Worthy of Affection

Favor and greetings to you, the dear Beloved Family!

I was SO BLESSED by what Pastor Bob and Pastor Craig ministered to y’all and it humbled me to know that we have, literally, some of the best peeps in the whole world as part of our culture here. I pray you know this and that it impacts the ears of your heart to listen and be impacted as well.

I experienced a very humbling revelation in my heart this week while travelling and, in all transparency, I desire to share some of that journey with y’all so you can benefit from it as well.

2 Timothy 3:1, 4
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come… Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God

I know that many people are in either a direct or peripheral state of shock based upon the current, infinite amount of ignorance and darkness that has encroached on our friends and neighbors. I pray that you are aware and awake enough to recognize the biblical reality playing out clearly before our eyes. It is such an honor and a joy to have been chosen by our Good, Good Father to be alive for, “such a time as this.” THE Great Awakening before us is a culmination of the prayers of the saints who have gone before, the work of the people of God today, and the fulfillment of the prophetic declarations started through the Finished Work of the Cross. My exhortation to you is to love.

I was just caught the other day in a trap set for my soul by the enemy. As many of you know, I try to keep my ear to the ground about what is happening in society, and that can be a potentially dangerous thing. The scriptures say, “but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil,” (Rom 16:19b). So, anytime you are trying to understand the evil, you are in a tenuous place. The original sin of mankind, and still a subtle sin today, is eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What ensnared me was getting my soul, my emotions, caught up in the knowledge of the deep wickedness happening in our nation and world. I allowed myself to be impacted by the evil instead of just viewing it from above like my Father.

Gen 1:3-4
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

In the beginning, when God created light, the scriptures say that God saw the light and that it was good. In other words, He did not look at the darkness… He choose to focus on the light. In the above verse, the ones caught by the snares of the enemy in the “perilous times” are those that have their affections misplaced. In the statement, “lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God,” I just always assumed that the word for, “love,” there was, “agape,” which is the God-Kind-of-Love. That is the John 3:16 love of our perfect God. Agape is the divine type of love that we are to have according to the Great Commandment of love from our Master and Lord. BUT… that is not the word used here. What the Holy Spirit showed here is that the ones who are lost in the end times are operating in misdirected love, but specifically a soul based love. The word here is “philotheos” and the definition is: “from phílos – a friend; someone dearly loved (prized) in a personal, intimate way; a trusted confidant, held dear in a close bond of personal affection.” Note: The root (phil-) conveys experiential, personal affection – indicating “phílos” expresses experience-based love. This is a bit radical (and currently relative) when you think about it. How many folks spend their day, week, and life pursuing after comfort, security, fun, emotional affection, faux friendships, personal pleasure, and just plain avoidance to anything or anyone that disrupts our personal plans for self-centered focus. Beloved, today, let the affections of your soul and your closest possible friend… JESUS… be where all of your love goes. Let Him bring to you the pleasures of your life and be the complete satisfaction for your soul.

What happened to me was I found (or rather it was revealed to me) that I was being negatively impacted emotionally by the wickedness around us. Even to the point that I would internally rejoice when I heard that one of the many evil minions of the plethora of tyrants surrounding us was experiencing the pain or destruction from their wicked ways. There is a delicate balance here that I realized I was not stewarding well. We should never desire for anyone to experience destruction, just their anti-Christ endeavors. I know better than to combine a person’s value directly to their actions… but I still got wrapped up in it. A person can lie, but not BE a liar. A person can sin, but not BE a sinner. A person can fail (Steve), but not BE a failure. We are to judge fruit, and call it truthfully as it is, but that does not give us permission to damn the, “tree.” We are called to bless and not curse… like our Father who sends rain on the just and the unjust.

A form of friendship with the world, that we are called to NEVER have, is allowing our affections to be drawn or dictated by it’s ways.

James 4:4b
Know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

Authenticity is a cry of our culture. To be a friend to Jesus, and to passionately seek His Kingdom, is to have all of our affections specifically and singularly focused on Him. We can know the situations, circumstances and even evils of our present times… but not have our affections attached to them. Both in the good affections and the bad. The, “philos,” love we are to have for Jesus means our experiential lives are to be only drawn to and from Him. Our souls should be singularly and fervently focused on our Great Friend Who is the Lover of our soul!

Song 3:1-4
“By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth… in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth… Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?… but I found him whom my soul loveth: I held him, and would not let him go, until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her that conceived me.”

Beloved family, let us all be good protectors and guardians of our hearts and souls. Let us place all of our affection… all of our experiential love… all of our desire on Him and Him alone. He is worthy of it all. Jesus is the only thing that really matters.

I hope you are blessed and impacted by my personal process of repentance before you.

I love y’all greatly and genuinely!
Steve