By Kathy Nicholson
I was reflecting today on how many times at our Diamonds conference God has poured out His love to me so unconditionally and met me exactly where I was at. I have come to Diamonds to lead worship, be a prayer partner or register you lovely ladies in and I have come totally broken not sure if I have anything to bring. In whatever season I have found myself, God has always refreshed and restored me; envisioned and loved me all the time arming me with all that I needed to move forward.
This year I know will be no exception! In my heart this is what I hear the Father saying to His precious daughters “Will you let me love you in a way that is beyond all you could dream or imagine?”
Do you know that you cannot be fully strong until you know how fully loved you are? The struggles and battles of this life, especially those that have been there for a long time often cause us to subconsciously build walls of survival around our hearts which over time clouds the love of God from full sight and casts shadows on the truth of His love for us personally.
This is how I found myself not so long ago. God showed me that even though I knew He loved me I had begun to doubt the unconditional nature of that love for me in my life and He told me strongly that I needed to put my faith to work and purposefully start believing the love He had for ME again. He took me to 1 John 4 verses 16 – 18 in the amplified version and showed me that I needed to grow this love again and bring it on to maturity. As I studied Gods covenant love in the bible He showed me that His love is like a curtain pole which everything else hangs from and that if my love walk wasn’t straight and strong everything else I was trying to believe for and do would just slide off and not work (faith won’t work apart from love). He also spoke to me about walking on the love line like a painted line on a road, that if I strayed off it with my thoughts or words I should just recognise it and get back on the love line again.
God is also good at melting those walls down too – not long after working with these things I woke up early one morning to hear my spirit singing inside me the old hymn ‘my Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine’ a song I had not thought of for many years. As I began to join in and sing out loud those walls I had put up to protect myself just came tumbling down and I found myself abandoned in worship in a way I had not experienced for quite some time. I found out later that this song was written by a teenager called William Featherstone after he became a Christian in 1864 originally as a poem which he called ‘a legacy of love’ His legacy had melted my heart.
Please join us at the Diamonds conference this October and let the Father who is love, love you just where you are at.
