Are You on the Bank or in the River?

The tragedy is that so few Christians live in the constant flow of God’s love. The church we see around us has virtually no power, no overflow of love, no joy or peace, hardly anything to show for being God’s children. When was the last time you met a believer and said, “Wow! I see the love in that person’s eyes. It’s like love is gushing out of their entire being!” More to the point, how often have you felt as if unlimited love was flowing out of you?

I see a lot of Christian patients, and I can tell you the Christian population is just as depressed and in a mess as people without Christ. God’s love restores, heals, and rejuvenates—but only when we walk in it. For most Christians—and I say “most” with sadness and certainty—the love within them is only a trickle. It is there; it is recognizable and strong enough to save them from hell, but it’s only minimally life-changing for them and those around them. Jesus promised us that “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38). With God’s love bubbling up inside of us, how can we be so blasé, bland, and “blah” about things? Where is the overflow that changes circumstances and relationships around us?

In Luke 7, Jesus walked around with power literally coming out of Him. All people had to do was touch Him and they were healed! This also happened to Peter, when people were healed as they got close enough to him, and to Paul when people were healed when they merely touched a piece of cloth that had touched him. The love of God has a presence, a proximity, and if I can put it this way, a substance. It impacts the natural realm. This has every implication for our physical bodies in addition to every other aspect of our beings.

The measure of love flowing out of us is exactly commensurate with how much we are walking and abiding in that river from God’s throne. It’s like a gauge. You can check your own love level to tell how much you are abiding in Christ. It’s a metric you cannot hide. Everyone has a kind of love sensor in their soul that can pretty accurately detect how much love another person is walking in. Maybe we don’t see it with complete precision as we do a meter on our car, but we sense it if a person is walking in a lot of love, joy, and peace. We trust that person more. We want to be around them and emulate them in our own behavior. Similarly, we get “bad vibes” from people who walk in selfishness and the ways of their father, the devil.

When we walk in love, the flow washes away our own toxic thoughts, even toxic elements in our bodies. This is because peaceful people are more relaxed, and relaxation allows our bodies to unclench and release metabolic waste material that’s trapped in tense, tight, contracted muscles. Just as running water indicates life, and usually no algae, disease, or scum grows there, so the river of love washes away toxins and waste products in our bodies and minds. Paul calls it the “washing of water by the word” (Eph. 5:26). That isn’t just picturesque phrasing. It is literal. We are washed by the Word, spiritually and physically. Our health is largely determined by how fully we walk in the river of God’s love.

I often wonder how many healings and healing prayers would not be needed if people were abiding in the love of God. How much of a church’s or ministry’s time is taken up solving problems people create in their own lives by neglecting to wake up each morning and step into that river of love? A healthy, powerful church abides together in love that is never stagnant and flows out of each member. Love is meant for much more than just healing and transforming our minds and bodies; it is intended to emanate outward from us and revolutionize the entire earth.

I have noticed that preachers and ministers take apart the love walk piece by piece and teach on isolated components of it rather than on love itself. There are messages on “How to Have Peace,” “Increasing Your Joy,” and “Exercising Your Faith.” Those are all aspects of love, so why don’t we teach on the main thing, which empowers them all? It makes no sense to separate them from this central reality of the kingdom. At the very least, love should be part of every message a Christian preaches.

To learn more about Don Colbert, MD’s latest book, Dr. Colbert’s Spiritual Health Zone, visit Mycharismashop.com