Note: This is a guest post from my good friend, Kathy DeGraw, from Kathy DeGraw Ministries. She is a great teacher, genuine and loves God with all her heart.

Kathy DeGraw

What is love and how do we truly exhibit love?

I think we all go on these love craves where we desire to show God’s love as much as we can.  We have an encounter with love and want to pour out love every second we get and then we then don’t pour out His love as well as we should.  I believe God’s love becomes a fad like a W.W.J.D. bracelet.  They were a hot item for a while and probably made the creator a lot of money; however then they wore out naturally and spiritually.

Aren’t we supposed to be all about God’s love? The first place we can start being about God’s love is in the home.  How can we show God’s love in the world if we are not showing it in our own home?  What does this mean?  Spending time with your loved ones. In the day and age of modern technology we are in the room with each other, but are we with each other?  No.  We have our laptops on, phones within reach and a movie or video game on the TV screen.  How is this showing love?

What about getting irritated with our family members?  Should we snap, get angry, have sharp tones and comments and get irritated with what another person said or did? Is that truly showing God’s love?  I think that is where the WWJD bracelets come in. How would Jesus react to another family member?  The answer is with love.

We need to learn how to extend and be love to those people who sometimes “drive us nuts” “we can’t stand to be around” or “drain us emotionally.” Why do we even feel that way about “those” people?  I was talking to the Lord recently about what the world would label, “high maintenance people who we need to extend a little extra grace.” The people who don’t seem to want to do anything for themselves or ask you to pray for them all the time.  How many times do you want to shout back at them PRAY FOR YOURSELF—YOU HAVE TWO LIPS AND A TONGUE!  In all seriousness, why do we get irritated with them?  Because we do not love enough, we do not love like Jesus loves.

When will we get back to the place of compassion and love? Of pouring ourselves out on people and TRULY serving them and being a channel of love. When will we do it right? When will we love like Jesus loved? When will we be a stream of constant love?

You know why those people do the things they do to us above? Because they need love.  They are hurting, lonely, rejected, insecure, inferior, and they need love. They need someone to pour into them. They need someone to invest in them and to say, “You know what, you are valued, loved and you are important to me.” They should be important to you,because they are God’s children! Aren’t you supposed to love like He loves?

I challenge you to be love. You know who that person is that maybe you would rather have not bug you so much, perhaps you would be happy if they were not in your life? I want you to love them abundantly! I want you to make them your love assignment. Be nice to them.  Go out of your way to love on them and pray for them. Pray that God would give them a love encounter and that they would receive the love of God that comes through other people in their lives.

Make it a practice and a way of living to out love the other person. Think about how much you are loved. I want you to pour that much love out, that you out love the next person who loved on you. Yes, a love mission!  Learn to out love the next person. Learn to be love.  And when you think you accomplished your mission, when you think you have achieved love, ask the Lord to help you love even more, because it’s all about L-O-V-E!

Kathy DeGraw is passionate about releasing the love and power of God to empower people!  She uses her prophetic anointing and the love and power of God to strengthen, teach, set the captives free, and equip believers to experience the fullness of God.  Kathy is a dynamic speaker!  Full of energy and enthusiasm, she releases the love and fire of the Holy Spirit on her audience, leaving them hungering for more of the Lord! She is passionate about prayer and fasting and has over 15 years’ experience in teaching, leading, and organizing prayer, healing rooms, and services. She believes in the power of declaration, warfare prayer, and empowering people to pray.  Kathy, along with her husband, Pastor Ron, have also been directors of an International Healing Room.