Build the Foundation of Your Spiritual Life with Love

Purpose of Creation of Mankind

Our God is a God of love (1 John 4:16).

He created the whole universe with His wisdom and power. He spoke and everything began to be created by the words of His mouth. He did not have to study engineering before creating the universe. But when he created mankind, he created out of pure love. He deeply desired to share his love with another being.

Therefore, he created mankind in his own image and in his own likeness (Gen. 1:26-27). This he did so that he could pour out his complete love. To other existing created beings, he could not pour out his complete love as they were not created in his image or his likeness. He could not show his merciful love to the existing created beings. That is why when Lucifer rebelled against the Lord in heaven, he was casted out and there was no scope for repentance and forgiveness. Rather there is waiting for the devil’s judgement which is going to come in future.

When it is the matter of pure love, it has to be with accepting the faults of the one who is being loved. Therefore, when God created mankind, he also decided that he will accept mankind even if they fall into sin. But since God is also a just and holy God, he needs to see that mankind is delivered of the sin (fault) before he accepts them again. For this, God kept blood to be the propitiation for sin of mankind. This is written in the scripture as: “All things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission”. Hebrews 9:22

Through this God was able to show his pure love to mankind by making a way for forgiveness of sin and bringing restoration. God, in the same way, expects mankind to show the same love towards their fellow being. When God made man in his image and likeness he gave the same love in his heart. Image of God is reflected in mankind when they also begin to love their fellow being with pure love like God. Rather, we can say that God made mankind so that mankind could show the same pure love as he has for mankind. If a man does not carry the pure love in his heart, he defeats the purpose for which he was created spiritual awareness.

Focus of Mankind

When Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden, in a way he said that he was going to build and lead his life as he wanted it to be. Through sinning he decided to live apart from God. That means he decided to live a life without pure love. We can understand this by the way Cain killed his own brother Abel with no remorse. Rather, Cain only pleaded to God for reduction of his punishment instead of seeking forgiveness for his sin.

As the population increased on earth, the devil continued to plague the minds of humans with all sorts of vain thoughts. “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis 6:5

“God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” Genesis 6:5

Seeing this God repented that he had made mankind and subsequently destroyed mankind with flood excepting the family of Noah, who was a righteous man.

Man apart from God loves to invent things to make his life better and better. Since the Adam sinned and up until now the labour of mankind is for his stomach and for leading a luxurious life. The book Ecclesiastes deals with the vanity of all the labour of mankind on this earth. None of the inventions of mankind has been able to save his life. All the government of the countries of the world promises to their countrymen, is a better life with availability of all kinds of resources. But none of them is able to promise the saving of their life from sin and death.

Focus of mankind after falling into sin is only to make life better and better on this earth. No one wants to think or plan for the life after death. The major areas on which mankind is focusing are:

· Work more and earn more

· Finish all the work on time

· Make plans to grow in position, influence, wealth and do accordingly

· Accumulate wealth and become powerful

· Be able to control more and more people

· Invent more, sell more and buy more

· Continuously build bigger or more powerful things

· Continuously move faster and faster from one place to another

· Create wonders that will defy the creation of God

· Live longer on this earth

Through all this mankind has become the slave of his own inventions. He is not able to lift up his head and look to God. But he seeks continuously the means and resources of this earth to get his work done. Even if some do seek God, it may be to get his work done on this earth and then forget Him.

“There is none that understanding, there is none that seeketh after God”

Romans 3:11

But those who seek God alone with all their heart will be surely found by them.

“But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul” Deuteronomy 4:29

Take a step of faith

Man was not created so that he could build great things and boast of his inventions. Rather man was created by God so that he could love like God. Creating and buildings things was to be left to God. In this area, man was to just use the God given powerful faith by which he could just command for things to be created and God’s power would have done so. However, man devoid of the faith of God took it upon himself to build and create things for his own convenience.

Living without the power of God (which actually works through faith) is rebellion against God. Achieving things by the power of the flesh is of no significance in the sight of God.

For instance, if we take the inventions mankind has made in the area of traveling from one place to another, from bicycles to cars and then from aeroplanes to rockets man has invented lots of means for fast traveling. However, if mankind had not fallen into sin, they could have traveled much faster in the spirit from one place to another. Under that circumstance, there would have been no requirement for invention of bicycles, cars, aeroplanes or rockets. The means and resources available in the realm of the spirit are of much higher value than the means and resources available in the physical realm. Besides, whatever man is building or creating now, are from the means and resources that God had created in the beginning including the intellect that is God given. Therefore, man has nothing to boast about.

Instead, man must submit to the authority of God. If God told man to leave everything else (including seeking to invent things) and seek God, then man must agree and obey. If God asks him to leave off hatred, simulation, variance, rebellion, anger and love his neighbor as himself, then man must agree and obey. Disobedience of mankind in these areas has proved to be disastrous.

Now the focus of mankind needs to shift to the original plan for which he was created. Every action of mankind should focus on reflecting the love of God that he has in his heart. Man needs to become love oriented and give up being work and time (achievement) oriented.

Spiritual Life – Love is the Foundation

Many believers come to me for prayers that they may be able to have spiritual growth. But they do not understand what it means. Most of them associate spiritual growth to the operation of the gifts of the spirit. In most of the churches, the 1st priority is to get the new believer baptized in water after receiving Christ as his/her personal savior, then help the new believer to get baptized in the spirit so that he/she begins to speak in tongues. Thereafter, the new believer is advised to seek the gifts of the spirit. The more a person is found to operate in the gifts of the spirit, the more he/she is considered to have attained spiritual growth.

This will certainly lead to a pitfall if the foundation is not built on right concept of the Word of God. As per Mathew 7:24-27 and Luke 6:47-49, Jesus declared that a house built upon sand cannot withstand the rain and the flood and the wind. But a house built upon a rock can only withstand all kinds of attacks and pressures. Here, the rock means the correct foundation of the Word of God upon which all the believers are supposed to build their spiritual life.

God is love and he created mankind out of his pure love. He has been pouring out his love upon mankind right from the beginning of the creation of the world. As per John 3:16, Jesus was sent by the Father to this earth to die for mankind because of His unfailing love. Now the great expectation of our heavenly Father is that we get back to the original shape in our spiritual life where we will be totally considered an object of love. The more Jesus was ill treated, the more of his love He manifested to mankind. Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. (Romans 5:20) If we look at the greatest commandment which Jesus gave, it is a commandment to love (Mathew 22:37-40).

Jesus also said that the whole Bible is based on this commandment. This is the reason why the Lord God created us: so that we could love one another and prove that we really love God. On considering deeply the reason for every sin we see that it is either a lack of love towards God or towards our neighbor. All the 10 commandments fall under the category of either loving God or loving our neighbor.

Therefore, if I do not build my spiritual life on the foundation of love, I am building my spiritual life on sand and it cannot withstand the pressures of life. If I build my spiritual life on the foundation of the love of God, I am building my spiritual life on a solid rock which cannot be moved by any onslaught of the enemy. Once we have built the foundation of our spiritual life on the love of God, we can continue to build all other spiritual aspects that the Word of God teaches and we shall never fall.

Therefore, the first teaching a new believer should be given is, the teaching on the love of God and how it should be established in his/her life as a foundation.