“… THE TRUTH IN LOVE”
The most talked about and the least understood subject in the world is love. How many believe in it? How many would like to receive it? How many find it difficult to send it out in some directions?
Most of our problems come because we go about all of the motions of living and we leave out the ingredient of love. Before we’re through with this message, we’ll see that if you do not have love you are a murderer (I John 3:15). We do not realize the destructive force that’s turned loose in the world by the fact that it just lives day by day without love. This generates more destruction of relationships; it generates destruction of plans, of lives. It’s the most abortive thing in the world for us to live without love.
In a court of law, attorneys are generally interested in digging out what facts they can interpret for their side of the contest. Rarely does the truth, the whole truth, really come out in a courtroom, no matter how many facts you have. Have you ever realized that when you look at the facts you’re only looking at the shadow that the substance casts? You’re not looking at the real thing. It takes more than just looking at facts to arrive at the truth. The truth is not so many facts, is it? Do you think it is? You could know all the facts and still believe a lie.
The truth has to be measured by something more than just facts. What do you need? You’ve got to have love. There is a phrase in Ephesians 4 that talks about this love. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ. Ephesians 4:15. “Speaking the truth in love”—I don’t think that there is any truth without love.
I can tell you the truth if I love you and you will receive it, even if it hurts; but I could come up and give you a compliment without any love in my heart and it could offend you. It’s not what you say, it’s not really what you do so much, but the ingredient that makes it a true thing is the love.
This is the purpose of all the gift ministries in the fourth chapter of Ephesians. They were all given for just one purpose—that everybody would grow up to the place where they would speak the truth in love.
But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. Ephesians 4:15–16. Again, everything has to be built up in love.
The thing that brings you through into maturity is the love. An orderly life without love leads into disintegration; people fall apart. A life that isn’t organized and is without love is already disintegrated.
Wherever there is anything that exists in the human level or the spiritual level without love, it generates death. Some form of death is involved with it. You die in some way. To live without love is to live a kind of death day by day. So, despite all of the things that you work and strive for, if you don’t have love you’re working against yourself, because your very efforts are destructive; you’re destroying yourself by not loving.
And we have beheld and bear witness that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. I John 4:14–15.
We don’t want our efforts to become abortive. We want them to count for something. Paul talked about the way people build, and spoke of the way God will test their work. Now, if any man builds upon the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each man’s work will become evident; for the day will show it, because it is to be revealed with fire; and the fire itself will test the quality of each man’s work. If any mans work which he has built upon it remains, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work is burned up, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as through fire. I Corinthians 3:12–15.
God walks through the house and He starts throwing lit matches. If it burns up, He says, “You’ve suffered loss, but I’ll be saved, yet so as by fire” (I Corinthians 3:15). God is you not going to destroy you; but He makes it evident that you have produced works that are self-destructive, and your work and your life will be burned up.
The more I dwell on this, the more concerned I am that all of our activities, that everything we do have that one ingredient of love in it. Are you going to be a disciple? Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love one for another” (John 13:35). That love has to be there. If you don’t have it, then all of the truth, all of the doctrines, all of the teachings don’t mean a thing. All of your activities don’t mean anything, because it’s the love that makes it really right before God.
I have always prayed that no matter what I did, love would come through. You can confront a person and be totally right; but if you go into it with a wrong spirit, you’re really wrong.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and every one who loves is born of God and knows God. I John 4:7.
You’re going to love, but it can’t be a superficial, shallow thing.
Whatever you go through, if you come out of it discouraged and defeated—with unbelief, hatred or bitterness—you weren’t drawing life from Him. But when you go through these things say, “Everything is an open door for me to reach up to God.” Draw from Him by faith; believe Him. Do you want love? Believe for it.
EAT IT AND DIGEST IT
Deuteronomy 8:3 is a Scripture that we have quoted a great deal. It’s a revelation that comes through Moses which says:
“And He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that He might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord.”
In Jeremiah 15:16 the prophet says: Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; for I have been called by Thy name, O Lord God of hosts.
It isn’t how much you read, it isn’t how much you pray, it isn’t how many candles you light or how many rituals you go through. In the final analysis, what counts is what you assimilate. It’s what you eat that determines what you become.
Another Old Testament prophet, Amos, prophesied a Word, saying: “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land, not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but rather for hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11.
Amos didn’t say that there wouldn’t be a lot of preachers around, but the Lord had revealed to Amos that the people would be perishing because they were missing something that they needed to feed upon. They were not getting the deep spiritual food that they needed.
In the New Testament you have the same thread. When Christ went out into the wilderness to be tempted, the devil knew He hadn’t eaten anything for forty days; and so he said, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread” (Matthew 4:1–4). Christ’s answer was out of Deuteronomy 8:3 again: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”
Christ knew that there was a way to feed upon the Word that God speaks. Revelation 10:9–10 talks about the same thing. The angel gave the book to John, and he ate it. In his mouth it was as sweet as honey; and when he had eaten it, it was bitter in his stomach. It’s when you assimilate the Word that the reality of it hits you.
I was raised in a religious background, and I remember how we were taught that we were supposed to read our Bible for 15 minutes a day, pray for 15 minutes a day and witness to somebody for 15 minutes a day—if we did all that then we would never lose out with God. Then I realized: “It doesn’t make any difference how much I read; it’s how much I digest that counts.” That has been the secret of my life. After that revelation to my heart, it didn’t matter to me whether I read half a verse or whether I read a whole book. I read until one thing happened: I began to partake of the life of God. Life came to me out of it.
This same thing can be true of listening to Audio’s. There are people who turn tapes on and go about doing something else, never hearing anything that’s going on. It isn’t how much you listen to; it’s how much you absorb that counts. Do one thing: Listen until you partake of the life of God.
Jesus said to the Pharisees: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me, that you may have life.” John 5:39–40.
If you spend your day reading the Scriptures, will that guarantee that God will give you eternal life? No, life is something you assimilate. It’s something that you eat. Eat the Scriptures. Feed upon the Word. That’s where the life is.
Here’s the process: Every living organism has a process by which there is an intake, assimilation, and elimination. What you eliminate is what cannot be absorbed into the body to become tissue, or energy, or part of revitalizing the bloodstream. You must take in the Scriptures and be given to the Word of God, but you must also be able to assimilate it and digest it. Don’t think that you please God just by listening to a message; it’s what you take into your being that is important, for then it becomes a part of you.
Changes are not worked by discipline so much as they are worked by assimilation. Expose yourself to the Word. Take it into your being. It may take you a while to assimilate it, but be like one of those boa constrictors that swallows a pig. Lay low for a while and just keep working on it; pretty soon you will have assimilated and digested the whole thing!
Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.” John 6:53–57.
As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him any more. Jesus said therefore to the twelve, “You do not want to go away also, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.” John 6:66–68.
The term “the Living Word” comes from the fact that God has given us a Word that is alive. The power of life comes by a Word from God that you digest, that you assimilate, and something happens to you. Of course, this is exactly what we’re talking about when we come to Communion. We’re going to sit here and talk about the Lord. We’re not going to eat a pinch of cracker, take a sip of wine, and say that we fulfilled a ritual. We’re going to be aware that what we are doing is an act of faith.
Jesus said, “This is My body which was given for you. This is the new covenant in My blood” (I Corinthians 11:24–25). Eat it. Drink it. Communion is not to be a ritual; the idea is that you’re going to reach in with faith to partake of the life of Christ. The life of God has to be real to you.
This is something God told us to do, and we will do it with faith. We draw the life of God into the Communion. We breathe His life into it. We eat it. You can realize what Jeremiah must have meant when he said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them” (Jeremiah 15:16). As we eat, we are transformed.
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1–2.
The Greek word for transformation is metamorphoo, from which we get the English word “metamorphosis.” That’s the thing that makes a little worm spin a cocoon and come out a butterfly. A complete new life comes out of it. When you approach God through the mind, you rarely find Him. But when you approach Him through faith, your spirit will eat and partake and draw on Him.
All that God is you can partake of. If the Word of God means anything at all, it means that He became human so that our faith can reach back and make us divine. Whatever God did in making Himself understandable and available to the human being was so that the human being would know that he could participate and partake and eat of God. Eat of Him. Eat of His Word. Eat what He is.
“Well, it sounds very mystical and complicated. How do I do it?” You can sit and talk and say, “Well, I’ve been burdened for this or that thing.” Okay, first you sit here and take a sip of wine. Then have somebody who is next to you make a prayer request for something that he wants God to be in his life. Then break your bread with him. Agree with him. Just agree together in His name. What does it mean to agree? Sumphoneo is a Greek word that means, in an English derivative, “crying together.” So we have symphony. You all tune up your violins and you have a symphony. You’re in tune with each other. You’re in agreement. You cry together—just a simple agreement of faith.
Instead of trying to change and make yourself better and reform, why don’t you just appropriate enough of God so that you do change? Take something into your life that is a catalyst for change.
Do you want to change? You can. Don’t go on some awful self-guilt, condemnation trip. If something is wrong, be honest about it and say, “I sinned before God. That’s wrong. God, please forgive me. But now I’m going to draw You into my life to change.” You have never really repented until you have taken a step toward a positive answer in God.
Have you ever had a real meeting with the Lord in Communion? Has it ever been that real to you? I don’t think that we really meet God until in some Word He reveals Himself as the answer, the food, the strength we need.
The thing that changes you is that you feed upon something in God. I think that the people who search the Scriptures the best are the ones who are looking for some promise that will have a handle on it, according to what they need right then.
Every time you read in the Scriptures about God, you notice that He is concerned about giving Himself some name that meets the need.
He told Abraham: “I am Jehovah-Jireh—the Lord who provides” (Genesis 22:14).
He called Himself “El Shaddai—the great-breasted one” (Genesis 17:1). God can be a mother to you. He can be a father. He can be a redeemer, or life, or truth, or an open door. He can be anything that you need.
Whatever God is, let Him be what you need right now. Do you need wisdom? Ask of God and He will give you wisdom (James 1:5). He is the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6). In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3). Begin to eat of Him. Think upon Him. Say, “God is going to be real to me.” Think that in your mind. This is why we take Communion.
What counts isn’t your record as a human being. The Scriptures teach that the people who are changed from glory to glory are transformed because they’re exposed to God (II Corinthians 3:18). That’s it; it’s a metamorphosis. Partaking of the divine nature doesn’t just happen because you discipline the human nature. Eat Him! Drink Him!
This hasn’t been like what you would call a service; what you really had in this Word is a meeting with God. The Scriptures speak in such a way that you get an idea what the early churches used to do. They talk about their love feasts. They loved each other so much. In fact, when Jude speaks about betrayal in the book of Jude, he talks about certain Judas-type individuals and says, “These are hidden rocks in your love feast” (Jude 1:12)—meaning the hidden rocks below the surface that you can’t see when you’re sailing a boat. The things in the love feast are there. But what each person has to determine is that he, with his faith, is accepting a great thing from God. Take the wine and the bread and exchange it back and forth with love and faith for each other. Say, “I’m receiving this from the hand of my brother as though it were my Lord Himself who were feeding me, and as though my brother were causing me to feed upon the Lord. And I reach to my sister, my brother near me, and I feed them in faith. They’re going to have something real from God.”
Have you ever heard the Communion called a celebration? It’s a celebration because it has to be a faith that reaches in and says, “He died to give me life. He opened up something on a human level so that I can draw it, and every time I do, that divine nature becomes stronger in me.”
Day by day, feed upon the life of God. Really, you are what you eat. It isn’t what you read or what you hear that is important; it’s what you assimilate and take into your being that counts. None of you will ever be the same again. If you keep hungering after Him, you’ll be like Him.
THE ABC’S OF YOUR SPIRIT
This Word may seem elementary and you may think, “Why, I’ve heard all this before.” But I am amazed at how many people have come into a walk with God in recent years and have never heard a basic explanation of ministering and how to minister. We need a simple explanation of what we are—spirit, soul and body—and how we function.
There is nothing worse than to get into a habit or a ritual until what we do is mechanical and without the expression of our whole being. This is why we are always getting away from forms that function without power or effectiveness in our lives. We must break with a ritual when it is not ministering life to us, and go back to the original commitment given to us to find out what God really wants from us. For instance, at the present time the laying on of hands has more meaning to us than it has had for probably a dozen years. In the past, people experienced the laying on of hands but many times did not understand the depth of its purpose and how to really bless one another.
I want to explain a little bit of Scripture so that you’ll understand what you are and the basic limitations you have because of what you are. Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. I Thessalonians 5:23–24. Paul also talks about spirit, soul and body in I Corinthians chapter 2.
Everybody is talking about body, soul and spirit, but they get it backwards. They are more aware that they have a body than they are of anything else; therefore they emphasize ministry on a physical level. But reaching people on all three levels—spirit, soul and body—is the whole basis of ministering. I never try to reach a person quickly; I want to get a handle on the spirit, soul and body of a person before I try to minister.
If a man given to worry comes to us and says, “I hear that the gifts of healing are real, and I would like to be healed of ulcers,” we could very easily cure the ulcers. But how long would it last when he goes out to eat some hot chili and starts worrying some more? Ulcers are caused not so much by what you eat as by what is eating on you. If we heal the thing that is eating on you, then we can say, “Okay, now you are healed of the things in your soul or your mind that are the cause of the problems, and the physical body will have a healing that is permanent.” In other words, there is a depth we try to reach.
Anything we do can be nullified if we do not cope with the whole man. Let’s learn how to get to the spirit and to the soul of an individual. We need to do more than just help him a little bit with emotional or physical problems. We need to teach him some basic principles, if we can, of both how to receive and to give a blessing.
Without an understanding of how to draw on a flow from God (where authority resides) and how it can be ministered, you go through a form without knowing how it works. If it works, you’re agreeably surprised; but the next time you try to do it you can’t, because you don’t know what you did right the first time. But if you understand everything about it, you watch it very carefully and find that you can be more of a permanent blessing than you know.
For example, we are learning how to put Spirit into words so that they are not sounds and concepts only, but are a lifegiving force. Paul said, And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away. I Corinthians 2:1, 4–5. Paul was speaking of things eternal.
Christ said, “My words are spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). You can hear many words that are just words. Paul wrote in a number of places to avoid those who speak empty words—words without blessing, words of contention (II Timothy 2:16–17). Someone can speak all the right words but it is just like feeding people sawdust. People say, “Well, I go to church and they preach the Scriptures to me.” That doesn’t necessarily mean there is life. Just because someone can quote Scriptures doesn’t mean he will have the anointing of the Spirit or life in the words.
We want the ability to impart—spirit to spirit. We want to be able to say, “I bless you,” and see people blessed. Something will happen to them but we need to get a couple of keys to make it work. Once you get the idea, you will start living in the realm where you can bless a person and see positive change that lasts a lifetime. One word can change people. That’s why the enemy battles so hard to get you to voice negativity. James said, “If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man” (James 3:2)—meaning that words can be a channel for whatever is in you.
The Lord said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Matthew 12:34). So the mouth speaks forth, activating things in the spirit and in the soul. You can say, “I don’t have the wisdom to solve my brother’s problems. I don’t have all the answers.” But you can listen to your brother, and after you’ve listened, you can say, “Let’s cast it all on the Lord and I’ll bless you.” You can accomplish more with that blessing than you can by having all the answers.
Paul said, But just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard. and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those, who love Him.” For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. I Corinthians 2:9–10.
Let me explain that. Your eye hasn’t seen it. Your ear hasn’t heard it. Not even in the imagination of your mind and heart have you ever conceived what God really has for you. It is beyond the knowledge of the senses—beyond anything that the faculties of the soul or body can discover. But God begins to reveal those things by the Holy Spirit to your spirit, so that you know.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God (He has it for you, but you’ll never get the revelation of it without some input from God’s Spirit to your spirit), which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. I Corinthians 2:12–13. Spirit words have Spirit and life in them.
I want to teach you how to speak a Word with Spirit in it. When you speak, draw the Spirit into it. But a natural man (the man of soul) does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. II Corinthians 2:14. You can learn some things by using your eyes and ears, and some things you can learn with your soul. But there are some things that you can learn only with your spirit, because your soul will never pick them up. Paul said that the soulish man can never comprehend the things of God because they are spiritually discerned—only his spirit can tune into those things.
We’re realizing that is it better for us to learn a little bit of prayer and ministry that will reach up through our spirits to God and to one another and to learn how to draw, than it is to try to figure out the things of Spirit in our minds, or to get into them through the emotions, the soul, the feelings, or the reasonings of the mind. We can come to the place where we have a reality that is spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. I Corinthians 2:15. It’s a realm that can’t be put in a test tube, but it is a realm where the spiritual man knows what he is doing.
For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. I Corinthians 2:16.
And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh (we have the Greek word pneuma, meaning “spirit”; we have psuche, meaning “soul”; and we have sarx, the word for flesh), as to babes in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? I Corinthians 3:1–3.
Jesus said to His disciples, “I have many more things to say to you but you cannot bear them now” (John 16:12). Paul wrote, “By this time I ought to be giving you meat, but I have to give you milk because you’re just babes” (Hebrews 5:12–13). There are different levels of understanding.
The only faculty capable of direct communication with God is your spirit. God is a spirit and He seeks those who will worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:23–24). There is no reliable revelation, I think, that does not come through the spirit of man. The realm of your spirit can commune with God because He is Spirit. Everything God is doing in His plan to bring us into His own image is revealed right here. When you get a spirit that lives eternally, fathered by God Himself, you have something made to commune with God. You who have known this teaching, and have learned how to move in the realm of spirit from the very beginning, don’t know how much time you saved and how much futile seeking you bypassed as you sought the truth.
We need to review our terminology, because traditional theologies and doctrines have made many words meaningless. “Justification”—does that mean anything? How will we define the word “revelation”? “Prophecy”—what does it mean now? What did it mean in Biblical times? What do we mean by “blessing”? What do we mean by “cursing”? What do we mean by people being “open” and what do we mean by people being “closed”? What do we mean by “walls”? We have been accused of creating our own lingo, but the only reason we have done it is because there aren’t any words unless we coin them—that can express our common experience in the realm of spirit.
What can we do with the hands? Why do we lift our hands to the Lord? Why do we lay on hands? Is there a difference between a fist and an open hand? Can it affect your spirit? How do we impart? How do we appropriate? Or how could we combine the appropriation and impartation at the same time?
You need to have your spirit open to the Lord and to your brother and sister. If you are tense or walled off and your fists are clenched, it is difficult to receive or give a blessing. But if you open your hands, then lay them on the hands of the one who is imparting to you and draw, the blessing doubles because you are appropriating as well as receiving.
If you are imparting to someone who is not as open to you as he would like to be, bring in someone he is open to, through whom you can channel the blessing. Set your mind to believe. Set your will to give and to receive. When you impart, draw from the Spirit as if you are breathing through the top of your head. Say, “I’m believing. I draw from the Spirit of the Lord. I pull the blessing from God and send it through my hands.” It’s like a water fountain flowing.
Faith is largely based on will, not reason. A revelation can become very real to you, whether or not you can reason it out. Eventually it becomes very reasonable and you can prove it as you would a scientific formula; but you begin by saying, “This is a revelation from God and I’m going to believe it.”
What is the first commandment? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and all thy strength.” We will live with Him and serve Him totally in spirit, soul and body. The second commandment is like unto the first: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
People say self-love is wrong. But if you don’t love yourself then you can’t love your neighbor. You can’t love God and despise what He has done, because you are a product of His workmanship created in Christ unto every good work (Ephesians 2:10). You’ve got to say, “I love what God has done in me. I’m a miracle. God has led me every step of the way and I love it.” If you don’t have a higher esteem of yourself—of what God has done for you—you will be worthless when you try to help someone else.
Get rid of the self-condemnation. You can neither impart nor appropriate when you are burdened with self-guilt. Say, “Lord, give me revelation of myself and what You’ve done in me.” Count the times He has met your heart—the ways He has led and blessed you.
Don’t be ashamed to take blessing. You say, “I’m going to be humble; I’m going to get off in a corner.” You can be humble and sit on the throne! Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth, but He washes feet (John 13:3–5). He can be humble when He knows He has that authority. That’s the key to moving in the Spirit. There is no greatness without humility, but there is no true humility that just beats itself down. At some point you have to say, “I’m humble and I stand before God as one of the meek ones who will inherit the earth!” (Matthew 5:5.)
THE DECEPTION THAT DIVIDES
The great problem that has hit the churches has been a spirit of illusion to create division. It looked as if contention was the big problem, when really the assault against our striving for oneness was a spirit of illusion, a lying spirit to create division. As you look back on this period, and even periods before, you can see that things were not at all the way they appeared. The illusions were not the truth at all, but people got into illusions that created divisions and walls, and all of it was based on illusions—a lying, deceiving spirit.
This was the basic assault: a satanic effort of deception to divide, to bring contention until people were too depressed to hang on to the confirmed Words of the Lord. Behind this is a truth I’ve known for some time: Satan himself comes with a hypnotic power and a deep despair that hits you; and with this comes a deep depression until the deception is accepted to the point that you actually find yourself losing your grip on the Words that have been confirmed to you, what you really know to be the will of God.
This is an important sign. The only time that it comes is when Satan himself, seeing that the issues before each of us are so great, personally takes charge of the battle. This is the sign of Satan—that hypnotic despair; you feel numb when it hits. That is Satan’s sign. If you stood by a furnace, you’d feel heat upon your skin—you’d feel it physically. When Satan assaults, this hits you—the depressive, hypnotic state that you can feel.
We exercised Christ’s authority to divide these spirits of division that have warred against us so long. With all of this that Satan is doing, we realize that our answer is to divide his kingdom until it can’t stand (Matthew 12:25). What is he using to divide us from our oneness? A spirit of division. We’re striving to attain and maintain our oneness; Satan is striving to break that oneness.
Our objective is that, with divine authority, we agree to divide the spirits of division. In other words, when divisive spirits come to divide us, then we agree that those spirits will be divided against each other.
If we pointed out some of the Judases or Korahs or Balaams that have left, you would notice one thing: they couldn’t tolerate each other; they almost hated each other. Yet suddenly there seems to be a unity among them. This is only because spirits of division and rebellion are uniting. The spirits right within themselves are spirits of division and rebellion! Remember this though: there can be no true unity between those spirits of division; there can be no true submission between spirits of rebellion.
When we look back on this move, we see that every time we’ve had a victory, it came because we divided the enemy’s camp—and it wasn’t that difficult to do! It was an easy thing for us to move in on that assault. We would simply separate the enemy and defeat them.
Now, hear this: Jesus said He came to do that! “Do you suppose that I came to grant peace on earth? I tell you, no, but rather division; for from now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother; mother-in-law against daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” Luke 12:51–53. He didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword and division.
Why did Christ do that? Because the kind of unity that exists in those who do not serve God must be broken. That kind of unity must be broken because that is Satan’s kingdom; if we break it, his house won’t stand. That’s what Jesus said about the kingdom of Satan: “… Any kingdom divided against itself is laid waste; and a house divided against itself falls. And if Satan also is divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul. And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out? Consequently they shall be your judges. But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Luke 11:17–20.
We must break their unity. This is the next basic tactic by which intercession will be made more effective, because this will break the hindrances that keep the oneness and unity of the Church from being most effective.
Satan’s kingdom must be divided against itself. The two keys, then, to total victory are: One, the Kingdom of God prevails by oneness; two, Satan’s kingdom is defeated because his rebellious and divisive spirits are susceptible to division themselves. It’s a part of their very being.
Satan himself and his spirit are rarely detected and discerned, because he comes under the guise of that hypnotic despair, and you don’t readily realize how he’s dividing you against yourself. Here is a prediction: The defeat of this deception will leave us with a fresh awareness of our oneness, of our commissions, and of the power that we will have to confirm and strengthen the Word of God over one another.
All contention springs, to some degree, from satanic deception regarding yourself, personally, and how you feel accepted or rejected by God or by your brother or sister.
In almost every case, the weakness that defeats us is that we are insecure and so lend ourselves to intimidation. That’s probably the only access Satan could ever use to make headway against us. What happens then is that our contention is not so much belligerence on our part as it is our defense against our feeling intimidated and inadequate, and so we lash out. It’s as though we have a big point to prove to ourselves.
Let those who would divide and deceive us become the victims of the same demonic spirits that they use! This is the answer against the nephilim. Any persons or spirits that would divide or deceive us can become victims of the same spirits they use.
Remember what Paul said in Corinthians to the churches: But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ. II Corinthians 11:3. This has become so real to me. Satan wants to beguile us from the simplicity that is in Christ until we won’t see the oneness or the Word and cling to its simplicity.
Satan always tries to make our relationship to God extremely complicated. That is the beguiling of Satan. He tries to emphasize so many negative aspects of it, with so many questions or reasons. You can throw only so much into your computer before it jams it—and that’s the beguiling of Satan. That is his divisive and deceptive tactic—to come and draw us away from the simplicity that is in the Word.
This brings us to the problem of transference. The transference which is accomplished by Satan, which he throws onto us like witchcraft, he does best through his agents who seem to be transformed. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their deeds. II Corinthians 11:14–15.
Good transference is based upon a revelation of the Word of God and the simplicity and purity of the channel who gives it, but evil transference is based upon a deceptive transformation of Satan’s agents. That is what is in the earth today so much so that Christ said if it were possible they would deceive the very elect (Matthew 24:24). That’s why this battle becomes so subtle. We’re going to have to drill our sheep and train them on these tactics of Satan. If we don’t, he may pick them off one by one.
Keep these words in mind: transference and transformation. The transference comes because the agent is transformed until he looks like an angel of light. These thoughts that come from Satan you would swear were the Words from God. You would think you had a leading from the Lord; you’d swear that the divisive deception was really the truth, but it’s transference.
I can’t believe how many things may seem to be true one day in a battle and the next day you know them to be absolutely false. They were not true at all, and they weren’t based upon any fact at all. The illusion comes through the transformation of Satan and the transformation of his agents until they are like angels of light. We’re going to watch this danger above everything else; that’s where the false prophets are.
I think Satan is accomplishing his end when he gets us to be apprehensive about the men who have denied the Word and who go around phoning the flock to deceive them. They aren’t accomplishing that much for Satan. We should be more concerned about the ones who are in the Body who look like angels of light and “ministers of righteousness.” It appears that they still have a ministry. They are the ones who, by their transformation, appear to be something and are still able to bring the deadly transference that is effective. As for those other Korahs, we have our walls up against them. Let’s not be so concerned about them. We’ve broken bonds with them.
The subtle thing is where deception comes as an angel of light and we think, “This could be a Word from God.” Usually it is, “Hath God said?” or, “Is that really a Word from the Lord?” They’ll throw the questions and the division into what needs to be so very strongly affirmed in our mind as being a Word from God. This is the basic tactic to deceive the very elect.
I think that this problem of division during this period of transition from the Church Age to the Kingdom is one of deception. Deception and division are satanic, while the whole thing on our part is revelation and oneness. And we will have revelation from God and will walk as one.
Many and varied are the complications that Satan is bringing to people’s lives. This is what disturbs me, because I realize that it is one of the most subtle forms of deception there is. It can look as if you have so many problems, but they are really not your true problem. Many things can come to distract you and disturb you or to bring depression on you so that you will not follow the directive Word God has given you, or that He has already confirmed to your heart again and again.
I see the problem as being too many issues distracting us from the principal issues that are before us.
All of these assaults are a form of the war over the Word, because Satan is battling those who are the doers of the Word. When we say “the doers of the Word,” we don’t mean those who only go through the motions; we mean those who are actually crying out to do the will of God, to put the Word of God into action and bring it forth as a Kingdom reality.
Keeping the simplicity of devotion to Christ is so important! It’s the complications in our lives that Satan uses to distract us from that simplicity.
These complications make your life full of so many things-you’re doing so many good things, battling so many good problems—that you don’t do the best thing. You never see the principal thing really accomplished. You’re often so busy trying to put out little brush fires that you don’t attain the real oneness of the Kingdom, the relationship that God wants, the unity of spirit, or the revelation of Himself that He is trying to bring to your heart.
Paul warns the Corinthians of deceitful workers disguising themselves as apostles and prophets and parading as being right in the church (I Corinthians 11:13). They are deceitful. It is what they do that creates a deception. This can be a very disturbing thought. I want to talk about that—being a “servant of righteousness” in appearance.
The first thing that the workers of Satan do is make themselves appear more religious than God Himself, or than the servants of God. Satan is transformed as an angel of light and his workers appear transformed into ministers of righteousness. That transformation makes possible the transference.
Listen! The most subtle witchcraft doesn’t come from a witch on a broom; it comes from one who looks very much like an apostle, a prophet, or a handmaiden of the Lord. You see, Satan comes and makes Jesus Christ look like a glutton and a winebibber (Matthew 11:19); and those who come as “servants of righteousness” will go through the community and say, “Oh, these weak ones sinned; they are the stumbling block.” And yet those “ministers of righteousness” are the hypocrites who have been stumbling people with their hypocrisy.
We see these things over and over again. The hypocrites say, “Jesus, You can’t be real because You associate with harlots and publicans.” They push the world to stone an adulterous woman; but when it comes right down to their own sin, they slink off because they’ve got it (John 8:3–11). They are the ones who are self-righteous, self-deceived, and often satanically possessed.
We have to face this because here is the source of this deception and division we are concerned about. The deception has to be broken. The whole thing we’re battling—the confusion, the depression and division—results from listening for a single moment to these complicating, distracting, involved issues that Satan raises which would take us away from the simplicity and purity of our devotion to Jesus Christ and our oneness with each other. These many issues must not distract us from the one issue: God has spoken a Word to us in this generation, and together we’re going to walk in it.
How should we respond to this message? We’re all aware of the elusive thing that tries to divide. I would suggest that you do one thing: get together and say, “Look, the problems that we have focused on are not really our problem at all. We’re going to come back to the simplicity of our walk with God. We’re going to battle through on this thing together. We’re going to pray for one another. We’re going to believe that these divisive demonic spirits which have appeared to be so right, but which cause so much division within the church are going to be broken—absolutely and positively.”
Move in on the victory of this Word! You’ll wake up and realize how different the world is when this victory from God ends the illusion and deception and division and makes you aware of your oneness in Christ. Minister the victory to one another. Lift your hearts together to God, and with revelation move into the oneness and victory over the enemy.
TRANSFORMED BY EXPOSURE
Getting into a rut is a very dangerous thing. It may be comfortable, but the best thing of all—the potential of growth and change-disappears when you’re in a rut. We need to stir ourselves out of our ruts and get ready for change.
I’d like to talk to you about how we change. How many would like to change? Circumstances—a sudden prosperity or a sudden devastation—can bring change because you are forced to reach into God for your response. Otherwise, withdrawal or bitterness may slip in. Sometimes you think that by changing circumstances you will be happy. You think, “I’d be free if only I could get away from my parents and get a job, get married and raise a big family.” That’s free?
I don’t think we necessarily change by changing our circumstances or through some kind of self-discipline. I don’t want to suppress one thing in my old nature (what I mean by the old nature is the human part of me, I am a divine human, so I have two natures one human and one divine) only to see that nature spring up and express itself in another way. If the old nature (I also call the old nature the flesh, differentiating from the old man which was crucified with Christ) is suppressed in one way, it will express itself in another. You can take the old tree that produces carnality and you can trim off all the fruit, but it will still grow a fresh batch next season because the changes were only superficial.
Would you like to have a deep, basic change in your spirit so that you could come into spiritual things, so that you could walk with God and know the things you should know? You can change! But how do you really change? Should you go to night school, join a self-improvement program or take up jogging? That may help you, but it doesn’t change you. Change comes from exposure to God, not discipline of the self.
Moses was on that mountain for forty days just to get ten commandments (which was God’s part of a marriage covenant with the children of Israel), I don’t think so.
Why was he up there so long? (Because Moses did not only get the commandments; he also prayed, “I beseech Thee, show me Thy glory.” Moses was in a little cleft of the rock and the glory of God passed by and he saw the back of God- which included the things He did in the past which enabled him to write the book of Genesis-Exodus 33:18–23). He came down from the mountain changed. In fact, he was so completely changed that his face had a glow on it. The people couldn’t bear to look at the glory, so Moses had to put a veil over his face.
Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with Him in the tent of meeting, he would take off the veil until he came out, the Lord would tune down his glory and he would see the Similitude (form) of the Lord which was reflecting enough glory to change him. Whenever he came out and spoke to the sons of Israel, they would see that the skin of Moses’ face shone. Moses would replace the veil over his face until he went in to speak with Him (Exodus 34:29–35). The removal of the veil in a face-to-face relationship is a type of the New Covenant.
I don’t even think Moses ever went into the tabernacle he built after the pattern God gave him-which he delegated and imparted to others the skill to build. Moses would meet with the Lord outside of the camp of Israel in his tent and the people would see the glory of God overshadowing it, which was called the tent of meeting, sort of like the tabernacle David built, except the ark was in the tabernacle of Moses, not the tent of meeting.
In time, that glory was to disappear and you could see the same wrinkle lines, the same human limitations and traits that old man Moses faced before. But Paul made the statement: “If the ministration of death that came when God gave the commandments was so glorious that Moses’ face shown, how much more glorious and permanent is it when God begins to reveal Himself to us by the Spirit? Whatever Moses saw was not to be compared with what God says He has prepared for us, because that glory faded away” (II Corinthians 3:12–17).
What is the key? Do you want to change? You will change through a revelation, an exposure to the Lord. But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit. II Corinthians 3:18. If you really are exposed to a truth, a living truth, the Lord Himself, if someone ministers a portion of the Lord to you, change can come to you.
This is the reason we believe in impartation so much. More than words are conveyed to you through impartation; something of God Himself comes through. The great changes will not take place through human discipline or progressive stages of development. The changes will come because we press into a greater revelation of the Lord.
What should we do? Be very much concerned about blessing one another. Bring one another into every bit of blessing you can. Avoid the negativity. I don’t think we should emphasize sin so much! I think we should emphasize the righteousness of God! Why can’t we preach for something instead of against something? Why can’t we believe for positive change in God? I hate the religious spirit because it refuses to give people a chance to change through faith. If you want to see filthiness, get behind the scenes of the pharisaic religions and see what 14-karat nothings they are.
You change by exposure to God. You can’t change by the discipline of your old nature just as you can’t lift yourself up by your bootstraps and set yourself on the other side of the fence! The repentance that comes from exposure to God is better than a thousand old-time hell-fire-and-damnation sermons and altar calls. In the year of King Uzziah’s death, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Isaiah was simply exposed to God, and he said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! (This is what I mean by the word devastation I use a lot in other messages). Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” But God removed his sins and iniquities (Isaiah 6:1–7). Isaiah knew what real repentance and change means.
The approach of all preaching should be to exalt the Lord first, not to preach against sin. The first thing that must come is a revelation of the Lord, and in the light of that you’ll see your need. Why can’t a religious man break through to something real from God? Because he never sees enough of God to see his own need. A sinner already knows his need; he just needs to be shown God.
If you begin to probe within, you can become rather discouraged. I don’t think you change through introspection or through discipline or through rules and regulations of religion. You change because you’re exposed to something real from God.
We don’t search our own hearts; (we allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts and you become very aware of His Presence when He does this and then you see your own need). Sometimes I think it is the spirit of the fear of the Lord who is assigned to mentor those who are coming into sonship, because my body always trembles, I am in no way scared of him, because I know he loves me, and I experience godly sorrow because he is overshadowing me.
John says, “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that we shall be like Him, for we see Him as He is” (I John 3:2). Complete exposure to the King of kings is the key of total resurrection life and transformation. There’s no other mystery to it. To be exposed to God is to see the fulfillment.
David was singing along, playing his harp, when he said, “God is a fortress and a shield” (Psalm 18:2). I can picture that: God is a fortress. I know God is a shield. He defines Himself in many ways and says, “I want to reveal Myself to you.” When you see it and open your heart, you say, “Lord, reveal Yourself to me.” He changes you; you see Him. It’s not a mental exercise; it’s something you open your heart to. You say, “God, if You love me that much, let me see You.”
When Jesus went to Bethany to resurrect Lazarus, Martha doubted and said, “Lord, by this time there will be a stench, for he has been dead four days.” But Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God” (John 11:39–40). How will you see the glory of God? Believe! Change is an operation of the eye of faith. It is something that you determine in your heart to do.
Will the laying on of hands help? Yes, if it is done with faith. Will getting people to pray for you help? Yes, through faith! Jesus said, “My words are Spirit and they are life” (John 6:63). If you want to read the Bible, fine, but read it to find the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (II Corinthians 3:6). I think there are people dying from false hopes raised by hearing sermons every Sunday with the letter of the Word, but no Spirit. Don’t read—eat! Partake. See. Feel. Experience. Open your heart to the revelation of God. Change does not work any other way. There is no miracle worked by our working it up or being worthy of it. Dead works never accomplish anything of transformation.
We’ve always had one teaching—to be focused in the spirit upon the Lord. Get before God and say, “God, just show me Your love,” because you cannot visualize the personality of God. His ways are past finding out. Who is going to know all about Him? (Romans 11:33.) But if some part of Him becomes revealed to you, you change—really change!
Even when you don’t know Him at the time, you know part of His nature is imparted to you.
The real love that you want comes because God is revealed to you in His love. And because His love and His nature become so real to you, you change. Ask for His grace. Ask for His love. Begin to believe it. If you ask for His love to be revealed to you, it will be.
One of the things still lacking in the churches is that the people don’t wait on the Lord. They come and worship; they get the teachings and they like them. But this thing works only if you are exposed to God and if you learn to practice His presence and constantly sense Him. The barriers of no feeling and no awareness just disappear when you practice His presence continually. You know He’s there.
Get ministry to break through to Him. Don’t get ministry for problems. Say, “Lord, help me because I want the walls to come down. I don’t want to be unaware of You. I want to sense Your presence. I want You to walk with me and to talk with me. I want to be aware of You all the time.”
Believe Him to meet you. Faith is not in teaching and rules. Our faith is toward God; our faith is in Him. I don’t believe in myself, but I have more faith every day in what God has done in me and what God has done to me. I have enough sense to know that what He has started, I could never finish. I’ll keep looking to Him and He’ll be the author and the finisher of my faith (Hebrews 12:2). He’ll do it. I have a great deal of confidence, but it’s toward God.
Would you like to know when you’re going to meet God? I can tell you the very minute that you will find Him. He says, “In the day that you seek for Me with a whole heart, you’ll find Me” (Jeremiah 29:13). He’s right here all the time.
I used to think that I had to go to the mountain to pray and fast to find God. But one day I found that He is in the valley as much as He is on the mountain. It isn’t the place and it isn’t the motions you go through that brings God close to you. It is the reality of practicing, with such faith, an awareness of His presence. You can live constantly in a spiritual state of awareness of the Lord and not have to live from one experience to another. We should all be constantly aware of Him. Walking with God should not be a few experiences, constantly blowing hot, then cold. It should be the maintaining of an awareness level and spiritual reality that we live in all the time. It can be! We loose it!
READY TO MOVE
I have been very much burdened about the Kingdom prophetic evangelism, the one-on-one thing. An evangelist can get a lot of people to take Jesus as their Savior, and then boast, “Look, I’ve got converts.” These big evangelists can have a lot of babies, but then they toss them off to the side of the road because they don’t want to bother to feed them or let them grow.
We take the opposite view: When we get hold of someone, we labor to present him mature and perfect in Christ as much as we can (Colossians 1:28). And in the long run, I’ll guarantee that we’ll have more real people standing in the remnant than will be numbered in all of these great mass movements.
There’s a reason why it has taken about thirty years to get the groundwork laid in my life. I’m going to explain it to you so that you’ll see. The groundwork had to be laid with great difficulty, or what I came into, what I call “the Walk”. In order to bring others into the level I attained, to produce sons and daughters.
Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace. Psalm 144:12.
We’re going to get these little kids and we’re going to teach them. They’re going to have a good education; but more than that, they’re going to have a good impartation.
The spirit of Elijah that turns the hearts of the fathers to the children and the children to the fathers (Malachi 4:5–6)—that’s what it’s all about. In the Kingdom, there is no problem as great as the fact that each successive generation doesn’t know how to relate to the other. It’s been the big problem. And that of course is where the breakthrough is coming.
I’m not just trying to push for a little bit of unity. I want more than that; I want the combination that’s going to bring the greater works in the earth.
What we are really getting at is the way to put the Spirit into the disciples so that what they do, they will do in Spirit and in truth (John 4:23). We’re looking for the simplicity of it.
Invariably, people start leaving out the grace of God and the miracle power of God as they go along. But this walk with God is not like that. We’re getting more of God in it every day we walk.
The issue that repeats itself continually is the necessity of an apostolic company to confirm or correct each commission in its execution of the Word of God over each one.
It might be a proverb that a commission without authoritative confirmation always genders confusion.
In disciplining people
The first area of training would be spiritual perception.
The second would be the Kingdom Principles and the functioning in them and the divine order of them.
The third would be the teaching and imparting, and teaching them how to impart to others.
The fourth area of training would be the shepherd-dedication, both in themselves and in those whom they train.
The fifth area of training I would call “Beyond the Cross,” or “How to Wear the Crown.” Devastation is one thing; but to come out of it, to move in absolute authority in Christ, is another.
The sixth area of training would be how to flow in a spiritual ministry and still be able to delegate to others responsibility and oversee it with this supervision that is necessary. All of this requires a great deal of teaching on the balance and the emphasis in which each ministry must be trained.
The seventh area of training would be the basic principles of the Kingdom—in fact, in faith, in function, in fulfillment. And these are all distinct aspects.
Now the question is how to fulfill all of this. For instance, what would we teach if we took only seven men? What can we teach just as efficiently to many more at one time? What must be done with only one at a time?
You can see that the goal is not, “What can I learn myself?” but, “What do I learn by teaching others?” And this can be one of the greatest factors of all in bringing forth an apostolic company. The development of the Body of Christ must always be in direct relationship or ratio to the deliverance of the Body. In every instance where we try to train another, the positive goals are unattainable without eliminating negative factors that hinder those positive things from coming forth in them.
You can’t take Jericho until your faith has made you walk through the Jordan. You can’t conquer Canaan until you’ve been circumcised.
The beginning of all creation is the overcoming of personal chaos.
Nehemiah couldn’t rebuild the walls until he removed the rubbish.
To reproduce myself in you, we must first eliminate both of ourselves.
The submission of a bondservant is a climate in which the qualities of the master are reproduced in that submissive servant.
Pride and ambition isolate the minister from that creative flow that will create him into the perfect will of God.
Submission is perfected in the one, and only in the one, who is no longer insecure and fearful.
The climate of timidity and fearfulness is hostile to what God wants to do in you. Just get rid of it—have faith in what God has done.
Our trust in the Lord and in the teacher, He appoints for us is a key that opens the door to receiving what is imparted and taught.
This trust is difficult to obtain because everyone goes through life looking for a spiritual father; they go searching for a teacher. And they come to a certain place where they have been burned so many times that when the true teacher comes along to teach them, they are shy of getting in and receiving it.
But how long is it going to take? Do you want to spend five years learning how to develop confidence? Or can you look to the Lord and say, “I may see a lot of faults or problems that that teacher has, but You show me, Lord. If that’s to be my teacher, then I’ll get only the good things, because I’ll be submissive to him as unto You; and You’ll be careful to filter out anything that’s wrong so that I’ll get the true thing that is to come.”
I’m giving my life to reproduce this. And I know that I can’t reproduce it unless you have my spirit, and you’re not going to have my spirit until you’re submissive to it. So you’re going to have to be submissive to the Lord and submissive to the spirit that’s going to teach you. You start to dwell in it when you begin to intercede for it. But you’ll have to take a big, giant step forward when you become totally submissive to that teaching that is going to transform you. I’m not talking about head knowledge; I’m talking of being able to live and move in another realm completely.
Each generation is finding themselves born with a little freer spirit. No matter what their personal problems are, the climate is good to take care of those problems and to impart to them unbelievable things. I just see that God has brought the hour I’ve been waiting for so much. And everything is moving toward it because the whole climate of the church is, “Impart.”
The greatest curse that could happen is that we would be judged for the light that we received but didn’t walk in because we screwed ourselves up in a conflict. So God is turning our hearts to one another, so that the earth will receive a blessing. The Gospel of the Kingdom will go into all the world if we can just get it together here among ourselves.
We’ve hit a new level, and the big issue is this: How do we relate to each other on this level? How do we communicate? Our hearts must be turned to each other.
Every mother who says she loves her kids falls short of her love in the fact that she is also afraid of them. She’s intimidated. She feels inadequate: “Am I a good mother?” And she over-compensates for that many times. I tell you, kids thrive on a certain amount of neglect that makes them more self-reliant. But they also thrive when you know that you are the authority and you move in to direct and counsel them and guide them and steer them, so that they become self-sufficient. But they do not become self-sufficient as rebels who are going to destroy themselves.
The apostle John used to say, “Little children, love one another” (I John 3:11). Jude says, “Keep yourselves in the love of God” (Jude 21). If you come up and say, “I’ve got all kinds of problems; bless me with my ministry,” the first thing I will do is pray for you to have more love, because you don’t hit a new level without the realization that—as much love as you may have had on the former level—it’s not enough this time. You have to have more love. Just say, “God, give me Your love.” Nine-tenths of the problems would be eliminated if we had more love. The problems in communication, the conflict, the disturbances all come because you’re not loving enough. That’s the bottom line.
What was your commission? what were the prophecies? How do you serve? If somebody took away everything from me as far as ministry is concerned, what would I do? “You can’t edit any more. Don’t write any more. Don’t preach any more. Don’t teach any more.” Do you know what I would do? I would enter into the greater works: I would go bless the little kids.
CLIMBERS NEED MORE LOVE
This teaching that has been coming will change the whole Kingdom; and it began with the love, the ministry and unity that was ministered to us, we had been deeply disturbed by the fact that every time we moved onto a new level, it seemed like all hell broke loose against everybody. So we went back to the teaching that every time you hit a new level, you’ll never have enough love for that level.
Whenever God thrusts you into something, it’s not to bring a test upon your brother; it’s to test you, to see if you’ll get more love from God to meet the situation and the relationship.
Every new level in a relationship brings a testing to how much you love. That love must be assumed on a deeper and deeper level. There’s nothing wrong with a lot of these marriages that have been shaken—they’ve been checked out and shown to be in the will of God. Then why are they having so many problems? Well, as they walked on together, they came to a new level and they didn’t have enough love for that level. They had enough love for the former level, but not enough love for the level that was opened up to them.
If you’re going to take a step in God, then you had better ask God for more love before you take it. That will minimize the battle.
You couples who think you have problems don’t really need any answers—you just need a flood of that love. It is a baptisme of love—it’s one time when you want to say, “Lord, drown me in this!” The love will come forth and you’ll be blessed in it. That’s all you need.
If anybody has seemed to have problems, I have; but today if you’d ask me about my problems, I’d tell you that none of them really matter. The Lord says, When a man’s ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Proverbs 16:7. That’s right! You just go right on loving God and having so much love that it slops over on your enemies. Before you’re through, you find that God has taken care of those problems and you’re walking along in the Lord.
If you had a little more love, it would just smooth everything over. What is it that can be so sweet that when the bitter things come you can take them? It’s the love—just a little love that you express to each other.
You’re going to open your heart to have more love. If you really love, you’ll be so concerned about your brother that you won’t be independent; you won’t be rebellious, noncommittal, refusing to submit or to look for confirmation. Instead, you’ll delight to be one. I think God can lead us into this. There’s a timing in God to lead us right to the people that He wants us to see—and away from the people we should be led away from.
I can’t get away from this thing of more love. More love! That’s what the Lord keeps speaking: we have to love each other more. Every time we take a step in God, we need to love each other more. Just because you need more love doesn’t mean that you’re going downhill; it may mean that you’re going uphill, and what you have is not enough love for the new level you’ve hit. You’ve got to have more—more faith, more love!
“Give, and it will be given to you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap. For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return.” Luke 6:38.
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. II Corinthians 9:8.
Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Ephesians 3:20–21.
This will be our way of life. If you’re not giving, you’re missing God, because God so loved the world that He gave (John 3:16). One way or another we must find a way to give—give of yourself, of your time, of a Word, of intercession, or maybe just little things that you do for each other. You’re going to love one another. Open your hearts to each other, because in your giving, God will enable you to give something that is beyond even what you have yourself.
Nobody can figure out why we love and give the way that we do, but there’s a blessing in learning to be a giver. If you’re a giver, you’re a lover; if you’re a lover, you’re a giver, because love can’t be so selfish that it’s just grabbing to see what it can get to possess and dominate and control.
Love isn’t always that reasonable. You just start in to do something and you do it in the name of the Lord. It doesn’t work to say, “I’m going to invest this and I’m going to get back so much.” In fact, rarely do you get back from the person that you give to. Have you ever noticed that? You always get back, though. “Give and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38). Some people are very generous in their giving, but they always expect something back—it’s part of their custom. However, we have our custom. Kingdom Custom says, “You give—maybe you no get, but after a while you get. Okay?”
I love you so much—we’ve got so much ahead of us. We’re a great big Kingdom family. We stand together and hold one another up. We give each other love. We’re not going by appearances; we’re going by a relationship that God has created, a oneness He has brought forth. We are one together and we love one another.
Sometimes even a family gets into little spats, but only because they are so close together. The closeness is why we have to have more love; it brings out the best and the worst in us. That’s the way we feel in the family of God. We may have difficulties, but we say, “We’re going to love in this family; we’re going to open our hearts to each other; we’re going to build each other up with faith.” Nobody has a right to introduce contention into the family.
If I were to change all the terminology in all of our messages and our day-to-day expressions, I would change one word: “Kingdom.” When you talk about “the Kingdom,” people don’t understand it. I would substitute the term, “the Father’s family,” for the word “Kingdom.” The Kingdom of God is the Father’s family and we love each other; we open our hearts to each other. We may go through hell and come back again, but we will still love each other. This is the Father’s table. This is where the Heavenly Father says, “You’re My family.” There is no other place to go—this is it.
The schools are just beginning to really get into what God wants, because we’re just beginning to learn how to love these little kids.
This is the Father’s family. Love each other. Reach out and bring one another in. Help one another. We’re going to be blessed of the Lord.