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Archive for the ‘Love of God’ Category

Who Is This God?

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , , on January 15, 2020| Leave a Comment »

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Scripture reading: I John 4:16

Let us turn our Bibles to I John today and let us look at chapter 4 and verse 16, “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.”

“God is love.” That is just what I want to talk to you about a little bit and pray that His Spirit might help us to really see above the natural.

God made man in His own image and man is the only creature that can love. Yes. You know, love is much more than what we can see or what we believe. We believe in a love that is on such a low plane. It is on a very low plane and we heard that they have carried it even lower by saying, “Men love women.” They even say, “I love this and I love that.” “I love to drink coffee,” and, “I love so and so.” It is the lowest area that we could even consider of love.

“God is love.” Someone asks you, “Who is this God? This great God that made the heavens; this God that reigns and rules within the universe. Who is He?” The best answer you can give is, “He is love.”

But then, what is love? If we start to think about love, we are going to be judging it from ourselves. Yet, the Word says God loves us and anyone that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God. Now, we know then that God is life and God is light (I John 1:5). So, we are talking about energy. We are talking about something that is so vibrant, something that is far beyond what we can think. A life that, when it comes into you, drives away all of death. That is why I believe we should get to the stage where, when our bodies are sick, we just put it before God and let His life come into us and we will be healed. Personally, I have experienced it, I believe it and I would like to see us get there. But that is just the edge of love and life, for when you allow God’s life to heal your bodies, it is basic. Yes, it is basic. It is down to earth, because there is something more. I mean, that is not all. God, this great energy, is Love.

Now, to understand love, let us look at the opposite of love – hate. That is on the other side, far out there. But between love and hate there are shadows. Everything that departs from the light is a shadow and it is hate. So, when we say we love so and so or we love this and that person, we are speaking relatively, consequent upon our capacity to love. We are not saying that we have attained unto agape love (the true love of God), for agape is so much higher than what we have that we can only imagine what it is like.

The Bible said that God so loved the world that He gave Himself (John 3:16). When the scriptures say that he gave “His only begotten Son,” it is only another way of saying that God took out part of Himself and gave it to us. In other words, God has to speak a language that we understand. When God talks about His Son, He is talking about God. He is talking about God coming out of God to enter into you. You cannot understand how hard it was for God to do that; how horrible it was for Jesus Christ to allow demons to take hold of Him and take Him down into hell when He had the power to destroy them all! It is terrible. It is hard to think of. He had the power. If He had spoken one word, He could have destroyed them all. Then the devil sent the people to tempt Him. “We will believe that you are God, if You just come right down off the cross right now” (Matthew 27:42). He was tempted to come down and even to go back up, but that was a temptation and Jesus would not fall for that. Under the pressure of hate, that is the time that love shows forth itself the greatest.

(Excerpt from The Omega Message, July 2005, pg. 33-35)

Thought for today: Someone asks you, “Who is this God? This great God that made the heavens; this God that reigns and rules within the universe. Who is He?” The best answer you can give is, “He is love.”

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Obedience

Posted in Love of God, tagged , , , on October 1, 2018| 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 8, 2018| 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 9, 2018| 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 6, 2018| 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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