‘You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections. ‘
How can you sincerely say that you love Jesus with all your heart but yet you hide eternity from everyone that you meet? How can your statement of loving Jesus be true?
Do not allow the affections of your life to separate you from the gospel. 2 Corinthians 6:12 says, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.”
If you are walking through life and see someone and your heart is not moved with affection to introduce them to eternity then you are limited by your own affections.
You need to get free from yourself and find Him who is freedom.
TRUE FREEDOM
The gospel was designed to set man free from man. It is to set you free from yourselves so you can be free from those around you and become who you’re destined to be.
The Dead Sea is the only place on the planet that has water going in and none coming out. Because of this, everything is dead and there is absolutely no life present. As a Christian, when you become internally focused, you are a dead sea and there is no life in you. Out of your bellies, should flow rivers of living water. When you are born again, Jesus comes into you as a well springing up.
There are many Christians that walk with God, but there are very few that the Holy Spirit rests upon. If you don’t become a person that the Holy Spirit rests upon, you will be constantly limited by your affections and your affections will become all about you and what’s not happening. Your prayer life becomes focused on the wrong things. Your focus is no longer on who He is, but rather on who you’re not. You cannot afford to be focused on who you’re not when He is telling you who you are.
Somewhere along the line, you have to believe the truth. Someone laying hands on you won’t set you free. It can provide some freedom but your freedom is found in the continual digestion of truth and an absolute strong foundation in righteousness.
You need to know who you are so you can die to self. Once that happens, you can live.
YOU ARE LOVED
The enemy will try to spin the world around you so that you don’t know which way is up. The only way to stop your world from spinning is by getting on your knees and being with Jesus. If you see who you are and you understand who He says you are then it doesn’t matter what people say you’re not.
So many people turn to social media for love and attention but those are simply vanity metrics. They do not understand how much they are loved. All of us are special and loved by God.
If you understand how deeply you are loved by God, it’s never because of what you’ve done to deserve it; It’s because of what He paid a price for to give you for free that which you didn’t earn.
Jesus didn’t die because you were a horrible sinner. He paid the price that was equal to your value. The Father thought that Jesus’ life was worth the same price as your life. The price that is paid for something determines its value. Jesus, who was holy, pure, and never sinned, hung on a tree for guilty people who didn’t know who they were.
The price that was paid for you is the blood of Jesus and that never changes. So when you look in the mirror and say that you’re worthless, you’re essentially saying that the blood of Jesus is worthless (and that is not true). Matthew 16:13 says, “When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, ‘Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?’”
If you don’t see the love of God, then you will not be brought into repentance. May your affections be unto Jesus, the hope of glory, so that you would not be limited by your affections so as to walk a life of righteousness–the life that God has always intended for you.
APPLICATION QUESTIONS
How can you share the good news if you don’t believe it? God wants to use you. Don’t ignore the conviction.
Do you really love Jesus? Or do you really love yourself? Loving Him means that you want to bring others to Him so that they can love Him and know him as well.
