Kenneth Copeland - Love never fails

Love Never Fails

Fear of failure. It has haunted all of us at some time in our lives. Popular psychology advises us to adjust, to learn to cohabit peacefully with it. After all, failure is, to a certain extent, inevitableisn't it?

A business broker reports eight out of every 10 new businesses will close their doors in defeat within the first two years. More than 50 percent of today's marriages will collapse long before the "death do us part" vow is ever fulfilled. And yet the bulk of our failures never show up in such statistics. They hide themselves in the fabric of daily life...little failures on the job or with friends and family that break our hearts one tiny piece at a time and keep us from being the success we always hoped to be.

But the Word of God tells us there is a failure-proof way to live. It is the way of love. First Corinthians 13:8 says it plainly: Love never fails.

Now, to those who think love expresses itself through emotion, that may sound silly. Emotion can't turn failure into success! But real love isn't expressed through emotionit shows up in action.

And the right action can make all the difference.

If you want to see an example of that kind of love in action, read the story recorded in Matthew 14. There Jesus faces one of the toughest situations He ever had to face. If He'd responded in anger (as you and I probably would have), His ministry would have ended in failure. But by acting in love, He turned tragedy into a success. Read verses 6-14.

When Herod's birthday was kept, the daughter of Herodias danced before them, and pleased Herod. Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask. And she, being before instructed of her mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger. And the king was sorry:

nevertheless for the oath's sake, and them which sat with him at meat, he commanded it to be given her. And he sent, and beheaded John in the prison. And his head was brought in a charger, and given to the damsel: and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came, and took up the body, and buried it, and went and told Jesus.

When Jesus heard of it, he departed thence by ship into a desert place apart: and when the people had heard thereof, they followed him on foot out of the cities. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

To get accurate insight into this situation, you must realize that John the Baptist had a closer kinship to Jesus in ministry than anyone else had.

John was not only his cousin, he was a Spirit-anointed prophet who understood Jesus far better than Jesus' immediate family or anyone else. He saw Jesus through the eyes of ministry.

When Jesus came to him at the River Jordan

to be baptized, John, by the Holy Spirit, recognized Who He was and said, "I shouldn't baptize You, You should baptize me." At that point, John was the only one who knew Who Jesus was and what He was called of God to do.

Jesus dearly loved John the Baptist. He was blessed because of him. He once said, "Never was there a greater prophet born of a woman than this man" (see Luke 7:28). You could tell by the way Jesus talked that John meant a great deal to Him.

So you can imagine how Jesus felt when the disciples reported to Him that John had been murdered. The circumstances surrounding his death couldn't have made it any easier to accept.

John's death was the result of a drunken party. He wasn't even given the dignity of being killed for political reasons. No! He was murdered at the request of an immoral woman because some ol'

boy shot his drunken mouth off! Then they brought his head out on a plate and displayed it publicly.

What mockery!

What would you do in such an emotionally taxing, grief-stricken situation? Probably the same thing Jesus did. When He heard the news, He went out to be alone.

But then something very strange happened.

When the people learned that He was out there, they followed Him.

What would your response be at that instant?

I've often thought what I would do. Most likely, I would say, "Can't you people ever leave me alone?

Can't I be alone just once without a bunch of people crowding me everywhere I go?" But that is not what Jesus did.

The Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion and healed their sick. He was not moved with grief for John. He was not moved with self-pity. He was not moved with anger against Herod. Jesus was only moved with compassion.

Why? Because He knew in the spirit realm that Satan was the real enemy in this situation.

I used to wonder why Jesus never retaliated. I wondered why He could just drop it and go. What I didn't realize was that Jesus did retaliate! He overcame the works of Satan with compassion. He defeated hatred with love.

Jesus knew that Herod was not really the one who slew John. He was just a puppet. Satan was the one who was pulling strings, so He attacked Satan in the spirit realm by destroying his works, the works of sickness and disease. He attacked pain and suffering with the compassion of God and healed and delivered those who were afflicted of the devil. Jesus retaliated against the real enemy, Satan. Don't you know that launching such an attack against Satan's kingdom was satisfying to Jesus!

You see, Jesus walked in the Spirit. He saw into the other realm; He saw into a world more real than the one which can only be seen with the physical eye. He stepped into that realm and did extensive damage to Satan's kingdom by being moved by the compassion of God.

Compassion doesn't just strike at the surface of things or relieve outward symptoms.

Compassion goes to the root of the problem, the devil and his works. And when you learn to be motivated by God's compassion, you realize that people are not your enemy. When other people come against you with persecution and affliction and accusations to harrass you and make your life miserable, you launch your attack against Satan because he is the real enemy.

If Jesus had allowed Satan to force Him into retaliating in the area of human emotions, He would have been trapped into physical warfare and that would have ruined His ministry. Operating in the flesh profits nothing. The Bible says that our warfare is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12).

How could Jesus react in love in such a murderous situation? Because He was moved by the Holy Spirit of God, COMPASSION Himself.

Jesus was motivated by LOVE. He reacted the way LOVE would react. God IS LOVE, and He always did only what the Father told Him to do.

Compassion is a person. Compassion is God Himself.

"But that was Jesus!" you say. "He had a direct line to the Father. I don't!" Oh, yes you do.

You have the ability, through the same Holy Spirit that indwelt Jesus, to be moved with compassion just as He was. Romans 5:5 tells us that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. All we have to do is make the decision to be motivated by His love rather than our own human feelings.

Love is not a feeling, and a feeling is not the evidence of love. Love is a person and action is the evidence. God is love (1 John 4:8). When the Bible said that Jesus was moved by compassion, it could have said that He was moved by God. He was not moved by the feeling of compassion, He was moved by Compassion Himself. Compassionthe Fathersent Him into the world, not to condemn it but to save it, praise God! Regardless of what anyone did to Him, Jesus was only moved with compassion for them.

Someone might say, "Well, if I did that people would walk all over me. If I turned the other cheek every time I was slapped, I'd be beaten to a pulp."