His Heart, My Home

I’m still here… awestruck… my heart being continually filled and flooded, day-after-day, week-after-week, with the unending flow of the Father’s amazing love.

I pray that you’ll join me and invite others to come along as we all go higher, further, and deeper into His unending love.

Romans 5:5 from The Passion Translation says: “We can now experience the endless love of God cascading into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.”

This scripture is probably a familiar one to all of us. The New King James Version of this verse simply states that God’s love is “poured” into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

For many years I envisioned the Holy Spirit pouring out a liquid-gold-like substance, called “love” into my heart. This substance, (if I could just get enough of it) would help me love all those around me, even enabling me to love my enemies.

Then one day I remembered the scripture that says, GOD IS LOVE! It dawned on me. The Holy Spirit is God. He came to live in me the moment I was born again. He is not pouring out some magical golden liquid called love in me…

HE IS LOVE, AND HE LIVES IN ME!

I AM FILLED WITH LOVE, BECAUSE I AM FILLED WITH GOD!

THE “LOVER”, LOVE HIMSELF, LIVES IN ME!

Jesus likened Holy Spirit to rivers of ever- flowing “living water.” He is the source of God’s life and God’s love in us.

³⁷ “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. ³⁸ He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ ³⁹ But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.”  (John 7:37-39)

Every river has a source, and as it flows from that source, it brings change, wearing away everything in its path, even the hardest rocks. Along the way, it sustains all life that depends upon it. Its very movement prevents pollution and stagnation, and insures freshness and purity continually.

Holy Spirit… Rivers of living water…

Selah. (Pause and calmly think of that)

The Mississippi River is 2,340 miles long.
Its watershed covers 32 states and two provinces in Canada. It is 200 feet deep near New Orleans, and discharges over 593,000 cubic feet of water per second at its mouth, equivalent to the water volume of six Niagara Falls!

Amazingly, the source of this mighty river is a small stream of water in Minnesota called Nicollet Creek. This creek is only about a foot deep, and so narrow it can be waded across!

What’s my point? Just this… one “ordinary day”, an inner thirst for God’s love urges us to drink of Him. We call on the name of Jesus in faith, and we are saved. Holy Spirit enters our heart, and whispers in His still, small voice, “The Father really does love you!”

It begins. Just a tiny trickle of faith, then a flowing stream of love, that lengthens, widens, deepens, as it eventually becomes an uncontainable flood! Not a singular river, but RIVERS of living water, an infinite ocean of God’s love! All from Holy Spirit, the One who is the Headwater-Source of Life and Love!

God’s love, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, was never meant to be contained. It springs up within us, and should then flow through us!

So, what happens if there is no outlet for these rivers of living water? We don’t have to guess. God has given us a real-life lesson from a very famous river in Israel, the Jordan.

The source of the Jordan River is in the snow-capped mountain peaks of Lebanon. Amazingly, the name Lebanon is derived from the Hebrew word for heart (lebab). So we can say that our “heart” is the starting point, where the life-giving river of God’s love first springs up.

From there, the Jordan flows southward into two different bodies of water. But this one river produces two radically different outcomes.

The Jordan River flows INTO the Sea of Galilee on its northern side, THROUGH this body of water, then exits the Sea of Galilee on its south side.

The Sea of Galilee, and the entire surrounding countryside, are teeming with life because of the fresh waters of the Jordan circulating through it. The name Galilee actually comes from the Hebrew word “galil” which means “circle, or circulate.”

But as the river continues southward, it eventually flows into another body of water, one which is over 1,400 feet below sea level, the lowest place on planet Earth. The water there is ten times saltier than the oceans. There is no outflow from this toxic reservoir. Water only leaves by evaporation. No life exists in this body of water, so we call it the Dead Sea.

The spiritual application from this analogy of the two seas is evident:

Holy Spirit pours God’s love INTO us, but our spiritual lives will only flourish when we allow His love to also flow THROUGH us!

I’m not really into secular music, but these lyrics from “Love Isn’t Love (’til You Give It Away) by Reba McEntire hit the nail on the head:

“You might think love is a treasure to keep
A feeling to cherish and hold
But love is a treasure for people to share
You keep it by letting it go”

“Love isn’t love till you give it away
Love isn’t love till it’s free
The love in your heart
Wasn’t put there to stay
No love isn’t love till you give it away”

God’s love is meant to be RELEASED, to flow from our lives:

● First and most importantly, back to Him, through prayer, praise, and worship

● Then, to ourselves, as we learn to see ourselves and love ourselves as God sees and loves us.

● Finally, love overflowing through us to others.

This love-flow is beautifully and simply outlined in Matthew 22:37-39.

It’s when we allow Holy Spirit to complete this eternal circle of love that we find the fulfillment His ever-flowing, ever-growing love brings… the peace that passes all understanding, and joy unspeakable, our lives full of His glory!

We’ll conclude this teaching with this encouraging thought. God doesn’t just throw us into the deep waters of His love to “sink or swim”.

Holy Spirit will be our Instructor, patiently teaching us how to swim in the rivers of God’s marvelous love.

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In our next posting, we will explore three powerful ways Holy Spirit directs our hearts into the love of God and increases the flow of God’s love into and through us! We hope to see you then!

Were you blessed by this teaching? If so, please let us know by “liking”, or by posting a comment  below.

Also, please share it with others. Let’s all dive even deeper into God’s love-ocean!

Joyfully swimming in His love!

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