The Weapon Of Love
I am going to share with you from Luke 10. It is my favorite chapter in the Bible, so it's a great one for me to teach and preach from. I really have to think about it because it's what I live; it's my life; it's everything that God has put in me, so it's my great joy to share it with you. As I share it there will be an impartation in your life -- you will become more like Jesus; you will act more like Jesus and talk more like Jesus and walk more like Jesus.
There are two stories here. One is about a religious leader approaching Jesus to ask Him what God expects of him. The other is the story Jesus told in answer to his question. Both stories are relevant to us today. Let's look briefly at the first story, the man who came to Jesus. He is the wise man in the story who was trying very hard to understand what God is like; he wanted to know what Jesus is like -- but not really. This is because it is frightening to really know what Jesus is like. If you really know what Jesus wants of you, it is terrifying in many ways. Why? Because your life is not your own, you don't get to keep your life -- it belongs to Him.
You belong to God, and He doesn't always use you the way you expect Him to. He doesn't always do things the way you expect Him to. So you must seek Him and find out what He wants. At times you need to wait before Him, to soak in His presence, to discover His will and to allow Him to speak to us. In fact, we need to spend large quantities of time just seeking Him and looking to Him and waiting upon Him and worshipping Him.
Our ministry is based in Mozambique. We have some compounds there. And worshipping God and soaking in His presence are very much a part of how we do things. Intimacy with God impacts every aspect of our ministry. We are into soaking, healing prayer. We've seen blind see, deaf hear, dumb speak and crippled walk. One time we soaked a little boy for six weeks in healing prayer. We held this little boy who was blind, deaf, dumb, brain dead, and paralyzed, for six weeks. Every time we held this little boy in our arms something would happen. First it was his eyes. Then it was his ears. Then his legs. I remember when he got his legs it was the strangest thing how God healed him one piece at a time.
You'd think God would do it instantly, and I love it when He does heal instantly -- that happens a lot -- but not always. Many times God wants to take the compassion of a loving heart and get that compassion pouring into that person for weeks and weeks. And every time we minister to that person in compassion, more strength, more power and more healing flows. We've learned this as we've held dying people in our arms and watched God work.
He would take away AIDS -- it's glorious when you see that AIDS test go from positive to negative! It's the most glorious thing. But we soaked one AIDS boy for two years before we got a negative test. Could we say we'd been failing for two years? No. Because the compassion of God was pouring through our lives for two years, soaking that boy who was mean, soaking that boy who used to hit everybody, soaking that boy who stole everything he could get his hands on; soaking that boy who lived under a bridge for four years, soaking that boy, who was raped and beaten, soaking him with the love of God. We soaked him with love and held him with love. No, healing is not always instant.
Even growth in our Christian walk is not always instant -- we want it in an instant. We want God to fix us in seconds so that we are all fine. It does not usually work like that, does it?
Sometimes it takes years of holding them in your hearts and holding them in your arms until their brokenness is completely made whole by the love of God. Then the AIDS disappears because it can't stand any more of the love of God. Let me share one story with you.
We just held our little AIDS baby and held him and held him. He was blind and God healed him. I remember when he started walking. He was kind of scared. He would run around and he would bite everybody. That's all he did -- just bite people. It didn't feel very holy or healed, but he could see and he could bite. That's all he did. He would bite you everywhere he could get his little teeth on you and he had AIDS.
We'd just keep holding him close. One day he stopped biting. It was such an awesome thing. He was running around biting people like usual. Then he came and ran up to me and I thought, "okay here we go." Two little girls came up and one said, "Don't worry. I saw you put him under the water and he came up healed." The second little girl, "I had a dream last night that you put him in the water and when he came up he was healed." What great prophetic words from tiny children. Nothing of intelligence about them -- they are just little girls that grew up in the dirt, with the presence and the love of God. And there they were, telling me this wonderful story.
But there he was, still running around biting people. I searched my mind for what to put water in. We didn't have a bathtub there, so I thought to get a swimming pool. Just then, the boy turned around and said, "Mama I have a big problem." The boy couldn't speak before -- he was dumb. He was completely brain dead. They told us he was a vegetable. And he was speaking. He said, "Mama I have a problem" in perfect Portuguese. He said, "I need a car." He loves little cars. I stopped everything and ran to my house to get him a car.
The story I related to you blesses my heart, because it's about compassion and faith and hope. We often want a microwave Christianity. We like our instant fix Christianity. God is looking for long-suffering hearts. He is looking for people who love like He loves, even when it hurts, even when it breaks them into pieces. The weapons of our warfare are love.
We're a different kind of people. We fight with a different weapon. We're the kind of people that love in the midst of evil. We're the kind of people that love in the midst of hideous injustice. If we will love in the midst of hideous injustice, think of what will come and conquer the hearts of evil men. God will come and conquer the hearts of those who are living in utter darkness. We need greater power, and that power comes from the love of God breaking our hearts, until we become like Him, and we lay our life down. He died on that cross to demonstrate what love was. He died. He didn't fight back. He laid down. He let them nail His hands. He didn't scream, "No!" He let evil men crucify Him. He said, "Now, I have shown you what to do. Now I have shown you how to live. I have shown you what it's like to be holy. Give your life away. As I demonstrated and as I give Mine here for an evil generation, I am asking you to give yours." He didn't say, "Give your life for the nice guy." He didn't say, "Give your life for the sweet one." He said, "Give your life, full stop, give your life."
Sometimes you can preach things because you live them. If you don't live them, it's better you don't try to preach them. We don't need to hear some academic discussion or some well thought-out sermon. What we need is an impartation from the Most High God that will so take our little hearts and make them huge that we can't be the same anymore.
Love God
We have been talking about the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. Jesus told this story when one of the religious leaders asked Him what people need to do to inherit eternal life. This story was His answer. The person who asked Jesus was not ignorant. He was a wise guy, an intelligent person, and he knew all about the law. He knew the scripture. He knew everything that he was supposed to know. He wanted to test Jesus, so he asked, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" That's a good question, isn't it? We all want to be saved. We all want eternal life. Jesus asked him, "What's written in the law? How do you read it?
Did you notice that Jesus pointed the man back to scripture? The Bible is the best book there is. I've read all the books by the founding fathers, the ancient mystics, all the doctrinal books. They were good, but one day I found that there is just one book I need to read, and it's this book: the Bible. I wear one out about every three or four months. I don't recommend you buy our book, I recommend you read the Bible. Read this book. This is the one you need to read.
The scholar said, "Love the Lord your God." How hard is that? How complicated is that? How confusing is that? Love the Lord your God. That's what is written in the Law. Even the wise guy got it -- love the Lord your God. How? With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, with all your mind. Don't check your brain at the door, you can think. You can love the poor and care for the hungry and walk the streets of your city and hold the dying in your arms. You can love, because that's the gospel. The gospel is simple. Love the Lord your God.
That's what I see happening as God touches His people. God is taking our little hearts and making them bigger. Watch out, because it hurts. It hurts because God is taking something small and making it bigger. He's stretching that little heart inside you and He's causing it to be big. He's taking selfishness out of the western church so she starts to feel, so she becomes a church that loves the Muslim, a church that loves the broken, a church that loves the dying, a church that loves the broken hurting one in the world, a church that loves to run into the darkness with mercy.
Love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. How much strength do you have? What is your strength for? Are you intellectually strong? Use all the intellectual strength God has given you to love Him. Are you physically strong? Use all the physical strength that God has given you to love Him. Are you emotionally strong? Love Him with all your emotions. If you're emotionally strong, maybe God is calling you to the emotionally weak, to mental hospitals, to the dying rooms. Love the Lord with all your emotions, with all your soul.
We need passion and compassion. Love God with all of your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. That's the gospel. That's the book. That's the deal. It bears repeating over and over and over a hundred thousand times. It bears repeating every day of the year. It bears repeating every moment. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. It really is that simple! If it was complicated, I couldn't understand it. I'd have trouble getting it. But there's a little problem with simple -- you can't play dumb anymore.
It's true, you can't play dumb anymore. If it's complicated, you can say, "Whew! That went right over my head, I didn't get that." But when it is simple, you can't use that excuse anymore. God wants you to love, just love. He wants you to love with all your heart, mind, soul, and spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. It's too simple for you to be able to wiggle your way out of it.
That wise man was in trouble. He wanted something complicated. He wanted something more difficult so that he could wiggle his way out of it. When it is that straight-forward, that uncomplicated, there's nothing you can do about it except do it or disobey. Suddenly you're held accountable, aren't you? Suddenly, you have to feel like God wants you to feel. He's not making it so complicated or difficult that you don't know what to do. He's just saying, "This is the gospel. Love Me, passionately." And unless you love Him passionately, you can't do a single thing. You'll get so weak. You'll love for a day and there will be mean people and they'll spit at you or shoot at you or stick a gun at your head or steal from you or they'll hurt you, and you'll say, "That's enough. I've had just about enough!" We say that when we have to wait in line for a few minutes. We need to be different. We need to love somebody who doesn't even want to be loved and who doesn't make it easy to love them.
The wise guy thought that was too complicated. He would rather just do it in church. It would be so easy if we could just do it in church, because it's easy to be sweet and nice for a short time. Just smile at everybody and tell yourself, "I'll be home soon, so grin and bear it for a short while."
But loving God, being a minister, being a missionary, isn't just about running up to the altar and laying your life there. It's about living a life of love every single day, every single moment, every single hour of the day, living a life of love.
If it was just about loving only nice people and only kind people, you wouldn't have to worry about it, would you? But it's not. They're mean out there. They steal and they cheat and they lie and they hurt you. They don't leave you alone. It never stops. But that's what the gospel is: loving until it hurts. That's simple compassion, passion and compassion. It's always loving Him first, so He fills you up enough to love every single man, woman, and child on the face of the planet.
I do understand the times. I do understand what we're going through in this nation. And I still believe the Book. I still believe the weapons of our warfare are love. The are not carnal weapons. We are to be a different kind of people that think differently than everyone else. We love until it hurts. We pray, we pray, we pray, we support our leaders. But how will we respond when the unlovely hate us back?
I was in Mozambique, where I do a lot of missions work, when my country, the United States was attacked. I didn't have access to any television there. My assistant called me in the evening to say how sorry he was that my nation was bombed. I remember saying I had to get to South Africa so I could find out what was going on. I remember seeing all the people in their black robes with the little slits and being so angry. I wanted to shout, "How could you do this to us?" God got my attention; boy did He get my attention. I thought I loved the Muslims. After all, I preach and minister in three Muslim nations. That day He told me to love every Muslim I saw. All day long I had to walk around. I walked around eight hours, I didn't watch CNN or anything. I just walked around praying for Muslims all day long -- until God changed my heart. He made me start feeling like He feels, weeping for the darkness and the lost and the broken, until I got His heart.
I can preach this because I'm living it. I've been shot at five times, I've been beat up, I've had my head bashed against walls, I've been thrown in jail, I've been hungry, I've had many, many, many sleepless nights, and endless ministry lines until one and two in the morning having started at five in the morning. I know what I'm preaching about. It's not just blah, blah, blah. I believe that if we read this Book and if we know the heart of God, we can live this kind of life: one that we live a love that is limitless bottomless ceaseless love.
Love Others
In Luke 10:25-37, Jesus was asked what God expects of us. Jesus gave a simple answer. Well, it was simple to understand, but not so simple to implement, because it required a deep commitment from us to God. He requires us to love with all that we are -- first to love God and then to love other people.
The religious expert heard Jesus say, "Yes, do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself. He didn't want a simple answer: it's too hard because it's too direct. This guy didn't like the answer and he knew Jesus knew what to do. Jesus told him he was right. We can all quote the book and sing the songs. Jesus said, "Do this, and you will live." What does that mean? If you do this -- love -- then you will live.
God is easy to love. Totally separated to God living alone in a cave with Jesus is the most wonderful thing I could ever dream of. But He said love your neighbor as yourself. He didn't let me live in a cave. Rats! He said I have to love my neighbor! But He doesn't know my neighbors, they're drunks. They steal from me. They like to beat me up. My neighbor is not always nice. My neighbor is always hungry. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself." You too might prefer a cave! But it's right there in the Book. When you meet Jesus, you need to do it. Now you have to go do it.
Listen to what's next. Jesus gives them a little story. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and when he fell into the hands of robbers they stripped him of his clothes, they beat him, and went away leaving him half dead: A naked, bloody man lying on the road. We don't want to make eye contact with a person like that and have to feel something. Because then we might have to do something to help. So here's a guy who's been beaten up and he's naked and he's dying there. They went away and left him half dead. It was not a pretty picture.
The hard part in the Western cultures is that these people are often in disguise in our nation. You can't always see them. You need strong eyes and a big heart to see them. You need to see in a way that's more difficult and takes more courage. You often see people well-fed and well-dressed in their nice homes. It's harder to see the dying man. But they're there. Don't be fooled by their disguise. Don't be blinded by their beauty. Don't be blinded by what looks like well-fed, because Jesus said He is the bread of life, and unless you eat this bread and drink this blood you have no life in you. Are they not naked? Are they not blind? Are they not starving to death? Are they not dying of malnutrition? Can we close our eyes because they look well-fed? No. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit, and love your neighbor as yourself. No wiggling out of this one. We must keep our eyes wide open to see like Jesus.
Jesus continued the parable. Next came the priest. He was on his way to a church growth conference. He wanted his church to grow. He's planning to get all the tapes and all the books, from all the publishers, and all the videos, and all the CDs. He's on a mission, he's desperate to grow his church because his church is little -- only four or five hundred people in it and he's going to spend some money learning how to grow his church. I don't know how much the conference cost to get in, but he paid that. And took time off and his board is letting him go, and he's very happy because he's going to learn how to grow his church. He's determined to learn the steps, one to ten, how to grow his church. What do I do to get miracles, steps one to ten? So he walks right past the one guy dying on the road. He walks past because he is so desperate to grow his church. He's so desperate to have people listen to him preach his message, that he can't see. He's a blind priest. His eyes are closed. He is as blind as blind can be.
I had the same type of experience as this priest. I thought I could see. We had been traveling, loving the poor for many years. Rolland was raised on the mission field, we've always tried to love the poor and preach our hearts out and tried to be loving and kind. We did the best we knew how to do. So it was a big shock when God told me I was blind. I'd already picked up all these orphan kids and we were praying every day how to feed them and watching God multiply food for us and save us from Marxist threats. When we were all homeless God would take care of us, so we didn't consider ourselves blind.
I remember having someone pray for me and prophesy that I would see the blind see, that I would see miracles, that the Lord would give me nations. So for a year I was tenacious about it and went around praying for blind people. I'd drive my car around looking for blind people. I'd grab them by the head and pray for them. I did this for a year. Lots of blind people are in Africa because they don't have any medicine to fix their eyes so they just go blind. They don't even have reading glasses. For a year I prayed for every blind person. They all got saved, but no one could see. I was so frustrated. I prayed for all these blind people and they were still blind as bats.
Then one night in a mud hut I prayed for an old blind woman. I held her and cried and I saw her eyes turn from white to gray to brown and she cried out, "I can see! I can see!" She was sobbing and so happy. I remember the joy in my soul as I drove away. The next day at the gas station there was a man who was blind and also crippled. I thought, this is perfect! He's blind and he's crippled! This is great! I was so excited. He also had a big tumor on his head. I screeched my car to a halt, prayed my guts out for him. He didn't see, but he did get saved. And he is in our church on the front row every Sunday. A man from New York came and cut the tumor off. His wife got saved, his son got saved, his daughter got saved, everybody in his family got saved. Why? Compassion. But he still can't see. We have seen blind eyes open, but we don't see everyone who is blind get their sight back. We even have a school for the blind.
God opened the eyes of three people around the same time. All three people who got healed and received their sight were named Ida (which is my name "Heidi" in their native tongue). I asked the Lord, what does this mean? The Lord spoke to me right then and said, "I want to open your eyes -- you're blind." Guess what He showed me? He showed me you -- the western church. He knew I didn't want to come here and love you. I didn't want to go to the US and to Canada and to other western nations and love them. He said, "They too are poor. They too are crippled. They too are blind. Won't you love them too?" I wept my heart out. God wants us to see every man, woman and child on the face of the earth like He sees them.
The next guy in Jesus' story was a worshipper. He could pray in tongues. He knew all the worship songs. He was going to practice for the worship team. He was on his way to worship. But he was a blind worshipper. He couldn't see, his eyes were blind because it was too simple. So he walked past the dying man who was broken, bloody and naked, because it would cost him something more than he had to stop.
The next guy that came along was an outcast. He was not loved. By the way, the guy lying on the road hates Samaritans. But at this point he didn't care. He was dying. The Samaritan got down in the dirt with the blood and dirt and nakedness. Unless you get the part about loving the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and spirit, you can't do the next part. Do you know why? Because you don't have anything to pour on a dying man.
If you see the poor, even if they're in disguise, and you see the dying, and you see the broken, and you can't do a thing for them, it's hideous. Imagine having a huge heart and no power. Imagine having a heart that loves like Jesus and zero power. You have no food and they just die on your doorstep, hundreds of them. How would you feel? What would that do to you?
The Samaritan poured oil and wine on the dying man. First, love God. Oil and wine is symbolic of anointing, of power. When you have enough anointing then you have enough love and you can stop. And God will give you the anointing. And God will give you the power. And God will give you the Presence. If you will stop for Him, then you'll stop for Him. If you'll stay in His glorious Presence in worship and then you'll stop for the dying man, God will pour oil and wine into you and you will pour it out on the dying man.
The Samaritan woman knew because a prostitute talked to Jesus and was filled with love, because Jesus stopped for her and gave her dignity and asked for a drink. Jesus knew how to minister to her. He stopped and sat in the dirt on a hot day at noon because He had love for that wicked woman. He stayed and sat and loved her and because of that, she went and told everybody. And that Samaritan in Jesus' story knew about love and he stopped, and he loved, and he felt, and he had the heart of Jesus for that dying man. He poured into him and put him in his Lexus and took him to the hotel; wrecked the seats. And he said to the inn keeper, "I'll pay you. I don't care what it costs."
God Transforms Our Hearts To Love
We have spent the last three lessons talking about what God wants from us -- to love with all of our being. We can't get this love from our own resources, we have to allow God to enlarge our heart. First we draw near to God and love on Him, and He changes our hearts and fills them with His love. Then we can love the people around us -- the hurting and naked and blind and dying. We can love them when they don't say thank you. We can love them when they take advantage of us. We can keep on loving them until God's love begins to transform them and bring life to them.
Here's your test, Church. God wants to know, are you doing it? Jesus said to the wise man, "Which one of these had mercy?" All fruitfulness flows from intimacy. If you want to be fruitful for God's kingdom, you need to allow God to enlarge your heart and to pour His compassion and His love into you. You need to allow Him to transform you with His love until you are able to see the hurt and the dying and to love them with His love. It is not pretty. They might not even thank you for it. Will you pour yourself out anyhow? Or will you become discouraged and give up? Church, are you loving others as much as you love yourself? And are you loving God with all of your heart and your soul and all of your mind and all of your spirit? That is what God wants from you. Will you do it? Will you live it?
God has been speaking to me about how He wants to change and transform our hearts to better match His heart; to flow with His love and compassion. He wants to give each of us heart transplants, so that our hearts are filled with the love and grace and mercy of God, so that we would be a people who are different from the world.
We need to understand that the weapons of our warfare are love -- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, mercy, long-suffering. The body of Christ in this world should look different, it should look entirely different. We must be holy, fruit-bearing trees that bear fruit in and out of season with healing in the leaves, healing in our hands.
Merciful King and Glorious Savior, make us different. Lord, when we walk inside a store, let them see Jesus shining through our eyes O God. Lord, when we walk into a bank, let them see Jesus in our faces, Lord. When we walk down the street, let them experience Your presence, Lord, that the sick are healed and the blind see and the deaf hear and the crippled walk and the dumb speak. Yes Lord let it be. O God, we want to be so different. We want to be so filled, O God.
People of God, how much do you want Him? Are you willing to ask Him for more? Could you just say, "God, I'm desperate for more of You. I'm desperate for more. I can't just be a little bit full. God, I need You to come and make me completely incapacitated by Your love until I can't hate anymore. I need to be changed by Your love until I can't be angry anymore; until I can't be bitter anymore; until I can't be tired anymore. I want You to come and get me God. Make me different, heal me, and fill me. Break me and pour me out O God upon a lost and dying world."
Watch out church, watch out church, I hear the Lord say He's going to capture His people. Watch out! Watch out! The Lord says He's about to capture some people. He's going to take you prisoner; as a love prisoner of the Most High God. And He says that He will capture you with love. He will capture you with His heart of love. And you will be incapacitated. You will be unable to think like you thought before. And you'll be unable to do what you did before. And you'll be unable to be the one that you were before. For God says that He is capturing, He is capturing His people.
And He will take some of the people around the world. And He is going to pour you out in dark places; in dark, desperate places. He's going to pour you out in miserable places and He's going to place His heart so largely in you that you won't be afraid to walk out these doors and make a difference on the streets, because God is going to empower people. And He says He's empowering people with a heart: I see it -- I see a picture of these little cars, these little engines, little cars with little engines. Don't feel offended because God's eyes of love are looking at you and He's saying, "I want to give you a bigger engine. I want to give you a bigger engine, and that engine, that motor, is love. I want to cause that little engine to be melted away and I want to give you a bigger engine, a bigger motor, that you might be stronger and more powerful than you were before. I want to take you farther than you've been before. And the place I want to take you is inside My heart. I want to take you inside My heart and around the world."
Thank You Jesus! I pray that this word You've placed within my heart, will burn in the hearts of every man, woman, and child who reads this lesson. Let it burn in their hearts, O God. I pray God as they're healed already, that they'll tell people of the glorious healing presence and mighty love of their Savior who healed them tonight and sent them forth on a path of righteousness for a dying world.
We come for You and no one else. And You alone are worthy, You alone are mighty, and You alone can capture our hearts and make us go to the ends of the earth.
Watch out. Some of you are going to be so captured by the love of Christ Jesus that you're going to lay your life down for the call, the holy high call of the Most High God, on your life. And the calls of God of people reading this lesson are various calls. But I see that the Lord is going to send many into the fields, white for harvest. He's going to send many into the fields white for harvest.
Luke 10:2 "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest therefore to send workers into the harvest field. Go, go, I'm sending you like lambs amongst the wolves."
Lord, I pray that as You've healed the sick, as You've touched the hearts of people, Lord that you would come and start to break hearts now with Your Holy Spirit.
Just be open to Him. Some of you are going to be called into full-time service, and you're not expecting it. You didn't even know it. You didn't know that this was your call in life. God is going to begin to touch your heart and break it.
Another thing I hear the Lord saying is, "Eye salve, eye salve for the church. Eye salve for blurry-eyed vision." The Lord is giving eye salve to His church because so often we have not seen with clear vision the heart of the Lord.
What do we do as harvesters? What does it look like to be a harvester, to be a complete, total, love-slave of the Most High God? What does it look like? We're different, aren't we? We're a different kind of people -- the kind of people that don't act the same; we don't look the same; we don't walk the same. We're completely different than other people. God does some strange things with me. He tells me things like "get on a plane and fly 48 hours and go speak somewhere and then get back on the plane and go home." That doesn't look normal. There's nothing normal about it. It doesn't feel normal -- in fact, it's not even enjoyable. But because He has taken a little heart and made it bigger, I can do different things than I've done before.
God wants to do something different in us. He wants to make us different than we were before. Quite frankly, our hearts are too small. Our hearts are way too small for a great big dying world. We need the healing presence of the Most High God. We need to present our hearts to God and allow Him to enlarge them, to transform them, to fill them with His love. Are you willing to do that?