That is freedom. That is true victory. It is why we have been born, and then reborn spiritually—so that we could function in that realm with our triune God. It is also pleasing to Him.
Wanting to return to loving only Jesus,
Jim Corbett
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