1 - Introduction - Living like a real Christian LOVE

of joy for you in heaven. There are eternal ramifications to our acts of love on earth and we will be the beneficiaries of these treasures for eternity to come. Now that’s real joy! SATURDAY Joshua 9 – 10 The story in the passage above is a beautiful picture of the second benefit to loving as Jesus loves, unconditionally. It is a great story of how Joshua was conned by the Gibeonite people into thinking that they were not a threat to him and that they came from a far country. He then, as a result of their lie, madea covenant with them to protect them. It was soon revealed that the Gibeonites were a local tribe who should have been on Joshua’s hitlist. Chapter 10, however,tells of the fact that Joshua, despite having been misled and having been lied to, honoured the covenant that he made with them by fighting for them and defeating the enemies that came up against Gibeon. The intriguing part of the story is found in the fact that their victory was so extensive over the enemies of the Gibeonites that this has to rank as one of the most supernatural victories recorded in the Bible, that, because of Joshua’s love for the “unlovely”, God answered his prayer by causing the sun to stand still for a full twenty-four hours until full victory had been gained over the enemy. I think it is therefore safe to presume, and certainly can be verified in John 15 v 16, that loving others the way that Christ has loved us will facilitate answered prayer. Verse 16 says, “Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.” The key word here is “then….” This word is indicative of the fact that there is a prerequisite to answered prayer and the passage is clear that this prerequisite is that we would love one another as Christ loves us. I am sure that there is not one amongst us who does not desire to have that supernatural response to our prayers, could it just be that our lack of love for one another and for others might just be the thing that is hindering God from doing for us what He did for Joshua? So often we get entangled with different formulas for answered prayer. Many of them resort to conjecture and presumption, but here we have a very specific mandate from God as it relates to the issue of answered prayer. Jesus Himself spoke of the waste of time when we pray and we have not forgiven, He spoke of the Pharisaical form of love, which was nothing short of an outward form of legalism, and He exhorted us to love as He has loved with no desire for recognition or acknowledgement and no desire to get something back from the person we have loved. When we love within those parameters and to that ideal we will surely get God’s attention. Prayer Thought: we began this week by speaking about th ????????1????????????)?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????$????((0

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