We know what He was to Israel under Moses in the four books of the law. We know what He was to Israel under the leadership of Joshua. We know what He was to Israel during all the years of their walking under the covenant.
No enemies could stand before them.
We know that under David, Israel conquered the entire inhabited world, and in all their wars, there never was a soldier slain unless Israel had broken the covenant.
If He was that to Israel and they were but servants, what could He be to us, His sons and daughters?
Mine hand also hath laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand hath spanned the heavens: when I call unto them, they stand up together. (Isaiah 48:13)
Notice that expression: “When I call unto them, they stand up together.”
God’s voice controls the universe.
And remember that when the Man of Galilee spoke to the sea in the midst of the storm, it became calm and quiet in a moment.
Every law of nature was obedient to that Man.
We stand in the presence of creative faith, God’s creative ability.
You can hear Him say, “When I call, they come into being.”
Things that were not, become.
In Romans 4:17, speaking of Abraham, Paul said, “Before him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth [gives life to] the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were.” And they become.
It thrills the heart when we realize what our omnipotent God of love and Father is. Another translation says God “makes the dead live and calls into being what does not exist” (MOFF).
That is dominating faith; that is creative faith.
In Matthew 14:15–21 is the story of Jesus feeding the multitude. He took in His hands five loaves of bread and two fish and He blessed them. He broke the bread and fed five thousand men, as well as an unknown number of women and children. After the meal was over, they gathered up twelve baskets full of food.
In this story, we are given two facts. First, Jesus ruled the law of supply and demand by ruling the very laws of nature.
Second, the twelve baskets they collected showed that He not only met their need, but went over and above. It was beyond all that they could ask or think.
That is our Christ. How proud we should be of Him. How we should brag about Him before men. He is our Lord.
If we had a son or father or relative who could do such miracles, we would brag about him.
He is our Lord. He is our Savior.
We are partakers of His nature. Don’t you remember John 15:5: “I am the vine, ye are the branches?”
How utterly one we are with Him! How we should rejoice in the fact that we have such oneness.
We read in John 5:25–29:
The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.
That is our Master, our Lord.
That is dominating, creative faith.
Scripture gives us a picture of Abraham’s creative faith. Read this story over carefully until your spirit catches fire.
And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb; yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. (Romans 4:19–21 ASV)
Abraham was a blood covenant friend of Jehovah. That blood covenant was sealed with the blood of an animal and the blood of Abraham mingled.
Our covenant is sealed with the blood of Jesus Christ. Deity and humanity united in the incarnation.
How much better is the blood of Jesus Christ than the blood of an animal!
How much better is the life of the Son of God than the life of a mere man like Abraham!
We are bound to Him by an indissoluble covenant. He is bound to us as Jehovah was bound to Abraham in that covenant.
If Abraham, a friend of God, could accept an angel’s testimony and act upon it, what can we as sons of God do? You know what happened to Abraham. His youth was renewed. Sarah’s youth and beauty were renewed so that a king fell in love with her and wished to marry her, not knowing that she was Abraham’s wife. She was past ninety years of age, and the following year, she gave birth to Isaac.
That was the God with whom you and I are dealing. He is our Father.
If Abraham could accept the testimony of an angel, can’t we accept the testimony of the new covenant? We have become the very sons and daughters of God Almighty.
By a new creation, we are partakers of His very nature. We have become heirs of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ. We are the next of kin to the Son of God. How it thrills the heart!
And you understand that in another chapter, I have shown you that Jesus has given us the power of attorney to use His name.
When the Master was ready to leave the earth to go back to the Father, He said:
All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. (Matthew 28:18–20 ASV)
You see what we have now?
We have never taught them to observe or to do all that He commanded.
Didn’t He command them with love’s commandment to love one another, even as He had loved, to bear one another’s burdens as He bore ours, to lay hands on the sick, and to cast out demons in His name?
Can’t you see what it meant when He said, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20)?
If we would use that name with the authority invested in it, we could break the power of Satan over our loved ones; we could heal the sick. Instead of there being just one George Müller caring for thousands of little orphans by faith, there would be thousands of men and women whose prayers would feed and clothe the needy and the hungry.
We have never taken the Word seriously. We have never acted as though it were true.
If someone wrote a letter to you and told you that he had deposited five thousand dollars in your bank account to take care of your bills, and if you knew that he was financially able to do it, you would not hesitate a moment. You could hardly wait to get to the bank. You would hand the letter to the cashier with confidence. You know the man who wrote the letter; you know the promise he made; you know the money is there waiting for you.
Is the Word of your Father, the Word of the Master, to be depended upon as the word of a friend?
What a background this is for faith! What a prayer life can grow out of truth like this!
You can see what He is to us and what we are to Him.
Nothing is impossible to Him, and all His ability is ours.
What an opportunity to bless and help by our prayers!
GOD’S WORD
When the angel visited Mary to tell her the glad tidings of the Father’s will for her to be the mother of the incarnate One, she said a remarkable thing: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).
How that grips the heart! Hear her say, “Behold, here am I, your slave of love. Be it unto me, oh Lord, according to thy Word.”
What sublime confidence that Jewish maid had in the word of that angel when she said this.
Previously she had spoken, “How can it be? I am not a married woman.” (See Luke 1:34.)
The angel answered her, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you; hence what is born will be called holy, Son of God.” (Luke 1:35 MOFF)
And then the angel said, “For with God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37). This has also been translated as, “For no word from God shall be void of power” (ASV), and “For with God nothing is ever impossible” (MOFF).
This is creative ability. This is God’s Word.
How it thrills our hearts when we realize that God and His Word are one. Mary recognized that God and His Word were one. God’s Word is God’s faith expressed. It is God’s confession about Himself. His Word is invested with God’s authority and God’s ability.
You remember that He said, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made” (Psalm 33:6).
By faith we understand that the worlds have been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen hath not been made out of things which appear. (Hebrews 11:3 ASV)
That is faith’s creative ability through words.
You remember that practically all of Jesus’s miracles were performed with words. He said this significant thing: “What you hear me say is not my word but the word of the Father who sent me” (John 14:24 MOFF).
In John 12:49 (MOFF), we read, “I have not spoken of my own accord—the Father who sent me, he it was who ordered me what to say and what to speak.”
So, Jesus was not using His own words, but the Father’s words. The words that have come down to us spoken by the Master were the words of the Father. They were creative words; they were healing words; they were demon-dominating words, words filled with God and His faith.
I have been thrilled lately by noticing the faith of Jesus. He believed that He could redeem men if He became sin and suffered in their stead. He believed that if He conquered Satan, men would accept that victory as their own.
He believed that if He arose from the dead, men would believe that He was the very Son of God. He believed in the merits of His finished work, that men could stand in His presence without condemnation.
He believed that He could take these old, broken, wrecked human beings and recreate them and make them the very sons and daughters of God.
He believed that He could take this wreck of a human who had been dominated by sickness and sin through the ages and make him a new creation, make him to dominate the devil and circumstances, and make him master where he had served as a slave.
Jesus believed in Himself and in what He did. He believed that men would respond to it, would accept it, and would receive eternal life, the nature of the Father. They would then become worthy sons and daughters of God Almighty.
The Word can’t lie. It is a part of God Himself.
We act on the Word. God will make it good.
What a foundation is this for a prayer life!
We have God’s own Word to back us. No Word from God can fail.
We can have real assurance in our prayer. When we pray in Jesus’s name, it is as though He prayed. It is answered.
SOME FACTS ABOUT THE BELIEVER
The believer is a child of God, a new creation. His spirit has been recreated. He has come into the family of God. He is in the realm of the supernatural. He is in perfect union with the Master.
The believer and Jesus are one. He is the head and they are the body; so He says, “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:23).
That means all things are possible to a believing one—one who has come into the family of God, who has become a new creation created in Christ Jesus.
This is not a hyperbole; this is just a statement of fact. Just as all things were possible with Jesus, all things are possible to the believer through the name of Jesus.
You remember that 1 John 4:4 reads, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them [demonic forces]: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.”
You grasp it. Your heart knows it. You are of God, born from above.
God Himself recreated you, imparted to your spirit His own nature. Now you stand before Him as though you had never been weak, as though you had never been a failure, as though you had never been under condemnation. Again, He says, “Nothing shall be impossible unto you.”
This is to the man of faith.
This is the man created out of righteousness and holiness of truth. He is talking about the one that He came to recreate, this new man.
Of him, He says, “There is now no condemnation to you because you are in Christ Jesus.” (See Romans 8:1.)
There is a perfect union of your spirit with His Spirit. You are His representative here on earth.
He says we are ambassadors on behalf of Christ. An ambassador is an empowered representative of a country where his citizenship is located.
You are born of heaven; your citizenship is there. You have received your credentials from heaven.
God is your actual Father. You are His child.
Your Lord and Master has told you that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. “Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations” (Matthew 28:19 ASV). He said, “Don’t forget to teach them all that I have commanded you.”
That is a mighty ministry.
In John 14:12, we read, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.”
He went unto the Father to become the Mediator, Intercessor, Savior, Advocate, and Lord of the church. He is now at the right hand of the Father. He is going to enable us to take His place and do the same kind of works that He did before He went away.
In the next verse, He gives us the power of attorney to use His name: “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do” (verse 13).
This is not prayer to the Father.
This is dealing with demonic forces as illustrated in Acts 3, where we see the man lying at the Beautiful gate of the temple, evidently with infantile paralysis. “And Peter, fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, Look on us” (verse 4). Then, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (verse 6).
In that name, Peter broke the dominion of Satan over the man.
That man had believed in sickness and weakness, believed he was helpless.
The name of Jesus broke the dominion of faith in disease and weakness; in its place came perfect healing and a new faith in health.
Notice again, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name” (John 14:13). In the Greek, that word ask is “demand.” Jesus is saying, “Whatsoever you shall demand in my name, I shall make good.”
We are coming into the realm of the supernatural, where we see ourselves as representatives of omnipotence and where we have an opportunity to draw on omnipotence to meet Satan in open combat.
John 15:7 says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”
That lets us into the realm of cooperation with the Father.
We are taking Jesus’s place here on earth; we are acting in His stead. We are doing the work that He began to do.
He came to destroy the works of the adversary.
We are continuing that work of destruction.
We are His co-laborers, working under His direction, setting man free from the dominion of the prince of darkness.
You see, the believer is united with all authority, all ability.
You remember that just before His ascension, Jesus said, “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you: and ye shall be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8 ASV).
The word “power” comes from the Greek word dunamis, which means ability.
Jesus is saying, “You have the ability to use My name and cast out demons, heal the sick, and deliver men from the bondage of want into the liberty wherewith I have made you free.
“You have the ability to understand Me and to make Me known.
“You have the ability to understand the revelation that I am going to give through My slave of love, Paul.”
Ability means wisdom. Wisdom is ability to use knowledge, handle circumstances, and take advantage of opportunities.
The believer has the very nature of God. God is love.
We are born of love. We are a love creation.
We have the ability to love even as He loved.
We have the ability to know men and be able to meet their need and help them.
You see, the believer has God in him. For it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure. (See Philippians 2:13.)
How limitless becomes our ministry when we realize the integrity of the Word, when we know we have what He says we have, when we know we are what He says we are, and when we know we can do what He says we can do!
We step out of the narrow limits of theology and sense knowledge into the boundless ability of God.
Now we understand what it means when we say, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).
With quiet confidence, we face the impossible, knowing that He is Master.
You understand that we never pray for anything we can do or accomplish ourselves.
We are asking God to enable us to do the impossible.
That makes us world conquerors.
We know that greater is He that is in us than any opposition that can confront us.
Our sufficiency is of God, who has made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant.
What courage it puts into one to know that he has God’s sufficiency.
One translator says, “He makes us sufficient for anything.” So, with boundless confidence, we swing free in this glorious ministry into which He has called us, the ministry of prayer.
You have seen what you are in Christ; now take your place as a prayer warrior. Make hell fear you. Make heaven glad. Fill hearts of men with joy, witnessing your winning prayer life.
Healing the sick is His will. Saving the lost is His will. Breaking Satan’s dominion over men is His will.
Praying for ministers and missionaries is His will. Pray for this literature we are sending out that men will take their places as they know the Word.
Now swing free in your prayer life. Be big! Honor the Word.
Dare to do exploits for Him.
SO SHALL MY WORD BE
We are going to take a trip now amid some of the mighty Scriptures, mostly from the Old Testament. It will be like a trip into the redwoods of California, where you stand in the presence of those mighty trees lifting their proud heads up toward the clouds.
God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? (Numbers 23:19)
This gets into the blood. This gives us a warrior spirit. This makes you confident of your place in Christ.
This makes you know that you are what He says you are and you can do what He says you can do.
The Word of our God shall stand forever, and you are trusting in that Word.
Your confidence is in that Word that cannot be broken.
We think of the hills and their steadfastness…and yet you know the day will come when they will stop being.
“But the Word that I speak to you,” said Jesus, “shall never pass away.” (See Matthew 24:35.)
So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)
You feel like David must have felt when he said, “For by thee I have run through a troop” (Psalm 18:29)
You become by this study a master of circumstances.
“I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (Philippians 4:11).
You see, when you get tied up with God, when you and God become identified as you do in the new creation, you pass out of the realm of “I can’t” into the realm of “I can.” You are no longer a failure. You know that you can do all things in Him who strengthens you.
Jeremiah 1:12 (ASV) states, “I watch over my word to perform it.”
How many hard places this has bridged! Impassable gulfs have become level roads to us when we realized that God was watching over His Word.
We take His Word and carry it into His presence. You repeat it and say, “Father, this is what you said.”
We would not say that we knew He kept His Word. That is an insult.
We just look up and say, “Father, I thank you.”
Did you ever notice Hebrews 6:18? “That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation” or “encouragement” (ASV).
We see all that Christianity has built in the last three hundred years disintegrating, just melting under the terrific onslaught of satanic forces through dictators with their selfish ambitions, and yet we turn back to the living Word with confidence.
We are dealing with Him who cannot lie.
The dictators are liars; they are the sons of the old liar, the destroyer of the whole inherited earth.
You see, “He abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself” (2 Timothy 2:13).
No word from God can ever be defaulted. There never can be any denying of His own Word.
We did not ask Him to write the Word, nor to see that it was preserved for us.
He did that; He has encouraged us to trust Him.
We would never walk by faith if He had not enticed us to walk that pleasant road.
We would never have depended on prayer, nor rested on His Word, unless He had challenged us with love’s own challenge.
Isaiah 45:23 says, “I have sworn by myself.”
God’s throne is behind this. This is repeating what He said to Abraham.
I wonder if our hearts can take it.
God is throwing a cable about the throne and dropping the cable over for us to grasp.
He said, “Do you see? I am putting my throne as surety for my Word. My very Self is enwrapped in this.” Then we remember Hebrews 7:22, where He said that Jesus was made the surety of the new covenant. Now we have the Father and Jesus and the throne behind every Word. If that Word should fail, it would dethrone God.
It cannot fail.
God cannot be separated from His Word.
Every Word of God abides.
The word of man is as grass, but the Word of God lives on through the ages.
This Word is like God.
Now you can understand John 1:1–3:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
That Word is the Creator and the creative element of the universe. You remember that it is with the Word “we have to do.” (See Hebrews 4:12–13.)
We contact God through the Word. God contacts us through the Word. We act on the Word.
Now arise in your prayer life. Take the place God has given you. Set men free, heal the sick, and save the lost. You can do it.
AS THE FATHER SEES US
What assurance it gives to the heart when we come to know that the Father loves us even as He loved Jesus, that He is vitally interested in us as He was in His Son when He walked the earth.
You know that the four Gospels are Jesus introducing the Father, and the Epistles are the Father introducing Jesus and what He did. They also introduce the sons and daughters of God to the world.
The church and Jesus are one. He is the Head of the body.
And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)
Jesus was the first person ever born again. He was born twice. He was born of the Virgin Mary; then on the cross, He was made sin with our sin, as our substitute. Then after He had satisfied the claims of justice, He was justified in spirit, made righteous in spirit, and made alive in spirit. This was the new birth.
That is why the Father, speaking of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, said, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee” (Acts 13:33).
This Scripture wonderfully helped me to understand the substitutionary work of Jesus. He had actually become sin, was forsaken of God, a curse because He had hung upon the tree. After meeting every demand of justice, He was born again out of death, recreated, and became a partaker of eternal life.
Now He is called the firstborn out of death, the Head of the new creation.
You know that Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”
It was that morning when Jesus was recreated that the whole church by faith came into being. In reality, it began on the day of Pentecost and it has continued until now.
So, I want you to see yourself as the Father sees you in Christ. As He sees us by faith, He is able to make us by grace. As we walk in love, we are being transformed into His image.
One of the most graphic pictures is given in John’s gospel. John 1:16 says, “Of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” His fullness here means His ability, His love, His righteousness, and His utter completeness—and we have received it.
I used to wonder why He said, “And grace for grace.” Now my heart can understand it.
I shrank back and said, “Lord, it cannot be possible that I have received this fullness.”
And just as you would give a fainting one a drink of water, He gave me a drink of grace, and it strengthened me to look again. I saw myself in Christ and I saw myself receiving of His fullness and His grace, His love life and wisdom, His very being and substance.
I could hardly understand it; I said, “Lord, it is too much.”
Then He gave me another taste of His grace, as it were.
I arose up and said, “It is true, I am a branch of the vine; I am a partaker of the divine nature.”
As we act on the Word, the Word reacts in us; it is built into us and so we grow up in Christ. We are partakers of His nature, of His very substance and being.
In Ephesians 1:3, it says God has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.”
I wondered what He meant—that He had blessed us with every spiritual blessing. Something kept saying, “You are blessed. You are rich; you have His fullness. All that He is, you have.”
My spirit seemed to be numb and could not take it in. And then in His great grace, He seemed to enfold me, breathe into my spirit His own life.
I said, “Yes, Lord, I am what you say I am.”
And the Father has told me that I am in the beloved.
Why, love marked us out for the position of sons way back before the morning stars sang their first anthem, and we are made unto the praise of His glory. He planned that we should be holy and without blemish before Him. He marked us out for the position of sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself. And you are the marked one.
You remember in Malachi 3:17: “They shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him.”
The Father sees us as His own righteousness in Christ Jesus.
For a long time, that bothered me.
He hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)
I said, “I cannot understand, Lord, how You can make me as Your righteousness. But You say You have and because You said it, I accept it.”
He says we are complete in Him. (See Colossians 2:10.)
You see, righteousness gives us the ability to stand in His presence without the sense of guilt or inferiority, and this completeness is over and above all that we can ask or think or desire.
It is the measure filled full, shaken down, and running over. (See Luke 6:38.) It is the Father’s love for me.
I want you to see one other picture.
Jesus said, “If you love Me, you will keep My word, and the Father and I will love you and come and make Our home with you.” (See John 14:23.)
That is a Christian home. That is living with the Father and Jesus. The Father and Jesus make themselves One with us. That is just like His incarnation, where He came and made Himself one with man.
In the new birth, He makes us one with Himself; He comes and lives with us.
Now you know what you are in Christ. You see your vast responsibility.
You can pray, for you know how.
Take your place in Christ.
Dare to act your part.
Dare to let God use you.
Dare to let love reign in your life.
Dare to be in your daily life what He says you are.
Dare to do what He says you can do.
Dare to confess that you are what He says you are!
All is yours. Use it.
THE RELATION OF LOVE TO PRAYER
God is love.
We are the sons of love.
Love gave us birth.
Love planned our redemption. Love consummated it in a new creation and then Jesus gave them the new law.
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. (John 13:34–35)
This new law is to govern the walk of the church, the sons of God.
Jesus set an example of how we should walk, and then, in the new birth, He gave us the ability to walk even as He walked. He does not ask us to do a thing that cannot be done.
You understand that we have the nature of God, eternal life. The very substance of God has come into our spirits. We have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy; we have been translated into the kingdom of the Son of His love in whom we have our redemption.
Not only are we new creations, but we have become the very righteousness of God in Christ.
This gives us boldness in the Father’s presence, and it gives us fearlessness in the presence of the enemy or any of his works.
Then He gave to us the legal right to the use of His name so that we can rule over the adversary. He has made us masters of demons. How little we have appreciated it.
We are in God’s family. God is our Father, we are His very sons and daughters.
We are to walk in love. Love is to govern our conversation, our conduct toward one another.
When we step out of love into selfishness, we break fellowship with love.
No one can walk in selfishness and pray the prayer of faith.
Here is a graphic picture of the relationship of love to answered prayer:
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world’s good [wealth], and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. (1 John 3:16–21)
Just before this, John wrote:
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death. Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:14–15)
This is putting the case very clearly.
We have passed out of the realm of satanic union, spiritual death, into the union of eternal life and love.
Jesus laid down His life for us.
Now Love says that we ought to live for fellow Christians, and then He asks that remarkable question, “If someone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need and has no compassion for him, how can the love of God abide in him?” (See 1 John 3:17.)
The world’s goods are the things that we prize most highly: land, houses, bonds, stocks, money, and beautiful things. We have taken Satan’s appraisal of their value.
These worldly things have made us selfish.
This new kind of love is to break the monopoly of selfishness and establish a new order of life.
This new man is no longer to live unto himself, but is to give his life for others.
If he shuts up his compassion from his brother and refuses to bear his burdens and pay his bills, he at once sins against love and God says, “How does the new kind of love abide in him?”
Unless we walk in love and have yielded to the lordship of love, God cannot manifest Himself through us.
The ability of God is realized only in love’s freedom to act.
Selfishness imprisons love.
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” or reality (1 John 3:18).
He wants us to be the Lord’s truth-doers.
You remember that Jesus said:
Every one therefore that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock. (Matthew 7:24–25 ASV)
You remember that James said, “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (James 1:22).
This lover is a doer of love. He lives in the love realm. It is not the old phileo love, but the new kind of love that Jesus brought, agape, and so we love in deed and in reality.
Hereby shall we know that we are of the truth and persuade our hearts when we stand before Him in prayer.
If you walk in love, you can walk into the Father’s presence just as Jesus did, and know that your prayers will be answered.
There is no problem of faith to confront us; you are walking in love; you are doing the word; and you are letting Jesus live His life in you.
The Father can see Jesus in us, feeling Jesus in our petitions for others.
“For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things” (1 John 3:20).
Your heart is your spirit.
Your heart knows whether you are practicing love towards men. If they need clothes and you are able to give them, and they cannot get them, then it is up to you to meet that need. You are to treat them as Jesus has treated you. He died for you; you live for them. Hear this: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have boldness toward God, and whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we are walking in love.” (See 1 John 3:21–22.) We will do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
It makes no difference how many promises you plead. If you are not walking in love, your prayer life will be a failure.
Many people have come to me for prayer when they were sick, and I have prayed for them and obtained no results. When I asked them why my prayers were not answered, they confessed that they had bitterness in their heart toward someone. The moment that bitterness was taken away, they were perfectly well.
This verse is worthy of much meditation:
This is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another. (1 John 3:23)
If you have not understood what it means to believe in the name of Jesus, another chapter will explain it to you fully.
It is enough to know that He has given us the legal right to the use of His name, and then He tells us, “All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18 ASV). He gives us a legal right to use this “all authority.”
Do you remember 1 John 5:14? “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us.”
If we walk in love, we never pray out of His will, and if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions we ask of Him.
This leads us right into the heart of the Father. Now we can understand Hebrews 4:16, “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
This love life permits us to walk into the very presence of the Father. You may go into the throne room and stand in His presence and make your petitions known in the name of Jesus, and, as sure as you do, that petition is heard.
We were doers of selfishness, but we have become doers of love. We have consented to the dethroning of sense knowledge that has reigned in us. These five senses of hearing, seeing, tasting, smelling, and feeling have ruled us. In other words, our physical bodies have sat upon the throne of our lives. Now we are crowning our spirits, or to put it more clearly, we are recognizing the lordship of Jesus Christ and crowning Him as Lord of our whole being.
It was a wonderful day when love dethroned greed and love was crowned in the hearts of the new creation.
Here are three love scenes in the book of Acts. Few of us have realized what it must have meant to the Father to have love take over a group of men and women as it did in that upper room on the Day of Pentecost.
And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all, according as any man had need. And day by day, continuing stedfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God, and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to them day by day those that were saved. (Acts 2:43–47 ASV)
Here is a picture of outpoured love in the recreated men and women; all who believed were together and had all things in common.
In a single instant, those selfish Jews who had lived to make money have dethroned greed and crowned love as the Lord of their lives. It is a record of love at work, salvaging wrecked humanity.
Satan is dethroned; selfishness and greed meet their death stroke. The Father’s love nature is taking control of men in Jerusalem. They have yielded to the lordship of love.
You remember that Jesus said, “But tarry ye in the city [Jerusalem], until ye be clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49 ASV), and, “Ye shall receive power, when the Holy Spirit is come upon you” (Acts 1:8 ASV).
The Greek word translated “power” means ability. See how it reads: tarry in Jerusalem until you receive ability from on High. These disciples had received God’s own ability.
Already, they had performed many wonders and signs, but the mightiest of them all was when they had all things in common and no man said that what he possessed was his own. That was the miracle of miracles; they sold their possessions and shared with one another, according to each other’s needs. Here is love gaining the mastery.
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. (Acts 4:32–35)
We have another thrilling picture: “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul.” Not one of them said that any of the things that he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
You have wanted to see God really work, haven’t you? Well, if you can get a group of men and women together who will love like this, you will see the power of God because the next verse says, “And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”
Of all the miracles from the incarnation of Jesus to His being seated on the throne, there is no miracle greater than this. This is a real recreation. This is a picture of the sons of God letting love loose in them.
Remember, it is God who is at work within you, willing and working His own good pleasure. (See Philippians 2:13.)
God is love.
This could read, “For it is love which is at work within you.”
When love is really let loose, given freedom, then miracles follow.
First John 4:4 says, “Ye are of God, my little children.” Or one could say, “You are of love, for God is love, and you have overcome the forces of evil.” Why? “Because greater is love in you than the selfishness, hatred, and jealousy around you.”
If you would say it over: I am in love. Love reigns in me. God and I have become one in love. Now His love life is pouring through me, blessing and helping men.
What a wonderful outburst of love it was following the day of Pentecost. But then comes a flash of destruction and everyone is hurt:
But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the ghost: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young men arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. And it was about the space of three hours after, when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost: and the young men came in, and found her dead, and, carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. (Acts 5:1–11)
Men and women had been selling their goods, bringing in the money they made, and laying it at the apostles’ feet. No one had asked them to do it. They did it of their own free will. Love had gained the ascendancy and they were practicing what Jesus began to teach.
I wonder if you have seen, in these chapters, the relation of giving to answered prayer. I wonder if you have seen the relation of giving to love. No other sins are mentioned in this connection. Just one: Ananias and Sapphira had lied about their giving. They pretended to give more than they gave and judgment came upon them.
It is a very solemn warning to every one of us. We say, “Lord, I have given my all” and yet we have kept back a part of the price.
When you recognize the lordship of love, it takes in all that you are, all that you are able to do, and all that you are able to be. It takes in your ability, plus God’s ability. It takes in your ability to bless and help humanity.
We have never given love its place in the ministry of the Word. We have never made men see what it would mean to transgress the love law and step out of love into selfishness.