Isaiah 11:1-5 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord; And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.

Yesterday I ended the devotional with the message about how we comprehend God’s love, by being rooted and grounded in His love, Jesus Christ. Roots are a common natural occurrence which we can see and understand. God touches our lives in the Spirit miraculously and this needs to be seen. With these powerful influences in our lives we need to know that it is God who performs these good works by the power of His will. One way we know that it is of God is in the prophetic messages that have been provided.

This message of roots is one we can see in nature and our ability to understand how that works helps us to comprehend how God makes His will know in this spiritual realm. Jesse’s root is a natural biological production, his lineage is of the house of David. This isn’t the only hint of the coming Messiah but it is the one connected to the thought of roots. Roots both nurture and hold the plant in place so that it cannot be moved out of its place. The Holy Spirit in our hearts acts the same way.

Ephesians 3:16-19 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

How do you comprehend anything? You see it, hear it, taste it or touch it. As such your ability to comprehend the love of God is born of experience. Our first experience might well be the awareness of the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made to atone for our sins. That would be a mental awareness, the power of reasoning to achieve a desired condition which will change your circumstances. Being saved is a powerful motivation.

Being saved from the penalty of sin is only one expression. How about being saved from the power of sin? Have you experienced any power over sin, so that it no longer controls your life? Our comprehension of God’s love towards us means that His expression of that love continues every day and in every way in order for us to experience all that God’s love is and can be in this new life in Christ.

Look to the opening line above. We have a grant from God. A grant does not need to be bought nor repaid. He does so by His abundant glory expressed in the life of Jesus Christ. Glory is the essence of who God is and in these later days expressed through Christ. The purpose is then stated, to strengthen us by the power of His might. We do not have the power to express this great agapao love on our own. We have not yet fully experienced this great love. The inner man is strengthened by this love. The next expression indicates how. Our hearts have been rooted and grounded by the love of God, the agape.