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Archive for the ‘Love of God’ Category

Obedience

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , on October 20, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 14:23

The obedient nature can only be planted within man when he obeys the Spirit of the Lord. John 14:23 shows this plainly. In verse 22, Judas, not Iscariot, asks the Lord a most pertinent and direct question.

“Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not unto the world?” Verse 23, “Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and WE will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

This shows that the coming of the Christ is first within the believer, BUT only the believer who obeys the Holy Ghost.

The further explanations here show that every man who loves God keeps His sayings. The ministries and believers who go about freely expressing their love for God, yet continue to “do their own thing,” are only deceiving themselves that they love God. In short, love is obedience.

(Excerpt from The Pattern, 2nd Edition, 1995, pg. 121)

Thought for today: In short, LOVE is obedience.

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“For My Two Eyes”

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , , on August 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Judges 16:22-30

I hear God Almighty speaking to us about our eyes. You see, when the Philistines caught Samson after he gave out his secret to Delilah, they slapped a hot sword across his eyes and singed out his eyes. They put him as an animal to grind corn. As he was grinding, he said, “Oh, God.” Now he could see. Do you remember the poem The Blind Plowman? “He took mine eyes that I might see.” Samson said, “O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.” Amen. Then, when the boy led him into the arena, they were laughing at him, “Look at the man, the mighty giant that used to kill us.” They didn’t know that the man’s hair was growing back. They didn’t know that repentance brings back your hair. What did God do that for? He did it to bring the man to repentance.

Oh, God loves us so much. We should be ashamed of ourselves and I will tell you why. We don’t love our children as much as God loves us. We love the nice pretty ones that do well more than we love those that don’t do well. We are disgusted with some of them because they don’t do well and they do us bad and evil. God loves the bad ones just as much as He loves the good ones. His entire plan is to bring you out of the darkness into the light and so He will do all kinds of things to you. Yes. He will sting you, He will bite you, He will cut you, He will bounce you to bring you unto Himself. Then, what a glorious morning when He hugs you and says, “I’ve got you!” Hallelujah. That is the love of God that is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell. Oh, what a God we serve, far beyond our conscious understanding!

We can’t understand God. How could He love a wretched person like me? I look at my own life. Why am I here? It is only because of God; nothing else but God’s mercy. And He wants me to do something; He brings me here because He knows I will do that which He wants me to do. Amen.

You know the stubborn child that you have, the “bad one”? Sometimes if that quality is turned to God, that quality will be glorious in the sight of God. God sees some of us rebellious but the rebellion is the good nature that God put in you to be able to stand and withstand in a battle. The devil takes a hold of that good nature and turns it into rebellion. So, we see the rebellious one and oh, we are against the rebellious one. But, how beautiful he is when he turns to God. Hallelujah!

So, Samson began to find God and he said, “…O God,… for my two eyes,” and then he pulled down the temple of Dagon. Oh, my goodness, what a beautiful thought! Samson called unto the LORD, and said, “O Lord GOD, remember me…” (Judges 16:28). My God, what a prayer! Think of your heart saying, “Oh, God, remember me. Jesus Christ, have mercy upon me, I pray thee. Strengthen me, I pray Thee, only this once, oh God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes.”

(Excerpt from Keeping in Touch, May 2009, pg. 27)

Thought for today: Oh, what a God we serve, far beyond our conscious understanding!

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A Blocker to Love

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , , , , on July 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: 1 Corinthians 13

Can you imagine the following scenario? Somebody went to the store and lifted the store. You know, what we call shoplifting. When he went home, though, his heart smote him and he repented of what he did. He decided to go back into the store and drop back the thing he had stolen. He didn’t tell anybody. But he came to church, and because the gift of God is without repentance, when he came to the congregation, and especially having just repented, the Spirit of God moved upon him and he gave a word. But while he was pilfering, you were around the aisle in the store, and you saw him. “I won’t hear anything from that man,” you said. And you came in the church and told your best friend. But it so happened that your best friend had a best friend, and your best friend told her best friend and her best friend had another best friend and the best friend… until the whole congregation had been told. So when the man got up and the Spirit of God spoke through him, everybody dropped the curtain, refused to hear him. Who lost? You lost, because you listened to the voice of slander.

That is why Paul called the voice of slander diabolos, devils. It is just like the demons that go from one place to another carrying evil. You are ordained of God to carry good tidings. You are not ordained to carry negatives. If the brother stole something and you saw him, go to God and pray to God and say, “Lord, help that brother.” And you take him to one side and say, “You know, I saw you when you stole that thing and pushed it in your pocket.” Then the brother would be able to say, “I am sorry, but I repented and took it back.” But if you never said anything to him and went and scattered it, then you destroyed the work of God by the power of hate! If that brother had been your natural brother, you would not have told anyone.

Hate is a blocker to love. If you find out that you cannot love God’s people as you ought to, it is because you have allowed their wrong deeds to affect you and you hold it in your heart. Can you understand that? Love thinketh no evil. How could love think no evil when there is evil? You say, “But I saw the evil.” Love thinketh no evil. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity (I Corinthians 13:5-6). That is, the person gets hit because he was wrong and you said, “He had it coming to him.” That is not love. He had it coming to him, but you are sorry for him. If it were your child, you would think of him differently. Why do you think that your children do so many wrong things? God is trying to teach you how to deal with children who are rude and do wrong things. God is trying to teach you how to deal with the people of God. You love them just the same. They do a lot of wrong things but you love them just the same and you conquer them by love.

“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.” (I Corinthians 13:1-2) Don’t you see how God separates the gifts from love? “I have great gifts. I can preach. I can teach. I can do this.” You are nothing. God help you. God help us.

I just want to tell you that love lifts us up out of the darkness into the light. Just begin to love and God will lift you up.

There was a man, Brother Smith, who wrote the last verse of the song, “The Love of God.”

Could we with ink the ocean fill, and were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth (all the grass you see around) 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.”

That is not an idle dream. Those are the last words he wrote and died. They found them in his prison cell. Do you know what happened to him? He was a rich man; he had a lot of money and he began to talk about the love of God. His children committed him to the asylum because they wanted his riches, but he loved them just the same. He loved them just the same. Praise be to God. Let us be the children of love.

There is love that we are supposed to have for one another. The scripture translates it as bowels of compassion, that you have a feeling for the person. You feel it way down in your heart. God is talking about love. You can’t be mad with the people you love. If you have love, you don’t get mad with the people. You will get sad when you see them doing wrong things, but you won’t get mad with them. May God help us to be the children of love.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 47-49)

Thought for today: The love lifts us up out of the darkness into the light. Just begin to love and God will lift you up.

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“My Sheep Hear My Voice”

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , on July 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: John 10:27-28

One day, I saw a brother, a prophet of God, moving in God in a meeting. Let me tell you something: hate can bar you from hearing God when God speaks. This brother got up and went over to a sister and put the finger on her. He just let loose the Word of God. Now, when somebody comes and prophesies to me, it would be so stupid for me to sit down and say, “He made that up. He heard somebody talk.” My God, you are killing yourself! You are committing spiritual murder! God spoke to that woman. I knew what he was saying; I knew more of what he was saying than anybody else in that congregation! What is five years or a few years? It is like a snap of the fingers to God. You make a wrong turn, you reject the Word of God, you reject God, you enter into hate, and you leave love behind you the moment you begin to say, “That man, the prophet, is this, and he is that and he is the other.” Don’t you understand that is the word of the devil to destroy the Word of God in the midst of His people?

God has promised that, at the end of time, He will bring forth the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the shepherd, and the teacher, and He will bring a five-fold ministry to massage the Body from head to foot to keep the Body, to bring the Body to life. Now, apostles have faults, human faults. Prophets have human faults. Evangelists have human faults. Shepherds have human faults. Teachers have human faults. So what the devil does is that he goes and picks out a fault and magnifies it. Magnifies it! After you finish talking about him, it is impossible to hear the Word of God and you have murdered yourself by the tongue, by talking about it, by unbelief. Now, another prophet comes and says, “Brother, you are blessed. You are wonderful. You are going to ride on high.” He prophesies and you accept that because he didn’t tell you what God was saying. He told you what was nice for him to tell you.

At one point in time, I was in the church, the denominational system. Remember now, we have come out of the church age. The tenure, the time that God gave the church to bring forth something is over. We have come out of that time and so God has given us another time – the Dispensation of the Fullness. He has given us the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the shepherd, the teacher and this is to bring the Body into perfection. Now, we have heard that but some of us don’t believe it. If you don’t believe it, you are one of those who are not hearing the voice of God. John 10:27-28 says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: 28 and I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” My sheep hear my voice. Some of us are not “My sheep.” Some of us are not in the “My sheep” because we won’t hear the voice of the Father.

Listen, brethren, the voice of God speaks in the Body from the smallest person in God to the greatest (whoever you think might be the greatest); the voice of God is speaking through them. You might say, “Howdy-do,” and that is the voice of God. The love of God comes out of that person. You feel a little down and somebody says, “God bless you, sister,” or may hug you and you feel the love of God. Amen. God is speaking in His Body and God’s Body is sending forth life, energy, love and we must get away from hate.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 46-47)

Thought for today: Don’t make any excuses. Hate is everything that falls less than love.

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The Great Big “IF”

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , on July 26, 2023| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: Deuteronomy 6:1-9

Love is my life force. It is a power. Somebody believes that love is passive and just says, “Oh, I love you so much, I can allow you do to anything.” Love is not passive. Love is a force. Love is a power.

What about love and the marriage situation? We marry someone and then we say, “Oh, I don’t love him/her anymore.” Or, “Because this person is so annoying, so nagging, so terrible, and makes my life miserable, I don’t love him/her anymore.” Do you know what you are saying? If I tell you what you are saying, you are not going to believe it. You are saying you don’t love God. That is what you are saying. You don’t love God. Let me tell you: no matter how awful the person is, no matter how horrible the person is, the love of God in you should be crying out, “God, have mercy upon him/her.” Amen.

I know there are cases; I have seen cases where somebody captured somebody else. I am not talking about righteousness. I am talking about sin. The man goes out of his way, sets a trap for a woman, captures her, binds her up, marries her and then, of course, she becomes a prisoner and her life is miserable. God has to intervene to deliver her out of his hand. I have seen that happen.

But I am talking about us, Christians. I never believed that I would live to see divorce in our midst because I believed the love of God would stop any divorce; the love of God in you would stop a divorce. You gave yourself to this person and you both decided to spend life together. There was so much love there at the beginning, but afterwards things got sour and the devil walked in. Your power of love should reach out to that person. Now, if that person was totally against everything that God says, everything that God wants, you couldn’t stop him/her from divorcing you, but that has nothing to do with the love of God that is in you which should never turn to hate. It should never, ever, ever turn to hate. Do you understand what I am saying? There is an unseen power beyond what we can conceive within us and that power lies in our capacity to love. If you have a loved one and the loved one is sick or hurt or dying, by that power of love you will be able to command the deliverance for that person and he/she cannot die. Unless it is God’s will that that person should be taken home.

One time, I had an experience with my niece. She was maybe the second convert in my family, the second one that was saved in my family. She was so calm; she was such a peaceful person. Unlike my sister, her mother, who was full of life and words and everything else. I have never heard her raise her voice; she was what I call a good Christian. She had a lump in her breast and felt that she should go to the doctor. So she went. The doctor operated on it and the thing scattered all over her body. Within a month her body was full of cancer. I went to God and said, “God, save Joan.” When I asked God to save her, I felt that Joan was saved, delivered from this. But she got worse and worse and worse. The doctor said, “She can’t live to see the morning.” I said, “Doctor, you are wrong. God is going to save her.” I was in denial. I really believed God was going to save her. They called me at 5:00 a.m. and said that she had died. The most I could say was, “The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. This is God’s will.” But I remembered 5 years prior to that; I was woken up by God one morning very early. God gave me an urgent message to tell Joan that she must immediately quit the job she was in. She was the head nurse in some hospital. It was too much of a pressure on her and God said she should quit right away. So I rushed down to Ft. Lauderdale where she lived, called her and her husband, and told her she must quit right away. God Almighty said she must quit right away. She said, “But then, I have bills to pay and then I have…” Listen, brethren, if you love God, you are going to do what God says to do, and it is God’s responsibility to pay your bills! I don’t know how to further express it.

Sometimes you come to the meeting and a strong word of prophecy goes out to you. When you hear the word, something happens in your heart. Don’t forget it! Don’t forget it! It was the Word of God to you. But sometimes, after we get the Word of God, we argue. We calculate it out and argue it out and say, “Well, you know, maybe I have to do this and maybe I have to do that.” And then, at that moment, you take a turn. I guarantee you that my niece would be alive today; but there is that big “if.” “If you will hear My voice and if you will do what I say to you, then your life will be prolonged for many days. If not, then I will take you home and you will be just as happy in heaven.”

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 44-46)

Thought for today: There is an “if” that is on top of all of us. That great big “if.” And God said the key is the love of God.

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