E Squad at a soccer field in Tegucigalpa!
LOVE.
Before I left for the World Race, I received a revelation from the Lord on LOVE. I learned I was MADE TO LOVE Jesus.
Well, now I am getting a revelation about the second part of LOVE. Love everyone around you as you love yourself. Which is funny because I thought I already knew how to love, but God is revealing to me that I don’t even fully understand what LOVE means.
I can see myself standing before Father God, and He isn’t asking me “How many people did you share the gospel with? How many prophetic dreams or visions did you have? How many poor children did you help feed?” He is asking me, “Trena, did you learn to love? Did you learn to love everyone around you with the love that I have for you?”
If I cannot get a grip on that kingdom kind of LOVE, then nothing I do for the kingdom will matter.
“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not LOVE, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but have not LOVE, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to flames, but have not LOVE, I gain nothing.” 1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
It’s easy for me to love the people that I want to love. Back home, it’s easy for me to love my family and friends. It was easy for me to love my patients in the hospital or kids at the Dream Center. It’s easy for me to love the boys here in Honduras that are addicted to drugs and paint thinner. It was easy for me to love the drunken men in El Salvador.
You know what has been hard for me? To love the people on my team and my squad with a deep 1 Corinthians 13 love.
This month in Honduras, all 44 of us are living together in one building. I do love all the people on my squad, but I am learning that it’s not always with a kingdom, Father God love. Sometimes it’s a love from my weak flesh that doesn’t love with the fullness of 1 Corinthians 13.
Since we are all living together this month and are around each other 24/7, I have to learn how to love all different kinds of personalities. Back home, if I didn’t really mesh with someone then I just wouldn't spend a majority of my time with him or her; however, on the World Race you don’t really have that option. You don’t get the choice of picking your teammates. God picks them for you, and He says, “I want you to learn to truly LOVE my son or daughter the way that I do. You cannot run away because it’s hard. You cannot run away because it’s uncomfortable. I want to show you how to LOVE.”
Today, we had church as a squad and one of the squad leaders shared on 1 Corinthians 13. He talked about how we have to humble ourselves and really love our brothers and sisters on the squad to move as one body with the fullness of power that God has for us.
He talked about how we are all at different places spiritually, and we have let it create division. Let me give you the example God revealed to me.
Before the race, my friends and I were all learning and desiring to move in the supernatural power of God through the Holy Spirit. We were all hungry for God. We knew the power of prayer and the authority we carried. Coming into the Race, I was pumped for our team assuming that we would all be at that same place. I got here, and everyone wasn’t ready for all of that. Selfishly, I got frustrated. I thought, “Well, I know that I am going to pray for miracles and if no one else wants to do it then I will do it alone or with the few who will with me.” It’s frustrating to me that the enemy uses good things of God to bring division. Because I thought I was doing what God called me to do, but it did create division on our team. Some were open to the fullness of the Holy Spirit and others just got freaked out.
So last month I found myself thinking, “God, I just want to love and serve you and the people in El Salvador. I am tired of dealing with all of this team crap. Why did you call me on a mission trip where it seems like most of the ministry that needs to be done is with me and my team?” I was seriously ready on some days to leave the race and move to another country to serve and love the people there, but I knew God was working on me.
Now looking back to last month, I realize that God never would have wanted me to leave my team. Division is not the heart of Father God, but the strategy of the enemy. God has a heart of unity. He wants me to go back and fight for my team, not to leave them behind. And I am not saying that spiritually speaking I have more to offer than my team, because I don’t. I have learned so much from them already. But we cannot leave each other behind if we want to function as a body. We have to humble ourselves and help each other grow in their gifts to move as one body. “Love does not envy.” I cannot go around wishing I had everyone else’s spiritual gifts. I must realize that they have what I lack, and together we can bring the fullness of Heaven to earth.
If we aren’t moving as one unified body, how are we pleasing the LORD?
How can we bring the fullness of the kingdom on earth if we don’t LOVE the people we are doing ministry with, like truly LOVE them with 1 Cor. 13, Father God love?
It won’t happen.
On a larger scale, our entire generation needs to move together as one body of believers. Especially the closer we get to the end. Imagine if as a generation we all built each other up in our spiritual gifts instead of envied them. A body of believers that didn’t operate out of selfish motives or harbor bitter judgments. How much stronger would we be? How many more battles would we win? Walking in UNITY. Satan can do nothing to a body of unified believers that are pouring out the Father’s love.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” 1 Cor. 13: 4-7
This kind of love is the love I desire for every person on my squad. This is the kind of love that I desire to have for every person I come in contact with. My new lifetime goal is to learn to love the way Father God has called me to love. Not the way that Trena thinks people should be loved.
After the race, I will be blown away by all the different types of people that I will know how to love. I won’t have to avoid the people that are hard for me to love anymore. Praise Jesus!
“And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
Faith, hope, miracles, healings, prophecies, and speaking in tongues won’t exist in Heaven.
Love is all that remains.
LOVE NEVER FAILS.
Fernando (one of the boys living with Tony and Nydia) and Mario (one of the boys around the neighborhood). God is transforming them!
