Love Is Not

Why is it so hard for women especially to find their gifts? Why is it so difficult for women to step into their calling and into their greatness even Christian women? I don’t have all the answers, but what God is slowly revealing to me is that we’ve allowed the enemy to overshadow God’s grace. I think the biggest deception is when we start arguing about my new sources of Biblical details and translations and hierarchy and rules and regulations yet Jesus’s main theme of Love goes unaddressed. The Bible says in 1st Corinthians 13 what good is anything if love is not attached to it? So let’s get a little more granular.

1st Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 1 in the New American Standard Bible reads

if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so ask to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 

Verse 3

and if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.

Currently, in our world, everything is becoming extremely polarized with heated conversations debated because there is a lack of love. So recently I have been working with a woman on helping her craft her story. And her story is very similar to many women’s stories who suffer abuse at a very young age. The trauma warps their brain around what’s right and what’s wrong. Often, because their words fell on deaf ears when they tried to make known what was happening, they begin to perform. And while her story is not my own in detail I’m learning more and more that this thing called shame rips us and chokes us of our goodness, our talents, and our rightful place in the Kingdom of god.

So the Bible mentions what love is in First Corinthians 13: 4 through 8 but because I come from a deficit mindset I got to start with what love is not. So let’s look at a different translation and see if we can make any more sense of what love is not. 1st Corinthians Chapter 13 verse 1 in the amplified version reads,

if I can speak in the tongues of men and even of angels but have not love ( that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotions such as is inspired by God's love for and in US ) I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 

Honestly, I’ve always been biased toward the amplified version because there’s so much meat and just that one verse to pick apart.

That reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion is inspired by God’s love for us. My understanding of this scripture is that regardless of my speech, whether I speak in tongues, whether I speak multiple languages, whether my vernacular is professional or if it is street whether it is for the board room or for the playground. It matters not what my reason for speaking, my intention for speaking, and my devotion spiritually is if it’s not inspired by God’s love for me. If I am not convinced that Jesus Christ died, was crucified, buried, and rose on the third day to bring victory over death to defeat the darkness of this world, and that he did it because he loved me, then everything that I do will be out of hate. And I don’t say hate as the 21st-century idea of what hate is, but the Biblical principle that hate means to love less than. We are called to hate our family, mothers, brothers, and sisters and to love the family of believers that we have in Jesus Christ. That just means to love less. So if I speak in ways that are defaming, discouraging, hurtful, harmful, abusive, maladaptive, and inaccurate even if those words are, to myself, it is hate. I want you to catch that last one. Even if I speak poorly about myself, that is not loving.

And I believe this first verse is what hinders so many of us from really growing and functioning fully in our anointing. The Bible says that God made us in His image and His image he made us men and women he created them God gave us a little bit of himself in each and every one of us and a lot of us are walking around here like we’re cow dung. Because we haven’t been fully convinced of love. And whether it’s childhood traumas that have you convinced that you’re not worthy, you’re not good enough, you’re not capable, and no one loves you. Maybe if it’s the environment you put yourself in now, and you are continuously seeking validation from spaces and places that will never fulfill you, it is not for love.

And I can’t believe this is isolated to gen Z’s or millennials or gen X’s because when I have conversations with baby boomers, 60-year-old women they are still dealing with the shame of abuse and trauma from their past so this can’t be a one-off. This can’t be something that’s isolated to this generation. The enemy has continuously gone after women in my opinion. Well no I can’t say that I would say he’s going after men and women equally in an effort to get us to not realize who we are and whose we are. I meet so many different women and I can speak to women because this is my market. I am a marketplace Minister who’s been sent out into the fields into the highways into the byways to proclaim to all women you are worthy. You are good enough. Your story matters. As women do we have some stories?

Very few of us, though are willing to put ourselves out there and seem vulnerable because we don’t want to risk feeling shame. What is the antithesis of love? It is shame. Let’s look at verse 2 in the amplified translation 1st Corinthians chapter 13

And if I have prophetic Powers the gift of interpreting the Divine will and purpose, and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have sufficient Faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love ( God's love in me) for this is I'm nothing (a useless nobody).

Recently I’ve been in spaces with people debating women’s role in the church. Whether she wants to be a preacher or prophet or prophetess or an apostle, if she was given spiritual gifts to lead and to teach and to evangelize and equip others including men, this is such a hot topic that there are churches that are breaking off or splitting up and dividing because of the difference in understanding God’s word. Sisters, this is not love. Political candidates fighting over women’s right to choose what to do with their bodies. So let’s just say for the record and I don’t get too political but I am pro-life because God created life and the opportunity that we have to create life is magical and mysterious and mystical but even God doesn’t force us to do things according to his will. So if the creator of the universe and all of His wisdom doesn’t stop us from choosing to exercise our will I have a very hard time with humans stepping into that role.

Today it is women’s reproductive health, but if you can remember not more than 300 years ago it was a human’s right to be free versus enslaved. And then when we were free, our voice didn’t matter because our vote as women didn’t count in the ballot box.

Dare I breach the issue of color? There’s nothing loving about telling a human that you’re not as human as I am because of the color of your skin. There is nothing loving about keeping a person in bondage through sex trafficking. Those in power want to remain in power until they do what’s necessary to stay in power. And that’s always been the case whether it’s in politics or if it’s in the church. Those in power desire to remain in power and it is not from Love. There is a movement happening where folks from all different backgrounds and all different religious creeds are coming together because we’ve opened our eyes to the fact that a lot of the things that we bought into, subscribed to, believed, practiced, and even taught sometimes were not from places of love. They were but rules taught by men which the Bible warns us about.

Let’s continue on in verse 3 of the amplified version same chapter 1st Corinthians 13,

even if I go out all that I have, to the poor and providing food and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may Glory, but have not love, God's love in me, I gain nothing.

I think this is a verse that many folks need to read because they believe that the amount of money that they give to charities and their philanthropy and their platforms of grandeur, these things will not equate to anything if you block love. And I’ve spoken and seen in action the love of Christ and people once they realize that they themselves are loved immensely and fiercely by God.

So I have some questions, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t.

What part of your story is holding you back from claiming your rightful position in God’s plan for redemption on Earth?

What areas of shame in your life continue to put a dark spot over the love of Christ in you?

In what gongs and symbols are you hiding behind to avoid God’s truth in your life?

I’ve always been a person who loves to argue and I think sometimes I thought that was my gift. I argue for the sake of arguing and I realize that I was hiding. I was hiding from God’s truth. I was hiding from all truth from all light because there were dark areas in my past that I didn’t want a light to shine on. And once I started sharing my story, once I started being open about what I experienced once I started spending time with God and laying everything out there before the one to who I must give an account and I started feeling seeing believing, and reading about his incredible love for me, those things in my life paled in comparison. They weren’t large mountains anymore; they literally became old hills. They were no longer barriers; they were building blocks to the kingdom of God. And so I invite you to come to build with me. Come build with me and come stand side by side with me as we work to bring the love of God the love of Christ into the world. I’m no architect but my daddy is. I’m no Carpenter but my brother is pretty dope at it. Let us build on a foundation solid and sure-footed because it is rooted and grounded in Christ the Chief cornerstone. Let us do what the book of Hebrews asks us to do and throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with perseverance the race God has marked out for us.

If I bring my shame and you bring your shame to the Master’s feet he takes that away. Matthew 11:28 Come to me all who are weary in heavy burden and I will give you rest, take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble at heart and you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. You must spend time in the word of God. You must hide that word away in you so deep that no one and nothing can steal it from you. Get your fill of the word of God. Drink deeply from its fountain and receive the Love that God has for us all.