God's Love

The love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star, and reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care, God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled and pardoned from his sin.

 Oh, love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure—
The saints’ and angels’ song.

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, and every man a scribe by trade;
To write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, though stretched from sky to sky.

There is nothing that exists to the Christian that is truly more breath-taking than the revelatory knowledge of God’s love. Our salvation births us into God’s reality and allows us accessibility into the truths that flow from the essence of God.

1 John 4:8 Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.

In this verse, John teaches us that God is love. I have heard some say that love is also God. This is not correct. In the Greek translation of this verse, John constructed it to put the emphasis on God and not love. So to say it literally, God defines what love is, love does not define what God is. To truly know and understand what this word ‘love’ is, you need to have ongoing, consistent, encounters with God. Each encounter awakens in our spirit what true love, truly is. Love is not an emotion, but it can conjure up the deepest and most penetrating emotions a human can have. Love does what’s best for someone else not taking into account the personal pain and cost the giver will endure. Love is having a higher regard for someone else than for yourself. All of this is discovered first in the nature of God.

            Christianity is not a religion of mental pursuits alone. This is what the Enlightenment has done to the church. We have been deceived into believing that intellectual development alone is the answer to satisfy the cries of the human heart. We study God, read about God, memorize Scriptures about God, listen to sermons about God, and sing songs about God – but seldom have I met Christians that demonstrate to me they actually KNOW God. People that when you meet them and listen to them talk about God, they reveal by what they say they have truly come to know Him. This is God’s desire. He has told me more than once He does not desire slaves. What God truly wants, are friends - men and women, boys and girls, of all nationalities and countries; God wants a friendship with us foremost, always. We are adopted at our conversion as sons and daughters. The knowledge of God as our heavenly Dad is one of the greatest revelations we can have. Just knowing in our hearts He is protecting us, watching over us, and providing for us is the source of true peace. I think, though, God wants more. Each of us has or has had parents, but were they our friend? Was there a relationship that moved us beyond them being our parent and we being their child to where there was a mutual acceptance and finally friendship? This is what I believe God truly longs for; sons and daughters that become friends.

John 15:15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant, does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

The way we know if we are God’s friend is what we hear Him telling us. Intimacy in any relationship is built upon trust. To receive salvation, all Christians have to have a level of trust in Jesus. What about from here, though? Once saved, as we fall in love with God so deeply we only desire Him, He begins to be able to trust us. You share your deepest secrets with those you trust because you know they are careful with your life. God speaks to us daily, but what does He say? When we move beyond just knowing that He talks to us, we can begin to realize WHAT He is saying. We know that what comes out of a man’s mouth proceeds from his heart, but this holds true to God as well. What comes out of God’s mouth is what is in God’s heart. The depths of God’s heart and love are eternal so as we grow in our trustworthiness there is no limit to what He can say to us. He desires this because He loves us and wants us to be His friend. So what is God saying? Is He sharing His secrets with you? Getting prophetic information is necessary for fulfilling our call and destinies, but even this is not the highest form of conversation with God. I love my kids but want more than just directive speech, I want intimate conversation. God loves you and wants you to be able to hear the deepest longings of His heart. This begins when we accept His loving advances and begin to see Him for Who He truly is.  One with all power, might, wisdom, understanding, and strength wrapped up in what true love, truly is.

Often people think they need help with one thing when in fact they need help with something entirely different. They want help with a symptom; God wants to heal the heart.

            I want to share a story in closing. A few years back a lady at the church I pastor was very liberal with my time. She had a sister that needed counseling and told her sister to call me. I wasn’t aware of this until contact was made and counseling was definitely needed. We set up a time to meet and I began to seek God’s heart about what the counseling session was to be about (often people think they need help with one thing when in fact they need help with something entirely different. They want help with symptoms; God wants to heal the heart.) In the days leading up to the counseling time, God began to show me that this lady was looking for someone to release her into her “prophetic destiny”. In a vision, God showed me a house built on top of a toothpick. The house represented her life and the toothpick represented her true foundation. She desired a great ministry but did not know the foundation of her life was barely supporting just her life, let alone a large ministry. The day of counseling came.

            When she came in and we began talking, I realized what I had been shown from God was accurate. She talked about callings and destiny’s and wanted to be released through a powerful prophetic word. She also shared she had been to a number of conferences hoping someone there would be the catalyst to ‘launch her’. She and I had both been raised in the same denomination. I knew where she came from and understood why she had some of the issues she had. There came a point where I asked her if she believed God loved her. Without hesitation, she gave an affirming yes! She quoted John 3:16 and gave some other Scriptural references. I have found that those that do not know the encountering love of God will often just quote a Scripture because this is all they have to draw from. Quoting John 3:16 is NOT the same as knowing John 3:16 in your heart. I began to ask her some questions about certain fears because God’s love and man’s fear cannot coexist. Slowly she began to see that all of the fears proved to her that though she knew God’s book, she did not know God’s, heart. Soon there was tears and frustration. I began to counsel her on revisiting her foundations and let Jesus work His love into the deeper places of her heart to stabilize her. This is where true ministry comes from. She became upset. This was not what she wanted to hear. Eventually, she made it clear that my counsel was not what she needed and it was time for her to go. A year or so went by and I asked the sister who initiated the counseling how the sister was doing. Nothing changed. For a year she went from place to place seeking someone to give her what she wanted instead of her giving Jesus what He wanted – to give her His love and enable her life to be stable. 

            Before Jesus went into public ministry, 2 things happened to Him that needs to happen to all believers – He was baptized in the Holy Spirit and He personally heard the Father tell Him He was His beloved and was well pleased with Him. The word beloved comes from the Greek word agape. Agape is the word for love that is without conditions. When the Father used this word towards Jesus, in the Greek it would have translated - this One, He is the son of My love. Beloved is the English translation. What Jesus would have heard was – this one, He is the son that belongs to My love or the one who possess My love. Prior to public ministry, Jesus received the power to obey the Father through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the affirmation of both God’s unconditional love and full endorsement. If Jesus needed this – so do we, for the success of our ministries, begins here.

            Having power and gifts are secondary to having a revelatory knowledge of God’s love. The bible tells us without God’s love, we are useless. Let God love you and find your foundation here. There is no height you cannot ascend to when you walk in the revelation and heart knowledge of God’s love.

Jesus loves me this I know, for He Himself has told me so