Written for GanTV.com by Gan Editor Lisa Couture

Honey Love of God

“This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” 1 John 4:9“… so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. Then you, being rooted and grounded in love.” Ephesians 3:17

I remember the days that I first heard His voice. It was kind and gentle and had a draw to it like nothing I have ever experienced. I call it honey love. Why? Because it’s exactly how I experienced the love of Christ—oozing with warmth and very healing. My life has been completely undone ever since.

Only when I got caught up in what I perceive as a system (many call it religion) did I hear doctrines from people that completely contradicted the One I was coming to know by revelation. Over the years, it’s become frustrating; I grow weary when we substitute doctrines for the Person of Jesus Christ. We listen to people’s views and opinions over the intimacy of knowing Him. So many people I interact with stiffen up and don’t want to hear about the love of Jesus Christ because they’ve had awful experiences with people who claim to love God. But did they really? Or was it just Bible knowledge, doctrines of man, and denominational structures full of hierarchy—what I simply call the system—trying to explain God?

What we believe about our Creator, Progenitor, and Sustainer of all life matters. Jesus said, “This is eternal life (Zoe: the vitality and essence of living in the Christ-life), to know (gnosko: experiential intimacy) the One true God and His Son Jesus” John 17:3. I don’t hear Jesus talking about figuring Him out through a set of doctrines or denominational structures. What I hear is intimacy. He reveals Himself through His embrace and self-revelation. He is a self-revealing God. We experience this because of His doing, simply because He loves.

Intimacy Is In Christ

I came to know Jesus without a Bible, without knowing anything about doctrines, I had never heard of an atonement theory, and I couldn’t interpret a single scripture. But I heard His voice, and I experienced something—more fittingly, Someone—so overwhelmingly freeing, full of love and grace, like nothing I had ever known. While I was living blind to love, He drew me in to see and experience this Love, which I call honey.

Some days, I wish I had never known anything about what I believe is simply a system trying to figure out God and bridge the gap to get back to Him. Yet it is so simple that only man can mess this up because the truth is that He is simply love. He loves us. We are the apple of His eye and His beloved children. He even loves the people we believe don’t deserve it. This is Agape—love that isn’t about deserving. It’s completely contrary to how we’ve learned love, which is why we struggle to understand its depths.

He loves like no other and has mercy on those who commit heinous acts—not because He is aloof or permissive, but because He knows the truth about our original intent and design, understanding that these acts are the fruit of a lie. I mean, at the cross, people killed God. Can it get any more heinous than that? Yet, what was His response? The Great Release—He released mankind with forgiveness.

I Know Him! Honey Love of God

I remember a very upsetting time early on when I wanted to walk away from my faith because I bumped into a doctrine that made God seem like a hateful tyrant who only chooses some people. I had a fire inside me, being rooted and grounded in a love that had changed my life and motivated me to tell everyone how good God was and how much Jesus loved them, just as He loved me. And then—bam—I hit a doctrine. But it’s a doctrine created by man because I believe we don’t understand the depth of His Grace and Love, so we try to figure Him out.

He has always desired union. He has always desired a relational family. To know Him through intimacy—knowing, hearing, and yes, enjoying His Presence. He was pleased to release forgiveness because Agape love is different. It was for the joy set before Him. We can argue all day at the tree of knowledge, trying to figure Him out, but in the end, it’s a stumbling block to us, and we become stumbling blocks for others.

My dance with Jesus has always been an experience of deep love since coming to know Him. His presence lives in me, and His heart is for me. He is pleased with me, even when I’ve fallen short of my authenticity or done something contrary to my true nature. He picks my chin up and reveals, again and again, that His nature is to love me still. He reminds me that He is for me, will never leave me, and isn’t looking to punish me or cut me off but to fix my gaze back onto Him. He gently whispers, ‘That’s not who you are,’ and I experience His Grace, which causes me to melt. Grace is beautiful. Jesus Christ, the flesh embodiment of all Grace and Truth, is our healing and safety. He is kind and patient. He is all life-giving.

I won’t ever allow anyone—whether it’s someone with a master’s in theology, a seminary degree, or an evangelist yelling threats on the street—to convince me otherwise. I am firmly rooted and grounded in love. I will never let anyone tempt me to try to ‘figure Him out’ as anything different. And I will never listen to another whisper of doubt that tries to pull me into fear with that same whisper from the beginning, ‘Did God really say? I am rooted and grounded in honey love.

He has brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love. (Song of Solomon 2:4)

God is Love and nothing else. I am joined to Him and dwell safely in His house of wine. But please, do not mistake this Love for a humanistic love—that’s eros, conditional, and based on us. No, He is Agape, unconditional in nature, yet fiercely jealous because His ultimate desire is for each one of us to come away with Him and to know Him as He is truly known.

Hear His whisper in your heart, ‘Let me show you Who I am, and let me love you,’ Abba.