ARMOR OF LOVE - 5

Let's Pray: Father, thank you for the leading and guiding into all truth for me by the Holy Spirit. Enlighten the eyes of my understanding - and I yield all to you, Father, only Your Will be done in my new life, as I study, learn and grow in Jesus Christ. Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen, Amen.

Now let's continue on with the Armor of Love:

American Standard Version (ASV) Passage 1 Corinthians 13 :
1 Corinthians 13

   ¹ If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

   ² And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

   ³ And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.

   ⁴ Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,

   ⁵ doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account of evil;

   ⁶ rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth;

   ⁷ beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

   ⁸ Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away.

   ⁹ For we know in part, and we prophesy in part;

  ¹⁰ but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

  ¹¹ When I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt as a child, I thought as a child: now that I am become a man, I have put away childish things.

  ¹² For now we see in a mirror, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know fully even as also I was fully known.

  ¹³ But now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; and the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13

    ²And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).

    ³Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or in order that I may glory, but have not love (God's love in me), I gain nothing.

    ⁴Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.

    ⁵It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

    ⁶It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.

    ⁷Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].

    ⁸Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].

    ⁹For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).

    ¹⁰But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).

    ¹¹When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.

    ¹²For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been fully and clearly known and understood [by God].

    ¹³And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13 The Way of Love

   ¹ If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. ²If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. ^{3 -7}If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

   Love never gives up.
   Love cares more for others than for self.
   Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
   Love doesn't strut,
       Doesn't have a swelled head,
       Doesn't force itself on others,
       Isn't always "me first,"
       Doesn't fly off the handle,
       Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
       Doesn't revel when others grovel,
   [Love] Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
       Puts up with anything,
       Trusts God always,
       Always looks for the best,
       Never looks back,
   But keeps going to the end.

   ^{8 -10}Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

   ¹¹When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

   ¹²We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

   ¹³But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

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As you read through these you begin to get more insight on your walk in True Authority.  Armor of Love - indestructable - however you have to know Love in order to grow into your Armor of Love.  God is Love - do you really know Him, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long? More and more and more? 

If the Universe is still growing - it is eternal, are you -- if you are in Christ Jesus and in God - living and moving and having your being, then you are on your way in True Authority and growing more in your Armor of Love.

Faith, Hope and Love live forever - and the greatest of these Godly parts of etenal life is LOVE. 

You can have the Faith of the Son of God, however the only way you walk in this Faith is through Love.

You can have Hope, given to you by God, however, the only way you walk in Hope is through Love.

God is Love, and Love is God - and God is the greatest (Father, Spirit, Son).

God is the one who works in you both to live and do as His child - to be fully armored and totally in true authority.  To God be the Glory.

Not only do you put on the whole armor of God - the armor is alive and a living part of who you are in Christ Jesus.  God does not fail, and we as His children do not fail - we may fall, but God lifts us up as we cry out to Him, and we learn and grow into more of who we are and whose we are!

Thank You, Abba, Daddy, God!