The First Commandment given to mankind to follow focused on Love:
Mark 12: 28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment." NKJV
In this passage, Mark included " with all your strength" whereas Matthew 22 omitted this phrase. When you add strength to the answer, you have removed any question of whether your actions are included in this Commandment. Strength represents activity, focus, resources, and intent. Our strength is our most fundamental attribute available for each of us to carry out an action. Our life’s focus should be directed toward Loving Our Heavenly Father with our complete being. Who deserves more Love and attention than our Creator?
Jesus divided our individuality into heart, soul, mind, and strength (body). He left no aspect of our individual being out. There can be no question of the importance of this First Commandment. When you love somebody, do you want to spend time with them? Do you focus your efforts toward making them happy and fulfilled? How much more should we focus our strength and resources to fulfill this First Commandment!
Our soul represents our individuality and survives physical death. We make our decisions within our soul and John encourages us in this area:
3 John 2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. NKJV
Our soul can prosper and be purified by pursuing the fullness of Love:
1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever. NKJV
Peter establishes our individual accountability for oversight of our souls. Purifying the soul is done by obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere Love. Our hearts must be pure. Those with a pure heart shall be blessed and see GOD (Matthew 5:8) We must focus our strength on the purification aspect of our walk. We must steer away from those situations that place our soul at risk of further temptation to walk according to the worldly lusts. We must overcome the temptations just as Jesus overcame the temptations in the wilderness. Be assured that the tests will come and you will continue to be tested in the area until you have finally overcome that aspect of weakness.
You must purify your soul by obeying the Truth. How do you find out what the Truth is in a matter? By hearing Our Heavenly Father’s voice. When Jesus gave the scribe the answer to his question, He began by saying "Hear, O Israel". We must learn to hear Our Heavenly Father’s voice. We must quiet our soul, our mind, and our body to hear. We must turn our focus away from our "self" and place the focus on HIM.
Our mind’s job is to solve problems in an analytical and logical way. It records and administers information and facts as needed. When we give our mind a problem, it focuses on solving it. It will work on the problem while we are sleeping. It is a great servant when we keep it in perspective to serve us. Logical thinking in the mind analyzes the facts and predicts or projects patterns, consequences, and results. Without Spiritual insight, the mind will take you on a path based on observed patterns and signs. There are signs everywhere, and the mind will use the body’s full senses to observe and identify signs to support its logical conclusions.
Problems arise when we give or assign power to our mind rather than our heart. If given an opportunity, our mind will create problems to solve. It will move you to a life of greater complexity, and ultimately you will become a servant to that complexity, and you will become subject to it as a taskmaster. You will place yourself under the service of the created rather than the Creator. The ultimate path is toward bondage when you submit to control of the mind.
An example of complexity is man’s government. There are thousands upon thousands of laws and statutes to deal with all types of issues. If mankind operated in Love, there would be a need for only two Commandments, both centering around Love. The mind does not promote Love, it responds to whatever you guide it towards life and simplicity or death and complexity.
You will decide where your power resides. You will become a servant to Love or logic, life or death:
Psalm 26:2 Examine me, O LORD, and prove me; Try my mind and my heart.
You give power and authority either to your heart or your mind. The one you give that power to will develop and strengthen and then one will serve the other. The stronger one will determine your priorities in life. Your heart can perceive the Law of Abundance and infinity. This law comes from the Divine Intent of Love. You can look up at the stars and the galaxies and comprehend the vastness of Our Heavenly Father’s creation. You begin to realize that scarcity is simply a perception created by the mind’s conclusion drawn from the limited facts gained by observation of the senses. The mind will always lead you toward the Law of Scarcity. Why? You only rely on limited senses rather than tapping into the wisdom, understanding, and knowledge from Above. As you move away from the power of the mind and strengthen your heart’s connection with the Spirit, you will begin to hear Our Heavenly Father’s voice, and HE will open your eyes to HIS vastness:
Psalm 138:1 I will praise You with my whole heart;
Before the gods I will sing praises to You.
2 I will worship toward Your holy temple,
And praise Your name
For Your lovingkindness and Your truth;
For You have magnified Your word above all Your name.
3 In the day when I cried out, You answered me,
And made me bold with strength in my soul. NKJV
Job was given a corrective interview by Elihu about the limitations of his mind and perception:
Job 37: 14 “Listen to this, O Job;
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
15 Do you know when God dispatches them,
And causes the light of His cloud to shine?
16 Do you know how the clouds are balanced,
Those wondrous works of Him who is perfect in knowledge?
17 Why are your garments hot,
When He quiets the earth by the south wind?
18 With Him, have you spread out the skies,
Strong as a cast metal mirror?
Our Heavenly Father is perfect in knowledge so why should we pursue man’s incomplete knowledge and understanding when we have a Father who wants to instruct us personally? We must move our minds back to a position of service and let our heart prevail to command our path toward the fullness of Love. We determine what input the mind receives: positive or negative, blessing or cursing, health or sickness.
As a man thinks, so is he (Proverbs 23:7). We control what our mind thinks. We expose our mind to outside stimuli, and thus we decide our own path.
This effort is a process and is continual. We are accountable for our own mind, its content and it focus. Our mind will be self-serving toward the world or will be selfless in submitting to the Spirit. It is your decision. Paul states it like this:
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
To prove means to test, examine, and scrutinize, to recognize as genuine, or to deem worthy. Our mind does a fine job of analyzing and assessing. It will come to logical conclusions based on the information and facts provided to it. We must feed it the right information for it to function properly. If you never study Scripture, how can you know the good, acceptable, or perfect will of Our Heavenly Father? If you never spend time in your prayer closet, upon what revelation are you acting? You were led to this writing because your spirit needs a greater revelation of Love. I was led by the Holy Spirit to write this book for the very same reason.
Most of us have heard that our health is affected by our mind. Our mind is where our memory primarily resides. However, memory is functional in the body as well. Cells have memory, organs have memory, but our mind is where the primary clearinghouse resides. When our mind processes bitterness, it has a negative impact on the body. The immune system no longer functions properly. Cancer may form due to embedded bitterness over a loved one. Bitterness usually begins with words spoken in an unloving fashion. The mind processes these words and then begins to affect the bodily functions. The body develops a chemical imbalance, and then those renegade cells become active. As you renew your mind, you begin to deal with the embedded unforgiveness and bitterness in your body. Your physical body begins to recover and return to normal in response to the renewing of your mind. How long are you going to postpone the renewing of your mind? Give it up! Do you think you can Love Our Heavenly Father fully and completely and still hold a grudge? It’s not going to happen.
The soul is mentioned separately in the First Commandment. The soul is the total essence of all aspects of your love, awareness, experience and potential, emotions, abilities, gifts, and calling. Your soul is unique and special to you. In Isaiah 38, King Hezekiah was near death and without an heir. In Isaiah 38, Isaiah the prophet was led by the Word of the LORD to tell him to set his house for he would soon die. In response, Hezekiah spoke:
2 Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the LORD, 3 and said, “Remember now, O LORD, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what is good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. NKJV
In HIS great mercy and grace, Our Heavenly Father responded:
4 And the word of the LORD came to Isaiah, saying, 5 “Go and tell Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will add to your days fifteen years. NKJV
This was great news, Our Heavenly Father responds to our prayers and intervenes on our behalf. Prayer changes things. Hezekiah later admits to bitterness and its removal:
Isaiah 38:17 "Lo, for my own welfare I had great bitterness; It is You who has kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, For You have cast all my sins behind Your back." NASB
As we submit ourselves to Our Heavenly Father, the solutions to our issues come forth and change the course of our life. We must protect our mind from dwelling on the wrong information that originates from the world apart from Our Heavenly Father.
Our heart is where our connection with Our Heavenly Father resides. It is at the center of our being. It is our spirit and should be in command of our daily walk. As we continually acknowledge this connection with Our Heavenly Father, our Love will mature. When you Love somebody, you want to spend quality time with them, and you want to expend your resources on them. As you spend quality time focused on Our Heavenly Father, your life will abound, your health will improve, and you will gain peace in your life:
Proverbs 4: 20 My son, give attention to my words;
Incline your ear to my sayings.
21 Do not let them depart from your eyes;
Keep them in the midst of your heart;
22 For they are life to those who find them,
And health to all their flesh.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life. NKJV
This first great Commandment is given for our benefit by a Loving Father who has your best interest at heart. Don’t delay in altering your walk if you have failed to honor HIM first and foremost. Jesus said " the LORD our God, the LORD is one. " There is none other. Don’t let any aspect of your life be allowed to distract you from this most primary Truth spoken by our Lord.