This Word on intense love is an important principle from the Lord, and it is so simple that you will wonder why it did not have more emphasis when the intense intercession first began. It will be good to examine the full scope of intensity the Lord really wants of us.
During periods of deep intense intercession, there is a need to emphasize this familiar passage: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. Mark 12:30a. Too often, however, the emphasis during such a time is not as much on love, and later we may wish we had added more of that one important ingredient—love.
The family spirit of the Father’s family—our love and care for one another—has been very present within Shiloh in Iowa. Within the movings of the Spirit there, this intense love was an ingredient which was somehow largely lost in transmission as it was taken to other churches. There has been an intensity of focus to intercede, to focus on the firstfruits of the ministry coming forth and upon the manifestation of the sons of God. We have felt the deep intensity, the violence of spirit with which we determined to leave Laodicea, to see that spirit of indifference broken once and for all (Revelation 3:14–16).
At times, we focused upon the fullness that we needed financially. We focused on a growing love and awareness of one another as the family of the Lord.
In his first Epistle to the Church, Peter called attention to an objective which is set before us now. Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart. I Peter 1:22. Peter’s Epistles deal often with intensity. An intensity also existed in John, whom the Scriptures portray as being closely associated with Peter. John and his brother James were called “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17), probably because of their brusque manner. Then again, they may have been given that nickname because they were heard swearing at each other on their fishing boats. John is called the apostle of love; but we know that the love he had was not a natural characteristic. One time he became very vindictive and wanted to call fire down out of heaven and burn up some who would not receive the Lord Jesus Christ as he thought they should (Luke 9:54).
Peter could be referred to as the apostle of blundering, because he often seemed to be opening his mouth and putting his foot in it. Yet Peter possessed quite a boldness and intensity. When Jesus was arrested, the other disciples held back from any confrontation, but not Peter. He took his sword and sliced off the ear of the high priest’s servant, which the Lord then had to heal (Luke 22:50–51; John 18:10–11). It is significant that the New Testament ends predominantly with the writings of John and Peter: I and II Peter; I, II, and III John; and the book of Revelation. All of these books deal with intensity.
Peter tells you to love one another. But you are not to stop when you have some love in your heart. Keep on acquiring more love until your heart is filled with it and you are fervent in your love for one another (I Peter 1:22). Many weaknesses are overcome when you have that fervent love for one another. I cannot stress this fact enough. Peter speaks of this in the fourth chapter of his first Epistle, verses 7–8. The end of all things is at hand; therefore, be of sound judgment and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. As you read this, do you feel as though Peter is speaking directly to you today? Clearly, the end-time events are related to the prayers of the saints. Above all (even above your intercession), keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Whose sins does it cover—the one who is doing the loving or the one who is being loved? Both! When you love a brother, you are concerned about covering him with grace; that love covers a multitude of his sins. Have you ever stopped to think, however, that when you love someone, your sins are covered too?
Sometimes it is difficult to perceive the homely defects in a person who has freshly fallen in love. A girl can be quite plain and relatively unnoticed, but when she falls in love, suddenly a radiance and a beauty emanate from her. You see qualities in her that you never saw before, and what apparently had been obvious faults now seem to recede. The same holds true in the Spirit. As you love, the normally obvious shortcomings in your nature are overwhelmed by your compassion and the fervency of your love. You can have an almost offensive personality, one that clashes with others; but if you are fervent in love, your faults are amazingly inconspicuous.
A minister who has an intense love is a living example of this truth. Some may be critical of him, and no doubt could find many reasons to be, but the faults and problems which might be evident in his personality are overshadowed by the deep love he has in his heart for God and for those to whom he ministers. If he did not love them so much, they probably would magnify, or at least see more clearly, the problems and faults which he has. The more you love, the more your love covers a multitude of sins.
Peter continues, verse 9: Be hospitable to one another without complaint. Even in Shiloh where providing for visitors can be an occasional inconvenience to others, we strive to be hospitable. For this reason, we have added more bunks, even to rooms housing more or less permanent residents—not to make living uncomfortable, but in order to achieve the most accommodating facility possible. We are learning how to show hospitality. I believe this will be a major responsibility for us. In the days ahead, there may be judgments in the earth that will result in many homes and facilities being swept away. We may be called upon to take in survivors from disaster areas, to open our hearts to them, to learn to live together.
Generally, most of us enjoy our privacy. I have found that one of the greatest keys of my ministry is to be alone with the Lord as much as possible. Such times are always fruitful and richly alive. We learn from the Scriptures that Jesus spent time alone communing with the Father (Matthew 14:23; Luke 6:12). I have never been able to understand how a person can be lonely. How can anyone who has a Bible, who knows the Lord and can commune with Him, feel lonely? The presence of the Lord can be greater to your heart than the presence of anyone else. The communication of what He has to say can exceed any conversation you could have with the wisest man in the world. Simply come to the Lord and feed upon Him, and you will never be lonely.
The problem of loneliness will be reversed when the time comes to share our humble little rooms with others in ministry to the Body. Then our main problem will be that we are not alone. Then we must learn to be extremely polite and kind to one another, and have a great deal of love. Without a fervent love, the circumstances of communal-style living will eventually jangle on your nerves. In fact, that situation can be a little irritating even if you do have a great deal of love. Tension and pressure still can be created through the input of those around you. If you love someone, you are in tune with him; therefore, in a sense, his problems are communicated to you.
Peter continues, As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, let him speak, as it were, the utterances of God; whoever serves, let him do so as by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing; so that also at the revelation of His glory, you may rejoice with exultation. I Peter 4:10–13. Notice the principle conveyed here: If you suffer with the Lord, you will enter into His glory, His reign, and His authority.
If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. I Peter 4:14. Most of the time that glory is not visible. The glory of God in a worship service or on an individual is not a tangible, visible object that can be calibrated. But there is one sure indication of the glory of God: If the glory of God rests upon you, you are going through sufferings. If you are being reviled, then you are being blessed.
We are believing God to bring to us the intensity of love whereby we love one another fervently from the heart (I Peter 1:22). What will that fervent love mean? If we would incorporate into our times of intercession a principle we learned years ago in the Blessing and Worship Services, our intercession probably would be more effective.
Unity has an expression by love. Have you ever tried to tune into someone? The world uses the term “vibes,” meaning the vibrations which each individual gives out. Would you like to learn how to tune into someone else? Would you like to be able to discern his needs, to feel as he feels, to understand what is going on inside of him? How can you reach him? How do you get on the same wavelength with him so that you can help him and minister to him? This is the key: Simply love that person until you feel your heart melting toward him. Then you will be in tune with him. Love is the greatest adjuster. It is like a dial. When you love someone, you tune into him.
This principle was frequently practiced during the Blessing Services. Those participating were encouraged to take down their walls to the Lord and to open their spirits to Him; then to take down their walls to one another. The results were often amazing. Whole congregations would sway under the power of God. There were times when the level of unity was so great that when the ministers extended their hands to bless, the whole assembly would feel the impact of the Spirit of the Lord. Yet in an ordinary congregation of individuals, the reaction would usually not be nearly as great. Why did it happen during the Blessing Services? It happened because of the openness we had to one another.
When we pray for judgment, we really do not mean judgment as much as we mean deliverance. It is true that in many cases, deliverance means judgment on principalities and powers and nephilim spirits. But would you not be more effective, in ministering to someone for instance, if you first tuned in by love so that you reached him? You can have a great deal of faith, but at the same time you must not scatter it. Great love enables you to focus; it tunes in and focuses everything you do. Your faith is turned loose when you are filled with His love.
Do you feel that this touches on something which has been neglected in your intercession in the past? Being violent in spirit should also have fervency in love combined with it. It is true that you do need strong, intense faith. You do need to break through the indifference. But once you break through, could there not also be such an intense, fervent love that the full force of your violent faith is channeled to the exact place it is to go? In other words, I think we have more power than we realize; and if we become more fervent in our love, we will be more effective with what we have.
We must be more fervent in order to be more effective—more fervent in love to be more effective in faith. “Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything, but faith working by love” (Galatians 5:6). Realize, it is faith working by love! If our faith is not working by love, even the most sincere intercessors may find that they will use their fervency to prove a point. They may defend themselves, saying, “You had better not stand against my violence, because the Lord won’t bless you. This violence is of the Lord.” I doubt that you will have as big a point to prove if you have more fervency in your love when you intercede or express violent faith.
God has promised us so much in His Word. Notice how every idea expressed in the previous quotations from I Peter is repeated in Peter’s second Epistle. Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. Everything that pertains to what you do, what you are, what you say, what you have, every circumstance, the course of your life, the fruitfulness of your ministry, your identification in the Body—everything that pertains to life and godliness—He has given to you. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. II Peter 1:2–4.
The fifth verse begins, Now for this very reason also … With this phrase, Peter is referring back to the fact that God has provided so much for you; He has given you promises that can loose you into everything! In other words, make your appropriation effective, so that you lay hold of what is yours and you do not walk with the serious problem of having had wonderful commitments and promises and prophecies over you, yet you are walking in very little. In the next phrase of verse 5 Peter expresses the idea of violence: applying all diligence … Instead of using the term “violence,” we should use a more scriptural term and say “applying all diligence.” Violence can be a very shallow emotional explosion; but applying all diligence goes beyond that. It is intense. It may or may not be violent in its expression, but it is very intense.
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence (it is in your faith that there is moral excellence), and in your moral excellence, knowledge; and in your knowledge, self-control, and in your self-control, perseverance. Sense that drive! Reach the place of being persistent, with no wavering, no on-again, off-again type of experience. And in your perseverance, godliness; and in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, Christian love. II Peter 1:5–7. Notice the progression—right up to the top. Diligently strive to come up to that level of love. I believe we are ready to see this happen everywhere. I believe the Body is ready for it. I believe we are ready to find our hearts filled with brotherly kindness and love.
Brotherly kindness should not be considered the same as this fervent love. When you say that you love your brother, you may merely be feeling kindly toward him. Can you reach the place where you are fervent in your love for him? That is what Peter refers to again and again: Be fervent in your love for one another (I Peter 4:8). Have a fervent drive to love your brother; be determined to love him with all of your heart (I Peter 1:22).
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing (in other words, if you experience a constant increase of all of these), they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will be effective and fruitful. Is this not what we are striving for in our intercession—to be effective, to be fruitful, to get the job done? It boils down to love. For he who lacks these qualities (if he does not have them) is blind or shortsighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Next Peter again urges us to be all the more diligent: Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about His calling and choosing you (can you sense in this the quality of training, of pressing in?); for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble. II Peter 1:8–10.
What a fantastic insurance policy! Where could you obtain liability insurance against being wiped out by an assault from Satan? How much would you be willing to pay each year to guarantee that you never lose out with the Lord? Money cannot buy it, but this diligence will provide it. If you practice these things, you will never stumble. For in this way the entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ will be abundantly supplied to you. II Peter 1:11. That is what we want. That is the name of the game: abundant entrance into the Kingdom! To oversimplify it—this fervent love for God, accompanied by all these other qualities, is the discipline we seek so that we can enter fully into the Kingdom.
This important emphasis must be ministered to the whole Body of Christ, to the whole Kingdom. Fervent love will take away the little offenses and stumblings, because it covers the sins (I Peter 4:8)—not deceptively, but with the blood of Christ which obliterates them, removes them, takes them out of the way.
We can test our love by observing if we respond to what we see in a brother or sister with criticism, or even to what we see in ourselves with a self-loathing that becomes self-condemnation. We can condemn others or we can condemn ourselves. If we are overwhelmed by that condemnation, and our faith has not reached out in love to God for the answer, then we have missed it; we still do not have enough faith or enough love.
This teaching is not intended to discourage you, but to help you. Do you understand the true significance of this message? God is instructing us how to reach into a higher level in our relationships. We are in days of breakthrough, and every one of us will change. Let us reach into God to love more and more until we are loving one another fervently.