Beyond First Love

The Journey Into Union

There is a phrase that has echoed through generations of believers, a phrase that has been used to stir hearts and convict souls. It is the call to return to your first love. Many sermons have been built upon it, many altar calls have centered around it, and for many hearts, it has been a doorway back into intimacy. But I want to speak to a different kind of believer today. I want to speak to the one who never left.

What if you have not abandoned your first love? What if you have remained in affection, still tender, still burning, still beholding the One who first captured your heart? What if the invitation for you is not to return but to go deeper? What if first love was never meant to be the end, but the beginning of a far greater mystery—the mystery of union?

The Message to Ephesus

When the risen Christ spoke to the church of Ephesus, He told them that they had abandoned their first love. The word abandoned is key. It means they left it behind. They walked away from the devotion that once defined them. The issue was not that they were no longer working or serving or laboring for His name. The issue was that what once flowed from intimacy had turned into religious momentum. They were doing right things with the wrong center. They had activity without affection. So the call was clear: return to your first love.

But the question remains for those who have not left. What is your invitation? If your heart still burns, if your eyes still search for Him, if you still wake in the night and whisper His name, where do you go from here? The answer is not backward. The answer is deeper. The answer is union.

The River of Divine Love

First love is not a season to return to. It is a river to enter. It is not something you visit once and then revisit when you feel dry. It is the current that carries you into the heart of God Himself. In first love, you meet Him. In union, you become one with Him. The first is encounter. The second is embodiment.

This is what the early church fathers called theosis. It is the mystery of being filled with all the fullness of God. It is not that you become God, but that you are filled with His nature until His heart becomes your heartbeat. Love is no longer something you feel for Him. Love becomes what you are in Him.

The invitation of God has always been more than rescue. It has always been about participation. The cross was never meant to bring you back to zero. It was meant to open the way into divine likeness. You were not redeemed to merely survive until heaven. You were redeemed to become the dwelling place of the fullness of God. This is union. This is theosis. This is the life of one who has not left first love but has chosen to live inside of it.

The Journey From Return to Ascent

There is a difference between repentance and ascent. Repentance is the language of return. It is what happens when you have wandered from the flame. It is the mercy of God drawing you home. But ascent is the language of union. It is what happens when you have remained in affection and now the Spirit begins to draw you upward into the mysteries of divine intimacy. Repentance brings you home. Ascent brings you higher.

For some, the invitation of the Spirit is to return. For others, the invitation is to ascend. If you have remained in tenderness, if you have guarded the flame, then do not spend your days trying to return to a place you never left. Begin to climb. Begin to yield. Begin to open to the deeper waters of union. The goal was never to return to where you started. The goal was to mature in the love that found you there.

From Visitations to Habitation

Many believers live from one encounter to the next. They talk about the moments when God touched them, the meetings where His presence overwhelmed them, and the tears that once ran down their faces. Those moments are holy, but they are meant to become more than memories. They are meant to become habitation.

You were not created for occasional visitations of divine affection. You were created to be the place where God dwells. When love matures, it moves from moment to dwelling. The same Spirit that came upon you is the Spirit that longs to live through you. The same fire that fell at first love is the fire that wants to consume everything in your life until there is no separation left between you and Him.

This is not about striving for perfection. It is about surrendering to intimacy. The more you yield to love, the more His nature finds expression through your humanity. The longer you remain in affection, the more His likeness becomes visible in your life. You are not working your way into holiness. You are yielding your way into union.

The Maturity of the Bride

The journey from first love to union is the journey of the bride. The bride does not go back to the engagement season every time she feels distant. She grows into deeper communion with her beloved. The relationship becomes richer, more mature, more steady, and more united.

In the same way, the bride of Christ is not called to forever remember the early days of passion as if those were the pinnacle. Those days were the beginning of a lifelong becoming. The call is not to recapture a feeling but to remain in a reality. First love is discovery. Union is embodiment.

There comes a moment when you realize that love is no longer something you visit in prayer. It is the very air you breathe. It is no longer a song you sing to Him. It is the rhythm of your existence in Him. The mature bride does not need to be reminded to return to first love because she has learned to live inside of it. Her entire being has become love. Her every breath is communion.

Remaining in Affection

The danger for those who walk long with God is not that they lose access to Him but that they lose wonder. Routine can rob the soul of awe. Familiarity can dull affection. But the one who has remained in first love has learned the secret of abiding wonder. They have learned to behold the same face with ever-increasing glory. They have learned that there is no end to discovery because there is no end to Him.

To remain in affection is not to live on an emotional high. It is to live in unbroken awareness of His nearness. It is to find Him in the ordinary, to hear Him in the silence, to sense Him in the stillness. First love was never meant to fade. It was meant to mature. It is the seed of union.

The Call to Go Deeper

If you have not left first love, then your invitation is to go deeper. Go deeper into trust. Go deeper into rest. Go deeper into the mystery of divine likeness. The further you go, the less separation you feel. The lines between your heart and His begin to blur until you find that you are living from His heart instead of yours.

This is not arrogance. It is the fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer when He said, Father, make them one even as we are one. This is what union looks like. It is not distance. It is not striving. It is being so filled with love that self-consciousness fades and divine consciousness begins to rise. You begin to think with His thoughts. You begin to love with His heart. You begin to see the world through His compassion.

The Transformation of the Soul

Union does not remove your humanity. It redeems it. It does not erase your personality. It sanctifies it. The goal of divine love is not to make you disappear but to make you fully alive. You become the truest version of yourself because you have been restored to the image and likeness of the One who formed you.

This is theosis. This is the transformation of the soul through the fire of divine love. You were never meant to spend your life longing for the early days of faith. You were meant to live as the evidence of ongoing transformation. Every day, the Spirit draws you deeper into likeness. Every moment, the love of God continues its work, shaping you into a living reflection of His nature.

The Invitation of the Spirit

There is an invitation being released to those who have remained faithful in affection. It is not the call to return. It is the call to enter. The Spirit is whispering to the ones who still burn, to the ones who still linger, to the ones who still love without agenda. He is saying, You have not left. Now come deeper. You have not forgotten. Now let Me make you one.

If you have not left first love, you do not need to chase what you already have. You need to surrender to what it is becoming. The fire that once visited you now wants to consume you. The Presence that once rested upon you now wants to flow through you. The affection that once awakened your heart now wants to merge your heart with His.

Living as the Flame

First love is the moment the fire found you. Union is the moment you realize you have become the fire. You are no longer chasing revival. You are living as habitation. You are no longer seeking an encounter. You are carrying His essence. This is not the end of first love. It is the fulfillment of it.

So do not spend your life trying to return to what never left. Do not diminish what God has sustained in you by calling it nostalgia. Celebrate the endurance of your affection. Honor the maturity of your devotion. And follow the Spirit into the depths of union.

Because first love is where you met Him.

Union is where you become one with Him.

If you feel led to partner with what God is doing through this ministry, we invite you to sow into this work as the Spirit leads. Your generosity helps us continue to share His love and truth with others. There is no obligation, only an opportunity to join in what God is building. Thank you for considering being a part of this journey.

https://awaken-ministries.com/home/donate/