“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35)
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails...” (I Corinthians 13:2-8)
In considering the all-important subject of divine love as experienced in the hearts of Christian believers, I feel led to divide this message on the power of Christian love into three parts.
1. THE PREEMINENCE OF LOVE. As we read in I Corinthians 13, love is supreme, meaning it is above all other spiritual gifts in degree and quality. When Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, love entered the world. In Jesus Christ we see love defined as meant by our Creator. Before Christ, it is true that Greek philosophers sought to explain what love is. But the natural man alone, no matter how brilliant, cannot deal thoroughly with the inevitable corrupt human nature. All of us have sinned and fallen short of what and who we were meant to be. Only the believer in Christ, one who has experienced a spiritual new birth, can understand true love as it was meant by our Creator. This is explained in I John 4, verses 7-11: “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another."
2. THE POWER OF LOVE. Jesus promised His followers power to live the Christian life and power to spread His Gospel to the ends of the earth. He promised to fill them with the Holy Spirit if they would pray, believe, and obey. His promise is found in several places in Scripture. Before He ascended back to Heaven, He gave this promise in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 8: “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Our New Testament makes it clear that when a sinner is convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit and then confesses his or her sin and professes faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to abide in that believing heart. A born-again believer has peace with God and a sense of the presence of God. But the promised power over temptation, selfishness, worldliness, and the previous sinful life requires a “fullness of the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:18) Let us not forget that Jesus Himself felt the need to be filled with the Spirit before He began His ministry. Even though He was the divine Son of God, He had become incarnate (God in the flesh here on earth). He had given up His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence, and He experienced the weaknesses and temptations of human beings. No, Jesus was not born with the virus of sin, but he had needs—he hungered and needed food; he got tired and needed rest and sleep; he faced temptation and needed moral strength for self-control.
As a member of the human race, the Son of God knew that He needed to be filled with the Holy Spirit before He faced the temptations of Satan and before He performed miracles. Certainly, he would need the Holy Spirit before being condemned and sentenced to death by crucifixion on an old rugged cross—all to provide for the salvation for anyone who would believe.
We read in chapter 3 of Matthew’s Gospel how Jesus began His ministry. He insisted that John the Baptist baptize him in the Jordan River so that He could identify with sinners. Before Jesus left the water, He remained to pray. While He prayed, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon Him. After that event, John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus would baptize His followers with “the Holy Spirit and fire.” (Matthew 3:11)
The Christian believer’s sensitivity and obedience in relation to the Holy Spirit will determine the degree of spiritual power experienced in his or her service in the Kingdom of God.
3. THE PERMANENCE OF LOVE. When our Bible tells us that the greatest of our gifts is love, it is time to put out a stop sign and search our hearts! God has promised power that flows through us as we hunger for more and more of His Spirit, His will, His Word, and His blessings. Across the centuries, faithful Christian believers have learned that there must be times of rekindling the fires of the Spirit. We are warned to not grieve, quench, ignore, or disobey the Holy Spirit. We are called to obey the Holy Spirit. In the book of Acts, we have the account of the 120 believers obeying Christ to go back into the city of Jerusalem and pray until they were filled with the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:1-4 we learn that “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.” Months later, after having experienced powerful miracles of healing and thousands coming to believe in Jesus after hearing the Gospel, the apostles were worn down because of the great opposition to the Gospel. They had risked their lives to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ and had suffered for it. They had not sinned in their responses, but they were worn down and needed a fresh filling of the Holy Spirit. They felt the need of returning to their fellow apostles for prayer. So, let us hear the results of that powerful prayer meeting. First, they went to prayer “in one accord.” “And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness.” (Acts 4:31)
Many spiritual leaders agree with me that over the last several decades the American church has weakened because of its loss of the power of love. While most of our pastors in our churches still recognize the Holy Spirit as a Member of the Triune Godhead, less is being heard about the “fullness of the Holy Spirit.” How desperately the American Church needs of a mighty spiritual awakening!
Closing Prayer: Our Heavenly Father, we beg Your forgiveness for the weakness of our churches and for our lack of hunger for the power of the Holy Spirit to fall on Your church to cleanse, restore, and revive our hearts in the love and power that gave birth to the church in the beginning. Please, Lord! Stir our hearts and give your people the kind of spiritual hunger that will cause us to humble ourselves, repent, turn from our wicked ways, and get hungry for Your Spirit’s power to transform our nation, our churches, and our communities. May thousands of prayer warriors in every community in our land take time to pray and believe you in faith for that mighty spiritual awakening so desperately needed. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen!
Note: All scripture quotations are from the New King James Version of the Holy Bible.
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