Lesson 9. Acknowledging the Need

The human being was created by Love for love. Humanity was created in the image and likeness of God. The Creator placed the law of love within every cell of our being. But by sinning, humanity lost the harmony of love, and selfishness entered our world.

We are born into this world having inherited from our first parents a sinful nature in which God’s love cannot dwell at the same time.

But God has a plan for each of us. God gave His Son in order, through Him, to reveal His character to people and restore it within them. With Christ’s death and resurrection, this plan came into effect.

Agape love became available to everyone who believes in the Son of God. Immediately before His death, Jesus gave us the commandment to love one another, opening the way to this Eternal love. It can come quietly and unnoticed and, having fulfilled its purpose, depart just as quietly. It can be requested for special occasions, used for good, and forgotten. It can modestly settle in a person’s heart and wait for the hour when it has an opportunity to manifest its power, yet remain unused throughout that person’s entire life. Love waits for a person to understand that it exists, that it is available, and that it can be possessed. It is not granted for perpetual use merely because a person was born into this world. Love is conditional in its reception and is obtained in all its fullness only by those who have believed in Jesus and acknowledged Him as their Savior and Lord, by those who desire to live according to the rules of Eternal life in obedience to God and His law.

Yet despite all its strength and authority to accomplish whatever it desires, love waits for a person to exercise the will through the decision and desire to love—the desire to possess this great power for victory over sin and personal selfishness.

God has a great abundance of love, and He desires to endow everyone with its power, but He cannot do this without the person’s consent.

We need to ask and understand what we are asking for. We must thirst for this love. At the same time, it is very important to realize that if I ask for this power as a feeling, if I desire to sense its presence, then I will receive exactly what I ask for—but not at all what Agape Love actually is. On the other hand, if I thirst to have the One Who is Love and also desire to receive the power to love, then I receive this in all its fullness.

I have nothing. I can only acknowledge this. But acknowledgment alone does not give me the right to receive. Only when I realize my poverty and my need for this power, when I thirst and desire with all my heart to have this gift of God in Jesus, and when I ask God for it, will I receive what was promised, because the Most High will not be able to resist such a request.

The principle is this: whoever thirsts for the Son will receive everything together with Him.

The one who receives the Son but does not thirst for love may lose both Him and love.

I want to be understood correctly. I will give an illustration. Two young people, a man and a woman, fell in love and decided to have an intimate relationship. Outside of marriage, this is called fornication. They wanted to do everything correctly, so they married and received one another. Time passed, and the young couple understood that they had an intimate relationship, but there was no love. Where there is no love, problems begin. Where there are problems, there appear those who are right and those who are guilty. The spouses live with this burden while dreaming of happiness. Yet the essence of marriage does not consist in receiving each other’s body and a helper for life, building a house, or having children. It consists in the deep and intimate knowledge of the person with whom you live. Without this knowledge, it is difficult to build a harmonious relationship. When I understand that my spouse is seriously interested in me as a person and is doing everything possible to understand and discover me more fully, I begin to open myself and to discover my spouse. We become one whole. Our love for one another acquires strength and constancy. It becomes desirable. When I love my life companion, I trust, and then I know how I can love my neighbors and enemies.

This does not come unexpectedly or by accident. A person must strive for it, make an effort, and do everything possible to build the little house of happiness. Those who have or have had families will understand me.

Now let us apply these reflections to our relationship with Christ. Do I need His power working through love, or do I need Him Himself? Do I want to become the possessor of agape, or do I desire a close relationship with Jesus—to know Him as a Friend, as Lord, as my Savior and Husband? What do I need? What do I thirst for?

To receive from God the power to overcome and then tell others about this victory, while remaining weak and defenseless for future battles, is not a very good prospect. But if I have the One Who is my strength, my victory, and my love, then I have the opportunity to be victorious in every war.

What, then, should I ask for? I should ask for what my soul thirsts for. I may ask for the gift, or I may ask for the Giver—or first ask for thirst for this gift. But do I thirst for anything?

The very fact that I have enrolled in the School of Agape Love gives me an advantage in receiving this Love and learning to use it. The status of a student gives God special authority to teach me this love by endowing me with this power. The Lord is the true Teacher. But everything begins with personal prayer to my God. Acknowledging that there is no love within me, that I have a great need for agape love, for Jesus, and for the knowledge of the Eternal One is, in God’s eyes, very convincing evidence that He needs to give this to me. God has already promised to give it to those who thirst and to pour it upon the parched ground. And He will fulfill His word.

The Lord is waiting for my prayers. He waits in order to give. He longs to see the parched ground so that He may pour upon it. When my desire unites with His will, I receive what I ask for and thirst for.

Love comes quietly, but faith sees it and rejoices, carefully receiving it and beginning to use it. Jesus becomes so dear and close that no one else is needed, because no one better than Him exists. Yet He seems to say that it is not good for man to be alone: “I will give you those to whom you will give My love and whom you will raise to a happy life. Ask for more, and you will receive.”

What should I do? Ask. This is the next step of faith.

1. Please read Isaiah 44:3; 45:3; 55:1; Matthew 5:3; Revelation 21:6; John 7:37–38; and Matthew 7:7–8 in the light of our lesson.

2. What did you understand from this lesson?

3. Does your soul thirst for love?

4. What prevents a person from receiving the gift of love?

5. Have you understood the difference between asking in prayer for the gift of love and asking for the Giver of love?