“God looks at us differently than when we look at us. His love isn’t just what saves us; it’s how God sees us. We see what we are and what we’ve done. He sees what He intended and what we can become if we’ll surrender to Him.” 

—Zack Hensley from his sermon notes, “Rediscovering Abiding Love,” (forerunnerchurch.com)

So I give you a new commandment: Love each other just as much as I have loved you. For when you demonstrate the same love I have for you by loving one another, everyone will know that you are My true followers. (John 13:34-35 TPT)

It’s noteworthy that Brian Simmons in his Passion Translation uses the phrase “my old identity” when writing of what was co-crucified on the cross with Jesus such that we can live as new moral creatures in Christ. The verse reads, “My old identity has been crucified with Christ and no longer lives. And now the essence of this new life is no longer mine, for the Anointed One lives his life through me—we live in union as one! My new life is empowered by the faith of the Son of God who loves me so much that he gave himself for me, dispensing His life into mine!” (Galatians 2:20 TPT) Right identity or thinking of ourselves and others in terms of God’s whole new creation reality is key to flowing in an unrestricted way from the loving heart of God. Holding to God’s vantage point is vital to experiencing the freedom to love with agape or charity as the King James words it. 

So how does God see us?  First, we are now Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Ephesians 1:5-6 says of the Father, “For it was always in His perfect plan to adopt us as His delightful children, through our union with Jesus, the Anointed One…for the same love He has for the Beloved, Jesus, He has for us.” (TPT) This adoption ends all insecurity. Each of us has full access to the Godhead. We are embraced! We are loved unconditionally by our Maker. And Jesus, the Royal Son, is not ashamed to call us brothers even as He is making us holy and causing us to share His glory. The Savior fully identifies with us. See Hebrews 2:10-13. Our destiny as “joint heirs”^[1] with Jesus is sure. As Rick Joyner writes in his book, A Message to the Glorious Church: “Christians are the true royalty on the earth, and are honored by the heavenly host far above any earthly kings or presidents. This is His ‘good pleasure and His will.’ Nothing will ever be strong enough to thwart His will, and therefore our inheritance in Him is more secure than any earthly position ever could be.”^[2] King David also knew God’s heart as he penned the prayer, “Give me grace, Yahweh! Always look at me through Your eyes of love—Your forgiving eyes of mercy and compassion. When You think of me, see me as one You love and care for.” (Psalm 25:6-7 TPT) And Solomon wrote prophetically about how Jesus, the Bridegroom-King, sees the church finished and complete even at the initial giving of herself to the King in his Song of Songs: “Every part of you is so beautiful, my darling. Perfect is your beauty, without flaw within.” (Song of Songs 4:7 TPT) The point in the Song at which this description was written was the point at which the believer surrenders and says, “Yes, I will be Your bride.” (Song of Songs 4:6 TPT) The Lord’s heart is one of intense love right as He takes us in. And He knows us in “a finished work” way all throughout our journey of change and growth. Jesus’ last utterance on the cross as He died to bring us resurrection life and restore all things to us as His new creation was, “It is finished!” (John 19:30 TPT) Brian Simmons in The Passion Translation believes the homonym for “finished” here means “completed” and includes the sense of “My bride.”^[3]

Ephesians 2:3-5 recaps the glorious gift of salvation we have been given: 

Among these we as well as you once lived and conducted ourselves in the passions of our flesh [our behavior governed by our corrupt and sensual nature], obeying the impulses of the flesh and the thoughts of the mind [our cravings dictated by our senses and our dark imaginings]. We were then by nature children of [God’s] wrath and heirs of [His] indignation, like the rest of mankind.But God—so rich is He in His mercy! Because of and in order to satisfy the great and wonderful and intense love with which He loved us,Even when we were dead (slain) by [our own] shortcomings and trespasses, He made us alive together in fellowship and in union with Christ; [He gave us the very life of Christ Himself, the same new life with which He quickened Him, for] it is by grace (His favor and mercy which you did not deserve) that you are saved (delivered from judgment and made partakers of Christ’s salvation). (AMPC)

Thus, we have our God who knows everything there is to know about us, but in a glorious way sees us already perfect. We can overcome our limited information about ourselves and others, our carnal reasonings and murmurings, by dropping back into our spirits for words of knowledge and words of wisdom from the mind of the Holy Spirit. Split-second flash prayers of “Holy Spirit, how do You see this person or this situation?” can save us from the predatory accusations of the enemy who works to destroy what God desires to build, a bond of perfectness between us proving that we do have the God of love and His merciful heart within us. Colossians 3:14 admonishes us as ones who model ourselves after Jesus: “And above all these [put on] [unselfish] love and enfold yourselves with the bond of perfectness [which binds everything together completely in ideal harmony].” (AMPC and AMP) And 1 John gives us more language for the promise of being able to love as Jesus loves: “But if we keep living in the pure light that surrounds Him, we share unbroken fellowship with one another.” (TPT) We must always default to forgiveness in order to remain in the light..

The apostle Paul was very successful in accessing God’s heart for his brothers and sisters in the church. He let Christ be his very life and walked in oneness with Jesus in the inner man. Paul shared the way in which he loved the others in Philippians 1:8, “Only God knows how much I dearly love you with the tender affection of Jesus, the Anointed One.” (TPT) The Recovery Version uses the words, “For God is my witness how I long after you all in the inward parts of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:8 RcV) We, too, can function and love out of a place of union with the Indwelling Christ. We can yield to Him as Lord and let Him love through us, the very secret to Christlikeness. Staying centered in our spirits where God lives is the way to do this. John described it as abiding in Jesus as our source, branch to Vine. See John 15. John wrote all through 1 John of the experience of Jesus loving through us. It’s His beautiful interior life we want to share.^[4] It’s His love we want to mark us. And our dying to self with surrendering to love is the requisite response to His love for us. 

1 John 4:19 in the New Living Translation reveals:

We love each other^[a] because he loved us first.

1. 4:19 Greek We love. Other manuscripts read We love God; still others read We love him.

Proximity or intimacy with Jesus and purity of soul are essential to successfully yielding to unhindered streams of the fruit of the Spirit. Peter revealed in 1 Peter 1:22, “Now, because of your obedience to the truth, you have purified your very souls, and this empowers you to be full of love for your fellow believers. So express this sincere love toward one another passionately and with a pure heart.” (TPT) We must be other-centered as we know God’s affections. Paul went on to write of true, pure motives in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 3, “Do nothing from factional motives [through contentiousness, strife, selfishness, or for unworthy ends] or prompted by conceit and empty arrogance. Instead in the true spirit of humility (lowliness of mind) let each regard the others as better than and superior to himself [thinking more highly of one another than you do of yourselves].” (AMPC). The crucifixion of ego here and the new identity received with an open heart will foster such a walk. 

In sum, we are His masterpiece or artwork Ephesians 2:10 declares. Tiah Cotoni, a local Albemarle, NC author, wrote of the Father’s way in bringing us forth in her prophetic book, Daughter. She captures Abba as saying, “You know My love well, but there is always greater love to be revealed every time you sit with Me. My love will always heal, deliver, and set your heart free in areas you did not even know needed a healing touch….Within you there is the most beautiful masterpiece of My Son unfolding. I see no fault in you, only those parts of Him yet to be revealed. I am joyously determined to fill in those areas with My brushstroke of glory. I complete a stroke every time you come to Me, for it is in My presence this beauty will be revealed.”^[5]Tiah aptly pens a responsive prayer for us to capture God’s vantage point: “I ask for a lens to see all things in the light of Christ. Even as I look at myself in the mirror, help me to see You. I ask to see the masterpiece of Christ in the one in front of me and speak words so pregnant with Your heart that they run…straight into Your embrace.”^[6]

Postscript

“For you have acquired new creation life which is continually being renewed into the likeness of the One who created you; giving you the full revelation of God. In this new creation life, your nationality makes no difference, nor your ethnicity, education, nor economic status—they matter nothing. For it is Christ that means everything as He lives in every one of us!” 

(Colossians 3:10-11 The Passion Translation)

“May my only boast be found in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Him I have been crucified to this natural realm; and the natural realm is dead to me and no longer dominates my life. Whether a man is circumcised or uncircumcised is meaningless to me. What really matters is the transforming power of this new creation life. And all those who live in agreement with this standard will have true peace and God’s delight, for they are the Israel of God.” 

(Galatians 6:14-16 The Passion Translation)

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Blessings in return—

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^[1] (Romans 8:17 KJV)

^[2] Rick Joyner, A Message to the Glorious Church (Wilkesboro, NC: MorningStar Publications, 2003), 32.

^[3] (John 19:30 TPT with footnote d) 

^[4] (Song of Songs 5:12-15 TPT “He sees everything with pure understanding. How beautiful His insights—without distortion. His eyes rest upon the fullness of the river of revelation, flowing so clean and pure. Looking at His gentle face, I see such fullness of emotion. Like a lovely garden where fragrant spices grow—what a Man! No one speaks words so anointed as this one—words that both pierce and heal, words like lilies dripping with myrrh. See how His hands hold unlimited power! But He never uses it in anger, for He is always holy, displaying His glory. His innermost place is a work of art—so beautiful and bright. How magnificent and noble is this One—covered in majesty! He’s steadfast in all He does. His ways are the ways of righteousness, based on truth and holiness. None can rival Him…”)

^[5] Tiah Cotoni, Daughter: A devotional and journal into the heart of the Father (Columbia, SC: Jehovah Shammah Publishing, 2019), 146-147.

^[6] Tiah Cotoni, Daughter: A devotional and journal into the heart of the Father (Columbia, SC: Jehovah Shammah Publishing, 2019), 147.