His Intense Love

No one, absolutely no one, loves me like Jesus does!  The Word says that "in order to satisfy the GREAT and WONDERFUL and INTENSE love" that He has for us, He made us alive with Him even when we were spiritually dead due to sin, and He raised us up and seated us with Himself at the right hand of the Father in heaven!  Come on now, doesn't that make you want to shout, "THANK YOU!"

I have failed Him in so many ways, yet He thinks I'm awesome.  He doesn't always like what I do nor is He always pleased with me, but He LOVES me!  This love, His love, impels me to follow after Him with such intense devotion and passion that I don't want to displease Him or grieve Him.  I don't want the connection between Him and me to be disrupted or muted.  I can't live without Him!

In Zephaniah there is a passage that is very dear to my heart.  It explains His love for me in a wonderful way.  A few years back I studied this out, and as I studied the Hebrew words that make up this passage, the Lord gave me a visual of what He is doing over me.  The verse is Zephaniah 3:17.  If you don't know it, take a look at it! It's awesome in more ways than one, but I want to get this visual across to you as much as I can.  I'm looking at the last sentence in the verse, and in the Amplified it reads, "He will exult over you with singing."  The 2 words that stand out are "exult" and "singing."  The Hebrew word that was translated exult means to spin around under a violent emotion, and the word that was translated singing means a creaking or shrill sound such as a shout.  Now get this, God is spinning around violently hooping and hollering over you because He loves you and thinks your awesome!  Can you see it?  Close your eyes.  God has His arms stretched as far as they will go (and I'm thinking that's pretty far), spinning around so fast that He could get dizzy, and shouting at the top of His lungs.

Now, this is the intense kind of love that He has for you.  This love is so intense that He had to do something to show you how intense it really is.  So, He came to earth as a Man, Jesus, and lived for 33 years.  He suffered physical pains and emotional pains, beaten and ridiculed.  He bled and died although innocent and free from sin.  BUT, He didn't stop there.  He conquered death and the grave and came back to life.  He's seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us so that we can walk in His power.  BUT, He didn't stop there.  Remember what I said at the beginning - He raised us up spiritually so that we are seated in the heavenly sphere with Him.  We are not yet there physically, but spiritually we are!  He sent the Holy Spirit.  We get to commune with the Holy Spirit daily, walking with Him and letting Him guide us and use us.  The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth and points us to the Glory of God in Jesus!  As we walk and live in the Spirit, we do not gratify our sinful nature, and we live Victoriously!  BUT, He didn't stop there.  He is coming back for a Bride who has prepared herself and made herself ready for Him - the victorious church!

He loves us so much that He is coming back!  We will reign with Him forever!  Now, that's LOVE!

Scriptures for reference and study: Ephesians 2:4-6; 2 Corinthians 5:14; Zephaniah 3:17; John 19-21; Romans 8:34; John 14:16-17, 26; John 15:26; Galatians 5:16; 2 Peter 3:12-14 Revelation 19:7