Translation from Spanish
[1 John 4:7-8] Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
My beloved, says the Lord, remember what happened that day on the cross. I gave Myself fully for you, holding nothing back, offering My body in a painful and terrifying way on that cross.
My beloved, says Jesus, I have walked among My people, observing your relationships, and I have seen a great lack of love. I have seen and I know that many who have given themselves to their neighbor in love, in many different ways, later regretted having given that love.
Today I am here because I want to warn you that this is a mistake, says Jesus, for that is precisely why I gave Myself: to show you what true love really is—the love that is preached in heaven, not the love taught by the world.
My friends, says Jesus, do not regret having loved. Do not regret having given your heart to others, even if you suffered deeply for it, because that is what love is: sacrifice, selfless giving, giving everything, even when you know the response may not be good or positive.
What is happening, says the Lord, and what you aren’t seeing, is that for many of you, love has become a transaction. You love others expecting to receive the same in return. You love in order to be loved, and that is a mistake, says Jesus, for in doing so you bargain with love. You give something to get something back, and that’s not how true love works, says Jesus.
When I gave Myself on that cross, I knew I would save many, but I also knew it would be by grace, not because I would receive something in return. I gave Myself even though you did not deserve it, says the Lord, and yet I loved you to the end, enduring that unbearable pain in My body and in My soul.
I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, says the Lord Jesus, but while I was enduring that sacrifice, giving Myself as the innocent Lamb, not only was My body bleeding, but My heart bled as well. My soul was crushed, for the pain I felt was also emotional.
Even so, I stood firm in My decision to carry that sacrifice to the end, to death, knowing I would not ask for anything in return. I was not thinking about receiving the same love from My own in exchange for that sacrifice, but that it would be enough for My own to believe in Me.
My friends, says Jesus, you are forgetting what it means to sacrifice for your neighbor. You are transactional, and you think loving is like making a deal. You think loving is just a formality or an obligation.
Furthermore, says the Lord, you love, but you expect that the result of giving that love will be to receive more love, and you have not understood that you must give yourself as many times as necessary, without expecting the other person to respond in kind.
I gave everything and I didn’t sin against anyone, says Jesus, and even so I was betrayed; even so I was stripped, insulted, and mocked. All who were by My side abandoned Me. Many times they did not believe in Me, even after witnessing so many miracles, says Jesus. They spoke ill of Me, whispering behind My back.
I am acquainted with sorrow, says Jesus. Even so, I chose to go all the way with what I had committed to do, which was to love you to the end.
Love is not a transaction, says Jesus. Love must be unconditional. If you truly love, you will not regret having loved, no matter the cost, no matter what it takes, says Jesus. That is the true love I am seeking and hoping to find as I walk among My people.
Little ones, says the Lord, stop being merchants of love and freely give what you have. Give love freely. Give attention freely. These are gifts you must learn to give, says the Lord, without expecting anything in return.
Sometimes, when you give that love in different ways and through various expressions, what you receive in return is even more hatred than before.
Noelia: The Lord is showing me now that when someone loves another person, sometimes the result of having loved them is that we’re even more hated than before, that the person might despise us even more than before we loved them.
There are different outcomes to love, says the Lord, but you don’t need to focus on the result—just make sure that flame in your heart never, ever goes out.
In this time, when the days are evil and the love of many will grow colder and colder, as it’s written, says the Lord, it will be a challenge for you to keep loving in the same way. In the midst of so much coldness, it will truly be a test to keep that flame of love burning at its brightest.
Many will fall back, says Jesus, because it’s not spiritual gifts that will keep you burning in the flame of love, but the surrender and sacrifice you’ll need to make to become those catalysts of My love.
It’s not the gifts that will help you, teach you, or uphold you so you can keep loving people, even when they’ve grown so cold—and they will become even colder in these last days. What will help you love in the midst of so much coldness is having a heart that’s continually broken, and staying aware that your lives must be a constant sacrifice, says the Lord, where you keep giving yourselves over and over and over again to others.
You’re going to get hit, you’re going to get slapped, and you’re going to get pushed. They’ll spit on you because of love, and they’ll betray you—even those closest to you, the ones who should respond best to that love. And that’s where it will really become clear who among you actually know what it truly means to love, and who were just bargaining with love.
Those who fall back because of betrayal don’t really know how to love, says the Lord. Those who fall back because of the suffering that comes from loving others are not the ones who truly have a humble heart that’s willing to keep giving themselves to the end, as I did.
Those who get frustrated by the suffering that comes with loving others do so because they’re looking for something in return, and they haven’t understood that they have to go through life giving themselves without expecting others to respond the same way.
Those who’ve fallen back because they loved and weren’t loved in return, says the Lord, closing, freezing, and hardening their hearts—these are the ones who loved but expected something back.
Understand that many of you have been wrong about this, says the Lord. Because of the pain of having loved and not being loved in return—in different kinds of relationships—some of you have fallen back so much that you’ve ended up alone on purpose just to avoid suffering, because every time you give your heart to others, you get hurt, and this is a reality the Lord knows perfectly well.
Many of you have gone into a symbolic cave and don’t want to come out, because you say, “Every time I love, I get hurt. Every time I get close to someone and give myself completely, every time I give my best in loving that person, they treat me badly and hurt me, so I run away to protect myself from those blows, so they won’t keep hurting me, so I won’t suffer.”
But those who are reacting this way don’t realize they’re doing exactly what this verse says:
[Matthew 24:12] And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.
You don’t realize you’re falling into the enemy’s trap and letting your heart grow cold so you won’t love anymore, so you won’t get hurt again, says the Lord, because as far as you’re concerned, you just can’t take it anymore.
Noelia: This verse doesn’t just mean that the love of many will grow cold because of mankind’s sin, but also because those who loved ended up receiving evil in return and let themselves grow cold because of the evil they received.
The Lord is calling His own today, and I know there are many of you hearing this word and saying, “Wow! That’s my situation. That’s me. The Lord is speaking to me.”
Don’t let yourself grow cold, says Jesus. Don’t let your heart turn to stone. Don’t become like a dead tree in the middle of the forest, because I didn’t plant you to feel nothing, but to suffer for My name’s sake.
You need to understand that every time you give yourself to your neighbor, every time you love your neighbor as yourself, you’re loving Me, says Jesus. And even if they don’t reward you, I will reward you, for an account is being kept for those who love.
Many of you are poor in material things, but rich in spiritual things, says the Lord. And there are also many among you who are being forgiven much because of the love you’re showing others.
[1 Peter 4:8] And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
You don’t realize there’s a debt piling up in your favor in your heavenly account every time you love, says the Lord. But if you love by bargaining with that love—waiting, looking for, or even keeping track of what you get in return—then that debt is already being paid to you.
You must love without expecting anything in return, because when you do this, your heavenly account remains open in your favor, since there is still a debt to be paid to you, as you’re not receiving the same love back. When you love and don’t receive the same in return, you’re storing up treasures in heaven, because I am just, and I will repay what was loved and what was left unloved, says God.
Some of you once loved deeply, says the Lord, but then you stopped loving. Some of you were generous with your love in the past, but then you let yourselves grow cold and stopped loving.
Little children, repent and return to My ways, says the Lord, for love is My name. I am love, I am light, and I am truth, and whoever walks with Me walks in love. When you intentionally decide to stop loving others, you begin to turn away from Me, because I walk in love. And how can you keep walking with Me if you no longer want to love others?
My beloved, says Jesus, the holes from the nails in My wrists are a sign left on My body to remind you how much I’ve loved you. The holes in My feet are a mark of the love with which I loved you. I was willing to go all the way to death, says Jesus. I gave everything I had. I didn’t suffer a little; I suffered the unspeakable, and it was not for nothing.
Even knowing that many would turn back, that many would betray Me, that over time many who believe in Me would later abandon Me, even knowing that mankind would become more and more evil as time passed, even knowing that many of you are peddlers of the faith, even knowing that many would come to Me just to get something from Me and not because they truly fell in love with Me, even knowing that many would fail Me more than once and then come back to ask for forgiveness and be restored, even knowing that many would be with Me for the wrong reason and that others would replace Me with another love or push Me out of their lives completely, I still chose to love you.
That’s the kind of sacrifice you need to learn, says the Lord. You need to see yourselves as the Lamb who was given unconditionally so that whoever believes in Him may be saved because of that kind of love.
You need to learn to look at yourselves in the mirror and see a sacrificial lamb, says the Lord. You have to learn to give yourselves again and again and again, no matter how many times you get hurt, and as many times as it takes, until you deny yourselves, just as I did, says Jesus.
Many of you haven’t reached this point and haven’t forgiven the traitors when they’ve sinned against you—hurting you, abandoning you, rejecting you, laughing at you, cheating on you, lying about you. You haven’t forgiven, and you haven’t learned how to love.
Love forgives and holds no grudges, says the Lord. Love waits and is patient; it doesn’t rush others to become what you want them to be. Love is empathetic and doesn’t hurry or pressure someone who’s like a small plant that needs more time to grow.
Many of you are impatient with others and don’t understand that everyone is at the level where they need to be, or where they’re able to be. Everyone is different, everyone needs different things, everyone is in a different season, and the time it takes for someone to learn to love is not the same for everyone.
You are demanding with others, says the Lord, when you yourselves still haven’t learned to surrender. When you look in the mirror, you don’t see that innocent little lamb willing to be sacrificed.
You want the other person to sacrifice themselves first, says the Lord, because you don’t want to suffer for love’s sake. But then, what kind of Christians are you? Where is God’s love in you and through you? What have you learned? Because if you don’t learn to love, nothing else matters.
Many of you are thinking about titles, callings, ministries, positions, gifts, but not about love—and you’re making a huge mistake, says the Lord, because you aren’t putting first what truly comes first, but leaving it for last.
My beloved, says Jesus, love is long-suffering. This means you will suffer if you truly love, because the one who loves goes against the current of this world. If you don’t suffer for love’s sake, where is your light? Where is your salt? Where is your example? How are you any different from anyone else?
Understand that the most important thing, and what you most need to cultivate, is love, says the Lord. If you’re hurt, forgive, get up, and keep loving whoever you need to love. And if your love isn’t received, keep walking and keep loving, no matter how much you’re rejected, no matter how much you’re mistreated, no matter how much you’re hated.
This is the true calling of a true Christian, says the Lord. The true example of a child of God isn’t in what he knows, but in what he does: how he handles offense, betrayal, wounds, pain, rejection, abandonment, loneliness.
My eyes roam throughout the congregation of My people, seeking lambs willing to be sacrificed, says the Lord, and there are very few I can find in this state.
Noelia: I see Jesus walking down the street and through different places where God’s children are—entering congregations or homes, visiting Christian gatherings. I see Him walking around, hoping that when He looks at a person, He literally sees a little white lamb—innocent, knowing nothing of evil, and willing to give itself as a sacrifice.
Many times the Lord Jesus is disappointed, because He travels all over the world, visiting all His children, and doesn’t find a lamb with these qualities. He finds bulls who defend themselves when attacked and get angry when offended. He finds bulls who flare up in rage when they’re bothered.
The Lord says there must be a change in attitude. You need to understand that the reward doesn’t come from men, but from God.
The people who please God the most aren’t those with the most spiritual gifts, those who walk in the greatest power of God, or those who know the most about the Bible or spiritual matters. They aren’t the wisest, those with the biggest ministry, or those who have the most influence over others.
It’s not these people who please God most and make Him smile, but those who give themselves the most, those who forgive the most, those who comfort the most, those who choose to get back up every time they’re knocked down and keep loving just the same.
Love as I have loved you, says the Lord, and nothing less than that. Raise the standard of love and begin to love even more, and don’t regret what you’ve already given. For if you regret having loved when you didn’t receive the same in return, you lose your reward, because you’re falling backward. Instead of becoming better than before, your hearts end up in a worse state.
Don’t regret having loved, says Jesus. Repent for having regretted loving, and rejoice that you loved even when you weren’t loved in return, for you will receive a reward from Heaven. You don’t need to set your eyes on that reward, but learn to love anyway, as if you weren’t going to receive anything, expecting nothing in return.
Stop bargaining with love, says Jesus. Let go of expecting a response you like after you’ve loved. Repent for demanding the love you didn’t receive because you loved. Repent for letting coldness into your hearts, says the Lord.
Repent for letting the enemy make you grow cold, for listening to him when he told you, “See? I told you not to give yourself. I told you not to love. I told you this person would hurt you, would make you suffer, would betray you.” Listen to Me, says the Lord, for I am love, and I want you to be love as well—but a fervent love, not a shallow one.
Stir up the fire in your hearts, says the Lord. Love, love, and love, even if you’re rejected, even if you’re despised, and don’t stop loving. For when I return, I want to find not only faith, but also love among My people, says the Lord, and I am coming for those who are like a burning flame.
Noelia: The Lord reminds me of John the Baptist, about whom the Scriptures say he was like a torch that burned and gave light while the Lord was on earth.
[John 5:35] He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
Be like that: burning one hundred percent with love, says the Lord. Don’t shrink back in this, and you will be more like Me, not less.
Noelia: The Holy Spirit tells me you can pray and ask the Lord to give you a softer, more loving, and more forgiving heart, and to keep praying this, because this prayer pleases the Lord. This is the prayer God wants to hear from His people.