Luke 15:20

And He arose and came to his father. When he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on (embraced) his neck and kissed him.

- The father SAW the prodigal son- God's view of Him people
- The father FELT COMPASSION for the prodigal son- God's tenderness for His people
- The father RAN TOWARDS the prodigal son- God's action and initiative for His people
- The father EMBRACED the prodigal son- God's affection for His people
- The father KISSED the prodigal son- God's desire for nearness with His people.

We engage in spiritual warfare by proclaiming God's Word as darkness assaults our hearts. We MUST RENEW OUR MIND.
Re- align Your soul to God's Word.
In difficult circumstances, we actively rejoice in God and confess His loving leadership instead of sinking in anxiety. In failure we confess His love as we believe in His tender mercy instead of wallowing in condemnation. There is NO condemnation in Christ Jesus. We will not accept the accusations of the enemy. Satan tells many they are rejected by God so they run from God instead of to Him in weakness. The Lord is good and His mercies endures forever.

He does not discover our sin because we do. He is aware of it when He declares His love for us. God did not over commit Himself to love us without first understanding the gravity of sin. We think that because we are surprised by our sin then surely God must also be surprised. If He is surprised with the new information about us than we fear that He may want to renegotiate our relationship with Him or that He is reconsidering His love for us. To consistantly grow spiritually requires that we know that we are lovely to God while we are in the process of discovering the darkness of our heart. God's motivation to love us comes from within His heart, not from our promises to never fail in a given area.
A closed spirit says, "Jesus, I love You but please forgive me and do not reject me. In other words they continually negotiate their relationship with God while they worship Him. I know I sin, but You are ravished over me. This is a powerful place of confidence. It empowers us to run TO God instead of FROM Him while we stumble.
Sinful people are made lovely in God's side because of what Jesus did, not because of what we do.
His heart is towards you and not against you. He desires you (John...)

(these are some notes I wrote down last week from a bible study of song of songs form Mike Bickle)