We are concerned about giving God our deep dedication and our full consecration, but if that is the sole basis of our relationship with Him, we tend to feel insecure. And that may be the reason why some believers do feel insecure. It is true that the Lord demands a great deal of us, but we are able to give to Him what He asks only because He promises us so much and because He relates Himself to us in His grace. This is important to remember.
In an atmosphere of true love and devotion, the question arises, “I don’t understand why they love me this way or why they are so concerned about me.” This is always the great mystery of the Body of Christ—that its members reach out in love. The tender family spirit prevails among them. There is involvement with whomever God sends their way.
When God raises up an apostolic ministry, He also anoints some very faithful people who will stand with him, who are even willing to give their lives for him. They are addicted to the ministry and service of the Lord. They could not be persuaded to live any other way. When God’s love comes into a situation, it does not matter that the task may not be pleasant, or whether there will be a certain reward or feeling of satisfaction in the accomplishment of it, or fame, an early retirement, or a million dollars. None of those motivations seems paramount. Men and women who are driven to do the will of God and to serve Him do so without adequate motivation by the world’s standards.
Do you fear that if you displease the Lord, He will discard you? Psalm 89 is a good psalm to read if you feel that way. It is based upon the covenant of the sure mercies of David. No matter what David or his sons did, God promised not to forsake him. God disciplined David rather severely at times, but He never turned His back on him or forgot His promises to him. The covenant of the sure mercies of David was made regardless of David’s ability to do anything at all for God.
We read in the Scriptures of men who bartered with God to receive His favor. Jacob contended, “I will give You ten percent of all that You give me if You will bless me now” (Genesis 28:20–22). That was Jacob’s covenant to tithe. Do we think that if we really do a good job for the Lord, perhaps He will bless us? Yet, even our desire to be faithful—when it is based on a hope that if we are faithful in a few things He will make us ruler over many—can almost become a belief that we will be blessed because of our works (Luke 19:17). That would be a regression back to some merit program, which is not the basis of the Lord’s favor. The basis of His blessing on us is that He beams His love to us with a promise: “I will not change. My love for you requires that I discipline you, but I will be constant in My compassion and love and concern for you.”
This is the basis of your worship of the Lord. Approach God with no doubt in your mind about His thought and His intention toward you, for you know what He speaks in His Word and you believe it. You realize that God is hopelessly involved and one with His Word.
Everyone has some way of talking or communicating. This is true even of the animal world. But God’s communication is different. He injects Himself in His Word, whereas humanity often studies to voice words without meaning, words without commitment. What can high level talks between leaders of the Soviet Union and the United States lead to? It is just a game, a deceptive use of speech to cover up ulterior motivations, feelings, selfishness, and deceptions.
God never speaks a Word without revealing Himself and filling those words with Himself. Man can speak words that sound very impressive. A sermon could be likened to a long train with two powerful engines and many boxcars. That big train can travel down a level stretch at high speed, yet every one of those boxcars could be empty. You do not see what is really there. But when you receive a Word from God, and it comes through to your heart like a train, you can count on God being in every boxcar. He has put Himself in every Word. Every Word from God is freighted with His own being, His own nature. He makes a commitment to love you, and that is the purpose for which you adore Him.
Can you think of one good reason why God should love you? He was getting along fine back there in eternity. For reasons almost more complicated that we can understand, God wanted to bring forth sons. Therefore, the human race was created; but its fall was necessary because its regeneration must bring forth the divine nature, in place of the human nature. As God begins to work with us, we wonder, “Why should He do this?” We find it hard to comprehend why God should promise us anything.
God is omnipotent, and He can do anything He wants to do. But the very day that God makes a promise, in one sense He has limited Himself. He has accepted a limitation. For instance, the promises about faith require that you believe Him and stand on His promises (Hebrews 11). God has committed Himself to respond to your faith. He did not have to make those promises in the first place, but He wanted to make a commitment to you.
Therefore, your commitment to the Lord has to be one hundred percent. But it can only be one hundred percent because God’s commitment to you is one hundred percent. It is His commitment and His love, reaching to your heart, that makes it possible for you to love Him in return. We love God because He first loved us (I John 4:19). What does this mean? Why did John bring forth this truth in his epistle? You would not even be able to look up and love God if He had not beamed that love into your heart. Romans 5:5 says that He shed abroad His love in our hearts. We have come into a relationship with God because He loved us; He did that to us.
He first loved us, and that love coming to us opened up the whole climate of miracles, the climate of change, the climate to become sons of God. What a fantastic thing for God to so love the world!
We have been taught all of this before, but we need to review it often, especially when we are in spiritual battles. Spiritual warfare is different from warfare in the world. Countries at war use their best weapons and their shrewd strategy to kill, to end the war by destroying. We are constantly battling, but nine-tenths of our battle is fought by reaching out to win by love. When we see Satan destroying a brother, we rescue him from the clutches of the enemy and help him on his feet again. We do everything we know to do with authority and faith in our hearts to bring the love of God to that person, so that he does not become a victim of the maneuverings and the assault of the wicked one who comes “like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). The warfare against us is sometimes best won simply by loving. Wars in the physical world are never won by loving.
Problems may exist within a family, within a church as a whole, or between churches—problems that sometimes cannot be arbitrated. If the spiritual authority in the situation does not try to defend himself or accuse others, but instead persists in telling the person involved how much he loves him, soon that individual’s heart will be broken. A war or an encounter is often won simply by opening your heart to love and to believe.
The Lord is constantly telling us that He loves us. This concept must be real to us, because there is no other way we will enter into the full restoration unless we see and experience this love. One of the greatest passages on love is Romans 8, which also deals extensively with the sons of God being manifested. Toward the end of the chapter, Paul wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus? I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from that love” (Romans 8:35, 38–39).
Isaiah emphasizes this same theme of God’s love being poured out on us. This is one of the restoration revelations that has possibly been minimized; and as we look for God’s restoration and for Zion to be rebuilt, we must realize that the prophecies of restoration are the great promises of God’s love constantly being beamed to us. God loves us. He really loves us!
Open your heart now to pray, “God, give me a fresh revelation of Yourself and of Your love for me. Give me a revelation of my blessed Lord Jesus Christ and His love for me. Give me a revelation of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. Let this be a moment of revelation.” What will happen to you if you open your heart to the love of God? The work of God in your life will be accelerated immediately. If you have fear in your heart, without an awareness of God’s love, you can be moved by your many problems. You can be carried along with such an awareness of your needs that you do not relate what is happening to the fact that God loves you. Love is flowing from the heart of God. Loose the expression to yourself of that love, and bless others to be aware of it also. Command yourself to constantly be aware that He really loves you.
We ought to sing about the love of God more. Some of our songs speak of dedication and consecration, but we also need to sing songs that are filled with promises that God loves us, that describe how great His love is for us. As people worship the Lord in a service, they retain various concepts of God that are based upon their past thinking and experiences. But when they see how much the Lord really loves them, how He has put His hand upon them and chosen them, then everything changes in their life. The atmosphere of a church could change completely if the people all became aware of how much the Lord really loves them.
The book of Isaiah contains beautiful passages in which the Lord promises that He will love us. In one of these passages God promises, “I will never become angry at you again” (Isaiah 54:9–10). Wouldn’t you like to appropriate that promise?
Isaiah 41:10–16 contains another beautiful promise. God says, “ ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you’ ” (as if someone were pursuing you, sneaking up on you to destroy you), “ ‘for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; those who contend with you will be as nothing, and will perish. You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, those who war with you will be as nothing, and nonexistent. For I am the Lord your God, who upholds your right hand, who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’
“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the Lord, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; you will thresh the mountains, and pulverize them, and will make the hills like chaff. You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them; but you will rejoice in the Lord, you will glory in the Holy One of Israel.”
There are many prophecies in Isaiah about the restoration, but we are especially concerned now about God’s commitment to us and what He will be to us in the restoration. The greatest thing that could ever happen to you in your walk with God would be for you to overcome that deep, innate feeling that God is angry at you, and that you have displeased Him. For many years I experienced the joy of the Lord only when I was telling other people how He loved them, when I could bring a revelation of His will for their lives. When I was behind a pulpit or standing before the people, ministering to them the love of God, I could sense it too. But I could not feel the intensity of God’s love for myself. My own personal relationship to the Lord was clouded by the lack of an awareness of His love for me. No doubt this was because of His heavy dealings upon me throughout the years; yet that in itself was proof that He did love me. I had to understand thoroughly that those whom the Lord loves He chastens, and He scourges every son whom He receives (Hebrews 12:6).
When God puts His hand on you and says, “You are the product of My grace, and this is what I am going to do with you…,” you realize that you are a chosen person; yet it is difficult to sense your destiny—the destiny that comes out of God’s manifestation of love. It is difficult to accept yourself as one whom the Lord loves. This unbelief can defeat you. Do not say, “Well, I’m nothing special.” You are special! God loves you—that is special enough. Even if He calls you a worm, as He did Jacob, rejoice in Him and say, “Yes, Lord. This worm loves You, dear Lord.” Then crawl and wiggle a little bit, and He will smile on you some more.
In Isaiah 42:16, God gives us another beautiful promise: “And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, and I will not leave them undone.” What is the course of the restoration? How do we move into the Kingdom? By His guidance and His direction God is pulling us into it. All that God requires is that He be the One to lead us. We will not face any problem without God giving us the wisdom to solve it.
Miracles are not sovereign acts of God; instead, pilgrims snag them from God’s hands while on a dead run. A miracle comes because you need one. Joshua made the sun stand still, not because he wanted to impress people in the ages to come, but because he had a job to do that day, and the sun could not go down until he had finished it (Joshua 10:12–13). He was fighting a battle that had to be won. He had to complete it, and he did! The last confederation of kings in Canaan that stood as an ominous threat to Israel’s possessing Canaan was destroyed that day, because God worked with Joshua. God will work with any one of us. Joshua 1:5 records God’s promise to Joshua: “I will be with you all the days of your life.”
How marvelous it is to be commissioned by the laying on of hands to the service of the Lord! Do you realize the significance of God confirming to your heart that you are a chosen, elect vessel, that He is beaming His love and all that He is to you, and that He will help you? Break out of that rut where you wonder, “I suppose eventually I’ll grow into a ministry.” Get into it now! Draw on His love right now, and let His Spirit rest upon you. Stop singing the blues, and sing instead, “He loves me!”
“Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are My servant; I have formed you, you are My servant, O Israel, you will not be forgotten by Me. I have wiped out your transgressions like a thick cloud, and your sins like a heavy mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.” Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and in Israel He shows forth His glory. Isaiah 44:21–23.
All of this is not giving any praise to Jacob. For God to call him a worm does not seem to be complimentary. The true picture is that God has chosen to be glorified in the midst of a humble people. He has chosen to move through weak things (I Corinthians 1:27). That is His intent. It is not that He does not have mighty things or wise things through which to manifest Himself. He could do that if He wanted to. But isn’t it marvelous that He always chooses the humblest channel, so that He is the One who is glorified and honored. His glory He will not share with another (Isaiah 42:8). No flesh will glory in the presence of the Lord (I Corinthians 1:29).
Isaiah 46:3–4 continues God’s covenant with Jacob.
“Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been borne by Me from birth, and have been carried from the womb; even to your old age, I shall be the same, and even to your graying years I shall bear you! I have done it, and I shall carry you; and I shall bear you, and I shall deliver you.”
The world has many methods of disguising the disintegration that comes with age. They harness it up, or paint it, or dye it, or plug it up. They do various things in order to cover up what they do not want to face. Rather, let us go on and live our lives in the continual expectation of God changing us into His image. Who knows whether we will break through to resurrection life right away (as we believe with all of our hearts), or whether it will be delayed a season yet. It does not really matter. We shall walk on with God regardless, though we are anxious to break through. We groan for it. Creation groans for it. But the truth of the matter is that it might take a little longer than we know. There might be a season ahead that we have not expected. Because the times and dates are hidden in the heart of God, the day and the hour of His coming no man knows, not even the Son of Man (Mark 13:32). If the Father in His wisdom has seen fit to veil certain events even from the Lord Jesus Christ, then we must admit that He could veil them from us too.
This should not discourage us, for God is still saying, “I love you, and I am going to carry you. Even when you are old with gray hair, I will be carrying you. I will always be your loving Father.” This must be engraved on our minds and on our hearts. We must break through to the revelation that God really loves us, that He loves the New Testament churches He has raised up.
Do not hold criticism in your heart about the way that God is leading us. People who become critical are usually self-centered. They relate everything to themselves, and then assert their likes and dislikes. They set themselves up to be the judge. A man who really has a revelation of the Lord does not criticize or stumble when a situation around him is wrong.
When you do not love the Lord enough, how do you react? Do you look for someone who is not doing what he should, and then rebuke him to straighten out and be perfect? If so, you will be the first one to be exposed and dealt with, because your attitude shows that you are without revelation. Someone who has a real revelation of the restoration does not look for reasons to be critical. Instead he exclaims, “Oh, this is all of God! What a loving service to the Lord! How the Lord loves us! What a miracle the way He provides! Bless the Lord! We open our hearts to one another, and we open our hearts to what God is doing, because His love is flowing.”
Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, and will have compassion on His afflicted. But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, and the Lord has forgotten me.”
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; your walls are continually before Me.” Isaiah 49:13–16.
These passages are all taken from the heart of Isaiah’s prophecies. We could have delved into the intricate explanations of the restoration; instead we are picking out the backbone of the restoration, the backbone of the Kingdom, which is the fact that He loves us, He has chosen us, and He has commissioned us.
Our final passage is Isaiah 54:10–17: “For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, but My lovingkindness will not be removed from you, and My covenant of peace will not be shaken,” says the Lord who has compassion on you. “O afflicted one, storm-tossed, and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony, and your foundations I will lay in sapphires. Moreover, I will make your battlements of rubies, and your gates of crystal, and your entire wall of precious stones. And all your sons will be taught of the Lord; and the well-being of your sons will be great. In righteousness you will be established; you will be far from oppression, for you will not fear; and from terror, for it will not come near you.
“If anyone fiercely assails you it will not be from Me. Whoever assails you will fall because of you. Behold, I Myself have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and brings out a weapon for its work; and I have created the destroyer to ruin. No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgment you will condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their vindication is from Me,” declares the Lord.
If that is the Word of the Lord, why don’t we believe it? Why are we still fearful or apprehensive? The things that must be removed from our thinking are fearfulness and the lack of awareness of His love. Come into the assurance whereby you confidently claim, “Lord, I know that You love me.” Cherish this truth in your heart: The Lord loves you and He has chosen you.
Do you feel that you are nothing? Of course, that is a true conclusion, but you will wipe yourself out if you do not have a revelation of His being everything. Your inadequacy and your littleness will be factors to reckon with if you are not counting on His mighty compassion and power. He is able to make you stand when you could not stand. He is able to bring forth His will in your life. Philippians 2:13 clearly states that it is God who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure; this was not born of yourself. Everything that you have is a result of His smile on your life. If God did not love you, you would not have a thing. You would not be anyone, anywhere. Start believing with all of your heart in God’s love for you!
It is easy to forget these things when you are storm tossed in conflict. Then your mind asks, “What am I doing here? Why did I get involved with this? How are things going to work out?” If you are serving God because you felt His love tug you and pull you, rejoice in it. Do not feel insecure. Do not be afraid.
Let us be a humble people who are not really aware of their humility. Humility is a virtue that seems to be undetected both by those who see it and by those who have it. No one seems to notice it, but the Lord Himself. When a man’s every little mannerism appears very humble, the chances are that he is very proud of his humility; and he has a studied humility, assuming a virtue that is nonexistent. To be humble before the Lord is to let the Lord be great in your sight.