I agree!! Love is the greatest gift.. Also I wonder why Paul would say love is the greatest gift.. God is love... So is to be understood that Love is the greatest manifestation of working of Holy Spirit in our lives? The other reason which I think is, the other gifts will have to operate hand in hand with love.. We cannot pray for healing of a person without love! We have to feel the burden for the other person, which will come only through love.. Your thoughts on this?
I agree!! Love is the greatest gift.. Also I wonder why Paul would say love is the greatest gift.. God is love... So is to be understood that Love is the greatest manifestation of working of Holy Spirit in our lives? The other reason which I think is, the other gifts will have to operate hand in hand with love.. We cannot pray for healing of a person without love! We have to feel the burden for the other person, which will come only through love.. Your thoughts on this?
I think this verse tells us a lot.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
Someone can have faith without love, but as the verse says they are nothing.
I think that it is important to remember however, that our words and what they are spoken from actually creates a manifested energy. God spoke everything into existence by love and faith, so he was able to say everything was good. Likewise when we have faith combined with love, we are open to God's power being expressed through us in a much more dramatic way. The more we submit to God the more love becomes our reality. What is God's faith? His faith is in love and he never waivers from having faith in love.
We know "God is love" (1 John 4:8). If we look at a little more of the verses in 1st Corinthians 13 we actually see what that means:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.
This has a close correlates with the fruit of the Spirit:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22-23).
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear" (1 John 4:18).
Someone can have faith and not be in fear, but not have love, but someone who has perfect love naturally has faith.
When we think about what is the healing, what is the blessing, what is the need that is met, we know that these things from God are love. So yes when we are praying with love we are actually allowing ourselves to unite to God in his perfect love through His Spirit in us and uniting with His perfect faith which is in His Spirit within us.