“This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12)
God is saying to His people that it is time for us to get higher in God. How do we do it? We have to get deeper in the things of God, deeper in the Word, deeper in the Spirit, deeper in the understanding, and deeper in love. For if you get deep in love, you will be able to overcome all the devil is doing to you.
I remember the time when I told God, “God, it is difficult for me to love this particular man. Every time I see him my ears get hot. I just can’t love him.” God said to me, “Well, if you cannot love the man, then have at least compassion on him,” and He began to show me the wretchedness of the man. I was hating a piece of dirt! God began to show me the wretchedness of the poor wretched man and how I was only adding hate to him. I had to repent.
The problems between brethren, which cause us not to like this one or that one and the things they are doing are disturbing us, are all created either by the enemy or by our flesh. We have been allowing the devil to come in and wreck the beautiful unity that God is working among us. It is so painful to see it and I have to say I have seen it. You talk to one brother and tell him, “Brother, for Christ’s sake, get together with the other brother and forgive him.” He replies, “Yes, I forgive him, but I cannot sit down in the same congregation with him, because he is a hypocrite.” Who do you think is talking through this brother? It is the devil! And in spite of all the begging and all the pleading you see his life going down the hill. He says he doesn’t have to come to the service and he is doing fine. Lie! The devil has lied to him. He has taken a poison.
How do we overcome these things that bother us with regards to our brethren? How do we overcome them? We have to understand that God made these people and He is able to overcome. I can’t stand this person, but God can. God made him. God sees what his condition is. God is able to create the person. When I see, where the Father took me from, what He did for me, how wretched, how brute-like I was and how He made me, then I say, “Well, Lord, this one is your child, too. I will never hurt him. He is your child. Forgive me and help me to work with it.” If he steps on me or if he kicks me, I want to forgive him, because the poor thing is God’s creature. God made him. When I consider that this is my Father’s child, that this is the thing Jesus Christ died for, and I understand that Jesus sent me here to represent Him, to take His place to work and slave for that person, then let him walk over me; let him rob me if he will. It is nothing to lose money, to lose time, to lose face, to be stomped on, or to be kicked.
I remember a situation I was in. One day I was looking for a place to rent in order to hold meetings there as well as do my business. I saw this bishop working in the back adjoining to an old building. I asked him, “Can I rent this building?” He replied, “Sure, I can rent it to you.” He showed me the building and it really suited me well. We drew up a contract and I paid him first, last, and security. I got my boys together, went into the building and paneled it all around. We put in a ceiling and everything that was needed and made it look new.
Then one night I went to bed. But the Spirit of God woke me up early in the morning. He showed me in a vision a man putting up his sign on the building, which read, “John Brown Insurance Co.” I said, “Oh God, what is this?” I could hardly wait till daylight. I rushed down to the building just before the day dawned and sure enough I found a man there putting up a sign, “John Brown Insurance Co.” I asked him, “What are you doing?” He replied, “I rented this place and so I am putting up my sign.” I said, “But it was me who rented this place! This building is mine! I fixed it up! I am about ready to move in! How could you have rented it? From who? Let me see your contract!” He said, “Here it is,” and handed me his contract. An entirely different name was written on it. A different name! The brother was a crook! He rented me the building, yet it wasn’t his. And he was a bishop of a church!
Immediately, I was so terribly upset and distressed that I called the police. When the police got to him, he took sick with a heart attack and went off to the hospital. The brethren said, “But you can’t sue a child of God. How would it look? The newspaper headline would read the next morning, ‘Minister Sends Minister to Prison’.” Then God began to minister to me, “The man is a crook, but Jesus died for him.” And so, there was nothing I could do, but to ask God’s forgiveness and forget it.
We have to realize that we as brethren are not yet perfected. You might have one type of imperfection in you and God is looking down on your imperfection. Yet, the other brother has another type of imperfection that to you is really outstanding and upsetting. But before God both of you are seen as imperfect. Let us therefore love the same way Jesus loves us.
