Walking in Love

[Singing] Ibare Jesu, Ibare o Baba. Ibare Jesu, Ibare o Baba. Ajubare o, Omo Olorun. Ibare o Baba. Ajubare o, Omo Olorun. Ibare o Baba. Eh, Ibare, Ibare Jesu. Ibare o Baba. Ibare, Ibare Jesu. Ibare o Baba. Ajubare o, Omo Olorun. Ibare o, Ibare Baba. Ajubare o, Omo Olorun. Ibare o Baba. You are welcome again to our marriage forum, the very first edition for the year 2025. We are honestly grateful to God for His mercies. We are grateful to Him for how He actually helped us through 2024 and bringing us into the year 2025. We are really, really grateful to God. To Him be all glory, to Him be all the honor, to Him be all the praise in the name of Jesus Christ. As we are gathered this morning for our program, we want to welcome all our brethren that are joining us online. We want to say you are really, really welcome. Today being the first edition for the year, we are trusting the Lord that the Lord will be speaking into our relational life, our marital life in a way that will be granting direction for the year 2025. And our topic for today is "Walking in Love." "Walking in Love." And as we try to look into scripture about this topic, I want you to note that it is rather more of what may look prophetic for the year 2025. And I pray that wherever you are in your relational life, whether you are single, still searching, trusting God for who the Lord leads you to a particular person, or you are already in a relationship but not yet married, or you are already married, settled in a relationship and things are doing well, or perhaps there are challenges, I pray that as we all reflect on this topic this morning, may our lives be enriched at the different junctions where we may be in the name of Jesus Christ. Let us have a word of prayer as we start this morning. Precious Father, Almighty God, we are grateful unto You. We thank You for Your love and Your mercies. We thank You for Your goodness. We thank You for Your grace. We appreciate You again as we gather this year again, 2025, the month of January, kicking off our marriage forum. Lord our God, we pray that as we gather this morning, You will gather with us. Lord God Almighty, You will meet with us in those areas of our lives where we need You most in the name of Jesus Christ. Lord our God, we pray, is there anybody who might have one way or the other seeking direction or is in a confused situation? Lord, we just pray that as we reflect together this morning, let confusion give way for direction in the name of Jesus. Thank You, eternal Father, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Yeah, walking in love. And straightway, I want to take you to the scripture, 1 Corinthians 16:13 and 14. 1 Corinthians 16, I will read 13 and 14. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, I will read verse 13 and verse 14. It says: "Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong." Verse 14: "Let all that you do be done with love." "Let all that you do be done with love." "Let all that you do be done with love." Now, the Bible is trying to make us see that as we stand fast in the faith, as we stand courageously holding forth the word of faith, there is a proper way to walk. There is a way to live our life. And many times, if we are not very watchful and very careful, we may not be seeing this strong connection. For anybody who is really standing in faith, for anybody who is walking in the faith, the truth is that for that person, all things must be done in love. Where faith is not expressing itself in love, that faith is not a correct faith. Correct faith normally expresses itself through love. So the Bible says, stand fast in the faith, be courageous, be brave, then the next thing is let all things be done with love. Our focus this morning is why must all things be done with love? When we are talking about doing all things with love, we are of course talking about our relationship. We are talking about our relationship, our horizontal relationship with others. And I am speaking particularly this morning to couples. I am speaking particularly this morning to you who is in a marital relationship. I am speaking particularly this morning to you who is trusting God to be married. There is something that the Lord wants us to do. And that is that as we stand in faith, as we need to be courageous and be strong, it is essential that we make sure that all things we do, they are done in love. You must make up your mind to walk in love. And we are talking about this love, we are talking about love for God. But don't forget a very, very crucial thing. That when we are talking about love for God, love for God has its hallmark expression in the way we relate with our fellow brothers, in the way you relate with your spouse, in the way you relate with your brother and your sister. Love for God, if there is genuine love for God, it is reflected in that. And I want to make you understand something. Yet, it is not a new thing, it is something you are likely to be familiar with. The Bible in 1 John makes us to understand that how can you say you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your brother that you can see? How can you talk about loving God whom you do not see? If it is a difficult thing for you to love your brother that you can see. As we start this journey of 2025, I want you to understand that you may not enter into some of the deep things of God that God intends for your life as an individual, that God intends for your marriage as a husband and as a wife, if you don't diligently take time to be sure that in my relationship with my spouse, I am walking in love. I am making sure that all things, they are done in love. That might be very, very surprising to some of us, what I have just said, but that is the reality. If you want the Lord to lead you in the way you should go, if you are trusting God for deeper and greater things in 2025, the instruction of God for you is that let all things be done with love. Look at the book of 1 John 4, I want to read from around verse 11: "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." The only way to show that I realize how much God loves me, that I have a deep sense of realization of how much God loves me, is something that is directly connected with how I love my brother and my sister. If God loved me this much, I cannot but reciprocate this love by showing it to the children of God. So if I'm not walking in love towards my spouse, who is a child of God, if I'm not walking in love towards a fellow brother or a sister, who is a child of God, then it is a clear indication that I'm not realizing how much God loves us. I've not comprehended the love of God for my life. When it got to the verse 12, it says: "No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is being perfected in us." Now, nobody has seen God. But the way to show that the love of God have really come to love the Lord is shown by the depth of the love I have for children of God. And the implication of that is that where I'm not walking in love towards another fellow Christian, then it is a clear indication that I don't know God, or I'm not having a shared intimacy with God. It says: "By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son as a Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we know and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God." God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God. If you want your life to be fruitful, the way to abide in Christ so that your life can be fruitful is to abide in love. Why is this matter coming out so seriously? Let me read on. "Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us." Verse 20: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?" So if any man says, "I love God," but is not walking in love towards his spouse, that person is a liar. You are a liar as a husband or as a wife. If you say, "I love God, I'm serving God, I go to church, I pray, I give my tithe, I sacrifice to God," but you are not walking in love towards your spouse, you are a liar. As a wife, you are a liar. As a single person, when you're not walking in love towards the brethren, you are a liar. If in a relationship and not walking in love towards that person you're in a relationship with, then you are a liar. You are not a true person. You're not a real person. You're a hypocrite. You are not correct. And why are we saying all this in this our first meeting? It's because of something the Lord made me to see. That is in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Please, let's go there. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Look at what the Bible says. I want to read from the verse 6. "However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written: 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'" God prepared something. That thing that God prepared is for those who love God. Mind you, if any man says he loves God but hates his brother, he is a liar. If you are not walking in love towards your spouse, you are a liar, you don't love God. And you not walking in love towards your spouse will deny you of so many things that God has put in place for 2025. The things that God will be showing, God wants to show, God wants to reveal, God wants to bring to bear some deep things about your purpose, about your marriage, about your life, about your walk with Him. But you need to understand that the revelation of the things that God wants to do is packed together for those who love God. The deep things that God wants to do is not meant for any husband, any wife who is not walking in love towards their spouse. It's not meant for anybody in a relationship who is not walking in love towards the person you are in a relationship with. You are not true, you're not sincere with that person, you are not walking in love. When you're not walking—the Bible says love does no evil to its neighbor, Romans chapter 13. Love does no evil to its neighbor. If you are doing evil to your neighbor, if you are doing evil to your spouse, if you are doing that which is evil to your spouse, to that person you are in a relationship with, and if you are not yet in a relationship but you are doing evil to your brothers and your sisters, the revelation of who to marry that you are trusting God for, you may never get it. God may never speak to you because I'm telling you for 2025, those that will enter into the rhema, the deep things of God, are those people who love God. And God is talking about a love that is displayed by loving your brothers, by walking in love with your spouse, by walking in love with your fiancé, by walking in love with the brethren. When you are not walking in love, God is declaring to you this day that you are a liar, you don't love God. And so the things that eyes have not seen, that ears have not heard, that have not entered into the heart of men, those things that God wants to bring to bear upon the planet earth for His people will not be yours. That's why I said that today's meeting is more of a prophetic direction for the year 2025. God is calling His people to walk in love. It is in walking in love that you are going to enter into the deep things of God. It is the people that know their God that will be strong. If you don't enter into these deep things, I'm afraid that you may not be able to cope, you may not be able to endure, you may not be able to withstand. Because it is those who know their God that will be strong. It is those who know their God that will be tough. I remember the book of that writer, "Tough times don't last, but tough people do." Those that will be tough, that will endure, those that will last are those that enter into these deep things that God intends to reveal. So I want to beg you in our relationship with our spouses, beginning from those of us who are in marriage. There is a connection between how you are relating with your spouse and the extent of revelation you will have with God in 2025. For those of you who are saying, "God, show me who I'm to marry," whether God will give you a direction, instruction that you will hear is has to do so much with whether you love the Lord. And that love in the Lord the Lord is talking about is loving the brethren. There is a strong connection between our duty towards our spouses, our making sure we do no evil to our spouses, our making sure we do no evil in our relationship, and the depth of God's revelation in 2025. I pray for you you will not miss God. I pray for you that in the place of revelation, you will not be missing because I'm telling you, it is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but it is the honor of kings to search it out. Now you cannot just search it out by yourself. You can only search it out by the Spirit of God. So if you are not walking in love, how does the Spirit of God reveal things to you? If you are a liar, then the Spirit of God won't have any business with a liar. Then you are of your father, the devil. God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. The revelation of the deep things of God comes by the Spirit of God. It is not by power nor by might, it's by God's Spirit. And I'm trying to make you understand that the Spirit of God will not fellowship with a liar. You can't be a liar and have intimacy with God's Spirit. Are there things you need to amend? Please look into your life. Look into your relationship, look into your horizontal relationship. Because there is going to be so much this 2025 about your horizontal relationship, the relationship with your fellow brother, your spouse, your fellow sister, your fiancé, your brethren, your father, your mother. There's going to be so much about that relationship and the depth of revelation you will get into from the Spirit. That's the reality I want you to see. That's the prophetic direction for 2025. That what eyes have not seen, what ears have not heard, what have not entered into the heart of men, is what God wants to reveal. God wants to reveal that by His Spirit. But God is going to reveal that to those who love Him. And God is going to measure the extent and the dimension of that love from the way we love our fellow brothers. I pray for you you will not miss out. I pray for myself I will not miss out with God this year. Till we meet again the second Saturday in February when we'll be moving further beyond this point, please, don't take this prophetic direction jokingly. The Lord bless you in Jesus' name. Let's share the grace together in fellowship. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us now and forevermore. Amen. Surely, God's goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever and ever. Amen. Amen, and amen, and amen.