Loving Out Loud

Some people think the greatest struggles for Christians is escaping the temptations of the devil or overcoming persecution. Although realities for all Christians, it’s not the greatest of our struggles. Our greatest struggle is allowing our great big God to display Himself through us. 

This struggle stands strong simply because we allow too much of our former life—our old way of thinking, feeling, and behaving—to remain active and alive even though the nature of God lives within us. We have a duality of life warring against each other—our spirit life which is governed by the Spirit of God, and our soulish, carnal life, which is ruled by our flesh and, very often, the devil. 

Galatians 5:16 says, “ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want.”

The revelation of God living in us is an important one to grasp. 

It positions us to change our world, because it affects how we live. When we live conscious of God and His presence within, we are exposed to the depth of His character and His vast, great love; it becomes apparent that although He resides in us, He’s too big to be contained or hidden. 

We can’t hide God! If we walk with Him, eventually who He is will flow out from within us.   

There’s a word in the English language many are not acquainted with, wafting, which means, “to carry lightly and smoothly through the air or over water.” When we walk with God, He releases Himself through us and over circumstances in people’s lives. God longs to be released. Someone’s life depends on it. Someone’s family depends on it. Someone’s deliverance depends on it.

We can’t hide God! If we walk with Him, eventually who He is will flow out from within us...God wants to love people through us. He’s looking for those who will “Love Out Loud”. 

Within the human spirit of every believer is the life and nature of God through the person of Jesus Christ. According to 2 Peter 1:4, we have His divine nature and with that nature comes His supernatural attributes and abilities. What we do with them and how we give place to them is entirely up to us. “Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires” (2 Peter 1:4).

It’s up to us to determine how much of God’s divine nature the people around us will experience. It’s not solely up to God. He won’t sidestep working through us to reveal who He is or who He longs to be to mankind. A divine pathway that depends on both God and man was created to reach people; when one is missing, our impact goes out the window. From the very beginning, God had a plan to work through us to bless the world!

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground’” (Gen. 1:27-28). 

In essence, God told Adam, “you have dominion and authority . . . make a move, and I’ll back you up.” The world needs both, God and someone He can live through. In light of this, it becomes easy to understand where there is turmoil, strife, and division in a family, city, or nation, the root cause is God’s inability to make Himself known. It’s possible to be in a community full of Christians and not experience the life of God within that community. It’s possible for the hurting to be among the healed, but the pain of brokenness remain.

God wants to love people through you. He wants His divine nature pouring out of every believer, understanding that His divine nature is love. He’s looking for those who will “Love Out Loud”.