Are you eager to experience all God has for you this year? When the Lord spoke the word restoration to me, it got my attention on His highest and best for my life. In order to keep your faith stirred and working toward restoration, there is a foundational truth that you must not lose sight of. It will keep you grounded and launch you right into His best!
Ephesians 3:17, That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God.
Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to pray that we would be rooted and grounded in love. Then verse 19 tells us that in order to be filled with the fullness of God, we must first know the love of Christ.
Faith and love are inseparable. Faith works by love. While it is certainly necessary to walk in love toward others, there is another side to this passage. You must have a revelation knowledge of how much God loves YOU. You must be rooted and grounded in God’s love for YOU.
People have sometimes come to me disappointed when they didn’t receive what they were “in faith” for, feeling that their faith failed them.
I went to the Lord about this based on the scripture Luke 22:31-32, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.
I said to the Lord, “Obviously Your Word will never fail, but this passage is saying it is possible for faith to fail. If this is true, I want to know how and when it can fail.”
In the state of Alabama we have big thunderstorms and occasional tornadoes. These storms produce a lot of wind. But there are also huge oak trees that have been standing for over a hundred years. Their root systems are as large and deep below the surface as the branches above are big and tall.
One day after a storm I drove down a road in my hometown and passed a big oak tree I had passed many times. It had been part of my life. But that day, it was lying uprooted, and yet the tree was still intact. None of the branches were broken, and the root system was all there. It was lying next to a huge hole in the ground where the roots had been.
That showed me a perfect illustration of what Jesus was talking about when He prayed for Peter “that your faith fail not.” The tree didn’t fail. What gave way was the ground it was planted in. The ground it was planted in was not strong enough to hold the tree against the resistance of that storm. The soil gave way because it was not firm enough to hold out.
The soil of your heart is where the roots of faith grow, and your heart has to be firmly established in God’s love. If the seed of the Word of God is planted in anything other than a heart filled with God’s love for you, then when the storms of life blow and the pressure gets intense, your faith can fail—that is, your heart will give up and let go. The Word will stand true, but if your belief in it is based on anything other than God’s love for you, your faith can be uprooted. His love for you is the only thing that will keep your roots intact and your faith from failing.
This truth will totally transform your life. It will make the soil of your heart the flavor and consistency of love—God’s love for you and your love for Him. Then your faith will not fail during storms and trials, and your life will produce remarkable fruit. The people around you will taste and see that the Lord is good because you move in miracle-working faith that is rooted and grounded in a heart of love.
My friend, I want to encourage you that no matter where you are in your faith walk, this truth must be maintained. While it is easy to tell others how much God loves them, make it a practice to tell yourself, “God loves ME,” and those things you are believing for in 2016 will begin to unfold before your very eyes.
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