The Vision by Rick Joyner
Episode 47
Purified Love
Simply wanting to prolong our conversation, I asked the next question that came to my mind, "Is it difficult for you and your husband to be here together?"
"Not at all," she responded. "All the relationships you have on earth are continued here. They are all purified by the judgment and by the fact that they are now spiritual, just as we are now spirit. The more you are forgiven, the more you love.
After we forgave each other, we loved each other more. Now our relationship is continuing in much greater depth and richness, because we are joint heirs of this salvation.
"As deep as the wounds were that we afflicted upon each other; that is how deep the love was able to reach when we were healed. We could have experienced this on earth but we did not learn forgiveness in time. If we had learned forgiveness, the competition that entered our relations and sidetracked our lives would not have been able to to take root in us. If you truly love, you will truly forgive. The harder it is for you to forgive, the further you are from true love. Forgiveness is essential, or you will stumble and stray the course chosen for you."
1 realized that this woman, who had brought me into such confrontation with the pain of my own depravity, was also the most attractive person I could ever remember meeting. It was not romantic attraction, but I just did not want to leave her. Perceiving my thoughts, she withdrew a step, indicating that she was about to go. But before leaving, she offered me some final insights.
The pure truth, spoken in pure love, will always attract," she said. "You will remember the pain you feel here, and it will help you through the rest of your life. Pain is good; it shows you where there is a problem. Do not try to reduce the pain until you find the problem. God's truth often brings pain as it highlights a problem that we have, but His truth will always show us the way to freedom, too. When you know this, you will even begin to rejoice in your trials, which are all allowed to help keep you on the path of life.
"Your attraction to me is not out of order. It is the attraction between male and female that was given in the beginning, which is pure in its original form. When pure truth is combined with pure love, men can be the men they were created to be without having to dominate women out of insecurity. Such domination is nothing but lust, which is the lowest depth to which love falls because of our sin. With true love, men become true men. Women, likewise, can be the women they were created to be, because their love has replaced their fear.
"Love will never manipulate or try to control out of insecurity, because love casts out all fear. The very place where relationships can be the most corrupted is also where they can be the most fulfilling, after redemption has worked in them. True love is a taste of heaven, and lust is the enemy's ultimate perversion of the glory of heaven. To the degree that you are free of lust on earth, you will begin to experience heaven."
"But I do not think I have felt any lust for you, or for anyone while I've been here," I mildly protested. "On the contrary, I was marveling that I could behold one with your beauty and not feel lust."
"That is because you are here. The light of His glory here casts out all darkness. But if you were not here, lust would be gripping you now," she said.
"I'm sure you are right. Can we ever be free from this terrible perversion on earth?" I begged.
"Yes. As your mind is renewed by the Spirit of Truth, you will not see relationships as opportunities to take from others, but to give. Giving provides the greatest fulfillment that we can ever know. The most wonderful human relationships are but fleeting glimpses of the ecstasy that comes when we give ourselves to the Lord in pure worship. What we experience in worship here your frail, unglorified body could not endure. The true worship of God will purify the soul for the glory of true relationships.
"Therefore, you must not seek relationships, but true worship. Only then can relationships start to be what they are supposed to be. True love never seeks to be first, or to be in control, but rather it takes the place of humble service.
If my husband and I had kept this in our marriage, we would be sitting next to the King now, and this great hall would be filled with many more souls."