The opportunity we have to be a part of God’s work in creation is hard to grasp. The Creator of Life is at work on the battlefield. He is aggressively active every day in all places “according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11). And we get to engage with Him. We get to experience the awe and wonder of doing front line work to reach and restore souls – one person at a time.
Miraculous.
And quite mystifying to experience!
In fact, you will never feel more fulfilled or significant than you will when you give your life to serving the Lord.
In our service, we want to continually develop our skills and wisdom. In our wisdom we can grow to understand the priority of love in God’s work. In our skill we can grow in knowing how to open channels of love that will bring healing and abundance to the darkest and most broken hearts.
Unashamedly I grew up in the 80’s watching professional wrestling with my dad. Vince McMahon Junior was the CEO of what was then the WWF. Last week, Netflix released a six-part documentary on Vince’s life. In the first episode, Vince very quickly summarizes how he was abused by his stepfather when he was a young boy. He did not meet his biological father, Vince Sr., until he was 12. Vince Junior shared in the documentary that after meeting his biological father, he never once heard him say, “I love you,” until the day before Vince Senior died at 69. Even as Junior recounted the story, tears were in his eyes.
Even for a notorious, ruthless wrestling promoter, who was charged in 2023 with heinous crimes, to be loved is the great desire of his soul.
Nothing is deeper.
I want to be-labor the primacy of love because our Western Christian lives can easily miss it and we, like Vince Jr, long for it. Today I want to show you that love is the stuff that builds internal strength in a person’s life. I have long been convinced that most people are internally fragile and worn out…getting exposed only requires the right amount of pressure in the right places.
Should be no surprise that the solution to internal fragility is healthy love.
In fact, without love there is no inner healing or strength. But because of love we can actually become sturdy and full. You may be surprised, maybe not, that your internal strength is one of our Father’s great desires. He cares greatly about the health of your soul.
Watch how Psychologist Dr. Apostle Paul taps into our Father’s care and lays out love’s impact on the soul in his prayer from Ephesians 3:14-19,
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
This prayer gets wordy, quickly. Let’s step through it. First, Paul appeals to our Father. He does not appeal to some blob-ish, mist-in-the-sky, impersonal entity called God. He calls on our Father. Second, he asks our Father to strengthen Christians in their inner man (person). Paul’s understanding of man’s composition is in play here. Man is not just a physical being made up of physical matter. Man has an inner essence – a spirit (synonymously called a soul). Paul’s “inner man” is the core of a person. The root. Paul asks our Father to strengthen the core of each person in the church at Ephesus.
As an aside, if you go to a counselor/therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist that denies man has a non-material soul, I would go elsewhere. You need someone one is skilled in understanding and navigating the soul. This is biblical psychology.
Third, our Father’s instrument of internal strengthening is the Holy Spirit. This is what we call relational trinitarianism. God reveals Himself in Scripture to be Triune. Somehow, that is beyond finite man’s understanding, God is one God that exists as three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Further, each Person does specific works in our lives that the Others will not do. The role of strengthening us internally is a work of the Holy Spirit. (I have written/spoken extensively on relational trinitarianism. If you’d like to read more, check out BE: The Way of Rest, chapter 4.)
Again, one skilled in helping people find inner healing is one who knows how to cultivate intimacy with the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is our Father’s instrument of internal strengthening, then building a healthy relationship with Him is critical. While there are many modalities (CBT, DBT, EMDR, Somatic Therapy, Family Systems Therapy, etc.) available to counselors/therapists/psychologists/psychiatrists, none of them will be as effective as the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, the Holy Spirit strengthens us internally by moving Jesus into each one of our hearts. Who else can move Jesus into a person’s heart? I can only buy an Apple phone from an Apple store, and I can only receive Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit.
But how does moving Jesus into one’s heart/soul/spirit bring healing?
Fifth, when Jesus takes root in a person’s heart, they will experience an immeasurable degree of love. Paul’s prayer is that every Christian in Ephesus will be rooted and grounded in LOVE. Love is the internal strengthener of the soul. You were created for love. And love is the secret-not-so-secret foundation of life. And Paul sees every Christian experiencing love in Christ to such a degree that they can no longer explain it.
“…to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge!” (Ephesians 3:19).
“It is just one of those things you have to experience!”
Look at what Paul writes about love in Romans 5:5, “Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us!” Love POURED OUT within our hearts/souls/spirits!
Love happens because each person who surrenders to Jesus has their sins forgiven. Super important note – by far the worst consequence of sin is SEPARATION from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our sin separates us from the One who co-created us leaving a hole in us that no one else can fill. You were created by a Trinitarian God to exist in love and intimacy with a Trinitarian God. This is why all other relationships and modalities of internal healing apart from healthy, relational trinitarianism will always miss the root of your soul. When your sins are forgiven, you are made new, adopted into the family of our Father, now a dwelling place of Jesus.
And the love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is more powerful than the love wounds of family and others, no matter how severe those wounds are. No doubt the wounds Vince, Jr incurred from his abusive stepfather and the love neglect of his dad were intense. Nevertheless, Jesus takes up residence in a deeper place in one’s soul. More foundational. More core. So that there is no soul wound that our Father’s love cannot heal.
Finally, sixth, flooded with love any person will be filled up to all the fullness of God! Instead of burning everyday to get internal scraps…living in the grind of having to constantly prove oneself…we, in Christ, are supposed to be FILLED up! Internally full. Internally strong.
And the answer is love.
This is why Paul writes to a different group of believers in the city of Corinth, “But now faith, hope, love abide these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).
Ephesians – Love. Romans – Love. Corinthians – Love. Different people. Different places.
Same solution.
In the overflow we have the GREAT high privilege of serving the Lord on the battlefield of life. In our service we want to become increasingly wise and effective. Understanding and experiencing love will render you powerful and useful in the Kingdom!
THIS is life…in the Overflow!
Praise God. Jim, your insights are inspiring. As we build West Christian Prep, I think “Love” is the distinctive of our community. Love from the Father, Love demonstrated by the Son, Love for one another, Love in the overflow. May God grant you continued wisdom and clarity to share His vision for His people.
For the Kingdom,
Travis