How to Increase Spiritual Capacity ?
We’ve all understood that it’s through love that we increase our spiritual capacity – the passion for Christ and love for our neighbor. Indeed, the more filled with God we are, the more powerful we become. To be filled with God is also to be filled with all the knowledge of God. To have this capacity, the Apostle Paul says that we must be rooted in love and that this love must increase.
“May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith. Rooted and firmly established in love, you will then be able to grasp, along with all the saints, how wide, long, high, and deep is the love of Christ.” Yes, you will know this love that surpasses knowledge, and thus be filled with all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 3:17-19)
This passage shows that one who will know and develop love in these four dimensions will attain the capacity to bear all the fullness of God. Love is the key that reveals the operating system of things. Let’s now see how to develop love in these four facets.
Increasing your faith increases your spiritual capacity as a child; increasing your love increases your spiritual capacity as a Bride. What we’re talking about here is love.
Love is greater than faith. Love encompasses faith. One who has faith doesn’t necessarily love, but one who loves as God intends, has faith. Indeed, it takes faith to love. Before delving into the four dimensions of love, let’s clearly define love.
What is Love?
“And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13:3
“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” (Philippians 1:9-11)
“Jesus replied: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Several definitions are possible when speaking of love. I encourage you to read my book “I AM A HAPPY PERSON… MY SECRET,” where I take the time to explain what love is. However, I will still touch on some elements to understand what needs to be developed in width, length, depth, and height.
Four elements must be integrated to increase the love that the Bride of Christ must manifest. Love is a commandment, not a feeling or an emotion.
Jesus said: “This is the first commandment…”. So the love Jesus speaks of is a commandment. That means its manifestation is not a feeling. Increasing your love does not involve having stronger emotions, shivers, or other feelings for Jesus and others.
You can love someone for whom you have no emotional affection. Just as God may consider that you hate someone for whom you have affection. Be careful, divine love is not sentimental. The sensations we feel belong to “eros” love, it is love of the flesh. This love is not bad, but it is not what Jesus is talking about. Do not seek to increase your sensations during your prayer times or when you think of God. When God asks you to increase love for your neighbor, He also does not expect you to have shivers when you see them.
Feelings, emotions, positive sensations are generally states created in reaction to something we like or are attracted to in the other. They are reactions. Talking about a commandment is talking about the law. When the law tells you to stop at the red light, it’s not about stopping there based on your sensations or emotions at the moment! NO, nobody cares how you feel. You must obey, period. Jesus says: “This is the first commandment, you shall love…”
That is to say, no matter what you feel for the other, you can and must obey. In other words, since I must stop at the red light, even when I don’t want to, I can also love a person who doesn’t emotionally attract me, a person for whom I feel nothing. I can love someone whom my soul doesn’t necessarily appreciate. Conversely, my soul can be attracted, or even feel a strong emotion for someone without me loving that person according to God.
This text is an excerpt from the book “UNSATISFIED? Enter the dimension of the Bride of Christ” written by Mohammed SANOGO.
We invite you to read the following article “The two inseparable “Love“.
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