TSP DAILY DEVOTIONAL
LOVE OF THE SPIRIT
29th June 2020
Dr. Phil Ransom-Bello
KEY SCRIPTURE/MEMORY VERSE: Colossians 1:8(NKJV)
who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.
An elementary observation of Love most believers know is that it is a fruit of the Spirit. In fact, many of us grew up in church singing the song about the fruit of the Spirit from Galatians 5:22-23.
In Colossians 1 verse 6-7, Paul spoke of the love that the believers in the Colossian church had for all of God’s people.
But he didn’t stop there. In verse 8, he mentions something remarkable, he tells us that their love was in the Spirit.
If love was a product of the Colossian believers, he would have thanked the Colossians but he thanked God.
He’s not saying, “I thank you Colossians” which means they are not the ones who generated the love. The love they were expressing was generated by God.
I want you to understand that this love is not the natural, affectionate love you feel for someone, this is born from the Spirit. It’s not what you express to your brother or wife or parent, it is produced by the Spirit.
Hear me, you are always going to encounter resistance when the love is born from the Spirit than when it is born of the flesh. I say this because whatever is born of the Spirit is Spirit and whatever is born of the flesh is flesh(John 3:6).
Let me give you an example. You will need the love of the Spirit to love someone you naturally love because there are sometimes when you may have challenges with them and your natural love can’t go through at that time so the love of the Spirit is what will drive you ahead of where your natural affection for them stops.
That’s why you can’t depend on “Oh I love my brother or sister.” Have you not heard of sibling rivalry? In fact, when it manifests sometimes, it can be so bad that it was better if they were not born of the same mother.
But the love of the Spirit will go beyond, go across natural love.
So this means that whenever you feel that you have love for all the saints and that love is coming because you are happy at that time, that love is not love of the Spirit. If you love a person because they did something you like or you liked how they look, that motivation is a sign that your love is not of the Spirit.
Friends, the love of the Spirit doesn’t have an anchor or need a reason or a condition to be expressed. It’s a fruit, a product of the gospel.
May we be filled with the love of the Spirit. Amen.
REFLECTION
Is the love I express generated by the Spirit or from my natural feelings?
DECLARATION
-I believe in the gospel, therefore the seed of the gospel produces fruit in my life.
-I don’t just know the gospel, I live the gospel. I am transformed by the gospel. The gospel is working through me.
-This gospel produces the genuine markers of authentic believers; of Faith, Love and Hope in me.
-The fruit of the Spirit finds expression in me.
-The love I express is produced by the Spirit, it is generated by God.
-This love of the Spirit superimposes and goes above and beyond my natural affection for people. Always.
-I am filled with the love of the Spirit.
-As I express the love of the Spirit, I bear the fruit of the gospel.
Hallelujah!
HEARING BY THE WORD
(Recommended Listening)
Listen to Fruits of the Gospel 3>> Dr. Phil by The StandPoint Church on #SoundCloud
