Leading with Love

Leading with love is God’s way of life for all believers. This is not a leadership article. This is a way-of-life article. If you have been in our little organic community, you have heard me say this over and over again. As humans it is so easy to lead with anything that protects and helps us. Lose the camera and get hands on the problems of this world.

After years of interrogating everyone I met in the religious system to see if they could pass my biblical standards for association test, I have come to realize that true unity is based on love, not doctrine. Being inclusive and not exclusive is so freeing! Knowing we are all on a journey and freely giving grace as we have received grace is such a joy! So, why not lead with love?

Incarnating the Life of Christ

To lead with Love is to incarnate the very nature of Christ. Christ in us is the hope of Glory! We don’t have to make anything up; we just need to discern His will and do as He would do. The problem is that most of the modern church is gravely falling short and failing to incarnate Christ. The majority of the Church only has time for the Lord once a week for a couple hours at most. You cannot walk “In Christ” without living in Christ 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Real Christianity is not a spiritual add-on; it is our way of life. Leading with love is revealing Christ to a lost world as we go about in our daily lives.

Being Moved to Action by Love

God is the Ultimate Initiator. He always moves first on behalf of humanity. If God is Love, then God’s Love in us must move first on behalf of humanity.

For us it began with “For God so loved that He … “and was pictured for us in the Story of the Prodigal son. The Father began to fatten the calf for the return celebration and started to daily keep an eye out for the return of the son. This continued daily until one day, the Father saw him and before the son repented and was still far away, the Father runs out  to meet him and kisses him. Then it was given to us as a Bible text, “While we were yet sinners …” The Lord is always initiating His love on our behalf. Like Him, God’s people need to be initiators with His Love and not wait. Leading with love requires us to initiate.

Having No Agenda

Leading with love requires that you have no agenda. This is the virus of the religious system, and it was well hidden in me for many years. Everything I did had a purpose behind it, but in the end, it was always for my good. I told myself I was helping others, but in my deceived heart was the desire to be praised for the works I did with the poor and the underprivileged. I told my brain I was helping you, but if it cost me too much or if you didn’t come around to my way of thinking quick enough, I would exit you out of my world.

I wasn’t trying to lead with love. I was leading with my agenda. As soon as I broke free from others like myself, the Lord went to work on my heart. What a powerful scope the Holy Spirit is! Nothing was hidden anymore. Stuff still comes up almost daily. My heart is bare, and before my brothers, there is nothing I can hide. What is truly great is they love me so much, they are willing to tell me what they see that doesn’t look like Christ. The Body of Christ when fully functioning is a true safety net.

To the Saved and the Lost Alike

When people meet, they exchange names. In the old days your name meant something. When you gave your name, you declared your value to society. You represented your family name. Today our value is just a number by a credit bureau, and our names have been replaced by a social security number.

Like the change described above, the words for Christ and Church have been changed too. We as the representatives of the Lord Jesus and His Church have not adequately represented HIM. This continued misrepresentation has alienated many church folk and non-Christians alike.

We cannot fix this problem with words or bible verses. The problem is too real, and the pain is too deep. Only a Body of Christ that truly embodies the nature of Christ can bring them home. For that to happen we must love them where they are and in the condition they find themselves in. If they smell even the hint of judgment or self-righteousness, they will disconnect, detach, and delete. We must lead with love; there is no other way.

On July 16^th at 4:10 am the Lord woke me up to say;

“We will never disciple the lost unto salvation and care for the Body of Christ properly until we rightly discern the Lord’s Body. We must come to see the Lord in each one of us. We are not discerning the Lord’s Body correctly as long as we see them as just people we are ministering to. We must see them and receive them as the Lord Himself.”

This revelation above will revolutionize the Body of Christ!

Then the Lord reminded me of two bible verses;

Matt 25:40

 40 And the King will answer and say to them, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.” NKJV

Acts 9:4-5

4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. NKJV

Everyone wants to worship the Lord, but nobody wants to see His Body as Him. The religious system has never fully taught us the meaning of those words. The Lord says you are dealing with Him when you bless or mistreat the Body of Christ. The first disciples understood those words even though they had no Bibles. They had the living example of the mature leaders of the body walking out those words before them.

Leading with love is a lifestyle and one we do not do to be seen by others, but because we are moved by the same love that moves our Lord.

Do you understand what it means to lead with love? I leave you with these words;

Matt 6:3-4

3 When you help someone out, don’t think about how it looks. 4 Just do it — quietly and unobtrusively. That is the way your God, who conceived you in love, working behind the scenes, helps you out. MESSAGE Bible

Much Love,

Jose L. Bosque