If you have listened to any of my teachings, you’ve heard me speak about the love of God. That’s what changed my life. The titles, subjects, and Scripture references of my albums are all different, but I’m always teaching about some aspect of God’s unconditional love.
I believe a true, experiential understanding of God’s love will drastically change anyone’s life. That’s the point that the Apostle Paul was making in Ephesians 3:19.
It says,
“And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.”
Knowing God’s love experientially surpasses mere head knowledge, and it always results in us being filled with all the fullness of God. I could say it this way: If you aren’t experiencing all the fullness of God, then you aren’t experiencing God’s love.
Many people would argue with that. They would say that they know God loves them but that they are just under their circumstances at the moment. My answer would be, “What are you doing under there!” The Bible says we are to be above only and not beneath (Deut. 28:13).
When we are enjoying God’s love, everything else pales in comparison. No problem can compare to the unsearchable riches of God’s love. It’s like the old song says, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.” That is absolutely true.
At a recent Gospel Truth Seminar , I taught on the love of God in every session. I’ve had a teaching series available on this subject for years, God’s Kind Of Love: The Cure for What Ails Ya! However, at this seminar I took a totally different approach. Instead of restating the obvious, I decided to specifically counter wrong thinking that blinds us to His love.
Every Christian has the head knowledge of God’s love for them, but because of wrong thinking, it seldom translates into experience. There are things (primarily religious teachings) that dilute and weaken that revelation of God’s love.
I began with the sovereignty of God. Wrong thinking about this is one of the biggest problems people have in experiencing God’s love. If you believe God is the One who is causing all the problems in the world, it will definitely affect your relationship with Him.
Let me illustrate it this way: What if you thought I was the one who killed thousands in the September 11 terrorist attacks, caused the tsunamis that devastated Asia, and destroyed New Orleans with a hurricane. On the other hand, what if you thought I was so heartless that I would cause babies to be born with birth defects and people to suffer terrible things like murder and rape so I could teach them a lesson. If every evil thing in life were my fault, how would you feel about me?
There isn’t a civilized nation on the earth that wouldn’t have me killed, if they could prove I was behind all these things. Yet this is what the Lord is being blamed for every day. It’s even written in our contracts―major natural disasters and tragedies are called “acts of God.”
This isn’t a true representation of God. God is not the source of our problems. Understanding the sovereignty of God correctly is so important that I spent an entire session on the subject. Anyone who doesn’t get this right will never truly appreciate God’s love. It’s impossible to feel good about God if you believe the accusers that depict Him as evil.
Next I taught about God’s unconditional love. That is a radical concept. Nearly all of religion links God’s love and acceptance of people to their worthiness. In other words, God’s love is proportional to their performance.
Some Christian religious groups, after presenting salvation as a free gift of God’s grace, turn right around and teach new believers that their continuing relationship with the Lord now depends on their performance. If they don’t live holy, go to church, read their Bibles, and pay tithes, etc., then the Lord won’t bless them or answer their prayers. Continue Reading
Aphorism CITY 