Capacity To Love! Are We There Yet? + Dr. Tamara Bennett

My life and our ministry has been turned upside down since the Lord began revealing to me his depths and capacity to LOVE. For sure, we’ve heard, we’ve read and we’ve quoted, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son…’ (John 3:16kjv). But for some reason the words LOVED and the WORLD, have been amplified continually in my ears. The L

ord made it very clear to me that he loves the world so deeply and so intensely that he died for the WORLD. Only God understands the forces of evil, the crevices of darkness, the shadows of depression and the oppressor of this world that is present and is soon to come. And only GOD can overcome it by his pure, unconditional, non-judgmental, supernatural and sovereign LOVE. The world’s degree of hate, division and maliciousness can only be overcome by GOD’S LOVE.

Then he chastened and reminded me that it was his son who sacrificed his life for all the sins of the world for people to be saved and that there’s nothing I could ever do to match or compare to taking on the sins of the world! _e Lord en-lightened me that I do not have the ability to tolerate, endure; serve; nurture; teach and love his children like he does. But, if I humbled myself, he would teach me.

It humbled me, it broke me and brought me to my knees. I was jolted from my state of slumber! And as I wiped the sleep from my eyes, I saw, with clarity, the emptiness of the many church traditions, annual conferences, vain messages and pompous re-lationships that I'd been involved in, without attempting to cultivate myself as a vessel of LOVE. God is LOVE!

I had to re-examine my purpose, redefine our ministry and prioritize the church’s agenda to go to where God is…. this place called LOVE! We started here, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. _ere is none other commandment greater than these. (Matt. 12:30-32kjv.) WOW…. none other commandment is greater than LOVE! He awakened me that SIN is not the struggle, for God have given us power over sin. But the struggle is that we love the sin more than we love God. For our love for him will provoke us to keep his commandments. It’s not because of our church affiliation; not because of our church organization; and not because of our religion, but we live for him because we LOVE him………PERIOD!

This understanding transformed my teaching to such simplicity be-cause the Gospel (good news of Jesus Christ), must be delivered and comprehended until the soul and spirit is separated. For the soul belongs to God and it must hear its way out of the clutches of evil and into the bosom of truth and love. And now the second commandment to love my neighbor as myself. Who is my neighbor? It’s everyone I meet, anywhere and everywhere. _is will be a continual evolution within our ministry…..understanding how to LOVE our neighbor. For we are told, “But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother has need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the LOVE of God in him? (IJohn 3:17kjv).

So, we’re being challenged. Should we engage as conference hosts or connect with the heart of the community by feeding those less fortunate, or housing the homeless. I now find myself being nestled in understanding God’s CA-PACITY TO LOVE. I’m accepting that I’m not called to per-form or entertain the idle church, but I’ve been called to lead and teach his children to perfect his love within themselves. “Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” (I Cor. 13:8,13kjv) LOVE!!! Excerpt from Pastor Tamara Bennett’s upcoming 2018 Book Release “CAPACITY TO LOVE”.