For God so loved the world…John 3:16

The great call of God to the soul of every man is the call of love. The greatest love drives the sacrifice that makes a life great. Everyone has problems, everyone has needs, everyone has great desires, but the one whose life is consumed by love is the one who overcomes and changes the world. Even the unsaved, touched by the common grace of God, and living out a measure of love that’s within them, can impact the world. But the greatest impact comes from those who have tasted and received the greatest love, and have been consumed by it.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son… John 3:16 NKJV

It took from Adam and Eve to approximately 1920 for the world to attain the population of one billion souls. In the last one hundred years the world population has climbed from one billion to approximately seven billion. Of those, perhaps two billion claim to be Christian. Of that two billion, approximately six hundred million speak in tongues, so we know they are born again. Of the other 1.4 billion, if you say half of those are really born again (700,000,000), I think you are being really optimistic (just the anecdotal evidence of PASTORS in the Anglican Church of Uganda not being born again is staggering).

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish… John 3:16 NKJV

What this means is that less than 20% of the people you have seen today, if today were the end of days, and it is for a lot of people daily, would go to Heaven. All the rest, eight out of every ten people you have seen at Starbucks today (the baristas, the little guy who appears to want to be a girl, the guy tapping away at his laptop, the two girls in the corner talking nose to nose) would go to hell…forever lost, without God and without hope.

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 NKJV

When I am consumed by love, I say, “This is not acceptable!” This reality, and God’s solution to it, is what consumes my life – the problem of reaching, impacting, and transforming this generation and future generations with the Gospel.

For our God is a consuming fire…Heb 12:29 NKJV

What consumes you? The love of God calls us to be consumed in Him – heart, soul, mind and strength.

For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. 2 Cor 5:14-15 NKJV

Of the many benefits of speaking in tongues, perhaps one of the least appreciated is the Spirit’s ability to burn up, to consume, that which is worthless in our lives. Fears, doubts, worries, nagging concerns will turn to dust under the Spirit’s fire. Strange addictions and weaknesses are burned up forever with the fire of God. We struggle with things, trying to overcome them, when the Spirit just wants to burn them up!

Do you think the Spirit can burn up poverty? True, biblical Christianity has always produced a prosperous and free middle class, through spiritual regeneration, education, hard work and strong two parent families. Capitalism is the child of the biblical concepts of responsibility, private property and freedom to compete. Capitalism under the guiding hand of biblical restraint and charity produces the best possible economic model for the advancement of all.

Beloved, I (meaning God the Father, as the author of the Word through the Holy Spirit) wish above all things…3 John 2 KJV

“I wish above all things” …think about that! Your Father said that…

Poverty is a lifestyle of unbelief which can be crushed by the Spirit. If one child of God can prosper from His loving hand, every child of God can as well. I love to test the Spirit of God. Suppose one born again one spent three hours day praying in the Spirit and meditating on the promises of prosperity in the Word, without telling a soul what they were doing – what could happen in a months’ time, in six weeks’ time? Do it and keep a daily, detailed journal, and remember, tell no one (except me).

I once asked the Lord, as I sat in the doorway of a school of ministry we had planted in a remote African village, “Lord, how long until these people prosper with a thorough, modern prosperity and lifestyle?” He said, “How long does it take My Spirit to move? I’m waiting for them!” If you’re enslaved by poverty, God is waiting for you!

Can the Spirit burn up perverse sexual addictions and problems? How about lifelong, generational problems with families? How about ANYTHING? Absolutely! I seek to push the limits of what God’s Spirit can do in me now, but I suspect that when I get to Heaven I will realize just how under-utilized the Spirit had been in my life. Our God is a consuming fire…

…He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Matt 3:11-12 NKJV

When I think of being consumed by love, my heart is thrilled with the concept of being freed from selfishness, freed from fear of the future, freed from the fear of death that all of our lifetimes keeps us in bondage. When I am consumed by love, I am brought into the awareness that all things are possible to those who believe. When I am consumed by love I realize that I am one with my Creator, and that all that He has is mine, and all that I am is His. In consuming love, I am as He is, seated at the right hand of the Father…

The key to ministering healing is love, a consuming passion to see the will of God manifested in the most perfect way possible. In consuming love you prepare yourself with the Spirit and the Word, and then it’s GAME ON! as my brother Bill says.

If you have the Word of God and the Spirit of God, and are engaged with the family of God, you have all that you need to be consumed by the love of God, producing the greatest life possible. The love of God is the great meter, the great measure of the more abundant life in Christ Jesus. Don’t let a day go by without embracing it. Have a happy day today as you are consumed by love! Love you…

Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…