Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect (Matthew 5:48). In these words from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is telling His disciples—and others—about a love they had never before experienced: perfected love. They had heard of the love of the Father, but they never had been able to really absorb it all. God’s great, perfect love was a love that loved enemies, that caused people to pray for those who despitefully used them. Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. What was Jesus talking about?—being perfect in love. We won’t be perfect to others in all of our human ways; but when we are perfect in love, we are perfect before God.

But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected (I John 2:5). If you keep His Word—the Word of God—you do not gossip, you do not talk or act in a manner unlike God, but yield your mind to the Word of God that you have kept in your heart. With the Word in your heart, the love of God is perfected in you. We must keep His Word in us. The Psalmist wrote, Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee (Psalm 119:11). The love of God brings healing to body and soul. Human love is kindness in perfection for others when it’s touched by God and coupled with the love of God.

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22:37). How are you going to love God?—with all your heart, mind and soul—something impossible to do with just human love. It takes the Holy Spirit to bring human love into the place you will love God and yield to God’s love in your human spirit. With God’s love and through God’s love, every part of you will love. The “whole you,” using God’s love and human love, will be complete in love.

Real human love and the love of God together are beautiful when human love is brought to that place of perfection in God the way it was in the Garden of Eden before the fall of man.

Unfortunately, since the fall, human love has been terribly contaminated by the enemy, by people giving their minds and hearts to Lucifer. Lack of love has caused countless broken homes, children to be needful and deserted. Mother and Daddy have gone astray, forgetting God, their children and each other; everything worthwhile they’ve turned their backs on. Lives and souls sold to the devil have only the love of God as their hope.

This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself (verses 38,39). You will love that neighbor as you love yourself when you use the love of God combined with your human love. You love your neighbor, in other words, as God loves that neighbor. How can this be?—through God’s love. You may not love all the ways of that neighbor—he could be an unlovable, miserable person, and you need not socialize with him—but you love the soul as you love your own soul. It is not God’s will that any should perish but that all come to the knowledge of the truth. Love your neighbor as you love your own soul to the point that you want that neighbor to go to Heaven just as much as you want to go. That’s God’s love. You have that kind of love because you have God’s love. His love brings a largeness to your soul that will embrace a lost and dying world. To love God with the “whole you” means serving God with all your strength, all your heart, all of you.

The Spirit of the Early Church

If the Holy Spirit can work with God’s love through man’s yielding, His work will be done. It happened in the Early Church. Every action was filled with God’s love until converts were just swept into the Kingdom. The Early Church praised and adored Him; they were in one mind and one accord. As long as they kept that spirit, great works were wrought in the name of Jesus. Not since Early Church days has God been able to bless people the way He wants. Why? He could not find enough true human love to combine with His love. But now in this final hour, He is blessing and pouring out His Spirit again.

For ages too few people have sought the love of God; now that love is reaching out throughout the world. We live in a reaching–out, a reaching–up time. People are seeking more of God than they have since the early rain of the Spirit when the Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost. We’re receiving the latter part of that rain in this Holy Ghost dispensation, a dispensation which will end with the Bride of Christ being taken out at the second coming of Jesus. The Bride is walking with strength; she loves Jesus with her whole heart, and she is giving all of herself in this final hour. Loving God so completely that she can rejoice evermore in His love being poured out, the Bride is strengthening her love in His. Paul told us through the Spirit of God to rejoice evermore. When you love God with all your heart, mind and soul, it’s easy to rejoice; you just bubble with the love of God.

God Hears Every Word

Pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17). Love the Lord with heart, mind and soul. Delight in prayer. Know He is listening. God’s love tells you that every time you pray, you have the ear of God; but you must have your heart filled with the love of God—completely filled—to know that God hears each word. Be conscious that every time you speak, God hears you. You don’t have to struggle to get the ear of God. He said His ears were always open to the righteous. In everything, the Bible tells us, give thanks (verse 18). In other words, give thanks for everything that comes from God. Don’t give thanks for that which comes from the devil—that would be ridiculous! Can you imagine praising God because you were mugged? In one book, parents were told to praise God that their daughter had become pregnant out of wedlock. God didn’t have anything to do with that—why praise Him for it? There was no praise for God in the situation at all. God does not want you to praise Him when people commit sin. Wake up! People are putting out all kinds of false doctrines, foolish teachings. Don’t praise God for disasters, but in everything give thanks for His blessings. All good and perfect gifts come from God. Praise God for His works and the things that glorify His name.

Come, See a Man!

I don’t claim to understand God’s love, but I’m so glad He has shown me how to use it. The learning process has taken a long time. In the beginning of my walk with the Lord, I used enough of His love to become saved; I thought His love was the greatest thing in the world. I was so full of His love I wanted to tell everybody about it, but I hadn’t begun to realize how mighty and powerful that love really was.

The disciples at first didn’t understand His love. Jesus said that He had meat to eat that they didn’t know about. Bubbling with love, the Master told the woman at the well the story of redemption. She became so excited she left her waterpots and ran to tell others. Come see a man! she cried to the townspeople. The Lord had told her all about herself, and the truth had set her free. Come see a man who told me all things that I have ever done! The weight of sin lifted and the condemnation left. Struggling with condemnation, you don’t talk about your salvation; but when condemnation is gone, liberty and freedom are yours; you are glad, so very free and happy. The woman at the well felt light as a feather; she felt more like flying than walking. How do I know? That’s the sensation I experienced when the Spirit of God came upon me.

God’s eternal love is wonderful love; it works when nothing else will. God’s love changes people who seem to be incorrigible. God’s love moves people to work for God when they have been determined in their hearts to do nothing.

Love Strong Enough to Shatter Rocks

Love, love, love. Let the Word and the love of God rule your life, your actions; and you will be a great blessing to the Kingdom in this final hour. The blessings God will pour out through you will amaze everyone around you.

God’s love moved upon the face of the earth and shook people to the very cores of their beings. At one time Jesus told people that if they didn’t praise Him, the rocks would cry out. The love of God can change a rock. God’s love is strong enough to shatter rocks. How wonderful to know you can have and use the love of God!

People talk about God’s love, but such a few know it. Never have they taken enough love of God into their hearts to have really experienced it, for it to be noticeable. Never have they mixed enough of God’s love with their human love to straighten out their own love.

Love as Christ Loved the Church

Divine love in a marriage will heal the rough edges; it will remove the fuss, the grumbles and keep a couple from interacting like dogs and cats. Many marriages do not have enough love of God in them. The love of God can enable you to overcome the lacking part of human love. To have what God calls a perfect marriage, two people must be joined together in human love and in God’s love.

Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it (Ephesians 5:25). Some men cause needless conflict by insisting their wives obey them. The Bible does say the wife should obey her husband, but it also says a husband should love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave His life for it. When a man loves his wife like that, he doesn’t consider the question of who is or who is not the boss. The marriage is filled with harmony when love is used.

The man who loves his wife like Christ loved the church and gave His life for it is loving and giving, loving and giving. There are no grumbles, only love, love, love—God’s love as well as human love. That God–love in you purifies the human love and removes imperfections if you will allow it. You will love like Christ loved the Church. Some of you love your husband or wife with only human love. You became accustomed to living like that, and when you came to the Lord you didn’t use God’s love on your marriage. You used God’s love at church or on someone else but not on your marriage. Use God’s love on your marriage, on your children, your home. A home without God’s love needs to be redecorated, remodeled. You can make those changes; the love of God will help you, but you must have both human love and God’s love working.

Your companion will not live for God? Then you simply must do the best you can. That’s all God can do—the best He can under the circumstances. That unsaved companion ties your hands and the hands of God many times. There is no need to wallow in despair over it; pity the sinner who will go to hell one day if there is no repentance. If you saw someone dropping into hell—even if you didn’t love him at all with your human love—you’d hold on and pray for him. Talk to your unsaved companion with love, letting him know the Lord loves him and you love him. Perhaps that husband or that wife has hurt you so much you don’t think you do love that one—love with God’s love. Don’t tell your mate, “I love you only with God’s love”; for God’s love is a part of you, too. God’s love is greater and deeper than your human love anyway. Don’t qualify your expressions of love. Don’t say, “I hate your nasty ways, and if you don’t change I’m going to have nothing more to do with you.” Be careful. Just say, “I love you,” knowing that by using God’s love you do love your companion! With God’s love you have love for the soul even though you hate the wicked ways.

Two children of God living together, battling, is a different situation than one being saved and one not. Two children of God living together and not getting along is a result of not accepting God’s love. Why?—different reasons. Perhaps they are too stubborn; perhaps they feel even God cannot bridge the gulf between them. They do not realize what is available to them in God. Perhaps they prefer the excitement of new relationships; perhaps they simply don’t want to make the effort to love. There are many reasons why people don’t use God’s love—but it’s still available.

You have a marvelous marriage when you love your mate better than yourself; I had that kind of marriage, and I know it’s possible. My wife Angel and I were joined together with God’s love as well as human love. I’d rather have cried than seen Angel cry—let me do the crying. I loved her too much to see her hurt. My love wanted to dry every tear Angel shed; but she cried over the lost, and those were tears I couldn’t touch. I loved her so much I’d rather have done all the fasting, but she wouldn’t have stood for that—and God wouldn’t have been pleased either. I would have made Heaven down here on Earth for her had I been able. You could hurt me but not her, and she felt the same about me. When you know you don’t want anyone to hurt the one you love, you know you won’t hurt that one either.

I don’t tell the story of my marriage so you will resent yours. I tell it so you will know what is possible in a relationship when you use God’s love.

Angel was a prayer warrior, one I could depend on. She carried the burden of the ministry as though she were doing the preaching herself. She knew the messages had come from God, and she helped me pray down the power of God so I could give it to the people.

If your human love is losing patience, God’s love can take over. God’s love is patient. Reach out to gather an armful of God’s love when your own is inadequate. Use it in your job, your marriage, your home. Home is a valuable place that should be furnished completely with love.

Make God’s Love the Center of Your Marriage

Love was the center of marriage in the Garden of Eden. God had made a garden of love; everything was love. The fruit trees were love, created by the hands of love. Heaven is made with the pure love of God. When Jesus came to buy back what was lost in the fall of man, He bought back the loving home, made it possible for a man and woman to be joined together by God in human love and in God’s love. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder (Matthew 19:6). There is a price to pay to use God’s love, but He has given His love to bring people together, holy before Him. As people yield to God, He will give the healing balm. The love of God is sufficient.

Many are unhappy because they have not waited on the will of God. Your marriage may be on the rocks; but if both marriage partners will reach out for the love of God, it can be pulled off the rocks in a hurry. Although God can establish your goings, in a marriage it takes two to work together with Him. If your companion will not work at it, however, just show a lot of love, God’s love.

Is there something that eats away in your heart? The love of God will cover it. The love of God takes the petty grumbles out of you—and the big ones, also. It sweetens your spirit. We need a sweetening of the spirit. Too often we are like bitter waters. In Old Testament days, just a figure of the Cross sweetened the waters when Moses cut down a tree—a type of the Cross—and threw it into the waters. Suddenly the bitterness was gone. With Jesus you can be a sweet wife, a loving husband. God can put it in you if it isn’t there. What God gives you must be used if you expect to keep it. God will give you love, and only as you use it will it increase. Rather than following your impulses, follow love; follow the Word. Walk in the Word. So many go by impulse, by feelings, until discord runs wild in the home.

Perhaps you resolved to be good all day; but something happened you did not like, and on impulse you gave in to your feelings. You pouted the rest of the day—two people living together and refusing to speak! No wonder you doubt each other’s love! I’d doubt God’s love if He didn’t speak to me at times; and at other times would say, I sure do love you.

The Lord said to never let the sun go down on your wrath. Don’t go to sleep angry with your spouse. Make things right. Apologize. You weren’t in the wrong? Apologize for your bad reaction. You cannot have anger against your mate and still go to sleep with a heart full of God’s love. It’s an impossibility. What can you do? Clean house spiritually. You have things that shouldn’t be: clean them out. Take time to go into the attic. When you wake in the morning angry, you won’t have a God–day unless you change. God’s way is waking up in His love. Go to sleep in His love and wake up in His love—you can’t do it with resentment or grudges in your heart. You must love the Lord with all your heart, mind and strength.

All You Need Is in God’s Love

God’s love is wonderful! It’s the remedy for the world today, for all who will accept it. God’s love is a powerful force that could cure the whole sinful world if they would reach out for it. God so loved this world that He gave Jesus. That’s all the love this world needs, not another ounce. When God gave Jesus, He gave more love than countless worlds could use in countless ages. God gave so much love through Jesus that it will last for time and eternity, enough love to fill the universe. God sent the Holy Spirit to live and dwell on the inside of each child of God—who will accept Him—to keep the love of God flowing daily. Yield to the Holy Spirit, and all the bitterness, all the grumps will go, all the strife, envy and jealousy. Yielding to the Holy Spirit is yielding to God’s love. God’s love destroys the works of the devil. Jesus came and used God’s love for that purpose. God’s love saves, heals, delivers. God’s love purifies. There is nothing God’s love cannot do for us because in that love is Calvary, the Resurrection and every promise of God. God’s love contains all you could ever need, the whole cure for the whole person. Healing for soul, mind and body is in God’s love.

God’s love includes not only this life but the next, spanning from time to eternity, a love bridge. Love conquered death for you. The Psalmist said, Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me (Psalms 23:4). Why need you fear no evil?—because the love of God is with you.

If You Have God’s Love, You Have God

When God’s love is with you, God is with you. You can’t have God’s love without having God; it’s an impossibility. Wherever you find God’s love you find God. If you have God’s love in your heart, you have God. He’s yours. God’s love leads you to obey His commands. His love compels you to search the Scripture to find what God has planned for you. You will learn your destiny through His Love Book; His love is woven throughout. God’s love was very patient toward Noah and the building of the ark. In Abraham’s day His love was great. Moses experienced God’s love in a wonderful way. As long as the Israelites yielded to God’s love, it supplied all their needs. God’s love created a highway through the Red Sea; it turned the Israelites into wealthy people; but through Israel’s not using God’s love, they lost it all. God still loved them, although He was angry with their disobedient ways—that’s the wonderful, longsuffering part of God.

Whenever human eyes will look sincerely to Him, God moves. “God, I’m sorry. God I repent,” and God comes rushing in. Over and over He forgave the Israelites, opened up His arms and hugged them to Him. He rained down bread from Heaven for them; He wouldn’t let their shoes or clothes wear out. God was their all–in–all in the wilderness; and in the wilderness of this life, God is our all–in–all. God sheltered the Israelites from the sun with a cloud by day and warmed them at night with a pillar of fire…protection whenever they needed. Seeing how God supplied the needs of the Israelites has been a great strength to me. Since He moved so greatly for them, why should we fear; why should we worry about God’s love? If God kept loving them, providing for them, caring for them in such a beautiful way, don’t you know God will provide for you who yield to His love? You have nothing to fear, nothing to worry about.

God wants complete submission to His Word so His love can flow into us and through us. When you yield totally to God, He will give you more than your wants; He will more than supply your needs. God put much stress on love. He knows love is so valuable, that in His great wisdom, He has provided the fruit of the Spirit called love. God’s fruit of love is produced in your life by your yielding to the Holy Spirit through the human love that has already been given to you. Human love conditions and prepares the soil for the Holy Spirit to be able to bear more love, His love. The Holy Spirit bears the fruits of the Spirit in the lives of every child of God who will yield to Him. The fruits of the Spirit are divine fruits, grown in the purity of God’s love. You cannot produce them; only the Holy Spirit, only God’s Spirit can produce that which is divine. He grows those fruits inside us to the degree we yield to the Holy Spirit, the power for service.

Yield completely to God in fastings, prayers and living in the Word. Many helps are available from God to keep self under subjection. Walk in His love, and you will be in His presence. You do not need to seek His presence; just walk in His love. Walking in His love all the day long, you live a wonderful day, no matter the valleys you walk through. The power of the Lord fills the valleys for you with the glory of God.

False Doctrine Is Raging

Man has published books on how to amass wealth and gain peace of mind, and man even uses Scripture to back up his theories; but the verses are out of context, the books out of order that say you can have the peace of God and the love of God through your own efforts. God is the One who gives His love; man does not receive God’s love through a do–it–yourself kit. Success in this world is man’s goal—success that you bring about yourself—and God is left out of the picture. “Visualize success and you have it.” No, that isn’t what the Lord said. He said, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love (John 15:7,10). False doctrine and deceit concerning the Scripture is raging today. People are deceived about love—human love and God’s love.

People need to know what is going on, what is false doctrine and what is not. Deceiving spirits make people think they don’t need God. False doctrine and deceiving spirits are covering our nation. What is the answer?—love—God’s love.

The thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, the love chapter, tells some of the things God’s love will and won’t do. It gives you the truth about love; and if you will accept the truth, the truth will set you free. It is not beyond you to yield to God’s love. God’s love will help anyone who will let it. Charity [love] suffereth long (I Corinthians 13:4). God’s love is longsuffering, not human love. Only if human love is coupled with God’s love will it suffer long. Love suffereth long, and is kind. As human beings we sometimes have trouble being kind. Love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself. Love doesn’t brag and boast; it has no ego.

Scripture Misrepresented over Television

I saw an example of man’s ego on television recently, a do–it–yourself kit to make yourself over. A woman was expounding on her ideas. Scriptures were brought in to endorse self and the “magic” of self esteem. “Invest in yourself,” I was told—but Jesus said to deny self so the love of God can take over. The woman tells her husband: “I am sweet. I am loving. I am kind, and I make a lot of money.” (She said it, not her husband.) “Flaunt your prosperity. Focus on your desires. Put an image in your mind and bring about whatever you set your mind on.” There is much teaching like this today: name and claim. The occult is filled with it. “Focus only on security”; God is not mentioned as a focal point. The Lord tells us to keep our eyes on Him.

“Be grateful for what you have,” but she never said to be thankful to God. She said she felt important because she had five bathrooms. Really? Most people can only use one bathroom at a time. When you don’t know God and the reality of God, you have to substitute, to make your own life; and that life can be a mess. “The Bible says to believe you will have something, and you will have it,” she said. She forgot the qualification, IF YE ABIDE IN ME, AND MY WORDS ABIDE IN YOU, ye shall ask what ye will. If you love me, Jesus said, you will keep my commandments. This woman was not telling about God and what He would do; she was out to make money, to sell her tapes on getting rich. A lot of people have the get–rich itch. If you want God’s way in your life, you must accept the complete Word of God. It’s impossible to improve on God’s way; His way is a way of love.

This woman went on to say, “Simply decide the person you want to be, and you can be that person.” Paul said, I can do all things through Christ. He did not claim he could make himself whomever he wanted to be. Paul left self out. “Fake it until you make it,” this woman continued. Many are faking life; and they are never going to make it, never accomplish much. “Act as though you are rich when you are not.” Play rich, play you are really important. No man be good unless God is in him, the Bible tells us. This woman was teaching how to feed the ego, how to live in a false world. God’s love does not boast.

This woman wore two watches. Why? She couldn’t read the dial on the expensive one, so she wore a cheap one she could see—one for show, one for go. The more I listened to her, the more ridiculous she sounded. She was so far away from the Bible that there was no God in her words at all. “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” she said. “You can be everything you want to be.” She, in other words, said you could transform yourself. That isn’t what the Lord said! Your mind is transformed through the Spirit of God; you can’t do it yourself. Paul was everything he wanted to be in the world; but when he found God, he counted it all as dung that he might win Christ. If this woman ever really finds Jesus, she will agree with Paul. Self must be cast down.

A man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (Luke 12:15). This woman is teaching people that life is in what you own. If you don’t own anything, simply visualize it, and you’ll have it. A home with five bathrooms is “living”?

I heard the story of a man who wanted to be buried in his Cadillac. The hole was dug; and, as the corpse in the Cadillac was being lifted down into the grave, a man was heard to say, “Now that’s really living!”

Jesus said, I have come that you might have abundant life. I am the way. I am truth; I am life. Since Jesus is life and truth, there is no real life without Him. Many have come and gone, built mansions, making their own lives. They did not receive life from the Master, and the lives they made were short indeed. When man and woman create their own lives apart from God, it all comes to nought.

Why do material possessions make people feel they are special? One little earthquake can destroy it all; and their lives, what they have been boasting about, are wiped out. Jesus didn’t boast on Himself when He was here. He praised the Father.

Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me (Matthew 16:24). To have the love of God, the first thing you must do is deny self.

Let God’s Love Flow through You

Look to God. The devil will try to block it, but God’s love is greater than any other power. Let God’s love open your eyes to how the devil tries to rob you, how he cheats you out of what God intends you to have. If you have been listening to wrong teaching, let the Word of God flow into your heart; let God deliver you. Paul said, It’s not I that liveth, but Christ who liveth in me. Let God deliver you from the spirit of ego and self. Only God can set you free. Seek every particle of God’s love that you can. Like a starving man reaching out for food, reach out for more of God’s love. Seek His love. Take in more of it. Let God help you comprehend, use and apply more of His love in your life each day. Ask Him to help you work with and through it in a greater way. God goes into action when His pure love is free to flow.

What are you reaching out for: a life of your own making or a life God has prepared for you? Let the love of God perfect you. If you yield to God’s love, you need not worry about backsliding or sinning. Fear will have no dominion over you when you are completely filled with God’s love. Perfect love casteth out all fear. Don’t love in word only but in every part of your being. Let God’s love flow through you. The more you show your love for God, the more He shows you His love. It works. You cannot separate God from His love.

We will never be able to understand all about His love, but we can comprehend enough to walk in it. Love will heal your marriage; love will heal scars; love will heal on the job.

Present yourself before God and take His love. Give your best to Him, and He will give His best to you. God has a special love for you; God is moving through love. Receive from the Lord—be in a condition to receive His love; clean resentment and bitterness and sin out of your heart. God is flowing His love, and in His great love is everything needed. And Jesus said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.