Scripture Text: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."  2 Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

Have you ever said that there is just no way that you could ever love or have anything to do with a certain person ever again? I think we all have at one time or another. The key here is to remember that this is also one of those thoughts being placed in our minds by that evil band of "roaring lion spirits" that want to devour you and this is one of those strongholds they use the most. "LOVE".

I guess this would be a good place for us to talk about that word "devour". Did you know that word is not just a word of destruction - but it is a word of expediency. The Devil and his "evil roaring lion gang" don't want to just destroy your life over time - they want to do it NOW! That's why you always hear so much about crimes of passion because they don't premeditate, they KILL NOW! That's their aim - to destroy you and to destroy your happiness and to take away any chance of happiness by greedily and ravenously devouring their prey. It doesn't matter what it is - they just want to destroy it for their own pleasure. In fact that word devour speaks about how a lion, for instance, will prey upon anything that it can pounce upon and voraciously devour it. Now are you hearing this? Doesn't this sound like a thing of the flesh? Of course the lion doesn't have a spirit or a soul, it only has a will and the power to survive. It does that by feeding it's appetites.

Now, I'm not going to get into personal love relationships between husbands and wives today as much as I want to focus on relationships in general. If you have hatred and bitterness in your heart for someone this morning, consider this, it's not you! In fact, I have often heard people say, "It's not like me to not like any one!" Or, "It's not like him or her to dislike or hate anyone." WOW! Is that a revelation or what? It's not like them because it's not them! They're walking in the flesh and they have been "preyed upon" by the flesh eaters, that "evil spirit - roaring lion gang", and if they are not careful they will be stripped of their ability to interact and stripped of their ability to trust anyone and stripped of their ability to ever love again. Now, let me tell you something about the habits of a lion. He will attack and disable his prey, and then he will gnaw away at them while they are still alive. CAN YOU IMAGINE THE PAIN? In fact, that might be what you're feeling right now!

But our text tells us that God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, AND OF LOVE. What does that mean? Well the kind of love that we're talking about here pertains to relationships in general but I KNOW it works with intimate relationships as well. The love we're talking about in this verse is that He gives us a heart of love for God and of love to God, and to Christ, and to his church. That love then, is the love that Paul termed as the "fruit of the Spirit" which we have read from the scriptures to be, "love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance". In other words, people who are "in love with God" and people who are "in love with Christ" and people who live by the power of His Holy Spirit, don't seek their own ease and credit, but they seek for and live for the glory of God. Their interests in life are transformed to what Jesus would do, and and having that kind of spirit, and filled with such love, they are not as easily intimidated by the adversary.

Now, I can hear some of you right now as you have been so hurt by someone that you just feel as though you cannot forgive and you cannot forget - and you certainly cannot "love" that person again. Well, you didn't get it did you? This isn't about what "you" can do. We've already established that you can't do it because you're walking in the flesh. ANY TIME that we get to feeling all hurt and bothered about something, it's because we're walking in the flesh. That's just a fact of life and a truth of the Word, "and" that's the arena where the "evil roaring lion gang" seeks about - going "to and fro" looking for someone he can DEVOUR. But with "in the Spirit" there is no power strong enough to penetrate the "Strong Tower"(Ps 61:3) of the Lord Jesus Christ in us, For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love.

Let's pray.

Father: Thank you for your power of love in me, and for your power to love through me. I give you glory today. In Jesus' Name, Amen.