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UNDERSTANDING
THE LOVE OF GOD SERIES
THE FATHER HEART OF GOD
Rom. 8:31-39 What
then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not
spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, will He not also give us all
things with Him? Who shall bring any
charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? Is it
Christ Jesus, who died, yes, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right
hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us? Who shall separate us from the love
of Christ? Shall tribulations, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, “for thy sake we are being
killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in
all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am
sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, not thing
present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything
else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in
Christ Jesus our Lord.
Notice here that the bible says that there
is nothing that can separate you from the love of God. We speak about agape
love. And this love that God has for us is the love we qualify as
unconditional. The word unconditional means that it is not limited by
conditions. Most of the time human love is conditional. What happens is we say
to each other, “I will love you,” but we attach conditions to our love. When we
attach little condition to the giving of our love, it makes our love
conditional. And in fact it is not agape love because love is a gift. It
is no more a gift when you attach a condition to your love. It becomes an
exchange. You do some thing, you give some thing and then I give you my love.
It is no more the free gift of love that the bible talks about. We never gave
God anything. We never deserved anything.
Rom. 5:8 says while we were yet sinners
Christ died for us. That is the love that is unconditional and it’s a love that
is a gift. And we have to rise up above the level to God’s love, which is unconditional.
See a love that is unconditional says, “I give you the gift of my love.” I do
not attach conditions to it. I don’t ask that you be good. I don’t ask that you
be deserving. I don’t ask that you exchange something
back for my love. Some times parental love for children can be manipulative.
That means that we tell our children that if you are good I will love you. If
you are bad I won’t love you. And we have a preconceived idea that that’s the
love of God. God never said that. God loves us whether you are bad or you are
good. The only difference is that when you are in disobedience you are not in
the position to receive the full measure of His love. But even though man may
go to hell the Father heart of God beats with love for them. It is not in His
plan. It is not in His intention for them to suffer in that way. His love never
ceases. His love never stops. And so that kind of love that parent show to
children is manipulative love. In other words we manipulate them with our love.
And some times husband and wife use that
form of love. But that is not God’s agape love. That is human affection,
human love. And Jesus says that we have to love one another with His kind of
love not with our type of love. The truth of the matter is that we should tell
our children that we love you no matter what you do, no matter who you are. But
we would like you to behave this way. But whatever you do my love for you never
ceases. That is called unconditional love.
In the
Think about human kind. All the time most
of us received rejection to a certain amount. I have experienced rejection
before so have you. What is happening is human being is still governed by
conditional love. But when we have a glance of God’s kind of love its
unconditioned; God never ever reject us. You watch the Old Testament every time
they did the worst possible. One of the worst kings was Ahab. One of the worse
was Manasseh. And it tells us he did every thing that was wicked. It made God
very angry. The bible says that when he says God I am sorry immediately God
loved him and God forgave him. And Ahab he did terrible things. He started Baal
worship in
And so with each other we fear to be
rejected. God says I will love you with an everlasting love. And the love that
God has for us surpasses all our human comprehension of love. The bible tells
that in Ephesians three that Paul was still praying for them that they might
know and comprehend that love of God, the width, the length, the depth, the
height of God’s love. It’s a tremendous love. It never ever rejects. King David
knew this. He knew God’s heart. He knew what God’s heart was like. And when he
fell into sin in numbering the Israelites, God sent the prophet Nathan and
said, “Choose from these three judgments.” See the judgment that we experience
are the reciprocal of the laws that has been set. But he had a choice of three:
either to be chased by his enemies, experience famine and he says I choose to
fall into the hand of God because He is a merciful God. That is a smart guy. I
don’t want to be pursued by my enemies. I would rather if any one were to give
me a spanking let God give it to me. That’s what he was saying. I don’t want my
enemies to spank me. If there is any one who want to discipline me I want it to
be God because He the most kind person in the universe, most merciful. And true
enough God’s mercy and love reached out. When the angel drew the sword against
This morning I like you to beat with the
heart beat of God and to understand His unconditioned love. And when I began to
look at the love of God and began to understand more about the love of God, I
began to realize how limited human love is. All of us go through time and all
of us have been through experiences. When we ourselves condition our love to
others, every time you come to a place where you reject another person it only
shows that your love for them has been conditional. True agape love
never ever rejects. A person could criticize all they want and you are like
Jesus and with unconditioned love you say, “Father forgive them for they know
not what they have done.” Look at Jesus His unconditioned love was pouring out
through His being. They could crucify Him , they could beat Him, they could
spit at Him, they could pull His beard out and He still say, “I love you.” What
kind of love is that? It is the love when people rejected Him He still says, “I
will not reject you.”
Lets see some verses on this love of God.
In the book of Isaiah chapter 49:15 sometimes people have a misunderstanding of
the Old Testament. They don’t understand that in the Old Testament is the same
Father whose heart beat still beat with a heart of love. Isa. 49:15 Can a
woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the son
of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. This is the
Old Testament God speaking. And Isaiah lived in the time of Hezekiah who saw
the destruction of
Now Paul never had any New Testament to
read. The only bible Paul had was the Old Testament. I believe he got I Cor. 13 besides the revelation from the Spirit of God was
in his meditation of the Old Testament scriptures. And here is where Paul
probably got his verse where he says love never fails. In other words
love never ends. In other word love never comes to a point where it says I will
not love you any more. What is rejection? Rejection is actually saying I have
come to a point where I will not love you. But the love of God never ever comes
to that point. The love of God always says, “I will always love you.”
And God at this time through Jeremiah show
forth, he is called the weeping prophet, who cried out for the love of God for
the Israelites. And he says his mercies never come to an end; they are new
every morning; great is thy faithfulness. “The Lord is my portion,” says my
soul, “therefore I will hope in him.”
I can still trust in His love. We reap what we sow but I can trust in
His love that He will never cast us off.
Then in verse 31 For the Lord will not
cast off for ever, but, though He cause grief, He will have compassion
according to the abundance of His steadfast love. Which is why I say that
you can disagree without being disagreeable. Many times people argue doctrine.
Many times people discuss methods in Christendom. But in the midst of their
discussion they come to the point where they say I will never love you I reject
you. But we must never. We must always realize that God’s unconditioned love
says that even if your doctrine disagrees with mine I still love you. Even if
your method disagrees with mine I still can love you. The unity that we have in
Christ Jesus can only come when all of us understand unconditioned love. Unless
the church of God and the
And God tells us in Deut. 7 He told the
Israelites that I have chosen you. I have loved you because I love you not
because he was strong. Not because he was mighty. Not because of who you are.
He told them very clearly in Deut. 7.
The Hebrew word when He said I love you is the word hased,
which means I am kind to you. I desire to just love you and do the best for
you. See love is in three stages. The first stage of love is kindness. Kindness
says that I love you and I care about you and I am on your side. The opposite
of rejection is to say I am with you; I stand with you. And all the time the
devil has been fooling man to think that God is against us. Today he is still
working in the minds of Christians. We always think that God is against us. At
the back of our mind we fear Him, we fear to be rejected. At the back of our
minds He works on us. And finally when Jesus came we realize that God says
through Jesus in what Jesus did He says I am on your side. Even though I am the
judge of the universe I don’t want to see you condemned so He sent His Son. See
God is on our side.
That is why Paul got that revelation where
he says if God is for us who can be against us? Now bring it closer home to our
love for each other. Do you know many times you tell another person you are not
on my side? How many have this incident repeated in many Christians
relationship. But if we love each other with the love of God say, “I am on your
side.” Denominations fight because they say, “You are not on my side.” What
kind of love are Christians showing to each other? Shame on us if we put
conditions to our love. The bible says that love says, “I am on your side.”
Remember what we said in the earlier series. We said love seeks the highest
good in a person. I am on your side I seek the best for you. Do you know
everybody in the world needs to hear that? There are many people out there on
the streets today that think that God is a great judge up there who is against
them, seeking to punish them, seeking to judge them. They didn’t know the heart
of God that God is on their side. That God loves them. God cares for them.
Here is where we began to see the heart
beat of God. In the book of Luke 15 in the story of the prodigal son, the
prodigal was not doing what the father wanted. The prodigal son chose to go his
own way. The prodigal spent all his inheritance and wasted it. The prodigal son
did everything he can to hurt the father. Let me tell you everything that is
wrong on this earth hurts the Father. When the father has to give the inheritance
to the prodigal son, I can tell you the father’s heart bleeds. It hurts. Some
people think that when judgment comes God does not hurt. He hurts more than we
do. All of you who are parents realize this. When you have to discipline your
children it hurts you as much. It hurts. That is why in Genesis 6 before the
flood came God revealed in His Word, “and God was grieved.” You know what grief
is. It is the same word that says sorrow. God is sorrowful. He feels sad.
Imagine the great creator of the universe and the galaxy He feels sad because a
bunch of human beings down there didn’t obey His laws. He has feelings. When the judgment came not
only did the cries of humanity go off. Many of them may have cried when they
died. The heart of our Father cried louder than them. He cried when the
judgment came. He was grieved.
When Jesus was on the cross don’t tell me
the Father don’t have feelings. Jesus felt the hurt of sins for us. Took the
pain of sin and death for us. Jesus felt it even though our Father didn’t come
down like Jesus did. Our Father up in heaven felt the hurt. For a moment He has
to turn His eyes away. That’s when Jesus said, “My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken Me?” Our Father hurts when the judgment came.
One day the prodigal son came back the
bible says in Lk. 15:20 And he rose and came to
his father. But while he was yet at a distance, his father saw him and had
compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. The father has been looking
for his son. That is why when the son was far away the father could see him. He
has been looking in that direction all the time waiting. The bible says he was
full of compassion. And he had so much love that before his son came he ran to
the son and hugged the son and kissed him. He brought the son home, ordered the
fatted calf to be slaughtered, had a party eat and be merry. He wants to
rejoice because his son has come back.
Notice here, look at what the other son
comes to do. Lk.15:25 Now his elder son was in the field; and as he came and
drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. And he called one of the
servants and asked what this meant. And he said to him, “Your brother has come,
and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has received him safe
and sound. But he was angry and refused to go in.
Look at the attitude of the older brother.
He saw all these things happening the music, the dancing, the fatted calf
killed and merry making. He refused to go in and when the father came out. I
want you to see in verse 28 what the father did to him. His father came out
and entreated him. The father didn’t just ask him to go in. The father said
come on son please go in. He pleaded. Now look at the reasoning of the elder
son in verse 29. But he answered his father, “Lo, these many years I have
served you, and I never disobeyed your command; yet you never gave ma a kid,
that I might make merry with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who
has devoured your living with harlots, you killed for him the fatted calf!” And
he said to him, “Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. First
the father cleared his misconception. The father says that you could have as
many parties as you wanted to. But the older son says I kept all your
commandments. See the older son kept the commandment but didn’t know the heart
of the father. He didn’t know that the father loved him enough to the point
that he could have what he wants. He still didn’t understand unconditioned love
yet. See his understanding of the father was still on conditioned love.
Let me tell even though our Father has
unconditioned love for us, we many times have misunderstood His love to be
conditioned. It takes the breaking of the wall down. But I can tell if that is
broken in your life you will never be the same again. If you get a hold of the
unconditioned love of God for your life, you will never be the same person
again. What was the attitude of the older son? He says I have kept your
commandments, I have done all these things but you never gave me. He was not
sure of the father’s heart. He wanted to earn so that the father would come to
the point and son you now deserve it. But the father says you don’t have to
earn it. It is yours; you could have had it any time. The reasons why he never
enjoyed himself is because he doubted the unconditioned love. And many of God’s
children today who go about life who still think that they have to earn God’s
love. You never earned God’s love when you meet God in your sin. Don’t try to
earn it now that your sins have been washed in the blood. You could never earn
it. What you do for a million years can never earn His love because His love is
a gift. He did not ask an exchange He just wants to give His love. For God so
loved the world that He gave.
And verse 32 It was fitting to make
merry and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost,
and is found. See the older brother saw the merry making. The older brother
saw the feasting. The older brother saw the fatted calf. The older brother saw
the dancing. But older brother never saw the heart of the father. The older
brother never saw the hurt of the father when the son was gone. The older
brother never realized what the father went through. He saw all the benefits
that were there. But he never saw the grief of his father when the father was
deprived of the younger son. And many of God’s children they will go about
doing things but never realize that what they do hurts the Father. You see we
see God’s blessings. We see what God had done here. What God has done there? We
never see the heart of God. Sometimes people are like Cain. They look at Abel
and say, “Abel has been blessed by God.” But they never see that Abel was
blessed because Abel somehow has made God happy. And God told Cain, “If you do
well you also would have received the same blessings.” God loves everybody
unconditionally. But what happened was that like David we must learn the heart
of God. David knew the heart of God. That is why in anything that happened he
runs to God. He didn’t run away. But many times when trouble comes, when we
fall, when we disobeyed, whatever happens, failure comes into our lives we tend
to run away from Him than run to Him. Because we fear Him. We fear His
rejection. God says come to me I will never reject you.
The heart of the father of the prodigal
son was bleeding with grief and sorrow. The older brother knew everything about
the father’s love except his heart. If you want to be a child of God that
pleases our Father you have to learn the Father’s heart. And not just His
commandments and the words but the heart beat of God. So that you began to
understand that in your relationship with one another is not so much what we do
but is what our Father’s heart feels. And Jesus was so sensitive to the
Father’s heart of God when He went to the waters of baptism the Father said
“This my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”
I had an experience of the heart of our
Father and His love. What it was that I could never ever forget. On January 18th
1986 early in the morning. That whole night I could not sleep because on the 17th
it was when the Lord appeared to me and shared with me about the anointing of
God. So the whole day I just spend in worship and praying. See when you have
been with the Lord its not easy to forget that kind experience or come out of
it the same. But on the 18th in the early hours of the
morning, my family was all asleep. I was still sitting down in the dark room
and praying. Suddenly from one corner of the room came a ball of light. It came
towards me and then it stopped at a certain distance. Then as I was looking I
recognized the presence of God. And I said, “God I know its You. Welcome into
my life.” The moment I said that the ball of light spread out into words. And
the words that were formed were “Holiness onto the Lord.” Then those wording
came close to me and started coming nearer and nearer. And it came to a point
where it hit me on the forehead.
The moment those words touched me on the
forehead I was in a different world. For the first I felt what the love of the
Father was like. I knew He love me but I have never experienced that kind of
love to that measure. When His glory touched me I was like in a different
world. I don’t know whether I was still here or up there. But it was like that
I was outside of the planet earth. I was looking at the whole planet earth and
it was just like a ball. While I was looking at the planet earth I felt every
sorrow the Father felt. I felt every pain He felt. I felt every hurt He felt. I
felt every grief He felt. To understand what it is, is like this. Every small
thing that was not in line with the will of God and the Word of God was hurting
Him. You felt the pain of the world. You literally felt it. Even if one bird drops
down to the ground and die our Father felt the pain. You know why? He made
those birds. And He never made them to die. And I could feel the hurt of every
human being whose lives were not in the will of God. You could feel everything
that was not in line with His will. Every one of the diseases that was not in
line with the will of God, anything that hurt human being hurt God. And all
those things that were done that were not in line with His will that was
against the goodness of man and the perfection of man was causing hurt to God.
Every bit of it. Every single thing on this planet earth that was not in line
with His will hurts Him.
I felt such sorrow, such grief, that my
eyes were literally pouring out tears. I felt that I was one with God. And I
began to feel what He felt. I literally poured and cried with the love of God
for people. When I came out of that I looked at the world. When I see anything
that is not perfect I realize that our Father is hurting. Then I understood
that the scripture says in Matt. 10:29-30 when it says not a single sparrow
shall fall to the ground without God knowing. And not a single hair on your
head is unknown to Him. Even the hairs of your head are numbered. O the heart
of our Father.
That was the heart that Jesus revealed in
the prodigal son. See the elder brother could only think about all the things
in the house. But the father says this younger son is my son. I gave him life.
I brought him into the world. He is mine. This world belongs to our Father. He
made it. Everything on this planet earth, every creature on this planet earth
belongs to our Father for He made it. And every time those things that are not
in His will it hurts the Creator’s heart. I will never be the same again when I
understood His love and felt the heart beat of our Father. And yet many times
believers go about doing what they want to and they do not seek the will of the
Father. We see the dancing. We see the merry making. We see the fatted calf.
Privileges that we should have received, we see the blessings, we see the gifts
and we see the fatted calf. We see what we deserved, we see what should have
been ours but we never see our Father’s heart.
Right now this very moment and every day
until the Lord Jesus comes again our Father’s heart is weeping. Until
everything on this earth is brought subject to Jesus Christ it is still causing
hurt to the Father. Every individual, every nation and every thing that is not
flowing with what our Father wants, He desires that everything be brought under
the Lordship of Christ. And I thank God that there is a day coming that the
book of Revelations tells us that the kingdom of God is on this earth. And finally after six thousand over years the
heart of our Father stops hurting. When Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord
of Lords. When every human life begin flowing into the will of God. When every
creature and human being is brought into the perfect will of God. When there
will be no more tears, no more pains, no more death, no more suffering then and
only then will the Father’s heart stops feeling the pain. And every time when I
pray and intercede all I have to do is to remember what our Father feels.
The next time you find it difficult to
love one another, all you have to remember is that what you do is not what the
Father wants you are part of His hurt too. I don’t want to cause hurt to my
Father. Neither should any one of the children of God. There is enough hurt in
this world that causes hurt to our Father’s heart. Even when the apostle Paul
met Jesus, Jesus felt the hurt too. Jesus told Paul, “Saul, Saul why do you
persecute Me?” Paul never met Jesus. But every time Paul touched one of His
believers, every time Paul imprisoned them, every time Paul abused them, every
time Paul persecuted them Jesus felt every hurt and Jesus said, “Paul why do
you hurt Me?” And God is asking that question of your life. If you are not
living in the will of God, if you are doing some things that are hurting to
God, if you are doing things that hurt another human being, if you do things
that hurt the body of Christ, if your life and attitude hurts any one, God does
not come to you and say, “Why do you hurt them?” God says, “Why do you hurt
Me?” For when you love even the smallest you love God. Jesus told them this
parable. He says I was in prison and you visited me. I was hungry and you fed
me. And they asked, “Where Lord?” And Jesus said, “As much as you do to this
little one you do it to Me.” Our Father’s heart feels the hurt of every single
thing that is not in line with His will.
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