The Wideness in His Love
A study of 1 Corinthians 12:6
“There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.” (1 Corinthians 12:6, NIV)
“While there are many methods to bring God’s healing truth to people, it is the same God who orchestrates His team and whose power works to heal the heart — from sin.” (The Remedy)
Every translation I set side by side says the same thing a different way: the gifts differ, the ways of serving differ, the results differ — but the One behind all of it never does. Not a committee, not a system, one God, pouring Himself into as many shapes as there are people to receive Him.
Love and power in one person
Christ is love, and Christ is also all power — this is who He is, and how true love and might act together. On the night He received all power, He showed what that authority means by washing twelve dirty sets of feet. This was what was needed to reach twelve hard, stubborn hearts — men who needed healing that only He could bring.
Picture our loving Redeemer on His knees in front of us, washing our dirty feet. It looks different for each of us, because we are all so very different — but the need for Christ to touch our prideful heart, the same way He did for the twelve at the Last Supper, continues. This is the service Christ does when our eyes are open and we can finally see His love flowing toward us in waves of healing.
The twelve began to see this love that night. Christ touched each heart, and that short moment was a turning point for every man at the table. The realization that Christ came to serve, and calls us to serve, still needed to take root in their minds — but the seeds were planted, and over that eternity-shaking weekend those twelve men became the twelve apostles. They went from men who had known Christ for three years to men filled with His Spirit and His power — they were now the heart of Christ, and He could trust them to feed His sheep.
Broken on the Rock
At conversion, each soul must be broken on the Rock of Ages, Christ — a realization at the deepest level of who Christ is, an intimate closeness that will never again leave you. Because once you’ve seen it, you’d be a fool to turn your back on all He has done and is doing for your healing and re-creation.
Like John, you will have no words to express the love of Christ, and only be able to utter, “Behold” — see, understand. How can words ever paint the picture of this kind of love, a love that meets you exactly where you are, with the wisdom to know exactly how to reach your broken self and restore all the blackness that has filled your soul into the glory that is Christ? There are no words to express the height and the depth — the wideness in His love.
No soul uncalled
No soul will be lost that wants to be found. No soul will go uncalled who has no understanding of the needs eating away at their heart. No soul can escape the effects of the healing waves of Love crashing into their life, soaking into every hardened scar, every blocked-up area of the heart and mind. The fires of Love and Truth will heal you — they will break through to the very deepest, darkest parts of you, clear out all the badness, and restore your life to the glory Christ has lived and died to make your reality.
God the Father, our loving eternal Father, is the one who from eternity is constantly sending the power for every situation — just enough to heal, just what we need to bring the healing deep into our very being. He is Love. There is no shadow of turning with Him; He has always been Love, always for us. The truth of His amazing love is that His power surrounds us constantly — He is bathing us in healing oil to restore our souls.
The healing balm
Oil has the power to feed, to soften, to relax and open an area that is blocked with hardened, rock-like debris (Jeremiah 8:22). Christ provides the oils — the healing balm — for the work we must do, for the healing to happen. We cannot be made whole while sitting on our hands doing nothing; we must continue to provide the choice, the willingness to move forward with the healing. As we do for others, we are healed.
Christ is serving us with the truth we must understand — the truth will set you free, the truth of all He is and all He has done. This is applied to our hearts by the Holy Spirit and the power of the Father.
We are truly loved and wanted.
