But The Greatest of These is Love

By Dennis Perkins

And the Greatest of These Is Love is an adventure into learning about the very heart of God, concerning not only man plurally but man and woman singularly/individually. God has an individually-drafted plan, which is specifically detailed for each one of us. Many of us tend to have our own plans for our lives already mapped out before we begin to pursue them. God has a plan set forth for each of us that always involves others because he has a heart for people. He so wants us to have his heart through the reestablishment and total restoration of intimacy in relationship to himself and man (plural). This book will give instances that will cause the reader to do an inspection of their own heart regarding motives, purpose, and pursuits. God is exposing the motives of our hearts in order to weed out that which chokes out his word, which is the truth. Facts are great to have in our daily lives because they may create a sometimes-safe structure but can also disengage the heart while connecting with our intellect. The truth is far greater than what is factual. This book focuses upon God's word, which is truth. Jesus says in John 17:17: "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Allow the words of this book to speak to your heart, not your head. This book will begin to take you to a fresh place of determination to see yourself as a son or daughter of God! This is our Father's intention being communicated through the pages of this book. It will give you another angle of spiritual insight into God's love which already abides in every true believer. Now, in you abides faith, hope, and love; but of these three, the greatest is love!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 28, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645691914

Dennis Perkins

DENNIS PERKINS is the author of Leading at The Edge and CEO of Syncretics Group, a consulting firm dedicated to helping leaders and teams thrive under conditions of adversity, uncertainty, and change. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, he successfully completed his first Sydney Hobart Race in 2006. JILLIAN B. MURPHY is the Director of Client Services at Syncretics.

Book preview

Where Is the Love?

In the year of 1987, I accompanied the woman that I would eventually marry (Deborah Norwood) to church for a Wednesday night bible study. To my earnest surprise, I literally did not return home the same man that I was when I left. I honestly planned to go home and drink a cold beer afterwards, but my plans were abruptly changed by an encounter with the Holy Spirit! From what turned out to be a life-altering two hours, I never looked back at the old way of living. I was, for the first time, in love with the one who saved me from my sins, Jesus Christ. There was a new appreciation; and as I grew in knowledge and by the Spirit, I grew in my love walk. I learned forgiveness and patience. I learned how to have faith for healing, prophecy, and having an unrelenting trust in God and ministry through his gifts. I began to take hold of the importance of praying in the Spirit and hearing from the Lord through his word in my quiet time with him.

It was not long before I noticed that more emphasis was beginning to be placed on getting things by faith and confessing scripture to manifest the power of God. I heard less and less about the fruit of the Spirit and more about acquisition of things through faith. Where was the love? we thought. We would hear messages on love, but there seemed to be less focus due to the needs of the ministry. It was understood that there were usually financial constraints which played a role in altering the focus of messages and methods of outreach. Although it was well-meaning and understood, church congregations suffered throughout the nation due to some spiritual needs not being met. Don’t get me wrong. We enjoyed giving and gained much from our participation, but it was not always to get something in return. Giving had become our first nature because we wanted to please the Lord, not man. If Jesus said for us to give, then we wanted to obey Him (Luke 6:38). I vastly appreciate all of my many pastors, teachers, and other ministry gifts that spent hours in the presence of God and his word to bring us anointed teaching throughout the years. Without them, I would not be here today. I believe that the church as a whole lost its way for a time. Now there is an awakening like never before that is setting things in order as we go back to the basics of walking in the fruit of the Spirit found in Galatians 5:22–23.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

We will walk in greater spiritual authority through the reactivation of the gifts of the Spirit found in 1 Corinthians 12:7–10.

But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal.

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit:

To another faith by the same Spirit: to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit:

To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues.

I am proud to be associated with ministries that are uncompromising in their efforts to encourage the local congregations to live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:25). With the fruit of the Spirit in operation, along with the activation of the gifts of the Spirit, the church and its individual members will operate in greater spiritual maturity and in the power to minister to one another, as well as those outside of their boundaries or walls! What a combination!

Have Good Motives

Months after my wife Deborah’s transition into eternal glory, God has demonstrated his goodness and mercy to me in so many ways. He is doing so by increasing my desire and earnest efforts to walk in more love, joy, and peace. I have also witnessed a stronger unction to walk in the Spirit. Of course, I am not perfected in walking in these things, but I do find myself submitting to the Spirit’s influence upon my life in a greater way. I also am committed to carry out the mission of Deborah’s and my ministry together. That is to reach people for the kingdom of God with the love that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I desire to be enlarged in my abilities to express the word and spirit of the Father. My wife was always cognizant of vision and purpose because she knew that without a vision, people perish just as they do for lack of knowledge. She was a stickler for reading, quoting, writing, and listening to scriptures. She wanted to flood herself with the word of God in order to renew her thinking. In the first five years that I knew her, she was sweet, outgoing, and struggled a little with the emotional aftermath of a personal relationship that she had been involved in. The circumstances that both she and I came out of were not supportive for any level of immense spiritual development. Therefore, it required taking different measures and new sources to build our spiritual identity.

At the end of our five-year hiatus, there was a noticeably distinct difference in the person that I had met prior to my encounters with her in 1987. She seemed to have a more defined destiny and greater substance than before. She possessed clarity and purpose that I had not witnessed in previous years. I believe that what I saw both intrigued and convicted me to want more of what she seemed to have, and that was the Lord. I not only wanted more. I felt a readiness to dive in and pursue this new way of living. God used her mightily to show me his great love for me. He was presenting himself to me in a face-to-face encounter through a woman that was truly not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. She absolutely would not compromise. I already felt that I loved her from the beginning but came to eternally appreciate her for personally showing me God’s unrelenting love while leading and mentoring me in the ways of the Lord.

I came to the point in my life where I couldn’t get enough of God nor enough of being around Deborah, so I asked her to marry me. I wanted to live the rest of our lives together, learning, loving, growing in our spiritual maturity, and mentoring others as they began to walk in the Spirit.